Direct Line Insurance Group Plc Avis 

Question: When is Home Insurance NOT Home Insurance ?
Answer: When it is with DIRECT LINE

Three months ago we noticed that the underground soil pipe on our property was backing up due to a blockage in the pipe.

We called a national drain jetting company who promptly flushed out the blockage and gave us an official receipt/report that identified the work carried out:

Drain Clearance - Jetting
Waste Collection
(note - item 2 was to remove and dispose of the contaminated material in a safe, responsible way)

Direct Line “back-heeled” our claim to CET Property Assurance who summarily dismissed it on the grounds that a “blocked manhole” is not covered under the terms of our policy with Direct Line Plus.

Actually, the only part that the manhole played was to give access to the blocked DRAIN. Now, apart from questioning how a manhole, on our property, is not part of the sewage system we are left wondering when the manhole was actually mentioned in the first place?

We then wrote a letter to ‘Direct Line - customer services manager’ expressing our objection to the decision and disappointment at their handling of this case. Of course, NO SURPRISE, we got no reply.

We have been Home and Car Insurance customers of Direct Line for several years and up to now they have been faultless but that was before we actually NEEDED their HELP.

The specific clause in our policy is called “Home Emergency Plus” so we would really like to know which “Home Emergency” is more serious than a blocked soil pipe threatening to overflow above ground?

I have my car insurance with Direct Line and they have been brilliant. They gave me the cheapest quote while providing the most comprehensive cover. Quick and easy to set up my policy. Really good customer service too.

Direct line, I am a new tenant in this house only 9 months and have loads of letters to the previous tenant from your company hounding the previous tenant who is Dead so don't expect a reply soon, so can you stop sending me their account, disgusting behaviour considering I have been in this property over 9 months. Sort yourselves out hope you get haunted soon enough for that behaviour

This years renewal quote was almost double last years quote (even though I have made no claims and have 15 years NCB) I could understand if it had risen by RPI or even 4 or 5% but near to 100% is just profiteering and has cost you a customer.

I found the same cover with a competitor for around the same as you charged me last year so shame on you Direct Line for your greedy ways.

Your 70% 1 star rating says it all!

Very good price. When I had my catalitic Converter stolen they were very efficient at arranging the car to be repaired and was provided with a good replacement car while it was away and I was able to collect my car from the repairer and leave the rented one their. My no claims will not be lost Thant’s to there fair claim policy as the damage was not my fault.

This is a long story. I'm a young driver. In Nov 2018, a woman slammed on her brakes, hoping I'd slam into her but I didn't. She started to jump up and down making false accusations - that I crashed into her. A few days later, I got into a real incident (other driver was male), for which I was at fault. Unbeknown to me, the woman made a claim against me so when I was talking about the real incident, Direct Line thought I was talking about the fake claim. They paid out to the fake claim (I took pictures to show she had no damage to her car) and refused to pay out to the real claim. The male driver got exacerbated and (in my view) pushed to get me charged. I was charged a couple of days before the cut off date! The male driver was looking to get damages from me because Direct Line wouldn't pay out. It was only at this point that I realised they'd got the 2 mixed up.
Direct Line eventaully paid out to the real claim but did absolutely nothing about the fake claim!! To apologise, DIRECT LINE said that they'd remove the FAKE INCIDENT from CUE for their mess up of things. Guess what, they've now 'CHANGED THEIR MINDS' and refuse to take it off CUE. Thanks DIRECT LINE.

Have you insured your jewellery with this company? Are you thinking about it?
You do know that you'll only get 50% of the value paid when you claim? (That's not a typo - HALF is all they will pay you.) That's what has happened to us after we were burgled.
They tell me it says 50% in their policy. I'm sure they're right and it's buried in there somewhere but when was the last time you read your policy or Ts & Cs for anything? And Direct Line know it. So unless you want to spend half your life reading terms and conditions for your TV package, internet deal, mobile phone, car insurance, breakdown cover, home insurance etc etc etc, at some point you have to trust a company and we made the mistake of trusting this lot.

So, y'know that bracelet that your mum left you, that one worth £1,000? They'll say they can 'replace' it with a new one. But you know they can't and they know you'll think that so they'll offer you a financial settlement as an option - £500. HALF of it's value. HALF of what THEIR OWN JEWELLERS say it's worth.

How does that work then? I paid my premiums (in full) in pounds / sterling, why is it unreasonable for me to want my claim paid in full in pounds sterling?

Remember - 50% is all you'll get if you want your jewellery claim settled with 'cash'.

Well guess what, someone needs to make others aware of this issue so I'll do it. Who knows, by my making people aware of it, it might result in it costing Direct Line more than it would to have paid me out :-)

This is the start.

Had a nightmare with this company today.

Their online system wouldn't allow me to amend their default excess of £350. I contacted a number of staff for an explanation. They didn't know why and didn't seem to care either.

The staff suggested that I select the button on the screen that allowed me to store the quotes. The button was absent from my screen.

I was unable to store a quote for later retrieval. I contacted a number of staff for an explanation. They didn't know why and didn't seem to care either.

The quotes given over the phone by their sales staff differed to the ones provided by their online system. I contacted a number of staff for an explanation. They didn't know and didn't seem to care either.

Various members of staff asked me to click on various buttons on various online screens. The buttons didn't appear on any of the screens. Staff didn't know why and didn't seem to care either.

The staff left me with the impression that they just wanted rid of me and my problems because they weren't able to solve any of my problems that I was having with their system.

They don't appear on price comparison sites - and that's OK. However, it is necessary to manually compare their prices with prices on comparison sites in order to make an informed choice. This means changing the parameters on both the price comparison sites and Direct Line. However, not being able to amend Direct Line parameters on their site makes this comparison impossible. Having to communicate with staff that don't appear to care is even worse. Methinks that this company deserves its low rating.

Very Poor, they haven't sent my renewal, and once the police expired no notifications! after one non-falt claim they've take all my 5 years no claim bonus and now is on a dispute with citizen advice.
please make your self away from them! poor customer services and also will affect your furthers police.

Received my renewal car insurance only to discover they had increased the premium by £120, when l called them thinking it must have been a mistake l was told they had no idea why the underwriters had increased it so much especially as my circumstance had remained the same as last year.
They apologised and said l wasn’t the only one complaining about their renewals but there was nothing they could do.
Thankfully after a few calls and a couple of hours later l found another company that offered a better cover for £130 less then l payed last year.
So my advice to anyone that has had their renewal increased a lot don’t waste your time calling them spend it getting a better cover cheaper.

Absolutely disgusted! Received car insurance renewal up by £80+ pa(26%). Rang to discuss but couldn’t offer better so declined renewal, despite second car, home insurance and travel insurance. Went on comparison site and found a reputable company offering better policy for £35 less than I paid last year, but the punch line is that I checked on Direct Line as new customer and they offered £95 less than renewal and less than I paid last year. Won’t be going back to them then for any insurance products!

I have my car and home insurance through direct line and this year they saw fit to increase my premium by 25% for no discernible reason. I guess they hoped I wouldn't noticed as my policy renews automatically by direct debit. I will be cancelling the renewal today and when my home insurance is due I will be going elsewhere for that too. I ended up getting my car insurance from another reputable company for £200 less than my renewal quote with Direct Line!

Very Happy with Direct Line.Very helpful on the phone and polite.Start of Claim to finish and getting my car back completed 2 Weeks.Very Trustworthy Company.
Many Thanks.
D Trehane.

This company is a joke, insured my cat with the advanced policy so that I would be cover against everything, she started having an issue eating so I took her to the vet and she needs some teeth removed. Before the surgery, we called them and they said yes don't worry you are covered and ask when the last time she went to a vet, which we explained that is was just before I brought her over from Greece 4 years ago. We thought everything was sorted until today when I got a letter saying they will not pay for the surgery because she has not seen a vet in the past 12 months, which they were aware of then we ask them if she was covered, and seriously most people only visit a vet if the cat is ill, not every year. I will not drop this and will take it to the small claims court.I work in this sort of environment and know we would honour what we have been told on the phone.

It is difficult to review an insurer unless you need to use the cover you have insured for.
The process of taking out the cover was very straightforward online however when I had need to contact them for a claim I found the response and subsequent service deserved an outstanding score.
Although my claim was on a no-fault basis and Direct Line would claim the costs from the third parties insurer, everything was dealt with very efficiently with one phone call to them. My car was collected for repairs and delivered on completion within the promised time scale. A courtesy car was provided for the duration of the repair, again delivered and collected on completion. I was kept informed of what repairs were required, how long it would take and given updates.
Never having had cause to claim on a car insurance policy previously I did not know what to expect but could have not been more pleasantly surprised.

My experience with Direct Line is limited, so far, to buying car insurance which, hopefully I will not have to claim on.
My price as a new customer (always change insurers to get the best price) could be better but they include protection against uninsured drivers and a call centre, both important to me. Purchasing was straightforward, I did it by phone as I wanted to check some details even though their policy information is clearly presented online. Their representative was professional, pleasant and helpful which was a nice change from my previous insurance company who were a incompetent and made having insurance with them a nightmare.

This is possibly the worse company I have ever dealt with stay well away, especially if you have a claim their legal services are diabolical

My premium increased by 25% and when I called was given no explanation for the increase. I would have been happy to stay with Direct Line but feel let down. I assume they just ramp up the price and hope that you will just renew. Avoid this company at all costs.

57 years old. No claims in 10 years no convictions, full NCB, good neighbourhood. 2012 Mini Cooper, low mileage and they won’t quote for me! Rang call centre to find out why not and they don’t have that information. Useless!

In January 2017 my mobility scooter was dropped whilst getting it off the plane, I had to make a claim from my insurance , I was paid minus the excess, after many phone calls and months, I got my excess back as the airline accepted responsibility and paid direct line, however it's on the main data base which most insurance companies use, that I made a claim in 2017 and as a result my insurance has gone up by £53, I've asked direct line to remove this and to send me an email to say that a 3rd party ie the airline has paid but they wont, so it just looks that I've made a claim, nothing about them getting their money back, and now I'm going to have to put this on all future insurance quotes for the next few years, how dare they, so I'm going to make an official complaint, I will never use direct line again, they told me it wouldn't affect any future insurance quotes as it wasn't my fault