‘I told Aviva it was penalising my dad for my mother’s death’

It is a truth universally acknowledged that it costs a fortune to be single, with everything from homes and holidays to food and fun costing less if you are part of a couple. But the idea that a company would seek to profit from a recently widowed man still seems shocking.
It certainly left one Dublin-based reader feeling a significant amount of resentment towards Aviva.
“I just tried to renew my father’s car insurance policy with Aviva,” begins the email from the reader in question. “They quoted him €675.66,” it continues. “When I went to the Aviva website, I noticed my (dead) mother was still on his policy. So I removed her name. The website then gave me a new quote.”
And how much do you think the new quote was for? It was for €905, or €229.34 more.
“I rang them up and a woman told me that is correct, that because my mother is dead, they no longer ‘benefit from our policy of reductions for spouses’. I pointed out that they were charging [almost] 40 per cent more for one person than two and that my father was effectively being penalised for his wife dying. She told me: ‘Well, that is our policy.’”
Our reader “politely told her she had lost my father’s business and now [he] would be going elsewhere”.
We contacted the company and a spokeswoman said that while Aviva could not comment in detail on individual cases, it would “explain our position on a general basis”.
She said it was “correct that we offer lower premiums where there is a spouse/partner included on the policy. We provide this saving as our analysis of our claims experience shows that these customers are less likely to claim”.
[ Why a car parts shortage is driving up insurance premiumsOpens in new window ]
But she said the differential was “typically around 12 per cent of the policy premium, which would not explain the 33 per cent increase in price your reader received when they updated the policy on our website. However, if the customer held a second policy with Aviva, they would also benefit from a further multi-policy discount, which would appear to be the most likely reason for the quantum increase online.”
She added: “Having said that, it would appear from your reader’s account of the call with Aviva that the interaction on that occasion fell short of what we would expect and for this, we sincerely apologise. We pride ourselves in providing an excellent service to our customers at both point of sale, renewal and those who have claims with us. We are contacting the customer to offer our apologies and to properly explain how this increase occurred.
“We value the trust our customers place in us and wish to retain that trust through exceptional service. We work hard at continuously improving our customer experience with us, both in terms of interactions and processes, and we learn from complaints and feedback such as this.”
Aviva was true to its word and it did indeed make contact with our reader. They discussed the issue in more detail, after which a deal was done. Our reader remains an Aviva customer, having been offered what he considers to be a good deal on a new policy and an apology for the manner in which the case was initially dealt with.