Be Wiser Insurance Services
Reviews and Complaints

I'm writing this as my payments due 9th may however due to financial problems it's not going to be paid I've had to change jobs bit dont start and paid until june 15th I'm worried as I cant get anywhere with customer service and had get advice from financial ombusman who advices me to take a payment break until june which was explained can make payments higher monthly or longer but theres nothing I can do the coronvirus has affected me and with my fual sky high now rent arrears etc I've disabled vulnerable adult with mental health who replys on the car for hos appointments and I need to try get this sorted as its worrying me until my new job starts can someone help with this my payment dates 9th of may but as I said I wont be made due to change of income. Ive spoken to premium credit who directed me to you and put a note on to stop any charges for the payment that wont go through I've spoken to premium credit customer service ive spoken to 3 call handlers since 9am got no where requested a manager got no where despite been posted on social media and to ceo nothing passed around complaints ignored no payment support to vulnerable adults over payments call staff rude speaking over us request manager listens to calls ignored disgusting company dLouise finch

I went to take insurance out with yourself online and then had to ring you.
The phone call was shocking
I kept being put on hold then someone would speak for 30seconds and then put me on hold for ages again
I've now had my phone bill and been charged £30.00 for the phone call to yourself
This is totally disgusting and now I know why you keep people on the phone on hold so long.
This has also just happened to my father who is terminally ill and you done exactly the same to him and he has a phone bill for £50 for one phone call to yourself

Please contact me
On [protected] to help resolves this peacefully
My name is erkin salih

Policy covered young driver daughter until she passed her test.

Took numerous phone calls to update Be Wiser insurance company that the driving test had been passed and finally resorted to e mail.

Renew quote which I had to chase was more than twice what I could find on line but I was charged £75.00 fee to cancel. Who wants to pay 4k when you could have a policy for less than half that. This is a bit rich its not as though they could match the market rate.

Also insurance document makes no reference to a provisional licence holder and insurance schedule states that insured has to be accompanied until they pass driving test. This is common sense. it also says once test has been passed this clause did not apply.

But there are numerous other pages attached ( not the certificate or schedule ) which basically say once youve passed you have to update Be Wiser who then tell me current insurance is invalid if she drives unaccompanied and in my case quoted much much £££ more to renew.

In effect the policy is only a drive whilst accompanied driver policy. You take it out for 12 months. Learner policies are available on line get one instead.

Also it takes ages to get through to the friendly team of advisors.

I got my car insurance from BEWISER through Confused.com in July 2016. This was done online so I paid the deposit and set up a direct debit with another financial company. The next day I was sent an email saying that my policy was cancelled so I got in touch with them just to find out what was the problem. They told me that the price of the policy has gone up as the one from online is no longer valid so they gave me a new policy no as I agreed to pay the extra charge. When I looked the paperwork they sent me by email I realized there was a £50 arrangement fee. I still went ahead with it and signed the direct debit. Two weeks ago I received an email saying my policy was CANCELLED again no details or explanation. So I rang them to see what was up this time. They told me that they did not receive my drivers licence hence the cancellation. I requested if it possible to continue the policy as I was not aware of this drivers licence they told me that I have to take a new policy out. Now I have to pay Cancellation Charges of nearly £150. What a SCAM BEWISER CAR INSURANCE.

Letter of complaint attached. This letter sent to 3 of the directors, non have bothered to reply. Insurance ombudsman involved and watchdog notified.
Dear Mr Bower-[censored]
With reference to the above reference and policy.
I have just had the misfortune of dealing with the most unprofessional organisation ever, this being Be Wiser insurance.
I contacted your company for a quote for my van insurance and answered all the questions honestly to your sales man. Because your premium was coming out dearer than other quotes I had received due to me having no NCD your salesman then suggested my wife be added to the policy whereby I would be allowed her NCD of 9 years even though it was used on another vehicle. This meant that you price became very competitive and I duly accepted his price and accepted the insurance. I then paid £104.43 towards the policy and all was good.
I then received an email letter saying that because of an error my insurance was going to be cancelled unless I contact you immediately. I then spent the next couple of days trying to address the situation.
It transpires that your sales man was unable to allow the NCD from my wife which is surely incompetence or lack of product knowledge on behalf of him and subsequently your company. And because of this it put the premium up by approx £280.00 and unless I paid the extra £280.00 my insurance would be cancelled. All your customer service dept/ sales dept keep telling me is that incorrect information was given. I agree it was but not by me ! It was by your incompetent sales man...
Like you I have been in business for 30 + years dealing with contracts and prices on a daily basis. And know that a contract being a legal binding agreement is binding on both parties. However your company appears to think that they can just cancel my insurance over your companies incompetence !
I have tried dealing with your company ( Holly Preece, Mathew Murray, Ryan Hague, Stacy Hone to name but a few) and managed to get nowhere.
If your company had originally quoted me the premium £280.00 higher than you did I would never have gone with you in the first place. This has to be miss selling on the highest order.
As of 09.44 today 27/07/16 I find myself without insurance due to being given 2 options 1 pay up or 2 we cancel ?
Before I make this public or take the matter to the insurance ombudsman and talk to our solicitor re this sorry affair I thought I would get your view on the matter.
Regards

Very poor customer support, please look around you can get you car insure way cheaper than Be Wiser and without lots of hidden charges, and you won't get bad customer support.

I canceled my insurance and got it £200 cheaper with LV and a much nicer experience. If you want some snotty nose kid shouting at you and talking over everything you say then Be Wiser is the place for you - and please watch out for all of the hidden extra's - they are a broker not the end insure and they will make you pay for it

After shopping on line for car insurance Bewise offered me what I thought was a fair deal constancy phoning me saying that they would beat any price but the honest truth is they are a company with very sharp practices never told me about the £50.00 arrangement fee never sent out documents told me it would cost £25.00 as a standard charge ? to send lie nonstop on the phone no point complaining sales team never return call only interested in getting your cash . Do not fall for the so called special offers as in reality not worth anything your age bonus free life cover just a hook to catch you obtain your interest and rip you off so be very aware what ever they quote its going to cost you £ 50.00 on top plus £25.00 yo obtain policy . Go direct to insurance providers and save yourself money I will never use Bwise and will again.

one online insurance quote and, despite me requesting no further contact, I am getting up to 5 calls a day from them. I don't WANT to insure with them, they are too expensive, I was quoted cheaper and despite me telling them so, and pleading to be taken off their system, the calls keep coming. I am now making a record of the calls with a view to taking legal action as it is making me very stressed and anxious. Begging with them, being told the caller will remove me from their system, getting angry and swearing at them, all has zero effect and I am getting called over and over and over every single day. MAKE IT STOP...please.

Have had policy with them for 3 years and just found out that same policy with the actual insurance company (Be Wiser is a Broker and charges a high percentage of your policy) that I could save 49 % of my money by going direct to insurance company. In addition to this I began to notice discrepancies in the various 'operatives' explanations of what was and what wasn't the case regarding No Claims bonuses and the quality of their Searching process. I have concluded my relationship with them on the grounds of inconsistent info and basically story telling. They are are just middle men and have only the skills to 'rip off ' who ever falls into their net. Be on your toes when doing any business with them !

filled in quote form online and within 2 minutes had a call from an advisor Beth, we went through all the details yet again and told her yet again that i had NO NCB, WE ARRANGED MONTHLY PAYMENTS, i then paid 1st installment, then i began recieving emails warning me to send in proof of my 4 years NCB which i have not got as previously explained, so then had a call asking for the same ! again i said i didnt have any no claims bonus and was then informed ok you need to pay an extra £1000 ! all this within hours of filling in online form and also talking on phone to them, so much for a 14 day cooling off period, now im trying to cancel policy to be told that will cost me £50, whoever is on phone when trying to sort this wont allow me to talk to a manager or speak to complaints dept. disgusted with service and treatment i have recieved and now totally dissalusioned, ! nowhere to turn and dont know what can be done, ,

I sign on internet my policy for my car (where I fill up all the fields whit all that ask for whitout no mistake). After 1 week I start to receive many call from bewiser where I was informed mya insurance it will be no longer 70 pounds per month.. It will be 120pounds because I fill up wrong I dont know what requiered field (which is not true, I was assisted by one of my friends who have insurance policy and he knows very well how to do it). After many argue via phone I didnt find any compromise I cancelled the policy and I lost 65 pounds. What piss me off hard it is;they should call me before take my deposit ammount 186 pounds, not after. I try several other insurance company but I didnt find anything suitable for me. I came back to bewiser, I sign other policy whit other deposit... Untill now everything wright.In all this time they request a prove of no claim bonus (I provide the single prove which I have, a letter from previous insurance company from romania which atest the fact in 1 year I didnt have any accident and conviction). I send this proof via email at [protected]@bewiser.co.uk many times, including the photocopy which I send it via postmail. After I sign it the second policy, after 1 week I start once again to receive a lot of phone calls and eamill where I was announce it we have to review the policy because in their sistem appears I have buy it the car (citroen c3 1, 4 petrol reg, nt 52bya) on 20.08.2008 or something like that but I sad and prove it the car I buy it on 19, 11.2014. This prove was made it whit the v5 form receive it from dvla. They keep me stress me saying in their sistem appears 20.08 and thats it, thats all they have in sistem and what the sistem sais thats it... This prove was send it via postmail including once again the letter from previous insurance company and photocopy to my driving licence). Once again argue and negotiation... We find it a compromise... I pay it some extra deposit... Bla bla bla... I thought was over. After few weeks my citroen is broken, I seel the car I buy it other (rover 45 1, 6 petrol reg. Ad02 jvc) I call they, I let they know I have other car, we renew the policy... Ok. After a while I change the town, change the adress... I call they, I let them know... Renew the car insurance (a little bit less which was ok). Few days ago I receive an emaill like strting when I receive the emaill my car insurance policy will stop because I didnt send it to their office a prove for my no claim bonus. I wonder know they are real stupid, a bunch of amateurs or this a part of phishing plan, a terror war... Or wtf I supose to believe as long I send it this letter many many times?

When I bought my first house only a few months ago I made sure that I explained my situation as a 1st time buyer to each broker and that I'd like to cover pretty much everything. Oh how I regret having gone with Be Wiser...

4 months later and after a number of calls I still haven't received any documentation or correspondence by post except for a birthday and Christmas card with discounts and the initial confirmation emails.

I decided to give them another call as I was also having some issues with my employer and was hoping they could perhaps offer me some advice. To my absolute horror, I then found out that although I was initially advised that the policy would include extensive legal protection, the legal cover they had actually sold me would have in fact only been viable if I ever had say a legal land dispute with my neighbour or in case I had gotten in to legal trouble with a builder or whatever. I soon asked for this part of my policy to be cancelled and refunded accordingly so I could get proper legal cover elsewhere, on a separate policy.

They reimbursed me fine, I received a minor refund and the usual scripted apologies over the phone... Trouble is that another 2 weeks later I still hadn't received the relevant documents nor any written confirmation of the amendments to my policy. I chased and chased it, yet still haven't received a thing.

Last night I was the victim of a minor road traffic offence, acknowledged by the Police and being dealt with accordingly, but when I rang Be Wiser earlier today to follow up the incident with a claim for damage to my belongings I had the most abhorrent experience! The claims number advertised on their website put me through to a motor/car insurance claim line (not Be Wiser). The first person I spoke with there was fine and helpful and he soon put me through to Laura at Be Wiser and this is when the horror started...

As I continued to explain what happened and offered her the Police reference etc, she told me that I had to go back to the company which had just put me through to her. Not only did she sound totally disinterested and unsympathetic on the phone, she then got very rude and discourteous when I told her that they had already passed me on to her and that even she herself had initially apologised saying they weren't the right "department" for my claim. Suddenly I find myself getting called a liar and that I am putting words in her mouth?! As I then asked for her to put me through to a supervisor or manager she even claimed I swore at her down the phone and told me that she was about to hang up on me? Never in my life have I had to endure such a horrible phone call, never mind after what had happened to cause my claim in the first place!

Anyhow, after having spoken with both Laura, Helena and Matthew at Be Wiser (and two other people at the initial company as I was being passed around the call centres), I eventually gave up as even Matthew (the alleged manager) was being totally unhelpful, speaking over me like authority gone mad... So I hung up, got in direct contact with the underwriters who now decided to deal with my claim themselves after I told them what I had just endured and that I wasn't getting any further with my claim.

So to the lovely Hayley at Aviva, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR FINALLY HELPING AND PUTTING MY MIND AT EASE! To all of those at Be Wiser; you should be utterly ashamed of yourselves and I sincerely hope you either train your employees better or just stop flogging insurance altogether.

CONCLUSION:
- poor information/documentation
- very poor correspondence
- appalling customer service
- appalling claim service

SUGGESTION:
Rather than investing in televised adverts and sending out birthday cards and discount vouchers, maybe Be Wiser should invest it's money where there still seems to be an inherent lack of quality and performance; their staff and telephony.

Paid £89.79 deposit on motor cycle insurance and received no paperwork and when contacting the company, Kate Vigor, and on another occasion Valarie, I was told that there was no such policy or payment to the company...I have a copy of the email sent and also Santander Bank account details of the payment taken...card payment taken
3rd September 2013...
The policy was for Yamaha DTR125-------starting August 30th.

MR ANDREW MORGAN
22 Merlin Close
Wallington,
Surrey,
SM6 9GA.

I took out a policy with be wiser for 540 for the year in September 2013 I'm 30 years old no convictions or points on my licence I moved house and was told my new policy would be 300 pound more expensive bringing it to just under 900 pounds when I asked them why it was so high they told me that's what it is, so when I found a cheaper quote elsewhere I was happy thinking that I had save some money then be wiser told me that if I was to cancel I would have to pay them 300 pounds to finish a policy that now costs so much I that I can't cancel it or go else where will have to stay with them for another year, will never use them again I wish I could tell everyone all the other bits that they have done to me but don't have enough time just don't use them they are a proper rip off

As an existing customer of Bewiser Insurance I was misold an insurance policy which I paid for on my debit card. They based this on 9 years NCB when they knew from my existing insurance on my other vehicle I only had 5 years. I decided to cancel and go with an insurance company who knew what they were doing. I have never come across such an unprofessional company. It has cost me over £10 in phone calls, you get cut off, there is no internal communication and guess what I'm still waiting for my refund. Will need to take up with the financial obdsman to get my money back. Avoid like the plague

I have recently sold my van and moved back down to a car. I no longer required the policy because I no longer have the van. The company is charging me 3 months worth of insurance for cancelling, this is over £350. Now I didn't expect to just be able to cancel and expected an admin fee of some kind. But this is such a large fee to charge when they wont even be providing a service. 2 1/2 months of cover will be the period they have covered me for in total (this insurance year) even though I have been with them for 14 months.
I have had used many insurance companies over the years and I've never had one hit me for 3 months worth of premiums on cancelling the policy. Its pure greed.

Not long ago I took out insurance with Be Wiser, part of the insure wiser group. Soon after passing my test my premium doubled to over £5000, now normally I would understand but I was assured that my premium would not increase, I then asked for a recording of the call which by law they should have, but they did not! They then had the cheek to try and offer me £100 off when they had just ripped me off over £5000. Clearly they knew I had a case. I am still fighting this now but every time they come up with more excuses. I have read so many reviews about Be Wiser, they may look cheap but please DO NOT BUY INSURANCE THROUGH THEM, THEY WILL DO THE SAME TO OTHERS. I am so angry and disgusted at the company that it is now a priority of mine to ensure they do not do this to anybody else. Together we can all stop these money grabbing companies.

When I insured my mr2 at a cost of £550 annually with Be Wiser on the 04/2010 I was very impressed with the efficiency and speed of which the company ran

When I re insured 04/2011. I was again very happy with the service that Be Wiser gave me.

When I explained that I was buying a second car in 06/2011 is where the problems started.

I also raised the question of is it ok to simply cancel the MR2 insurance once the MR2 had been sold to which your company agreed. No one told me that there would be a cancellation charge!

Be Wiser said that they would mirrored my NCD onto my new Vauxhall Vectra diesel estate to which I later found out that they had not. the cost of the diesel vextra estate was £1100 annually

I sold the MR2 and asked for the NCD to be transferred fully to the Vectra as I figured maybe Be Wiser had made a mistake in the mirroring the policy.

I was then informed it would reduce my premium to £900! annually

I have had several quotes online from £300 to £400 max!

I have since cancelled both policies and they have chased for cancellation charges to which they are not owed at all! these started at £800 for both policies which got reduced to £480!

I should get my money back from these money grabbing advantage taking ###!

I WOULD NEVER EVER USE THEM AGAIN AND ADVISE EVERYONE TO AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!

I have now organised to pay them a settlement figure of £130 which I still don't think they deserve but rather that then court.

They do not appreciate loyal customers and certainly know how to rip people off! if you are thinking of insuring more than 1 vehicle then avoid this company!

AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID

Avoid, another cancelled policy,

Having sent as requested my no claims details, they then asked for all name drivers, driver licence both copies,

due to this being a works van, was unable to supply this new info in the requested 7 DAYS

so they cancelled the policy taking 50% of the total cost of insurance,

Keep away and AVOID