- Whose products to we offer?
- We offer products from a range of insurers for all classes of
insurance business unless stated.
- Which service will we provide you with?
- We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have
assessed your needs.
- Information about many policies is available on-line
- What will you have to pay us for our services?
- A fee of NIL for arranging a policy providing the premium
exceeds £50.00
- A fee of £5.00 for arranging a policy if the premium is less
than £50.00
- A fee of £15.00 for processing any mid-term adjustment not
resulting in a premium refund. The fee is payable once we have
completed the adjustment
- A fee of 15% of the return premium (minimum £15.00) for
processing and mid-term adjustments that result in a return
premium. The fee is deducted from the return premium due to you.
This fee covers our loss of commission on the premium.
- A fee of £35.00 for processing any policy
cancellation on your instructions. This fee is deducted from the
refund due to you and will not apply to policies being paid
direct to the insurer. If the policy cancellation is on our
advice and a new policy is taken out with us, we will regard the
cancellation/ new policy as a single mid-term adjustment and
make a £15.00 charge
- A fee of £5.00 for inviting renewal of a policy. This fee
will be included in our renewal invitation and due on renewal of
the policy or inception of a replacement policy. The fee is to
cover our costs of issuing a fresh statement of demands and
needs and reviewing the insurance market at renewal.
- A fee of £21.00 should you wish to pay your insurance premium
by instalments and the premium is less than £210.00. The fee is
spread over the instalments.
- A fee of 10% of the premium should you wish to pay your
insurance premium by instalments to us and the premium is
between £210.00 and £500.00. The fee is spread over the
instalments.
- A fee of £50.00 if the premium exceeds £500 and you wish to
pay the premium by instalments to us. The fee is spread over the
instalments.
- The instalment fees mentioned above do not apply if you pay
the premium by direct debit on our finance or the insurance
company's finance plan.
- Who regulates us?
- B. Portwood & Co Ltd,44 Medomsley Road,
Consett, DH8 5HA is authorised and regulated by the
Financial Conduct Authority. Our FCA Register number is
[300694]
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- What to do if you have a complaint?
- If you wish to register a complaint please contact us:-
- In writing ..... Write to B. Portwood & Co Ltd,
145 Newgate Street, Bishop Auckland, co. Durham. DL14 7EN
- by phone ..... Telephone 01388 607140
- We will make every effort to settle your complaint.
- If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you should
contact GISC, BIBA or IIB
- If you cannot settle your complaint
with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial
Ombudsman Service
- Are we covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)
- We are covered by the FSCS. You may be
entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our
obligations. This depends on the type of business and the
circumstances of the claim.
- Insurance advising and arranging is
covered for 100% of the first £2000 and 90% of the
remainder of the claim without any limit OR
- For compulsory classes of insurance
(road traffic act liability, employers liability, and riding
school third party liability) insurance advising and
arranging is covered for 100% of the claim without any upper
limit
- Further information about compensation
arrangements is available from the FSCS
- Is my premium protected?
- All payments we receive are made in a
non-statutory trust account.
- We pay all client premiums into a separate client account,
which will be a non-statutory trust account
- As trustees of the account we are able to perform the
following:-
- We may extend credit to certain customers by paying the
premium to the insurance provider before receiving full
payment from the customer. This means that part of your
premium may, in effect, be used to pay another customer's
policy!
- We may pay your premium to another person who is not your
insurance provider. We may, for example, pay your premium to
another broker for whom we are agents. That broker may then
pay your premium to the insurance provider (or even yet
another broker!). It is likely that this form of providing
credit would actually be made from the insurers bank account
rather than the NSTA.
- By paying your premium to us you authorise us to perform these
actions.
- Because of the flexibility of this form of account the FCA
impose additional controls:
- We must appoint a person to oversee the account.
- We must have adequate systems and controls to ensure that
the account is managed correctly
- We must be audited each year by an independent firm of
accountants
- The firm of accountants must confirm that everything is in
order.
- We must have certain assets. Currently these must be at
least £50,000
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