Apricot Insurance Services Limited
Blackstaff Studios, 8-10 Amelia Street, Belfast, BT2 7GS Tel: 02890616718
Email: info@apricotinsurance.co.uk
For your own benefit and protection, you should read these terms carefully. If you are unsure about any aspect of our Terms of Business or have any questions regarding our relationship with you, please contact us at the above address.
Accepting our Terms of Business
By asking us to quote for, arrange or manage your insurances, you are providing your informed agreement to these Terms of Business. We draw your particular attention to:
The section headed ‘Use of personal data’, specifically the paragraph explaining how ‘sensitive personal data’ will be used and the sub-section titled ‘Credit checks’; and The section headed ‘Premium Payment and Risk Transfer’, which explains our terms for handling client money in a Non-Statutory Trust account
We reserve the right to refuse to provide any insurance product or service to you including but not limited to where we suspect that there is some form of fraud involved, where there has been any fraudulent misrepresentation made or where you fail any initial validation checks carried out by us.
Who regulates us? – The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
Apricot Insurance Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in respect of insurance mediation and we can also act as an introducer for mortgages and investment insurance products. Our FCA number is 564655.
You can check this on the Financial Services Register by visiting the FCA’s web site www.fca.gov.uk or by contacting the FCA on 0845 606 1234.
Whose products do we offer?
We offer personal and commercial insurance products from a range of insurers. We may be able to offer finance for insurance instalments through applicable finance providers. We will give you further information about this before we finalise your instalment arrangements.
Which service will we provide you with?
We provide a non-advised service. We may ask some questions to find out the type of policy you are looking for to help you narrow down the search area. We will then present you with details about the policy(s) and answer any questions we can.
We do not give advice and we do not recommend. Once you have the details in front of you, you will then need to make your choice about how to proceed.
What will you have to pay us for our services?
Our service is often free of charge to you as we receive commission from the insurer. If we do need to charge any fee we will explain that clearly to you before you become committed to any payment.
We also charge you for handling your insurances as follows:
|
Service |
Fee |
|
Personal Lines New Business |
£35.00 |
|
Personal Lines Renewals |
£35.00 |
|
Mid Term Amendments |
Up to £40.00 |
|
Misrepresentation Fee |
£100.00 |
|
Commercial Lines New Business & Renewals |
Up to £350.00 |
|
Cancellation Fee within 14 days Please note that in addition to our cancellation fee, the insurer will charge a premium for the time that your policy has been in force and we will recover a proportionate amount of any discount we applied |
£50.00 |
|
Cancellation Fee Over 14 days Please note that in addition to our cancellation fee, the insurer will charge a premium for the time that your policy has been in force and we will recover a proportionate amount of any discount we applied |
£75.00 |
|
Lost Certificate and/or Duplicate Policy Issue |
£30.00 |
|
Letter of Cover Confirmation |
£30.00 |
It is not economic or practical to refund very small amounts. Accordingly, where a transaction would result in a refund to you from us of less than £10, this nominal amount will be retained by us as an additional service charge
Where we hold multiple policy records for you and there is a balance in arrears under a particular account, we reserve the right to offset this amount using any credit due under another policy.
Full payment of premium and fees is due before cover commences, or as otherwise stated under terms of credit, or in the debit note, invoice or statement issued to you. 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. We reserve the right to legally collect any debt owing to us from you.
Providing Information to us
You must take reasonable care to answer all questions asked, honestly, fully, and accurately to the best of your knowledge at all times. Any misrepresentation could invalidate your insurance cover and could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid.
Where failure to fully disclose information to us results in an additional premium and/or service charge being applied, we may (but accept no responsibility to) collect the additional amounts via your current payment method. We will give you notice of this.
It is important that you read all insurance documents issued to you and ensure that you are aware of the cover, limits and other terms that apply. Particular attention must be paid to any warranties and conditions as failure to comply with them could invalidate your policy. You must check insurance policies you have to make certain that the insurer holds up to date information about you and also to check that the policy still provides you with the protection you originally wanted.
You must inform us immediately of any changes in circumstances which may affect the services provided by us or the cover provided by your policy.
Credit checks
We, and other firms involved in arranging your insurance (insurers or premium finance companies) may use public and personal data from a variety of sources including credit reference agencies and other organisations. The information is used to help tailor a price, to ascertain the most appropriate payment options for you and to help prevent fraud. Any credit reference search will appear on your credit report whether or not your application proceeds.
The use of credit when paying premiums
Any offer of credit made by a credit firm will be conditional only until such point as the credit firm checks its records and information obtained from one or more credit reference and fraud prevention agencies. This may take up to 48 hours or longer in some instances. If your application is approved, the credit firm will write to confirm this, and you will receive a credit agreement by post. If credit is declined, you will need to make alternative arrangements for the payment of your premium in full within a period of time notified to you by us and where payment is not made within the notified period then your policy will be cancelled.
Renewal
Your renewal invitation will be issued to you in good time prior to your renewal date.
Automatic Renewal
If your premium was paid by direct debit we will, subject to a satisfactory payment history, automatically renew your policy. Where we intend to automatically renew, this will be clearly confirmed in your renewal invitation. In these circumstances, if you do not wish to renew you must tell us prior to the renewal date. If you advise us after the renewal date the cancellation will be calculated as described in your policy documentation.
Ownership
Apricot Insurance Services Limited is privately and independently owned although it has similar ownership connections with Seopa Ltd, who operate the insurance quote comparison brands Quotezone.co.uk and CompareNI.com. This has no impact on how Apricot Insurance Services Limited is operated or controlled as the companies are completely separate businesses.
What to do if you have a complaint
It is our intention to provide you with a high level of customer service at all times. However should you wish to make a complaint you can do so through our website at, by https://www.apricotinsurance.co.uk/contact-page/, phoning 02890 616 718 or writing to The Complaints Department at Blackstaff Studios, 8-10 Amelia Street, Belfast, BT2 7GS. A copy of our full Complaints Handling Procedure is available on request. In the event that you are not satisfied with our response you may ask the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to review your complaint. Please visit www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk for further information about this service. We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our liabilities. Further information about the compensation scheme arrangements and eligibility is available from the FSCS by visiting www.fscs.org.uk or phoning 0800 678 1100.
Telephone Call Recording
Calls to and from our office are recorded and monitored for our joint protection and to improve our service.
Premium Payments and Risk Transfer
Our financial arrangements with most insurance companies are on a ‘Risk Transfer’ basis. This means that we act as agents of the insurer in collecting premiums and handling refunds due to clients. In these circumstances such monies are deemed to be held by the insurer(s) with which your insurance is arranged. You will be notified if Risk Transfer does not apply, and such monies will then be held by us in a Non-Statutory Trust account pending payment. The establishment of the Non- Statutory Trust account follows FCA rules introduced to protect money held by authorised intermediaries. However, you should be aware that, under the Non-Statutory Trust account rules, we are permitted to use such monies temporarily held to advance credit to clients.
Cancellation of insurances
You are entitled to a period of reflection during which you may decide whether to proceed with the Insurance Policy. The duration of this cooling off period is 14 days from the date on which cover is incepted or renewed; or the date on which you receive the full terms and conditions of your policy. If you wish to cancel your policy during the cooling off period, or at any time following this period, please call us on 02890 616 718.
If there is a valid reason for doing so, we or your insurers have the right to cancel an Insurance Policy at any time by giving 7 days’ notice in writing. In these circumstances, we will write to you explaining the reason, to the last known address we have on our records. We reserve the right to cancel your policy if we discover a balance owing under a previous policy held with us and this remains unpaid. Please refer to the Fees section of the “Information about our services, fees and remuneration” document for details of fees, charges and costs associated with the cancellation of your policy.
Where the amount that you owe exceeds the amount that you have paid the balance will be debited from the debit/credit card last used by you 7 days from the date of cancellation. We reserve the right to withhold your No Claims Bonus until this is settled.
We reserve the right to forward any outstanding balance to our debt collection agency, Insurance Collection Bureau.
Acting for Insurers
On occasion insurers may ask us to act on their behalf as an agent. When we do so it is under strict instructions the insurer gives us. We will tell you when that occurs and what that means for you.
Use of personal data
We will process any personal information we obtain while providing our services to you in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation. In administering your insurances and where applicable arranging premium finance it will be necessary for us to pass such information to insurers and other relevant product or service providers which may also provide us with business and compliance support. We may also disclose details to relevant parties, as necessary, to comply with regulatory or legal requirements. We may contact you to promote products or services which may be of interest to you. We will not otherwise use or disclose the personal information we hold without your consent.
Conflict of interests
Occasions can arise where we, or one of our clients or product providers, may have a potential conflict of interest with business being transacted for you. If this happens, and we become aware that a potential conflict exists, we will write to you and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions and we will detail the steps we will take to ensure fair treatment.
Claims handling arrangements
You should take note of the required procedures in the event of a claim, which will be explained in the policy documentation. Insurers require immediate notification of a claim or circumstances which might lead to a claim. We will employ due care and skill if we act on your behalf in respect of a claim.
If we act on behalf of an insurer in negotiating and settling claims, we will inform you that we will be acting on behalf of the
insurer, not yourselves, before your insurance arrangements are concluded and again at the point of claim.
Version: 26/03/2025
Fair processing notice
In your dealings with us you may provide information that includes data that is known as personal data. The personal data we collect will include data relating to your name, address, date of birth, wider contact details and data relating to ‘health’ or ‘criminal offences’.
We will process your personal data to allow us to provide you with our services as your insurance broker in quoting for, arranging and administering your insurances. This includes statistical analysis to assess your suitability to our services (profiling and in arranging insurance premium finance where applicable.
It will also be used to manage future communications between ourselves, communicate about our products and services and where you have agreed, to market our services. You can opt out from receiving such communications services by emailing info@apricotinsurance.co.uk
We will only use your data for the purpose for which it was collected. We will only grant access to or share your data within our firm or other firms associated with us with authorised partners, third parties and our market service providers such as insurers and premium finance providers where we are required or entitled to do so by law under lawful data processing.
If you require further information on how we process your data and our lawful bases for doing so, please contact us at info@apricotinsurance.co.uk
Version: 26/03/2025