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Is Car Insurance the New PPI? - Motor Legal Protection

Technical issues not related to a DLOC car marque, eg tyres, ethanol, other car makes, etc. and legal, political and insurance
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AdrianLH
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2017 9:16 pm
Location: Sutton Coldfield

Is Car Insurance the New PPI? - Motor Legal Protection

Post by AdrianLH »

Members who have received the current issue of the DM, Vol55 No3, may well have seen an item on page 12 having the same title as this post.

Initially I need to apologise for I tend to ramble in my writings so some of you may find the below a tad long winded.

While I am not able to answer the members question he posed at the end of the article I certainly agree that this practice of having extra items 'suggested' by ones insurance company is widespread, and given the 'what if' principle that does affect some of us, we take it up, but I can see that this does provide an extra income stream to the insurance company. However one needs to realise that they of course will buy it in from a dedicated provider for a lot less than they are selling it - and if they can do it why can't we.

Many years ago I took out breakdown cover through a well known provider, not one of the very well known ones but at the time they did seem to win awards for being the best and one of the benefits of being a member was that legal protection was included as part of the package at no extra cost, and it covered my wife too!. Once the penny had dropped then with both mine and my wife's normal motor insurance policies we saw no reason to pay for separate policies thus saving us some money, and so it was for a number of years until 2016 when they announced that they were no longer including this in their membership benefit provision.

All was not lost since in the mean time I had had a part share in a motorhome and during the course of insurance renewals for that came across a stand alone supplier of Legal Protection which at the time I didn't take up as the insurance company with whom I was dealing at the time actually agreed to give it for £5 since I initially did not want it through them I told them who was making the offer at £6.75 and they were surprised that a member of the public could get it almost as cheap as they could! Reason I didn't take it independently was there was a named driver on the policy that had their own breakdown cover which did not have legal protection included - just in case you wondered!

Anyway, me being me, I had retained their details and although in the intervening years the cost had risen from £6.75 to £9.75 for the basic cover that matches that as offered by most insurance companies, though they do offer enhanced schemes at an extra price of course, so two stand alone policies were purchased one of me and one for the wife.

Next Steps if one is interested in looking further - get oneself on to Google, or your preferred search engine, and do a search for Motor Legal Protection, the company I use is in South Wales but there are likely other providers out there and one may prefer someone else.

Good hunting

Adrian

Chris_R
Wise Man
Wise Man
Posts: 662
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2016 12:48 pm
Location: Twickenham

Re: Is Car Insurance the New PPI? - Motor Legal Protection

Post by Chris_R »

I don't think there is a mis-selling here in the same way there might have been for PPI. They're not selling something to people who would not be qualified to claim.
I have never taken PPI on any loan or credit card. I always saw it as a way of the lender making some extra money and I always believed in my ability to repay any debt that I might have. Some may say that it fortunate, maybe it is, but that was how I thought about it.
For the same reason I have never taken this Motor Legal Protection. I think it is a scam. Not anything illegal but a way of earning money for providing very little. On the 2 occasions when I may have used it I have gone directly to the third party and in both cases I have won. The most recent involved my neighbour that reversed out of his drive across the road and used my 1995 Range Rover as a stopping device leaving the rear door and wing dented. I didn't bother claiming on my insurance, I claimed directly from him (as is my right) and he passed the claim to his insurers. They initially wrote off the car valuing it at a mere £1,300. I rejected that, gathered some evidence including other recent completed sales of equivalent vehicles, a ruling from the Financial Ombudsman and made them an offer. Due to the evidence I had collected they capitulated immediately and gave me what I wanted, plus an amount for inconvenience. I can't see a Motor Legal Protection person having the specialist knowledge or gumption to do the research I did and I felt they would not have been as successful as I was. When I consulted the legal department of A leading breakdown organisation of which I am a member they advised there was not much I could do and to accept the £1,300 write off settlement. My result proved their advice wrong.
Others may have different stories regarding Motor Legal Protection but I have never felt the need. I still decline it on all policies.

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