Resolving Difficulties

As a car insurance customer, you have certain rights that cannot be violated by your company. You may experience difficulties with your car insurance company if you need to file a claim or your premiums increase, and you can resolve these types of disputes by taking action.

Contact Your Insurance Company to Settle the Dispute First 

The best thing to do if you experience a problem with your insurance company is to contact them straight away to let them know that you are unhappy. Often, you can approach your insurance company about an issue that you have, and they will be happy to help you resolve it. By letting them know that you are not satisfied with the service that they are providing, you are taking the most important step to correcting the problem and moving forward.

Gather Details and Documents Related to Your Difficulties

After you have identified the problem that you are currently having with your insurer, it may be helpful for you to jot down a few notes on the most important points that you want to address. This will help you organise your thoughts when you get someone on the phone, and it can help you relay all of the details so that you do not have to call back later to address separate issues.

Make Contact by Phone

Once you have your list in hand, you should contact your insurer by phone. If you can, it would be best to speak to the person that originally handled your policy. If you are not able to speak with the person who initiated your policy, you should ask to speak to someone that normally handles a complaint. You will then want to explain the difficulty that you are having in detail so that the person can get a clear idea of possible solution that might help fix the situation. If the person that you end up speaking to does not help you resolve the conflict, ask to speak to a supervisor and reiterate all of the points that you made.

Discuss the Problem with a Supervisor

You may need to make a few separate calls in order to find the name and phone number of a supervisor or someone that can better assist you, but you should make sure to take the time to find the right person. Talking to someone that has the authority to help you resolve the conflict is often the best way to find a solution, so it will be worth the extra effort involved. When you are speaking to someone about a particular complaint that you have, try to stay as calm as possible because that will make the process run much more smoothly for everyone involved, including you.

Write a Letter

If you cannot resolve the issue over the phone, you can also write a letter to the company detailing the problem (and perhaps providing solutions that you think would make the problem right). This may get your insurance company’s attention better than a phone call, but you may also want to follow up your letter with another phone call to make sure that the company has received it. You should include the following information in your letter:

• The name of the representative that you originally spoke to and anyone else that you have spoken to about the difficulties that you are having now

• Details on the exact problem that you have with the company

• Your contact information so that they can get in touch with you after they receive your letter

• Any additional documents, photos, or other attachments that might be relevant to the issue

Find the Appropriate Complaints Scheme

If none of these avenues work to provide you with a solution, you can contact a complaint scheme to assist you. It is important that you contact your insurance company prior to consulting a complaints scheme because they will not hear your car otherwise. Once you have made a reasonable effort to resolve the conflict with the department responsible, you can contact a third party outfit to assist you further.

Typically, there will be a specific scheme associated with your particular insurer, and you will need to make sure that you contact the correct scheme. To do this, you may want to call your insurance company again to ask which complaints scheme is assigned to them.

The complaints scheme will help you settle any difficulties that you may have with your insurer, but after it is settled, you will not be able to contact your insurance company for additional funds or compensation.

By using these three methods, you should be able to resolve any conflict that you have with your insurance company; however, if these do not work, you may have to take your insurance company to court in order to resolve it.