A Plan cancelled my insurance - can they do this?

[Mr Kipling]

I received a letter from A Plan on May 10th stating that they don't have a copy of my best mate's driving licence as he is named driver on my policy.

I received a couple of follow up letters requesting the same and I responded with the following email on May 26th.

"Hi Steve,
I've been contacted by Wendy Truman of your office requesting copies of John ***** drving licence as John is the named driver on my 911 policy. John is an HGV Class 1 driver and has been working abroad on the Beyonce rock tour, he has returned for a few days and I now have copies of his licence.

Please find them attached to this email, would you kindly forward to Wendy as requested.

Kind regards".

I've just received a letter this morning signed by Steve Marsh stating "we now have no alternative than to advise that we are authorised by Marketstudy to act as their agents for the purpose of cancelling insurance cover and to give notice that all cover on your vehicle is cancelled as from seven days after this letter"

I have previously corresponded with Steve Marsh when emailing copies of my driving licence following the same request and it was to this email

address that I forwarded the documents, so my question is.

Can A Plan cancel all insurance cover on my vehicle when they have accepted payment for a years insurance cover on October 22nd 2012 copy of bank statement showing above here -

22Oct12

DEB

A PLAN INSURANCE G
CD 8713

562.00

Can they cancel my insurance when no previous mention has been made of a requirement for documentents relating to myself primary named driver.

I would have thought that worse case scenario they would cancel my mate pending receipt of said documents but that I would remain fully insured as all requested documentation has been provided and full payment made for a years insurance.

I have been a strong advocate of anyone who provides good service on this site, I consider it fair to highlight equally when I feel have received poor service. I'm posting here for that purpose and also as it seems Steve monitors this site more closely than his own email address and I hope to receive a compreshnsive explanation as to why my own cover has been cancelled with no previous warning when all obligations relating to myself have been fulfilled.

[YELL0W]

Yes, they (Markerstudy) can cancel the policy if you haven't adhered to the terms of the contract (that should either have been discussed in full by phone (by A-plan) or A-plan should send you in the post), although personally I would expect some refund back.

Normally you have 14 days to return all the paper work that they request, from the start date of coverage on the policy - driving licence copies, modification declarations and mileage declarations.

Your best bet IMO would be to phone Steve and see if he can negotiate a compromise or policy reinstatement between yourself and markerstudy. You are insured with markerstudy rather than A-plan (who are a broker). It does sound like there has been admin related c*ck-up somewhere though so hopefully it can all be resolved.

[R2MUL]

The policy hasn't actually been cancelled yet - you've received statutory 7 days notice of cancellation. Have a look at you 'welcome' letter that enclosed your policy documents; it'll in all likelihood say somewhere on there that you're required to provide copy drivers licences for all drivers and evidence of any NCD claimed. It's very much the norm nowadays.

As you're now in possession of said copies, everything should be sorted,

[lofty]

If you do a search on 'Marketstudy reviews' , you will find out that your not the only dissatisfied customer.

[Mr Kipling]

If you do a search on 'Marketstudy reviews' , you will find out that your not the only dissatisfied customer.

Thanks Lofty that really is shocking, Money Supermarket a respected site showing reviews of 1 star with warnings like, "keep away" "buyer beware" and "don't touch with a barge pole"

So I accept that the underwriting agent have a very poor reputation but I bought the policy from a respected broker ( A Plan ) and it is them with whom I have exclusively communicated.My expectaation is that if there was any possibility that cover could have been withdrawn then I should have been made aware of this at point of contact on their first communication. No mention has been made of this being possible on any subsequent communication until this mornings letter where I find that all cover is cancelled ( their wording not mine ) as from 7 days time.

Yes it may be stated somewhere in the small print that this was a possibility but my view is that the agent with whom I am dealing should make me aware of this possibility as they are the experts not me. A Plan have my personal mobile number and my personal email address and have contacted me using both in the past, i would think that if the matter was of such an urgent nature that I was going to lose my cover I should have been made aware of this at the first available opportunity using any of the 3 means of communication available to them.

My concern now in view of the reviews of the underwriting agent is that I will lose the cost of the remaining 5 months cover for which I have already paid due to some minor transgression relating to a named driver. Frankly it looks to me like they've used the small print to steal my money. If you'd paid a builder to build you an extension and he walks away with the job half done you'd expect a refund wouldn't you, seems there's a loophole being exploited here by unscrupulous agents, frankly if this is open knowledge as it appears to be I'm surprised that A Plan use them at all. It seems at odds with their customer focused appraoch.

[YELL0W]

Markerstudy do have some less than positive reviews online, but each and every single insurer I have googled gets much the same slating. The reviews are much like the IMS issue. Either everything meets your expectation (i.e nothing goes wrong, easy to deal with) in which case very few people say anything, or you are displeased and try and tell everyone.

Markerstudy have a few hundred million pounds worth of car insurance in the UK every year so are not a small insurance provider. Many brokers offer markerstudy products (I've just bought one through Sky).

Personally I would expect that the requirement for photocopies of driving licences, proof of NCB etc are either communicated to you verbally on the phone or are pretty obvious in a cover letter as part of the insurance documentation. If you read your insurance documentation does it request these anywhere obvious?

Rightly or wrongly, traditional mail is seen as the best way of communicating contractual information. I believe the law is changing with respect to email, but that this is still a grey area and not all companies will have the same understanding and policy yet.

[R2MUL]

Did you add your friend recently....?

[Mr Kipling]

Yellow I received an email 8 days after buying the car and purchasing insurance from A Plan requesting copies of my paper and card driving licence copied below.

"Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:44:06 +0000
Subject: A-Plan Insurance - Copy of Driving Licence, Card & Paper Part
From: bletchley@aplan.co.uk
To: *************************

Dear Mr ***********,

Please send us a copy of your card driving licence and paper part.

Also to confirm your policy has a over night Garage condition that between the hours of 10pm & 6am your car must be garaged to have theft cover along with your CAT 1 alarm and immobiliser being in operation at all times.

Kind Regards

Steve Marsh"

I duly scanned and emailed copies as requested so they had already established email as a viable means of communication and an acceptable method of sending documents to them shortly after I purchsed insurance. I recently informed them of a change of address by email and they phoned me to confirm details and to make an amendment to the policy

( car no longer in garage ) so again email proved effective.I therefore considered that it remained so in the case of my friend when forwarding his documents to them,

I've checked the insurance documentation and can see no requirement for copies of persons insured driving licences to be provided although unless specifically requested it's not something I would have considered. I take the view that as insurance experts representing me they would advise me of any outstanding requirements.

R2MUL - my friend has been named driver since I purchased the car and insurance some 7 months ago, they have only recently requested documents relating to him and as I've previoulsy said he had been working abroad so I was unable to forward them any sooner than did. In any event I wasn't unduly concerned as even if they removed him from the insurance he wasn't in the country anyway so was unable to drive the car.

Basically I am displeased because I don't feel that at any point I was specifically told that failure to provide copies of documents belonging to my named driver would result in my insurance being cancelled. They already have the required documents for me so I didn't consider it particularly important, in any event I forwarded the docs within 2 weeks of receipt of their first letter.

Also no mention has been made of renumeration of the remaining 5 months insurance cover for which I have paid in full.

Here's how I see it, if there was any possibility of my insurance being cancelled as a result of a delay in providing documentation belonging to my named driver I would have expected an email/letter/phone call stating explicitely that unless I provided the docs within a stated time frame I would lose insurance cover and any remaining period of cover would not be refunded. I could have been on holiday explaining the non provision of documents, would a phone call not have been better to ensure I was fully aware of the situation? we are only talking about a period of 3 weeks from first request to cancellation of policy.

[Mike986S]

Would've thought they have your mobile number & excellent service would be to phone that & leave a message, in addition to an email & the very outdated but seemingly favoured option of posting a letter.

Will be interested to hear this is resolved satisfactorily.

[Glyn]

You would have thought or indeed expected Marketstudy to have liaised with A plan and in turn them to you and even make direct contact prior to the letter of intended cancellation, just basic reasonableness - but no, the sledghammer to crack a nut reaction - cancell the policy.

Personally i blame A plan for putting you with such a shyatee company, You dealt with A plan so they should be monitoring and chasing these things up - thats what you paid them for, They should have ensurred it never got to this stage - shame on them.

Full of promise when they joined the forum - typical though - failed to deliver

[EddyH]

It sounds very poor on A-plan's part, if they don't sort this for you they won't be hearing from me when mine's due.

[Boxob]

I appreciate the points you make Mr K and understand your annoyance but would removing your friends name from the policy immediately provide a pragmatic fix to keep your policy alive?

[Mr Kipling]

I appreciate the points you make Mr K and understand your annoyance but would removing your friends name from the policy immediately provide a pragmatic fix to keep your policy alive?

It's not an option Boxob, I have been given no opportunity to resolve this matter the letter is quite conclusive stating "all cover on vehicle registration ******* is cancelled as from 7 days after the date of this letter, there will therefore be no insurance cover in force after 7th June 2013 with markerstudy" and "I must remind you it is an offence under the road traffic act to leave, drive or otherwise use your vehicle on the public highway without insurance cover being in force, failure to return the certificate of insurance is also an offence under the road traffic act" finally "we are sorry to have to write to you along these lines but your lack of response has left us with little alternative"

I would suggest that they had plenty of alternative - check their email where they will find the requested documents sent 6 days ago alternatively phone/email or simply state categorically the imminent loss of cover not just to my named driver but to myself.

I had accepted that my named driver might lose cover and was not unduly concerned, I didn't have access to his documents and anyway he couldn't drive the vehicle as he was out of the country.

All previous correspondence related to him, naturally I thought that there was no danger of me losing cover as I had never been mentioned, only my named driver had been discussed.

So any advice on getting my remaining 5 months money back and any suggestions for a reputable insurance company, preferably one who treat their customers with respect.

[YELL0W]

That does sound poor.

It seems odd that they didnt care about your friends licence for 6 months and then seemed to care about it an awful lot! If you can prove you emailed the details before the cancellation letter was posted (sounds like it might be possible), then A-plan appear to have messed up with the admin at their end. If this is the case, I would be strongly suggesting that they remedy their error.

If you would be happy for the policy to be fully re-instated then this might be possible (particularly if there was an admin error). Personally I would invite them to fix it and in return you can leave a positive conclusion on the forum.

If you just want your money back and to find someone else to insure with, push for a pro-rata refund on the policy, I just had a refund when I sold my old car through Adrian Flux. I think they might band this, from my conversations with Sky i.e. 75% in the first month. 50% after 3, 25% after 6 and nothing after 9 (this could be Sky or it could be Markerstudy). A-plan might try to apply some extra admin or cancellation charges, but I suspect they have some flexibility here.

I have just insured through Sky and found them nothing but helpful to deal with. I have had good experiences with Adrian Flux. When I was phoning for quotes, I thought that the following brokers were very good to deal with (understanding, easy to speak to, call back when they say they will etc), even if they weren't competitive for my circumstances: Manning UK, Keith Michaels, RKH, Peter Best, Nowell & Richards. Just be careful to check who the underwriter is assuming you don't want to be placed with Markerstudy again.

[EXY]

If you do a search on 'Marketstudy reviews' , you will find out that your not the only dissatisfied customer.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Perhaps they conducted a search on Mr K and decided to cut their losses

In 28 years of driving I don't think I have ever produced my documents for an insurer

I am certain I haven't EVER produced documents for a named driver, perhaps things are different across the water.

Something sounds screwy matey, I would have thought that your broker needs to earn their crust and it's all down to an aggressive spam filter that keeps putting your email into the trash.

Unless the point is to keep your remaining 5 months of premium

[topradio]

Another consideration is that on an insurance application it asks 'have you ever had insurance cover refused or cancelled' This may give you problems with other companies.

If it were me I would request a pro-rata refund and kick up an absolute stink until I get it. Start legal action if you have to.

[YELL0W]

Another consideration is that on an insurance application it asks 'have you ever had insurance cover refused or cancelled' This may give you problems with other companies.

If it were me I would request a pro-rata refund and kick up an absolute stink until I get it. Start legal action if you have to.

Which probably means it would be better to have the current cover re-instated for the remainder of the term. It might be worth asking them to provide a copy of their TCF (treating customers fairly) policy too...

[Carlie Howden]

Dear BoXa.net members,

I can only give my apologies for the administration error we have made today. I have emailed Mr Kipling explaining what had happened. I will leave Mr Kipling to post my email if he wants to share the information. We know how the error happened and this will not happen again.

I personally run the Bletchley branch of A-Plan and all your support and feedback has been welcomed and very much appreciated in a tough, competitive market .Our main focus has always been customer service and on this occasion we have let you down. I do hope you feel you can continue to support us. I am happy to take any phone calls personally if you have any questions about any parts of our policies and also would welcome anyone to visit our offices to show you the operation we run.

To try and answer a couple of other points in the post: We ask for a copy of driving licence to help us negotiate better rates from insurers. Unfortunately not everyone is honest about motoring convictions and many insures offer lower rates to us if we obtain copy of driving licences at the start of polices. These lower rates we are then able to pass onto you.

A-Plan have been in business 50 years this year, we have used Markerstudy for many years and we have always found their service exceptional, especially if a claim occurs. Markerstudy are part of a bigger group (Zenith Insurance) and their main market of business is high performance and modified cars. Unfortunately with this nature of business and mainly the modified market, some car owners do not always declare all of their modifications and some do not advise of all or some motoring convictions with the hope of lower premiums. Like all insurers, if a claim happens and there are non disclosed claims, conviction or other details then again, like all insurers will not pay out for all or part of a claim. As this is Markerstudys main market they do have more non payout claims than other insurers.

With all insurers, if everything is disclosed, there will never be a problem. Markerstudys repair network (if your not using your own garage) has one of the highest quality satisfaction feed back in the market.

​I hope this answers some questions and is received well and I hope we can continue to work with BoXa.net, but again, please pick up the phone to me if you have any questions.

Kind Regards

Steve Marsh

[Mr Bridger]

Steve

For the elimination of doubt and reassuance to other customers can you please confirm that this issue has been resolved and that Mr K's insurance cover with Markerstudy remains in place?

[Carlie Howden]

Steve

For the elimination of doubt and reassuance to other customers can you please confirm that this issue has been resolved and that Mr K's insurance cover with Markerstudy remains in place?

Yes the issue has been resolved, the policy was never in any cancelation stage and it never would have been. It was purely a serious admin error where a incorrect letter had been sent.

Kind Regards

Steve Marsh

[tcornet]

This doesn't sound good, but sounds like its getting fixed. From my experience, I can only say that Steve and A Plan have been brilliant and I have had no issues with the insurance of 2 of my cars.

Tony

[Mr Kipling]

I got a call from Steve last night, as I was heading out I requested that he email me as it was not convenient to discuss and I wanted a written record of his communication to ensure there was no misunderstanding. He duly complied with the email below, I accept that in any business mistakes are made and it’s the manner in which they are rectified once discovered that is important. I consider that this matter has now been resolved satisfactorily and providing that cover is maintained I consider it closed.

I would suggest that Steve makes a procedural change to ensure that no individual has their cover withdrawn without a prior warning that explicitly states “your cover will be cancelled if you fail to respond within 7 days”

Regarding the generous offer of £100 remuneration, I’d be grateful if Steve could donate it to BoXa.net, it’s a great site and I’m grateful that they have permitted me to post this topic without moderator involvement.

Dear Mr ********

I have seen your post on BoXa.net today. I have just been back to the office (that is when I tried to call you to explain). Unfortunately I do not have a good explanation for what has happened. I did receive your email that you sent me 26th May along with Mr ******* driving licence which was scanned onto your file. Due to our administration error we have then sent you a further letter advising we have still not received it. Due to the letter being a further follow up, it has to give the statement that we will have to begin the policy cancellation process in 7 days.

This is totally our error and can only give my apologies for the worry, concern and disappointment you must be feeling. At no point would the policy have been cancelled as I cancel all policies personally and would have seen this error and contacted you.

I hope you feel you can give me the opportunity to continue to look after your policy and regain your faith in A-Plan and myself. I understand if you feel you can not continue your policy and I will give you a full pro rata refund without any administration charges. With either decision you make I would also like to offer you £100.00 for the worry and inconvenience that we have caused you.

On a 2nd point, A-Plan have been in business 50 years this year, we have used Markerstudy for many years and we have always found their service exceptional, especially if a claim occurs. Markerstudy are part of a bigger group (Zenith Insurance) and their main market of business is high performance and modified cars. Unfortunately with this nature of business and mainly the modified market, some car owners do not always declare all of their modifications and some do not advise of all or some motoring convictions with the hope of lower premiums. Like all insurers, if a claim happens and there are non disclosed claims, conviction or other details then again like all insurers will not pay out for all or part of a claim. As this is Markerstudys main market they do have more non payout claims than other insurers.

With all insurers, if everything is disclosed, there will never be a problem. Markerstudys repair network (if your not using your own garage) has one of the highest quality satisfaction feed back in the market.

I really do hope you accept my apology and look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards

Steve Marsh

[YELL0W]

Glad that is all resolved amicably!

[mike597]

Great thought to donate the money Mr K.

[EXY]

I got a call from Steve last night, as I was heading out I requested that he email me as it was not convenient to discuss and I wanted a written record of his communication to ensure there was no misunderstanding. He duly complied with the email below, I accept that in any business mistakes are made and it’s the manner in which they are rectified once discovered that is important. I consider that this matter has now been resolved satisfactorily and providing that cover is maintained I consider it closed.

I would suggest that Steve makes a procedural change to ensure that no individual has their cover withdrawn without a prior warning that explicitly states “your cover will be cancelled if you fail to respond within 7 days”

Regarding the generous offer of £100 remuneration, I’d be grateful if Steve could donate it to BoXa.net, it’s a great site and I’m grateful that they have permitted me to post this topic without moderator involvement.

Dear Mr ********

I have seen your post on BoXa.net today. I have just been back to the office (that is when I tried to call you to explain). Unfortunately I do not have a good explanation for what has happened. I did receive your email that you sent me 26th May along with Mr ******* driving licence which was scanned onto your file. Due to our administration error we have then sent you a further letter advising we have still not received it. Due to the letter being a further follow up, it has to give the statement that we will have to begin the policy cancellation process in 7 days.

This is totally our error and can only give my apologies for the worry, concern and disappointment you must be feeling. At no point would the policy have been cancelled as I cancel all policies personally and would have seen this error and contacted you.

I hope you feel you can give me the opportunity to continue to look after your policy and regain your faith in A-Plan and myself. I understand if you feel you can not continue your policy and I will give you a full pro rata refund without any administration charges. With either decision you make I would also like to offer you £100.00 for the worry and inconvenience that we have caused you.

On a 2nd point, A-Plan have been in business 50 years this year, we have used Markerstudy for many years and we have always found their service exceptional, especially if a claim occurs. Markerstudy are part of a bigger group (Zenith Insurance) and their main market of business is high performance and modified cars. Unfortunately with this nature of business and mainly the modified market, some car owners do not always declare all of their modifications and some do not advise of all or some motoring convictions with the hope of lower premiums. Like all insurers, if a claim happens and there are non disclosed claims, conviction or other details then again like all insurers will not pay out for all or part of a claim. As this is Markerstudys main market they do have more non payout claims than other insurers.

With all insurers, if everything is disclosed, there will never be a problem. Markerstudys repair network (if your not using your own garage) has one of the highest quality satisfaction feed back in the market.

I really do hope you accept my apology and look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards

Steve Marsh

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I love happy endings