Driver hits out as insurance company refuses to offer quotes (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Motorist's anger at Esure decision not to give quotes for Eccleshill, Undercliffe, Fagley, Barkerend and Bradford Moor

10:30am Monday 20th June 2011 in Thornbury By Tanya O'Rourke

A car insurance company has refused to give quotes to new customers living in parts of Bradford.

Esure said it was paying out up to double what it was receiving in insurance premiums in injury claims in the BD2 area, so it has decided to stop offering quotes there, except to existing customers.

The BD2 area, which includes Eccleshill, Undercliffe, Fagley and Bolton, has almost twice the national average of uninsured drivers.

Esure is also no longer quoting for new business in BD3, a postcode area including Barkerend, Bradford Moor, and Thornbury, which sees almost seven times the national average of uninsured driving.

Richard Summerscales, who used to work as a police traffic officer and has passed an advanced driving examination, was told by Esure that it did not give quotes to motorists in his postcode area.

Mr Summerscales, 45, of Victoria Road, Eccleshill, BD2, was insured with the company for five years until 2010 when his premium rocketed and he decided to go elsewhere.

When trying to find a policy this year he decided to try Esure but was told it would not give him a quote.

He said: “You don’t get better drivers. I’m a 40-odd-year-old man with no convictions or problems whatsoever, in a boring old estate car.

“He refused to give me any quote whatsoever. I was incensed. They were happy to take my money for five years, now suddenly they are blocking everybody.”

A spokesman for Esure said: “In BD2 the problem is not with the quality of drivers but the behaviour of those they have accidents with.

“Most accidents occur less than five miles from home and in many BD2 postcodes we found that for each £1 in premiums received we were paying out up to twice that in injury claims to third parties.

“Other insurers’ experience may be different and drivers are likely to find quotes elsewhere but we are no longer offering quotations in BD2 – although we still have many thousands of people insured with us in the wider Bradford area.

“Problems with uninsured drivers and opportunist claimants are well known and documented in some Bradford postcodes and, unfortunately, it is honest motorists who pay.”

He said the company was also not quoting for new business in BD3.

• Read the full story Monday’s T&A