TERMS OF BUSINESS BETWEEN PREMIUM CHOICE AND THE POLICYHOLDER

Terms and Conditions

These terms will apply to your use of our on-line service, whether or not you choose to take out insurance cover, and access to our website demonstrates your agreement to these terms.

Please read these terms carefully and print a copy - particularly if you choose to take out insurance cover with us.

These terms are subject to change at any time and we will display only the current version on our website. If you access our website or use our online cover service after we have changed these conditions you will be accepting the changed versions.

The Financial Services Authority

Premium Choice Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the independent watchdog that regulates Financial Services. Our FSA Registration number is 312245

Our permitted business is advising, arranging, dealing as agent and assisting in the administration and performance of general insurance contracts. You may check this on the FSA's register by visiting the FSA website, www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234

Our Service

Our services include: advising you on your insurance needs; arranging your insurance cover with insurers to meet your requirements and helping you with any ongoing changes you have to make. We offer a wide range of insurance products and conduct a fair analysis of the market using our available panel of insurers in respect of, Private Motor Policies, Commercial Vehicle Policies and Private Motorcycle Policies. A single insurer has been selected as being suitable following an assessment of similar products commonly available for Specialist Vehicle Policies, Claims Manager Policies, Breakdown Policies, Keycare Policies, Theft Protection Policies, Excess Protection Policies, Windscreen Cover Policies and Gold Rider Policies. We are not contractually obliged to offer insurance from the insurer of these policies. We will advise and make recommendations for you after we have assessed your needs. A full list of insurers is available upon request.

Charges for Our Services

We normally receive commission from the insurers or product providers with whom we deal and may make charges up to the following amounts for the ongoing administration of your insurance.

Schedule of Fees
Action	Cancellation Of Policy Charges
Policy Arrangement Fee	Up to £100
Permanent Adjustment to Policy	Up to £50*
Temporary Adjustment	Up to £50*
Renewal Administration Fee	Up to £100
Finance Arrangement Fee	£15
Duplicate Certificate of Motor Insurance	£15
Cancellation Charge after the first 14 days	See Cancellation Of Policy
Cancellation Charge within the first 14 days	See Cancellation Of Policy
* We will also retain our commission on any adjustment.

When your policy is arranged you will be informed of the total price to be paid, including any fees, taxes and charges separately from the premium, before your insurance arrangements are concluded. This will also be displayed within your welcome documentation.

Cancellation of Policy

You may have a statutory right to cancel this insurance within an initial period. Please refer to your policy summary or your policy document for further details. If you cancel within the initial period you will receive a pro rata refund of premium from the insurer. We may also keep an amount of £35 that reflects our administration costs of arranging and cancelling the insurance. Our commission will be excluded from any refund calculations.

If you cancel your policy at any time, you must send us your current Certificate of Insurance (for motor insurance) or temporary cover note with a letter requesting cancellation.

Be aware that cancellation refunds outside of the initial period are not given after a claim, and note that some insurers charge cancelled policies on a short period scale, resulting in a disproportionately greater charge for the period of insurance, and refunds being lower than clients’ expectations. Please note that we are unable to backdate cancellations.

If your policy contains any additional covers then these and our commission will be excluded from any refund calculations.

Your premium is periodically forwarded to the insurer and once this process has occurred, in the event of a refund we will request payment from the insurer. As a result refunds can not be issued until the insurer has released the funds. This process can take up to 45 days.

You are always advised to discuss your options with us prior to deciding upon cancellation of your policy.

Instalment Terms

Premium Choice out source all instalments paid over twelve months to third party providers. This is in order to assist our Policy Holders’ in spreading their premiums over the maximum duration that is available and to conform to The Financial Services Authority solvency requirements. The provider is Close Premium Finance. Close Premium Finance is a trading style of Close Brothers Limited.

For policy holders who wish to pay instalments over a shorter period of time, a facility is available whereby Premium Choice will deduct an agreed amount, on an agreed date, from a credit/debit card authorised by you.

In the event of my instalment becoming overdue or payment being declined from my card, I agree that such a default shall be construed as my instructions to Premium Choice to start policy cancellation procedures. In the event of an accident, claim or incident under my policy the balance for the total amount payable shall become due immediately on demand.

I understand that any shortfall in premium following cancellation is my responsibility and therefore I authorise Premium Choice to deduct any shortfall from any refund received from the underwriters.

Claims Procedure

If your vehicle is involved in an incident, or you wish to discuss or make a claim, please call PREMIUM CHOICE CLAIMS on 0845 674 0070 24 hours: 365 days. Premium Choice Insurance Ltd or our partners will employ due care and skill if we act on your behalf in respect of a claim.

You should be aware that in the event of a claim, no premium refund will be issued by the insurer. (This is not necessarily true if cancelled within the initial cancellation period)

You further understand that Premium Choice Ltd or our partners will, where appropriate authorise solicitors to act on your behalf in connection with your claim. You authorise appointed solicitors to receive compensation monies, endorse cheques made payable to you.

Premium Choice Insurance Ltd is regulated by the Ministry of Justice in respect of regulated claims management activities. You can confirm this by checking the Claims Management Regulation register on their website, www.claimsregulation.gov.uk.

Your Responsibilities

It is most important that the information you have given is accurate. You are advised to revisit and print off or save the pages that you have completed in order to obtain your quotation, and to keep these with your Insurance documents. If any information is incorrect or missing, we must be notified at once. An acknowledgement of the amended information will then be issued, together with any changes in the insurance terms and/or premium. Failure to notify us of any errors, omissions or amendments could result in your insurance being invalid. The information provided must be complete and correct to the best of your knowledge and belief, and you are reminded of your obligation to disclose all material facts. Material facts are those which are likely to influence an Insurer in his acceptance or otherwise of your risk. If you are in any doubt as to whether or not a fact is material you should disclose it. You should keep a record, including copies of letters and electronic mail, of all correspondence supplied to us for the purpose of entering into this contract.

You should be aware that no guarantee of the Driving Other Cars extension can be given until the Certificate of Insurance is issued and the extension is granted.

You must understand that, where you inform us that your vehicle is fitted with an engine immobiliser, this becomes a condition of your policy and, as such, unless there is an immobiliser fitted and/or it is in good working order, no indemnity against theft of the vehicle will apply. Proof must be supplied in the form of a certificate from an Approved person/organisation and must be supplied at inception of the policy

You should inform us immediately of any changes in circumstances that may affect the services provided by us or the cover provided by your policy. If you are unsure about any matter, please contact us for guidance.

You understand that this contract unless otherwise stated will be subject to English Law. I agree to co-operate with you in supplying information and documentation that you require promptly i.e. within four weeks. Failure to do so may result in cover being withdrawn. I accept my responsibility to ensure that I hold a current cover note or certificate of insurance.

By accepting these terms you are giving your consent for us to operate for you in this way.

Complaints Procedure

Our aim is to provide you with a high level of service at all times. However, if something has gone wrong and you wish to make a complaint, please call us on 0845 073 7410, or write to our Customer Care Manager at Premium Choice Insurance Ltd, 406 Fort Dunlop, Birmingham, B24 9FD. We expect the majority of complaints will be quickly and satisfactorily resolved at this stage. If we are able to provide a final response within five business days of receipt of a complaint we may combine our acknowledgement of the complaint with the final response. A final response is a written response from us which:

Accepts your complaint and where appropriate offers redress
Offers redress without accepting the complaint
Rejects your complaint and gives reasons for doing so

It will also inform you that, if you remain dissatisfied with our response, you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and must do so within six months to be eligible. The FOS can be contacted by telephone on 0845 080 1800 and further information is available at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk If you do decide to refer any matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service your legal rights will not be affected.

We will within four weeks of receiving your complaint send you either:

A final response or
A holding response, which explains why we are not yet in a position to resolve your complaint and indicates when we will make further contact (this will be within 8 weeks of receipt of your complaint.)
We will, by the end of eight weeks after receipt of your complaint, send you either:
A final response or
A response which explains that we are still not in a position to make a final response , giving reasons for the further delay and indicating when we expect to provide a final response. It will also inform you that you may refer your complaint to the FOS.
You may accept our response in writing at any time during this process, even when we have not issued a final response. Our response need not refer to the FOS, but we will explain how your complaint will be progressed if you remain dissatisfied.

Not all complainants may refer complaints to the FOS (for example commercial clients with turnovers in excess of 2million euros and/or with more than 10 employees) but for our part we will treat all complainants equally and fairly. If the matter complained about is the responsibility of another firm (for example the insurer) we will pass details to them in writing within 5 business days and will issue a final response to you advising what we have done.

Compensation Arrangements

We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Most Insurance contracts are covered for 90% of the claim, without any upper limit. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS on 020 7892 7300 or by visiting http://www.fscs.org.uk/

Data Protection

Any personal data you provide will be held securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. The information you have given us will be held and used to manage your insurance policy, which will include both underwriting and claim handling. For this purpose we may disclose it to other interested third parties, for example insurers, other intermediaries, uninsured loss recovery agencies, regulatory authorities for the purposes of monitoring and/or enforcing compliance with any regulatory rules/codes, other third parties involved (directly and indirectly) in your insurance, and agents (including claims handling agencies) who provide services on our behalf.

We may also need to disclose personal data to a third party so that the service you requested can be provided. It may also be necessary to transfer it to countries outside the European Economic Area.

Your calls may be monitored and recorded in order that the service may be improved and to help prevent and detect fraud. Documents received by us are filed electronically. We may check information provided or received and we may also undertake credit searches and additional fraud searches. We may also pass information about you to credit reference agencies and premium finance providers in connection with the assessment of your financial standing generally and, in particular, where you have requested a premium instalment plan. This may include details of your payment record with us.

By accepting this policy you consent to our processing personal data including sensitive data about you and other persons who may be insured under the policy. You understand that all personal data you give to us must be accurate and that you have the specific consent of those other persons to disclose their personal data.

Insurers pass information to the Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register (CUE), run by Insurance Database Services Ltd, the Hunter Database, run by MCL Software Ltd., and the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register (MIAFTR), run by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). We, and your insurer, may search these registers as this helps us to check information provided and to prevent fraudulent claims. We may also undertake credit searches and additional fraud searches. Under the conditions of your policy you must tell us about any incident (such as an accident or theft) which may or may not give rise to a claim. When you tell us about an incident we will pass information relating to it to the registers.

Your policy details will be added to the Motor Insurance Database (MID), run by the Motor Insurers’ Information Centre (MIIC). MID data may be used by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Northern Ireland (DVLNI) for the purpose of Electronic Vehicle Licensing and by the Police to help clarify the driver’s use of a motor insurance policy and/or for preventing and detecting crime. If you are involved in an accident in the UK or abroad, other UK insurers, the Motor Insurers’ Bureau and MIIC may search the MID to obtain relevant policy information. Persons pursuing a claim in respect of a road traffic accident may also obtain relevant information which is held on the MID.

You can find out more about this at www.miic.org.uk on the internet.

You should show these notes to anyone insured to drive the vehicle covered under this policy.

Your information may also be used for customer services, marketing (including customer profiling), offering renewals, research and statistical purposes, and crime prevention. We may share your information with our agents or service providers and with third parties with whom we have a business relationship, for the purposes described above. If you give us information about another person, in doing so you confirm that they have given your permission to provide it to us to be able to process their personal data (including any sensitive personal data) and also that you have told them who we are and what we will use their data for, as set out in this notice.

In the case of personal data, with limited exceptions, you have the right to access and if necessary rectify information held about you by formal written application. You will need to direct your application to our Data Protection Officer at Premium Choice Insurance Ltd, 406 Fort Dunlop, Birmingham, B24 9FD enclosing a cheque for £10.00 made payable to ‘Premium Choice’ in order to cover our administration costs.

Data Validation

We will validate name, address and other personal information supplied by you during the order process against appropriate third party databases. By accepting these terms and conditions you consent to such checks being made. In performing these checks personal information provided by you may be disclosed to a registered Credit Reference Agency which may keep a record of that information. You can rest assured that this is done only to confirm your identity, that a credit check is not performed and that your credit rating will be unaffected. All information provided by you will be treated securely and strictly in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

Protecting Your Money

Prior to your premium being forwarded to the insurer, and for your protection, we hold your money as an agent of the insurer, in which case your insurance is treated as being paid for. We may need to transfer your money to another intermediary in some cases. However, your money will be protected at all times because of our requirements under the FSA rules. We also reserve the right to retain interest earned on this account.

Solvency

We do not guarantee the solvency of any insurer we place business with. We do not accept liability for any losses you may incur arising directly or indirectly from the financial failure or insolvency of any insurer.

You may have a liability for the premium, whether in full or pro-rata where a participating insurer becomes insolvent

Quotations

Any quotation is only valid for the day on which you supplied information and upon which the quotation has been calculated. Insurer rates may be updated thereafter and therefore the price quoted could change (it may go up or down).

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