The Financial Services Authority is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. Autoline Direct Insurance Consultants Limited trading as Autoline Insurance Group is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Our FSA Register number is 300071 and you can check our status at www.fsa.gov.uk/register/ or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234.

 

Our permitted business includes advising, arranging, dealing in and assisting with the placing and administration of all types of General Insurance policies.

 

We will treat all your personal information as private and confidential to us and anyone else involved in the normal course of arranging and administering your insurance, even when you are no longer a customer. We will not give anyone else any personal information except on your instructions or authority, or where we are required to do so by law, or by virtue of our regulatory requirements. We may use information we hold about you to provide information to you about other products and services, which we feel may be appropriate to you. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have the right to see personal information about you that we hold in our records. If you have any queries please write to us at our usual office address.

In respect of products purchased via our website, these will be from a range of Insurers, Underwriting Agencies and Specialist Brokers, but for some products we may only deal with a single insurer for that type of business. This will be clearly identified in the quotation.

In respect of policies purchased through our website you will not receive advice or a recommendation from us and you will then need to make your own choice about how to proceed. Guidance on the circumstances in which any policy is likely to meet customer’s needs, will be confirmed in a demands & needs statement with the quotation.

 

Arranging new policies     £10.00    Motor £20.00     Travel     £20.00

Midterm adjustments        £15.00

Renewals                          £10.00    Motor £20.00     Travel     £20.00
Replacement/duplicate certificates or cover notes                    £15.00

Midterm cancellations and other refunds are refunded NET of commission. We may, in addition, charge a £25.00 administration fee.

Consumer policies cancelled during the ‘Right to Cancel’ period will be subject to an administration charge of £15.00, in addition to the premium charged by the insurer for the period of cover provided.

Occasionally we may arrange a policy on which we earn no commission (a ‘net-premium policy’) and in these cases we will advise you of the arrangement fee before you take the policy out. Specific charges, which apply to individual policies, will be shown on the Disclosure Document applicable to that policy. The specific charge and purpose of any additional charges will always be advised to you in advance.

 

Prior to the conclusion of any commercial insurance contract, or upon renewal, we will remind commercial customers of your right to be advised of the level of commission which we receive from underwriters. Commercial customers are entitled, at any time, to request information regarding any commission which we may have received as a result of placing your insurance business. Our remuneration is mainly by commission paid by the insurers. However, we may offer services which require a higher level of remuneration than the commission which some insurers pay or we may have to place your insurances through an Insurer or Underwriting Agency or Lloyd’s Broker who will only pay us a percentage of the insurer’s commission or no commission at all. In such circumstances we reserve the right to makes charges in addition to any insurance premiums, for the arranging, amending, renewing and cancellation of any policy of insurance. We will advise you in writing of these changes before you purchase the insurance and the charges will be clearly shown in our letter advising you of the insurer’s terms and on any invoice. Commission, brokerage and fees are earned for the policy period, and we will be entitled to retain all commission, brokerage and fees for the full policy period in respect of any policies which are cancelled mid-term.

Our aim is to provide a first class service, however, if you wish to register a complaint, please contact us by writing to Julie Gibbons, Autoline Insurance Group, Ashtree Enterprise Park, Rathfriland Road, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1BY, or, by phone Telephone 028 3026 6333, or by fax 028 3026 3505

 

We will provide you with a copy of our full complaints procedure and respond to you promptly. We will aim to make a final response to you within eight weeks, or keep you informed as to why this is not possible. In the event that your complaint relates to activities or services provided by another party, we will ensure that your complaint is appropriately forwarded in writing, and will track the progress of the complaint and responses of that party.

 

After our final response has been issued, if you still cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service, for an independent assessment and opinion.

 

The FOS Consumer Helpline is on 0845 080 1800 and their address is: Financial Ombudsman Service, SouthQuayPlaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SR

 

You have a legal right to cancel your policy for any reason, subject to no claims having occurred, within 14 days of receiving the full terms & conditions. You will always be advised where this Right applies. A charge will apply for the period of cover provided and, in addition, we make an administration charge as detailed in this agreement.

 

If you wish to cancel a policy you must advise us in writing, prior to expiry of the 14-day cancellation period, to our usual office address.

 

We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is the UK’s statutory fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms, like us. The FSCS can pay compensation if an authorised firm is unable or likely to be unable to pay claims against it, usually because it has gone out of business or is insolvent.

Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim, without an upper limit. For compulsory insurances (for example, motor insurance and employers’ liability insurance), insurance advising and arranging is covered for 100% of the claim, without an upper limit. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS. http:/www.fscs.org.uk

 

We normally accept payment by guaranteed cheque or a range of credit/debit cards. For certain policies, you may be able to spread your payments through insurers’ instalment schemes or a credit scheme, which we have arranged with an established insurance premium finance provider. We will give you full information about your payment options and the appropriate finance agreement when we discuss your insurance in detail.

 

 

This agreement shall be governed by the Laws of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the parties agree herewith that any dispute arising out of it shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the English and Northern Irish Courts.

 

Under the terms of our agreements with the Insurance companies with whom we place business, we normally receive premiums you pay to us as Agent of the Insurer. You have the additional protection of insurance companies accepting that monies paid to us are treated as being received by them (Risk Transfer). Please ask for details. We do not pay any interest on premiums held by us in the course of arranging and administering your insurance. In arranging your insurance we may employ the services of other intermediaries who are regulated by the FSA and your premium may be passed to these intermediaries for payment to insurers. 
 

All insurance premiums you pay to us are protected in a Non-Statutory Trust Account until we pay Insurers. We may use premiums kept in this account to provide credit to our customers, and, as a result we maintain additional capital resources and strict credit-control and monitoring procedures, as required by the FSA.

The aim of the trust is to protect the client in the event of the failure of the firm, or the failure of the bank or a third party where the money may be held. In such a circumstance, the firm’s general creditors should not be able to make claims on client money as it will not form part of the firm’s property. The FSA require that Firms wishing to operate non-statutory trusts have adequate resources and they set a higher capital requirement for the Firm. The FSA also require an independent audit concerning the adequacy of the Firm’s systems and controls. The fact that we will hold money on trust gives rise to fiduciary duties which will be owed to you until the client money reaches the insurer or product provider. We believe this flexibility is in the best interests of our clients. If we do not hear from you to the contrary then we will consider that you are in agreement to us keeping your money in a non-statutory trust.

 
Claims

We will assist you in the conduct and negotiation of claims. All incidents likely to give rise to a claim must be notified to us immediately. We will advise you of the appropriate action to be taken.  In relation to liability and Motor Insurances especially, you should not admit liability and third party correspondence should be sent to us immediately, without acknowledgement. Claims can be notified to 028 3026 6333.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

We will treat all your personal information as private and confidential to us and anyone else involved in the normal course of arranging and administering your insurance, even when you are no longer a customer. We will not give any else any personal information except on your instructions or authority, or where we are required do so by law, or by virtue of our regulatory requirements,. We may use information we hold about you to provide information to you about other products and services, which we feel may be appropriate to you. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have the right to see personal information about you that we hold in our records. If you have any queries please write to us at our usual office address. We may record telephone calls for training and quality purposes.

 

This is at the heart of our dealing with our customers. We constantly strive to provide the highest quality service and  regularly assess all aspects of our business to ensure that they impact positively on our customers.