All new cars come with some form of manufacturer warranty. Whether three, five or seven years, they give peace of mind during the first years of new car ownership. But what happens when the warranty expires?
That’s where extended warranties can help. Designed for cars coming to the end of their manufacturer cover or for sought-after used car purchases, extended warranties act as a safety net to support those outside of manufacturer warranty in the event of an expensive breakdown – with the potential to save you thousands of pounds in repair bills.
To find out more about the car-related insurance and warranty services that ALA Insurance offer, head to ala.co.uk
Extended warranties: insured or non-insured?
There are a myriad of different policies from various providers, but the key thing to understand is the difference between insured and non-insured cover. “A lot of companies offer non-insured policies,” says Jason Allen of ALA Insurance. “What that means is they don’t have to follow the strict regulations that brokers selling insured policies do.”
Any broker selling an insured warranty product must be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the same way as banks, finance companies and general insurers. Companies selling non-insured warranties don’t have to follow such guidelines, meaning you would have no redress for poor selling standards – for example if the company mis-sold or mis-represented the policy in any way.
Additionally, the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service) are a government run administration to which you can appeal if you’re unhappy with an insurer and haven’t had a satisfactory response using the company’s own complaints procedure. However, they can only intervene with a company selling insured policies – if you’ve bought non-insured cover there’s no external way to rectify a decision you feel is unfair.
ALA Insurance only sells fully insured warranties - they have to abide by high standards when selling policies and if anything happens that you're not happy with, you can ask the FOS to weigh in with their decision.
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