Watch out when cancelling your mobile phone insurance!
Tristán White
I ring my bank up immediately and cancel my insurance with WCS (the
insurance company T-Mobile Chitter Chatter signed me up to some 6
years ago and whom I've been with since) and cancel my two policies as
he's drawing up a new one on the 8620. I didn't want to carry on being
insured for my other phone (and old Samsung that is beyond insuring
and not worth paying £25 excess for when it *does* go wrong!)
I have been paying WCS 2 x £7 for something like six years, and only
made one claim in my life, when my T610 was stolen last year. It was
this policy/number that I was renewing anyway... the one I was
cancelling has never had a claim.
Anyway, I got two letters from them (one for each policy, but in the
same envelope) saying that I was in breach of clause 9 of the T&Cs I
signed in 1999 and that I must pay them three months worth for both
phones (totalling £42) and if they didn't have the money in 14 days
they would take further action.
I was shocked, I must say, that they could write such a nasty nasty
letter to such a long-term faithful policyholder, especially as I was
renewing my contract (they had the paperwork before they sent out that
nasty letter, I confirmed this) AND I had been a very good customer,
AND I was cancelling the Direct Debit on Chitter Chatter's
recommendation.
Because I'm remortgaging my property later this year, and didn't want
to incur any penalty on my unblemished credit rating, I ALMOST paid
up. But I rang them and had a moan.
Fortunately the manageress Melanie (who seemed a nice woman)
eventually saw that I had a point and has agreed not to follow the £42
up because I was acting under Chitter Chatter's instructions. But I
can see a lot of people paying up, too scared to tackle the insurers.
What's also bad is that I have now checked the T&Cs and whilst it says
that the insurance may be cancelled by giving them three months in
writing, nowhere does it say that by failing to do so, this would mean
you're then meant to pay them the three months as a penalty, within 14
days, or face legal action!
Probably, were I to waste valuable time and effort taking it to a
small claims court, I would win. But it wouldn't be worth it, in my
case, as I do not want a bad credit rating and whatever the outcome of
the dispute, you can be sure that I would get a black mark on my
credit rating when I pay Experion for the report.
Which I don't want to have.
So there you go! I won in the end, Warranty & Creditor Services saw
sense, and I was let off. And I'm still their customer, now with a new
policy number. But this is a warning to you people out there, don't
make the same mistake!
TRISTÁN
Chris Spyrou
> So there you go! I won in the end, Warranty & Creditor Services saw
> sense, and I was let off. And I'm still their customer, now with a new
> policy number. But this is a warning to you people out there, don't
> make the same mistake!
I have a feeling you have made the same mistake again by
having another policy with the same company.
--
Chris Spyrou
numero communications limited
Steve Terry
news:ckp4do$jk0$1...@hercules.btinternet.com...
> "Tristán White" <Trista...@rocketmail.com> wrote in message
> news:nrqvm0lol2kv2iu93...@4ax.com...
> >
> > Anyway, I got two letters from them (one for each policy, but in the
> > same envelope) saying that I was in breach of clause 9 of the T&Cs I
> > signed in 1999 and that I must pay them three months worth for both
> > phones (totalling £42) and if they didn't have the money in 14 days
> > they would take further action.
>
>
I was wondering that, it's an awful deal
Steve Terry
Keith Lawrence
> I have a feeling you have made the same mistake again by
> having another policy with the same company.
IMHO the mistake is having a policy at all!
They keep on trying to flog these things to me but they are a complete waste
of money in the majority of cases, it's just a profit centre. O2 want £60pa
to insure my K700i, after a year I could probably BUY it for that on PAYG,
years after year one just don't even bear thinking about.
OK, so I loose it, in month 1 of the contract. No problem, I'll just get
ANOTHER contract with a free phone. That's going to cost me £240 quid, minus
the £60 insurance saving of course. PLUS with the new contract I get ANOTHER
100 free minutes of calls per month, which even at the cheapest 10p per
minute is worth another £120 - so my brand new replacement phone has a real
cost of £240 - £60 - £120... or about £60...which just so happens to be the
insurance cost!
So the very worst case, if I loose the phone in month 1, is a real cost to
me of £60.
How often do you loose phones? Am I missing something here?
Keith L
JB
<Trista...@rocketmail.com> wrote:
>Anyway, I got two letters from them (one for each policy, but in the
>same envelope) saying that I was in breach of clause 9 of the T&Cs I
>signed in 1999
If they had hadn't seen sense, I would have asked for copies of the
contracts signed five years earlier, showing your signature agreeing
to these T&C. I suspect the chance of them finding them in their
archives would have been rather small.
JB
Tristán White
I ring my bank up immediately and cancel my insurance with WCS (the
insurance company T-Mobile Chitter Chatter signed me up to some 6
years ago and whom I've been with since) and cancel my two policies as
he's drawing up a new one on the 8620. I didn't want to carry on being
insured for my other phone (and old Samsung that is beyond insuring
and not worth paying £25 excess for when it *does* go wrong!)
I have been paying WCS 2 x £7 for something like six years, and only
made one claim in my life, when my T610 was stolen last year. It was
this policy/number that I was renewing anyway... the one I was
cancelling has never had a claim.
Anyway, I got two letters from them (one for each policy, but in the
same envelope) saying that I was in breach of clause 9 of the T&Cs I
signed in 1999 and that I must pay them three months worth for both
phones (totalling £42) and if they didn't have the money in 14 days
they would take further action.
I was shocked, I must say, that they could write such a nasty nasty
letter to such a long-term faithful policyholder, especially as I was
renewing my contract (they had the paperwork before they sent out that
nasty letter, I confirmed this) AND I had been a very good customer,
AND I was cancelling the Direct Debit on Chitter Chatter's
recommendation.
Because I'm remortgaging my property later this year, and didn't want
to incur any penalty on my unblemished credit rating, I ALMOST paid
up. But I rang them and had a moan.
Fortunately the manageress Melanie (who seemed a nice woman)
eventually saw that I had a point and has agreed not to follow the £42
up because I was acting under Chitter Chatter's instructions. But I
can see a lot of people paying up, too scared to tackle the insurers.
What's also bad is that I have now checked the T&Cs and whilst it says
that the insurance may be cancelled by giving them three months in
writing, nowhere does it say that by failing to do so, this would mean
you're then meant to pay them the three months as a penalty, within 14
days, or face legal action!
Probably, were I to waste valuable time and effort taking it to a
small claims court, I would win. But it wouldn't be worth it, in my
case, as I do not want a bad credit rating and whatever the outcome of
the dispute, you can be sure that I would get a black mark on my
credit rating when I pay Experion for the report.
Which I don't want to have.
So there you go! I won in the end, Warranty & Creditor Services saw
sense, and I was let off. And I'm still their customer, now with a new
policy number. But this is a warning to you people out there, don't
make the same mistake!
TRISTÁN
CBM Vic20
If you really want insurance for your moby, just add it to your
household insurance under personal possessions. It works out far, far
cheaper and will also cover any other goodies you carry around with
you when out and about.
Regards,
Vic.
Ian Tindale
> OK, so I loose it, in month 1 of the contract....
>
> So the very worst case, if I loose the phone in month 1...
>
> How often do you loose phones? Am I missing something here?
A dictionary?
--
Ian Tindale
Paul G
"CBM Vic20" <cbmv...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:cd47aaf7.04101...@posting.google.com...
> If you really want insurance for your moby, just add it to your
> household insurance under personal possessions. It works out far, far
> cheaper and will also cover any other goodies you carry around with
> you when out and about.
Only problem is that you screw up your no claims (or increase your premium)
on your houshold policy if you lose your phone which is quite a high risk!
I've recently fallen into trouble with HSBC home insurance due to over a
period of the last 5 years claiming for 1 x break-in , 1 x stolen cycle & 1
x coffee damage to laptop. These are the only claims i've made in 12 years.
My cycle and laptop are both on separate policies which will have no effect
on my home policy!
Paul
Tristán White
<fa...@nospam.com> wrote:
<SNIP>
>How often do you loose phones? Am I missing something here?
Never lost one, and only once had one stolen in almost ten years of
mobile phone ownership, but living in East London and also a fan of
the seediest pubs and clubs I can find, I am very lucky I think to
have just had one stolen, so I cannot be too complacent....
My T610 was stolen about 4 months into my contract last year. I still
had to pay a £25 excess but I got the new phone within a week or so.
Loads of hassle with the police claim forms etc as the local nick lost
all the paperwork (got an apology from them!)
But I have had a few phones go wrong... black marks on the screen, a
phone falling in a puddle, etc.... but whenever this has happened, I
have had the mobile in question for over a year and am due a free
upgrade, so I do that instead of pay £25 on insurance.
Tristán White
>If you really want insurance for your moby, just add it to your
>household insurance under personal possessions. It works out far, far
>cheaper and will also cover any other goodies you carry around with
>you when out and about.
But my no-claims on my house insurance would counteract any gain,
surely! Whereas if I claim on the mobile phone insurance, the monthly
payment doesn't increase afterwards...
Tristán White
wrote:
>Why would anyone take out a policy with such terms? 3 times?????
I will probably cancel it (giving them three months notice this time
of course!!) once I feel that my Nokia 6820 is not worth insuring
(perhaps in about six months time??)
£187 is the cheapest I've found it if you wanted to replace it
(without getting a new contract of course)
http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/2636.htm
I do want to insure my phones, in the same way that my freezer is
insured, even though nothing's happened to that either! It's a safety
guard. And living in one of the crime hotspots of the country, I am
surely just lucky that I have only had a phone stolen once (oh, I've
just remembered, twice... but the first time the phone was over a year
old and I just upgraded it).
Paying £6.99 pcm for each phone, you still pay £25 excess on each
replacement, and you need to give 3 months' notice. Would like some
thoughts on better deals, although please note (spammers) that this
email address is not checked (thanks to spammers like you!) so no
point spamming me... if you have any thoughts on the matter, let us
know on the newsgroup!! :-))