A broker contacted Mortgage Introducer and said at least two of his clients had been affected by S&P’s failure to collect monthly premiums; one only finding out when a claim was lodged.
While accepting it was at fault, his client was told by S&P that he must pay the outstanding premiums up front before a claim could be processed. The broker warned that clients on tight budgets could well fall foul of such tactics.
The broker has decided as part of his own ‘Treating Customers Fairly’ (TCF) policy to write to all his clients to make them aware of the problem. Despite contacting S&P, it refused to help him uncover how many clients may be affected.
The broker said: “I want to know how many people it has not taken premiums from. My client’s policy was put in place, a cover note sent out and the insurer has never taken a payment.
“My client is a wealthy chap, with a large amount of disposable income, but for first-time buyers it would be very awkward to come up with a lump sum. It’s very unfair and hardly TCF.”
Scott Fynn, group marketing manager at S&P, commented: “We acknowledge that there was a problem with premium collection for a small number of clients, of which unfortunately this broker was affected.
"We are currently implementing a major new system into our back office that will ensure mishaps such as these do not arise. Unfortunately this error was highlighted by an adjustment being made to the policy where our systems didn’t recalculate the payment plan.
"We regret any inconvenience to the customer and honoured the claim following further investigation with the client.”
