Pros: Speedy service
Cons: None to mention

Recommend to potential buyers: yes

Full review
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I've been purchasing my motor insurance from Churchill for a number of years now. My initial reason for contacting Churchill for an insurance quote was the catchy bulldog adverts, you know the ones, voiced by Vic Reeves - Oh no, no, no, no and Oh yes. However, once I'd contacted them I discovered there was more to this company than a catchy advert.

I've always been impressed by their levels of customer service regarding setting up policies, change of car and change of address, not to mention their competitive rates. One aspect of their service I'd never tested however, was their claims service, until now that is. I'll deal with the details of my claim and how they handled it later, first though, a bit of background and information about insuring your car with Churchill.

A VERY BRIEF HISTORY

Churchill Insurance was founded in 1989 with only 88 employees and initially only sold motor insurance. A year later home insurance was added and ever since the range of Churchill products has grown. Today the company employees over 8,000 people and sells insurance for cars, vans, motorbikes, homes, life, travel and even pets (I wonder if Churchill himself is insured ?). They also offer a range of other financial products such as personal loans.

INSURING YOU CAR

There are two ways of doing this, either by phone or online. Now I'm no Luddite when it comes to using the internet or buying online, but I do prefer to speak to somebody before I hand over any serious amount of money. So I insure with Churchill by phone rather than online, however I'll cover the rudiments of both methods.

By Phone :-

Churchill operate a 24 hour, 7 day service on 08456 001 002. After initially being greeted by a recorded voice, you are given a series of options which simply require you to press a number on your phones' keypad (I'm not sure how this would work for non touchtone phones).

After this you are put through to a customer service advisor who is ready to give you a quote (initially you are given the standard insurance company fraud and training purposes warning that your call will be recorded). After taking some personal and address details, you are asked to give the registration of your car and a few other details such as; when you passed your test, level of no claims discount accumulated, details of any accidents, where you keep the car, level of cover required etc.... You are also offered CLAS (Churchill Legal Assistance) and varying levels of voluntary excess which can help lower your premium.

Then the quote arrives, the whole quotation process having taken a little over 5 minutes. As a rough guide to prices I (36 years old and married) pay just under £450 to insure a P plate Rover 214si 16v comprehensively, which also includes protected no claims and CLAS. Bear in mind that my postcode isn't brilliant and the car is not garaged overnight. There may well be more competitive quotes out there, but I haven't found one yet.

If you're happy with the quote you simply go ahead and accept and your documents are usually with you within two days. Payment can be made by most cards or they will accept a cheque through the post but this would delay your cover. A monthly payment scheme by direct debit is acailable too, but this carries a 'store card' type APR of 23.7 %, ouch.

Online :-

Simply log on to www.churchill.com. The site , or at least what I've checked of it seems really easy to use and you reach the motor quote section within 2 clicks. The same security / fraud warning is given as on the phone. You then simply enter your details in a similar order to those which you are asked on the phone (many of the questions offer a drop down list of answers which you simply click on). Within about 5 minutes or so you also arrive at your quotation.

Quotes acceptance and payment can be actioned now if you're ready to proceed. Churchill use a secure encrypted server for processing payments, o there's no worry about the security of your financial details.

From the limited amount of time I've spent on the site I found it easy to navigate and very user friendly.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

On those occasions I've needed to contact Churchill, service has always been polite and very friendly. Changes to ploicy details such as insuring a different car or change of address are handled very quickly and efficiently.

CLAIMS

As I said earlier, I'd never had to make a claim until recently - Then it happened, on Thursday 1st April of all days. I had an accident which badly damaged my car, or wrote it off to be more accurate. Thankfully only one other car (parked) and a tree were involved and I was the only one hurt (abrasion to the top of my head, awfully stiff neck and a bruised shoulder, knee and forearm).

This happened at around 7am and after a trip to casualty and completing the formalities with the police (producing documents and a negative breath test) I was home by about 9.30am. I rang Churchill within half an hour and my claim was handled sympathetically and with the minimum of fuss. In fact after only a couple of questions to establish who I was the operator actually asked how I was and if I was hurt which I thought was a nice touch.

After providing all the necessary information I was told where my car would be taken for assessment and that someone would be in touch later that day. Knowing where my car was being kept enabled me to retrieve my belongings from it, (don't forget to remove your road tax disc if you ever have to do this) thankfully it was near by. On going to get my belongings back from the car it shocked me to see just how bad the damage was, it was a wreck.

Within 6 hours of my initial call to Churchill (at about 4pm) I received a call from Chuchills' crash assessor who informed me that my car was indeed a write off and that they were willing to pay the current market value of the car, minus my policy excess which is £150. There was also a further reduction because my car had done a higher mileage than would normally be expected for a car of its age. This equated to a reduction of £18 for every 1000 miles over the expected mileage, which equated to a further £180 off the settlement figure. All in all though the settlement figure will be only £50 less than I actually paid for the car. Churchill use Glass's Car Price Guide for establishing market value and the figures I was quoted weren' t too dissimilar to those I'd got from Parkers Car Price Guide on the internet.

SOUNDS GOOD BUT DID THEY SETTLE PROMPTLY ?

Well the day following my claim (Friday) I received a letter confirming the settlement figure for my claim. All I had to do was send off my VC5 (vehicle registration document), MOT certificate and Insurance certificate in the pre-paid envelope provided. I was even sent a V14 form which would allow me to reclaim any road tax which was unexpired on the written off car, this I thought was a nice touch too.

On Monday morning, I received a letter from Chuchill and an accident confirmation form. This basically summarised the information I'd already given them over the phone, and providing I agreed with it, there was no further action to take. Only if I disagreed with the information on this form or had something further to add, would I have to return it. This was quite unusual, as other people I know who've had accidents, have had to complete a similar form with diagrams and everything, for their insurance company.

Well it gets even better, because today, Wednesday, only 6 days after my initial claim, a nice cheque landed on the doormat . I'm still amazed now and it's early evening. So I would say Churchill settle promptly. So it's off shopping for a new car tomorrow, although I've already got my eye on one.

ANY GRIPES ?

The only one which comes to mind is no courtesy car, but apparently this only applies if your car is being repaired. Other than that I was extremely satisfied with the service provided.

IN SUMMARY

I would have to say that as well as Churchill's general customer service being very good, their claims service has been exemplary. I may not have gone into too much depth about the procedures for insuring your car with them, but this review was intended to focus more on the claims process, and 6 days (including a weekend) from claim to settlement, has to be good. So it's 5 stars all round from me.

FOOTNOTE

The owner of the parked car that was damaged during the accident, has had estimates done for her car and the repairs start tomorrow.

More details
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Competitiveness of APR Average
Comprehensiveness of range of products Good
Product package Good
Efficiency of service Excellent
Value for money Good
Online - Content/organization of site Good
Online - Reliability/speed of site Good
Online - Ease of applying for products Good
Online - Pre-purchase information Good