Don't become a Bennetts Insurance cash cow!
I have been inspired to create this website based on my own personal 'VERY BAD' experience of closing my motorbike insurance policy with Bennetts Insurance which eneded up with me being £120 out of pocket and being treated in what I consider an extremely inpolite and aggresive manner by Bennetts Insurance.
When I Googled "Bennetts insurance complaints" to see if anybody had suffered a similar fate to me, I discovered sprinkled across forums and blogs many individuals who have had similar experiences when closing their motorbike insurance policies with Bennetts.
This site is a compilation of these experiences gathered under one roof, for every complaint I have added to this site I could find 10 others, unfortunatley I have not the time to add them all. If you have had an experience like this with Bennetts Insurance, drop me an email and I will be happy to add your comments murray.price@sky.com
Bennetts!
My bike got written-off by a woman driving into it whilst it was parked, believe it or not. It got written off, Bennett's (AXA) paid me the write off of the vehicle, and then charged me an extra £192.91 when I "cancelled" the policy. I asked them why the heck I had to pay it when I got my bike written off, but they said it's nothing to do with it. I paid the policy by direct debit, and had only paid 4 months, so I had to pay 60% of my premium. I sued the driver of the car, and today in Court, the Judge said I had no legal ground to claim that money from her because I would have had to pay the full insurance premium anyway. I said yes but I would have also been riding happily around on my motorbike too. But nope, he claimed that even if I had have paid all my premium up front - and got the bike written off on day 1 of the insurance, I wouldn't have received any insurance back. So even the JUSTICE system is defending these insurance companies now. Are they seriously saying that time you are using the bike for is NOT a factor in what you pay? If so, why do they give you an annual premium and not just say you pay once and that covers you for life? Also, when you insure someone temporarily on a policy, say, a week - why is it less than a year - if time makes no difference. In other words, how could I NOT be entitled to get premium back when I had use of the bike for 4 out of 12 months paid for...? Apparently I should have made a claim for the other driver causing me to lose use of the vehicle - not for the insurance premium itself.
But Bennetts and AXA were a disgrace, and at no point offered me advice on this or told me to claim for the loss of use of the vehicle. They wrote my bike off then charged me for "cancelling" the policy. Disgusting. I make sure to tell everyone I know with a bike, not to use Bennetts.
Baz Pope
Bennetts, policy documents and contracts...blah blah blah!!
I sold my bike recently as my son was born and decided to stop riding for a bit.
I rang up just before going away for the week to cancel my policy and was told that there may be a charge for cancelling. I expect this kind of thing from companies as they add admin charges to any and everything!
Anyway,I pay my policy by direct debit and my policy had been renewed in Dec09. I cancelled in April10 (just after my April direct debit). When I got back from my week away, I had 2 letters from Bennetts. The first stating that I owed £120 and the second sent just 7 days after stating "final warning" threatening me with debt recovery action......hold on!! i thought!! give me a chance!! So i looked at the other letter again! £30 admin charge and £90 outstanding balance. My policy had only cost me £300 in the first place and i had only used 4months of it!!
So i called up to ask WHAT the £90 was for. The guy on the phone started rambling on about terms and conditions and policy documents and contracts...blah blah blah!! I had read the policy document after i got the letter and found the whole "early cancellation stuff" but i wanted to know what i was actually going to have to pay the £90 for.
So i asked nicely to speak to a manager who was very pleasant and again went over the same trivia of policy! She stated that the early cancellation fee was because Bennetts were a business and that they had to recoup money from cancelled policy. I stated that this was not the best way to carry out business as i had not moved insurers but i was temporarily without bike and that i because of this, i would not be returning to them as a customer so as a business they were losing out. I went on to explain that it still didn't seem necessary for me to pay over 1/3 of my policy to cancel because policies are issued on a risk based assessment and given that i was no longer a risk by not having a bike, i was therefore a zero cost to them. She agreed but that it was policy and that as a good will gesture, she would waive the £30 admin fee. I stated that i needed to think about my options as i had only just returned from my week away. She said she would allow me 2 weeks to think it over and would speak to the debt recovery team to get them off my back! So thats where I am now!!
My feeling is that this sucks big time but thinking of it from another point of view, if I had paid up front, I would be having a rebate right now and I probably wouldn't be checking how much so the delta is quite big!!
I guess my only guidance for dealing with Bennetts is to be nice and polite and you may get somewhere but I think that we don't have a leg to stand on with the cancellation fees.
James, Bristol
Bennetts motorbike insurance, never again
Same for me Murray, rip off Bennetts – never again
Mark Walker, Nottingham
Bennetts Insurance, they push you into a corner!
I too have encountered some probs with Benetts recently. I called to cancel my policy (about 4 months remaining) and was told I would have to pay a £30 cancellation fee plus a ridiculous percentage of the original premium. Basically repaying double what I have already contibuted towards it over the months. They push you into a corner so it is cheaper to carry on paying for insurance you no longer require. I too questioned the ethics and legality around this particular cancelations policy. Beware indeed!
Jason Halsall
Bennetts, they swiped my cash!
I phoned Bennets in June 2009 to get a policy on a CB750. They said they wanted to charge me an extra 30 quid EACH to change my existing Z1 policy and my existing CB900 policy just because I told them my my employment status had changed.( I'd been paid-off .) I said "no -way". Then they said they wanted 30 quid EACH when I threatened to cancel my existing Z1 and CB900 policies. So, I said "no way" again and went somewhere else to ensure my CB750. BUT they still insisted that I had to change my occupation on my 2 existing polices as my employment status had changed. So, after alot of raised voices, they finally agreed to only charge me 30 quid insted of 60 to change my other 2 policies......When my Z1 policy ran out I didn't bother to renew it becuase they were obviously trying to rip me off. I insured it somewhere else too........
Last week they sent me a new policy document for the CB 900 which I had actually sold in July 2009. I had policy with Bennets for it too but I didn't bother to cancel it coz I knew it was going to cost another 30 quid so it wasn't worth it.... I just let it run out and forgot about it and my sad experiences with Bennetts. Bennetts now say they sent me a reminder about the CB900 in late December but I didn't get it.... maybe it got lost in the snow.... They obviously kept my credit card details on-file for a year without my knowledge (or permission) and just swiped another 85 quid for the CB900 on 19th January 2010. They didn't tell me or try to contact me to confirm I wanted their ~~~~py insurance policy b4 they swiped my cash . Then, to add insult to injury , when i phoned up on 21st January to complain, they said they wanted want ANOTHER 30 quid off me to cancel a policy I didn't ask for in the first place on a bike I sold 6 months ago! ....W9A9N9K9E9R9S....... My advice...Don't go near them with your mates bike, let alone you own !!,,,,,,,,and tell everyone you know with a bike not to touch these thieving ~~~ts..........
T.E. Youngman....another dissatisfied ex-customer
Bennetts Bike - Online Insurance Rip-off
Where to start....
Ok, My husband bought, online bike insurance from Bennetts, include commuting to & from a place of work and Legal cover, at a fair price after we had shopped around.
When the policy arrived, it had neither commuting nor Legal cover, so we gave them a quick ring to be told that if it's not on the document it's not included & wasn't included in the price & we would have to pay extra for it. Once you click to accept the quote, it automatically adds Legal Cover at £25.99, which we kept as we'd got £20 cashback from Quidco [Thanks MSErs!] so I KNOW we kept it, and hubby wants to ride it to work in the summer - it's why he bought the bike so it would be daft not to cover this on the insurance. But no - Bennetts didn't want to know. They couldn't check their records to see what was quoted for, and I lost the quote data once I'd clicked to buy.
I put in another quote for the correct policy details and got a quote for £1 dearer through the same insurer, including commuting & Legal, but Bennets didn't want to know, They just wanted an extra £70 plus whatever they were going to charge for a policy amendment.
Fed up, we wrote & complained, but decided to cancel within 14 days, which they now tell me they will charge £30 to do.
BGL group profits are rising nicely!
Bennetts recently auto renewed my policy and after a heated discussion with them agreed to cancel my policy for a £20 fee. I was within the 14 day distance selling cooling off period so thought this would be straightforward. I returned the policy documents by recorded delivery and this morning received a cancellation letter showing a charge of £50! (representing an unreasonable 50% of the polciy premium).The renewal policy price had also increased (surprise!) from last years by approx. 100%!
It appears this is rather a profitable scam by the insurance company, which comes under the BGL Group headed up by Peter Winslow. BGL are also the brains behind 'Compare the Markets' website with the dodgy Meerkats that to me seem to mimic an Eastern European crime gang (this now makes sense knowing how this group operate).
Personally I would like to see Peter Winslow on BBC Watchdog attempting to defend this practice of auto-renewal. It is particularly nasty in the unfortunate possibility of the policy holder dying before renewal and the partner being hounded for cancellation fees.
BGL group profits are rising nicely due I'm sure in no small part to fleecing money off their customers using this apparently legal practice.
Garry Clasper September 2009
Bennetts are a scam
Where to start....
Last year I brought insurance with bennetts for quite a reasonable price but when the time came to renew this year they had put my premium up to £694 (up nearly £200) on last year despite not having had an accident, anyway I decided to go with Caroline Nash who quoted me £220 for a very similar policy so I went with them, unforchantly however I received a letter from bennetts telling me that I had been charged for a years policy (£694) and it turns out that in the small print you have to opt out of renewal, so I phoned bennetts and asked for a refund but I got nothing but poor attitude once they found out that I was cancelling. I was told that they would charge me a £30 admin fee plus £50 for five days cover despite being covered by another insurer. The insurance was due to start on the 17th and I phoned on the 20th to cancel but they didn’t charge my account until the 21st . So I’ve paid £694 for insurance with bennetts and £220 with carol Nash.
Now it seems to me that bennetts lure you in with a competitive rate for the first year and then hope you don’t notice the small print and charge you an uncompetitive rate for the next years insurance. You’ve been warned!
Bennetts are a scam!
CW October 2009
Even there staff know how bad they are...
I am writing to you to inform you of my very recent negative experience with Bennett's Motorcycle insurance, which must be verging on the extremities of the law and will hopefully make people think twice before insuring with them. I'm sure I'm not the only one to be facing hard times in this current economic climate and therefore needing to sell my motorbike. Now I unfortunately made the mistake of changing my motorbike insurance supplier this year and going with Bennett's, as at the time I thought they seem to portray a good professional image and could be trusted in times of need - I was very wrong!!!
Just to set the scene I also decided that this year I would pay by instalments to spread the cost over the whole year, which I obviously had to pay more for, to cover the cost of the interest on the premium - to be expected.
So after selling my motorbike this weekend, two days after I have paid this monthly instalment, I called them to cancel my insurance. I was informed that I have to pay a charge of £30 for cancelling the policy, again expected, but I am now being told I will have to pay for at least 90% of the policy even though I haven't used the full life of the policy and won't do as the bike no longer belongs to me. Which seems morally and legally incorrect to me, how can I be charged for something I haven't used?
Their reason is that it will cost them in order to cancel my policy, on top of the £30 admin fee, this is now going to work out more expensive than the original policy. How can this possibly be? If the bike policy is now cancelled, it's no longer an insured risk, so therefore can not possibly cost them anymore money as I will not potentially be claiming for anything.
I also have had bikes for a decade now and I have never been through this before, normally the insurance companies in this instance seem to be honest and fair enough by returning the money that you haven't used to the nearest month and with the £30 surcharge of course - but this is to be expected.
The Bennett's representative told me this is all clear in their terms and conditions which I clicked on to legally except them, now this they will continue to hold on to I'm sure and I will have to pay. But after having countless insurance policies with some of the bigger more respected insurance companies I wrongly assumed that they would all be offering the same sort of service, conditions and ethical policy, I have been proved incorrect, so all I ask is that people think twice in future before taking out any insurance policies, as it appears although some of them like to masquerade behind the same professional image, they don't' all seem to play by the same rules, I know that next year when I get round to getting a new bike, I will not be getting a quote from my friends at Bennett's. I also asked the representatives that I spoke to how they felt about this morally, one spoke out and said I know how it is, I understand how annoyed you must be, his line manager, just stayed silent.. even their staff know how bad they are....
Paul December 2009