Terms of Business for General Insurance
and
Explanation of Intermediary Status and How We Are Regulated
Consumer

WHO WE ARE AND HOW TO CONTACT US: Mr John Robert Cox Trading As Insurance-Desk Services
Suite 2c Tower House High Street Aylesbury HP20 1SQ
Phone 01296 329611, E-mail info@insurance-desk.com Web insurance-desk.com

This document details our services and our arrangements for dealing with Your insurance. Please read it carefully and retain a copy for Your records. The English language will be used for all communications, the contractual terms and conditions, and any information we are required to supply to You, before and during the duration of the contract and this agreement shall be subject to English Law. We have designated you as a Consumer, which means your insurance requirements are NOT related to a trade or business.

The Regulator

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is an independent watchdog that regulates financial services.

Our Financial Services Register number is 305402 and you can check our status and permissions at https://register.fca.org.uk/ or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768. 305402

Our Activities

The FCA has authorised us to advise, arrange, deal in and assist with the placing and administration of all types of General Insurance policies and Pure Protection policies.

Our Service and Product Selection

We are an independent insurance intermediary, who acts on our customers’ behalf in arranging insurance. Our services include: assessing Your insurance needs and Personally Recommending policies suitable for You; arranging Your insurance cover with insurers to meet Your requirements; and helping You with any ongoing changes You have to make. We usually offer advice from a range of insurers on our selected panel however, under certain circumstances we may only deal with a limited panel, or single insurer and we will notify You of the insurers considered when this applies.

We will advise and make a personal recommendation for You after we have assessed Your demands and needs. Our advice will be confirmed in a demands & needs statement, giving reasons for our recommendation.

We can act both as agent of insurer, and on behalf of you, the customer. We have in place management controls to deal with any conflicts of interest that might arise. Unless we advise you otherwise, we are acting on your behalf.

We also act on behalf of insurers when collecting premiums under risk transfer (See “Money” section).

We will ask questions to enable us to assess reasonably your insurance requirements, this may include checking information that we already hold about you and your existing insurance arrangements with us and other parties.

We will confirm to you the level of service we are providing as part of our sales process. In all cases our service will include arranging and administering your insurance, including helping you with on-going changes.

If we use the services of another intermediary to place your insurance we will advise you of the name of the intermediary we use and the name of the insurer.

Money

We will hold money that you pay to us in accordance with the regulators rules or under a risk transfer agreement with insurers. This will include holding your money in the following way.

A statutory trust client bank account that only allows us to use the money held in trust on behalf of a customer for paying that customers’ premium to an insurance company and to pay premium refunds or claims we receive from that insurance company to the customer, once the premium has been received from that insurance company. We cannot use that customer’s money to pay another customers premium or refund. We do not pay any interest on premiums held by us in the course of arranging and administering your insurance, unless, in the case of consumer transactions we receive more than £20 per transaction, and then we will ask for your permission to retain the interest. Unless you tell us otherwise, you are consenting to us holding your money in this way.

By holding your money in this way, means that in the event that this firm becomes insolvent your money remains protected.

In arranging your insurance we may employ the services of other intermediaries who are regulated by the FCA and your premium may be passed to these intermediaries for payment to insurers. These firms are also required to hold clients’ money in a separate trust account. We will also inform you if at any time we are required to pass your premium to firms that operate outside the UK where the protection may be different. Should you not wish us to pass premiums to a firm outside of the UK, please inform us.

Our Remuneration

We usually receive a commission from the insurance provider with whom we place your business, and this is expressed as a percentage of the premium you pay and in such a case, the commission will be paid to us either when we are in receipt of cleared funds from you (or the premium finance company, if one has been used) or, when the insurer has received cleared funds from us in respect of the premium due under your policy. The individual agreements we have with each insurer will determine which of the two methods above is used to make this transfer of commission. We also receive commission for arranging finance agreements for the payment of insurance premiums and this is usually expressed as a percentage of the individual loan and is paid to us directly by the premium finance provider. We may also receive a commission or fee for passing introductions to other professional firms.

In addition, we may also charge you a fee for arranging your insurance and full details will be provided to you at outset.

Our Fees and Charges for the services we provide to You

We usually receive a commission from the insurer which is taken from the premium You pay to Us and, in addition, we normally make the following charges to cover the administration of Your insurance.

We may also receive additional renumeration based on the volume or profitability of our account with an insurer. Occasionally we may arrange a policy on which we earn no commission, and in these cases we will advise You the arrangement fee before you take the policy out.

We may also make additional charges specific to the arrangement and servicing of certain policies, these will always be advised to You in advance.

Personal lines/Retail policies cancelled during the ‘Right to Cancel’ period will be subject to an administration charge of £35, in addition to the premium charged by the insurer for the period of cover provided.

Payment Options

We normally accept payment by cheque or the following credit/debit cards – Visa, Mastercard. 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. Rates and acceptance may be subject to a full credit check. We will give You full information about Your payment options and the appropriate finance agreement when we discuss Your insurance in detail.

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. All insurance premiums You pay to us are protected in a Statutory Trust Client Account until we pay insurers. We do not pay any interest on premiums held by us in the course of arranging and administering Your insurance.

We will provide you with full details of all the payment options available to you when we provide you with your insurance premium.

If you choose to enter in a finance arrangement, we are a credit broker, not a lender. When quoting, our systems will undertake a ‘soft’ check on your credit file, to verify your details, however this will not show on your credit file for other companies and will not affect your credit rating. We may use insurance and finance providers who will conduct a full credit check and share Your payment record with other lenders, all of which will be recorded on Your credit record. Please advise us if You do NOT consent to a full credit check being undertaken and you require premium finance, however this may affect our ability to offer instalment facilities to You. In relation to the provision of credit, we offer only the facilities provided by Insurers, or those of Investec Premium Finance and Close Premium Finance from whom we may receive a commission. Where a choice of providers is available, which could include instalment facilities provided by your insurer, we will explain the reason for our selection on any credit product offered.

Importantly, the arrangement you will enter into will be with the finance company not us. It is an entirely separate contract irrespective of the insurance contract. Please Note: Your policy cover will cease if You fail to keep up payments on an instalment agreement or premium finance facility related to it and Your credit rating may be affected. In entering into a credit agreement to pay Your insurance premium, You give the finance provider the legal Right to cancel Your insurance policy on Your behalf in the event that You default on the loan, and offset any refunded premium against the outstanding amount owed to them. This means that if You default on Your payment terms and the finance provider requests that we cancel Your policy, we will do so as Your agent.

It is important that you read the finance agreement that is sent to you before you agree to enter into such an agreement.

We do not charge any fees to you for introducing you to a credit provider.

If you are a consumer as defined under the Consumer Credit Act, you will have the benefit of a 14 day cooling off period.

Your Right to Cancel

You have a legal right to cancel Your policy or credit agreement 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 above. If You cancel a credit agreement You will need to repay any sums provided in full. If You cancel after the 14 days has elapsed, short-period cancellation rates apply. 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.

Complaints

Our aim is always to provide our customers with a first-class service; however we are aware that, occasionally, it is possible that we may fail to meet your expectations. If for any reason we have not met your expectations, let us know as soon as possible, by calling our main office telephone 01296 329610, or write to John Cox t/a Insurance Desk Services, Suite 2c Tower House High Street Aylesbury HP20 1SQ or email info@insurance-desk.com

If we are unable to resolve the issue to your satisfaction by the end of the next business day, we will formally investigate the matter. You will receive an acknowledgement of the matter together with a copy of our complaints process promptly and certainly within 5 working days. We will then aim to investigate and provide a resolution as quickly as possible, informing you of a final response no later than 8 weeks.

If you are not happy with our response, or the position after a period of 8 weeks, you may be eligible to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) for an independent assessment and opinion.

The FOS Consumer Helpline is on 0800 023 4567 (free for people phoning from a “fixed line” (for example, a landline at home) or 0300 123 9123 (free for mobile-phone users paying monthly charge for calls to No’s starting 01 or 02). Alternatively you can contact them at Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange Square, London, E14 9SR. www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

A full copy of our complaints procedure is available on request.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

If we are unable to meet our obligations, you may be entitled to compensation from the FSCS. If we have advised or arranged insurance for you this will be covered for 90% of a claim, without any upper limit, however claims under compulsory insurance, professional indemnity insurance and certain claims for injury, sickness or infirmity of the policyholder are protected at 100%. Further information is available from the FSCS helpline on 0800 678 1100 or 020 7741 4100 and www.fscs.org.uk.

The FSCS is the UK’s statutory fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms. Compensation is usually payable if an authorised firm is unable or unlikely to pay claims usually because it has ceased trading or become insolvent.

Declarations

Our Service and Obligations to You:

We will conduct a fact-find to evaluate Your insurance needs with the member of Your business that You choose to nominate as Your Insurance Contact (as stated below), who will be responsible for ensuring that Your disclosure obligations to insurers are met.

We will act as Your agent in sourcing a policy to meet Your demands and needs and presenting the information provided by Your nominated Insurance Contact in a manner which is clear and accessible to insurers. Where we operate under any delegated authority from insurers we will act as their agent when issuing cover and in handling any claim you may make, and We will always advise You where this is the case.

We will advise and make a recommendation for You after We have assessed Your demands and needs. Our advice will be confirmed in a demands & needs and suitability statement, giving the reasons for Our recommendation.

We usually receive a commission from the insurer with whom We place Your business and, in addition, We will normally make the charges as shown in our Terms of Business Agreement to administer your policy. Prior to the conclusion of each insurance contract, or upon renewal, We will remind You of Your right to be advised of the level of commission which We receive from underwriters. You are entitled, at any time, to request information regarding any commission which We may have received as a result of placing your insurance business.

Your Responsibility to Provide Information:

You must take reasonable care to answer all questions honestly and to the best of Your knowledge, and if You volunteer any other information, You must ensure that the information is not misleading.

If any information that You have provided to us changes before You take out Your insurance, during the life of the policy or at renewal, You must inform us of the change. If You deliberately, recklessly or carelessly misrepresent any information in relation to this insurance then Your policy may be cancelled without refund, or treated as if it never existed or Your claim rejected or not fully paid.

Reporting Claims: As part of our service, we will assist You with any claim You need to make and tell You what Your responsibilities are in relation to making claims. All incidents which could lead to a claim must be reported as soon as practicable. Your insurer’s claims contact number is shown in Your policy.