Check The Small Print Of Your Insurance To See If You Are Properly Covered
Tuesday, 28. September 2010
- Image via Wikipedia
As the number one car finance blogger IN THE WORLD I will soon be launching a mission to make the important small print in contracts – BIG PRINT. As an example of what I mean I’m grateful to Auto Express. They highlighted the case of Zubin Morar who took out a Car Care Plan insurance policy to cover his tyres against accidental damage. Zubin from Middlesex has a BMW 530i and unfortunately hit a pothole in the road and punctured two tyres. The cost of the replacements was £500 but when he put in his claim Car Care Plan refused to pay because he had run flat tyres fitted to his car. You and I as well as Zubin may have thought, ‘So what’ but apparently the tyres hadn’t deflated enough. Whilst run flats are not meant to deflate completely, hence the reason for having them in the first place, the small print shows that the tyres must be subject to ‘sudden deflation’. So as run flats, by their very nature, are not meant to be subject to sudden deflation, CCP felt that they were not obliged to pay out. Through the involvement of Auto Express Mr Morar was reimbursed the money as a ‘gesture of goodwill’. But as Mr Morar asked, why was he sold this policy when clearly his tyres were not covered by the terms of the policy. What Auto Express failed to do was advise Mr Morar to lodge a formal complaint with the Office Of Fair Trading as well as make a complaint to the FSA as this is a fairly clear case of miss-selling of an insurance product. And another reason why ‘critical terms’ in contracts should be made clearer to those entering into them. What do you think, please let me know? By Graham Hill
