Admiral Car Insurance Rant
Discussion
Hope this is the correct section, couldn't find an 'insurance' or indeed 'endless moaning rant' section.
If anyone is considering using Admiral, please take a moment to consider the following:
The own (via their parent company) confused.com - and suspiciously will almost always be the cheapest, or at least in the top 3 on confused. - For me they are anyway.
The price they quote on confused is almost impossible to obtain, and if you do get it, you will only be getting 10 months cover, so when it's time to renew other insurers may not accept your NCB.
If you pay monthly the monthly figures bare little resemblance to the headline figure because 1) they have an insanely high APR 2) they will 'helpfully' include their dubious 'personal injury cover' without ever letting you know the cost of it and only a fleeting mention of it's existence, it's also never mentioned in any of the endless lit they send you post-sales.
Also you can ONLY buy monthly over the phone, so you can look forward to spending half-an-hour plus (seriously it took me 32 mins according to my phone) where you will be ruthlessly hard-sold extras like repayment insurance, hire car cover, breakdown cover etc etc they never take no for an answer for the first or second time.
Best of all, once you been dragged through hell and back just to give them your hard-earned for what will probably be nothing in return you can look forward to being called 4-6 times a day, during working hours which is REALLY handy when you've got a job to do. Under the pretence of 'making sure everything is ok' and then being hard-sold the junk extras you didn't take the first time.
Most of the time I’m ether too busy to answer or just ignore it, the few times I’ve picked it up I’ve spent a couple of seconds telling them yes, I got the stuff in the post, yes I’ve sent in my NCD, yes I’m happy.
As soon as they start the sales pitch I tell them to sod off and I get
“Sorry sir is this not a good time”
“No time is a good time, don’t call again”
“Sorry about that, is this afternoon better?”
“Do you understand what I’m saying?!?!”
“Yes, sorry you’re busy, I’ll call back”
“No don’t........” beeeeeeeeep and the prick’s hung up.
I wrote them an e-mail on Monday to complain, they promised me they would stop calling, but they still call 3 times a day – I answered the first few thinking it would be the customer service team but it’s the sales chimps I say “hello” they ask to speak to Mr. Jay, I confirm my address etc and then they say, “oh sorry sir, your notes say you don’t want to be called, I’ll leave you alone good day”
How the **** is that ‘leaving me alone’!?!?!?!?
They have offered me the chance to cancel the extras, but won’t tell me the costs of them – how the balls are you meant to judge the worth of something if they won’t tell you the cost!
Sorry, rant over.
If anyone is considering using Admiral, please take a moment to consider the following:
The own (via their parent company) confused.com - and suspiciously will almost always be the cheapest, or at least in the top 3 on confused. - For me they are anyway.
The price they quote on confused is almost impossible to obtain, and if you do get it, you will only be getting 10 months cover, so when it's time to renew other insurers may not accept your NCB.
If you pay monthly the monthly figures bare little resemblance to the headline figure because 1) they have an insanely high APR 2) they will 'helpfully' include their dubious 'personal injury cover' without ever letting you know the cost of it and only a fleeting mention of it's existence, it's also never mentioned in any of the endless lit they send you post-sales.
Also you can ONLY buy monthly over the phone, so you can look forward to spending half-an-hour plus (seriously it took me 32 mins according to my phone) where you will be ruthlessly hard-sold extras like repayment insurance, hire car cover, breakdown cover etc etc they never take no for an answer for the first or second time.
Best of all, once you been dragged through hell and back just to give them your hard-earned for what will probably be nothing in return you can look forward to being called 4-6 times a day, during working hours which is REALLY handy when you've got a job to do. Under the pretence of 'making sure everything is ok' and then being hard-sold the junk extras you didn't take the first time.
Most of the time I’m ether too busy to answer or just ignore it, the few times I’ve picked it up I’ve spent a couple of seconds telling them yes, I got the stuff in the post, yes I’ve sent in my NCD, yes I’m happy.
As soon as they start the sales pitch I tell them to sod off and I get
“Sorry sir is this not a good time”
“No time is a good time, don’t call again”
“Sorry about that, is this afternoon better?”
“Do you understand what I’m saying?!?!”
“Yes, sorry you’re busy, I’ll call back”
“No don’t........” beeeeeeeeep and the prick’s hung up.
I wrote them an e-mail on Monday to complain, they promised me they would stop calling, but they still call 3 times a day – I answered the first few thinking it would be the customer service team but it’s the sales chimps I say “hello” they ask to speak to Mr. Jay, I confirm my address etc and then they say, “oh sorry sir, your notes say you don’t want to be called, I’ll leave you alone good day”
How the **** is that ‘leaving me alone’!?!?!?!?
They have offered me the chance to cancel the extras, but won’t tell me the costs of them – how the balls are you meant to judge the worth of something if they won’t tell you the cost!
Sorry, rant over.
V8mate said:
I think Admiral are great.
And have only had excellent service when I've needed to call them, e.g. to change car, too.
I guess you've been lucky, or I've been unlucky but I've never felt so badgered by a company. And have only had excellent service when I've needed to call them, e.g. to change car, too.
In fairness the Customer Service people are reasonably helpful (apart from failing to tell the cost of the extras) but the sales people are pushy and relentless.
DJC said:
P-Jay said:
The own (via their parent company) confused.com - and suspiciously will almost always be the cheapest, or at least in the top 3 on confused. - For me they are anyway.
Yes, me too. Elephant are first, followed by Admiral a few pounds more expensive. Swift Cover are usually third.P-Jay said:
The price they quote on confused is almost impossible to obtain, and if you do get it, you will only be getting 10 months cover, so when it's time to renew other insurers may not accept your NCB.
Incorrect. When I click through, all my policies are for 12 months. I've never been defaulted to 10 months.P-Jay said:
If you pay monthly the monthly figures bare little resemblance to the headline figure because 1) they have an insanely high APR 2) they will 'helpfully' include their dubious 'personal injury cover' without ever letting you know the cost of it and only a fleeting mention of it's existence, it's also never mentioned in any of the endless lit they send you post-sales.
I've never paid monthly, but the APR is not unreasonable. They are offering you credit services - should they do it for free? You don't have to take it out.P-Jay said:
Also you can ONLY buy monthly over the phone, so you can look forward to spending half-an-hour plus (seriously it took me 32 mins according to my phone) where you will be ruthlessly hard-sold extras like repayment insurance, hire car cover, breakdown cover etc etc they never take no for an answer for the first or second time.
I've never had the hard sell. I've simply stated I don't need that cover and it has never been pushed. I've dealt with both their UK and Canadian call centres.P-Jay said:
Best of all, once you been dragged through hell and back just to give them your hard-earned for what will probably be nothing in return you can look forward to being called 4-6 times a day, during working hours which is REALLY handy when you've got a job to do. Under the pretence of 'making sure everything is ok' and then being hard-sold the junk extras you didn't take the first time.
Seriously? I've never had this. I've been sent an email with my policy details but never any other communication. I've been with Admiral / Elephant on and off for about 10 years. I currently have a policy with Admiral and Elephant and am very pleased with them, I've never had to claim but I'm assured by others that the claims department are easy to deal with.
If you've never paid monthly, how would you know if the APR is reasonable as it's not quoted? I don't have the paperwork in front of me, but it's around 14-20% APR which is outrageous for a zero risk facility. Personally I think the idea of charging interest on monthly payments is unfair as they will cancel the policy if I don't pay them, but that's another matter.
No I didn't have to take it, but after 20+ mins of being talked to (it was no conversation) my resolve had been broken.
I'm still waiting to hear back about the costs of the extras. They don't seem very keen at all to let me know the cost of the personal injury cover.
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