DirectLine Insurance Avis 

To eager to right off my car without an actual physical inspection or referral to an actual body specialist . Communications leaves a lot to be desired. Will never use again

I just called to ask my quote for the insurance in their web but it said I can't get quote base on some reason. After that, I call their hotline, a girl told me base on some reason, they can't let me quote the rate, and they refused to give me the reason. I mean this is so weird and strange that they can't let me buy the insurance and I am so unhappy about this call!

Absolute incompetence master class! I was involved in a no fault accident, DL said in writing that my no-claims discount would remain unaffected. However that was not the case and it was reduced from 9+ to 4 years and my premium tripled over 2 years. Such a difficult company to deal with, I would recommend to avoid!

My car was collected for repairs on the 6th of June by a body shop garage which was miles away.
As it was a Direct Line nominated repairers thought nothing of it.
The updates received from Direct line as well as the repairers were exactly the same word for word.
The delay for the repairs was parts were coming from abroad or on back order.
By the end of September I spoke with the garage when I was told if I could find the parts they would complete the repairs.
I the customer took it upon my self to find out the real reason.
The customer care department of my car put me in touch with their part stockists.
I was told the required parts for the repairs had been available since August.
The body shop garage cancelled the back order in August,as they were unable to pay for the parts by card payment.
The part stockists accepted method of payment.
By now it was the beginning of October.I contacted direct line car claims department to let them know the real reason for the unavailability of the parts.
Also the complaints handling team who told me a cock and bull story to reject my complain.
The crux is that mistakes happen.But in Direct line’s eyes they can pull a wool over their customers eyes.
Had I not contacted my car’s customer care department would have been none the wiser.
Direct line claims and complaints department being economical with the truth for four months didn’t realise the truth will out.
The stressful four months could have been avoided if they had acknowledged their error and accepted responsibility for their actions.
Will never touch Direct line insurance with the barge pole.

After 8 years of paying pet insurance, no claims, the policy went up to over 500.00 a year, called to cancel and was offered a loyalty discount of practically nothing !!! Loyalty - there is none with this company - got the same policy for 200.00. They called for feedback and said sorry that is our best price - goodbye direct line.

They are scam. Not recommended at all.

My wife had a minor car accident (her fault) costed Direct Line £664 to pay the other party for fixing their car damage.

Direct line penalised me (not my wife) affecting 5 years no claim bonus and increased my policy review price by 2.3 times.

My car was written off due to vandalisim in February 2023, I payed £3.500 for it in August 2022, when it was written off I was payed £1,572 by these clowns just under £2,000 I am owed. Their idiot engineers (if they know what they are doing) said that the car was beyond economical repair which it wasn't, after weeks and weeks of phone calls they are refusing pay me the rest of what I am owed. Please please please avoid these cowboys the take your money but refuse to pay out for a claim. This is now in the hands of the Motor Insurance Ombudsman.

50% increase in my car insurance
It is time to move on

After raising a complaint with Direct Line, it was ignored for 7 months despite chasing. Ended up with Financial Ombudsman Service who agreed with me, and even then Direct Line were refusing to accept their decision and just ignored there request to put it right.
Finally got resolved, but no apology from Direct Line. I have now moved all my business away from them amounting to thousands of pounds a year.

More than two years after I had accepted an offer for the total loss of my car from Direct Line I received an email followed by a letter from them saying that I was due an additional payment for my claim. They apologised for having made a 'mistake'. Not only that but they paid interest on the increased payment from the time of the claim. Thus I received a cheque for more than £1200! Until Ireceved the cheque I thought it might be a clever scam. Well done Direct Line.

I have been a loyal DL customer for 15 years (currently 2 cars and our home insurance, have also used their travel insurance), well sadly not for much longer. My car insurance this year has gone up by £258 despite never having claimed with them and this year DL will not budge on the price. I find this very frustrating as there is clearly no customer loyalty whatsoever, and as other highly rated rival car insurance companies are offering a like for like quote for £200 less, surely this is also terribly poor business sense DL? Very poor customer service.

Went through the quote process which took me 20 mins but they just said they can't offer me a quote with no explanation. Terrible process

Worse company ever dealt with would give no stars if could.
Mistake after mistake, giving incorrect information and will not ring you back as promised.
Car insurance claim still not sorted out after 3 months.
DO NOT USE DIRECT LINE

We have used Direct Line for car insurance for a number of years. My husband died in December 2023. I received a renewal in February 2024. My premium increased by 40+%. The inflation rate was 4% at that time. On querying it I was told that the assessment was based on information that was confidential to the business. The only reason I can see is that the company were discriminating against me as a woman. I was now the main driver instead of my husband.
I raised the problem with the Ombudsman who simply reiterated the same info and confirmed that as they were “impartial” I should believe them?

I am not sure what the Ombudsman does but it certainly is not consumer friendly.

I noticed that DL does not advertise on Comparison websites. I wonder why? It’s certainly not the same company we have used for a number of years for different insurances.

I was able to obtain a fair quote from a number of other companies who do use GO Compare.

I would certainly not use this company again. There is something concerning about them and you have no opportunity to question the basis of their decisions.

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Review of Direct Line

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customer
3 reviews
IL
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
We had a genuine water flood in our…
We had a genuine water flood in our Business and started the claim with Direct Line Business insurance. At first they seemed helpful and even instructed us to start work to rectify the issue so the Business could be up and running as soon as possible. Unfortunately, they did not continue in this manner. No communication, lost emails, delay tactics were all we experienced. Denise Smith, loss adjustor, was the final nail in the coffin. She did everything in her power to stop the claim moving forward and over 4 months later rejected the claim, denying any responsibility for the work undertaken. We have been left in tatters and now have to find a way to rescue the Business. Appalling!!!!!!!!

Not the firm they used to be...

My car insurance was due for renewal on the 12th of March. Been with DL for three years, no claims. The renewal price was getting on for double last year's price. I queried it and on the first attempt, was simply stonewalled. Second time, they agreed to reduce it by £100, so I accepted that, and assumed the renewal would be automatic. It wasn't, so I renewed on the 4th of March. By the end of that week, I hadn't received my cover note. I phoned (for the third time in a week, with no joy) and finally spoke to a gentleman who spoke clear English, and helped me out by sending an email confirming that the policy had renewed. He also assured me that I'd receive the renewal documents within seven working days. This morning, a week later - five days after the renewal date - I received a letter from Direct Line, informing me that my renewal documents were enclosed. Other than that letter, the envelope was empty. It did say though, that I could download my documents online. Logged in, and went to 'My Policies.' Though I can see that the policy is in force, the only recent document available for download is a reminder renewal, dated 26/02/24... Yet another FRUSTRATING call to a distant country, and explanation to an almost unintelligible assistant, who couldn't even give me a timeframe for when the documents would arrive, or even when the online portal would show that the documents were available for download. Sloppy barely covers it.

I received an email saying my car insurance was due for renewal with a price shown & that it would be automatically taken unless I neede to change anything. I was happy with the price but rang them with a different query only to find that the amount shown on my email was last year's price (why would they show that on a renewal?) & that the new price was almost 100% higher. When I challenged that they reduced the amount by £90. Surely as an existing customer I should be given the best rate from the beginning? I have subsequently found a different policy with a well-known company offering the same cover but with much lower excess & at only £40 more than what I believed to be my renewal price from Direct Line.

Absolute rip off, over 10 years no claims ,clean licence, they put my insurance up from £320 a year to £635 just short of 100% increase? Armed forces veteran,treated like dirt

Generally a good company to deal with but today's experience suggests poor AI interface and staff poorly informed about how to deal with misdirected calls. After ringing the number on a motor insurance renewal and responding to the AI prompt by saying I wanted to speak about CAR insurance, I was placed into a long queue and eventually reached VAN insurance, who couldn't help and placed me into another long queue. I don't know where I ended-up next but they couldn't help either and suggested that I must have selected the wrong options (there were no options, only the AI interface which acknowledged that I was ringing about car insurance). The second attempt, starting from scratch was more successful, but there is clearly something wrong with the company's customer interface.

Please read your policy!!
My grandparents have been a policy holder for 9 years the only time we claimed and the experience was awful!!
Will not pay for the repair.