Not upheld: incorrect information provision regarding claim liability status complaint against Tesco Personal Finance Limited trading as Tesco Bank

Decision detail

Summary

Miss J complained that Tesco Bank provided incorrect information about her motor insurance claim liability, which she relied upon when switching insurers and resulted in higher premiums. Tesco's online portal summary screen incorrectly displayed her April 2025 claim as non-fault when it was actually fault, though all other documentation correctly identified it as fault. The ombudsman found that Miss J should have been aware of the fault status from Tesco's original claim correspondence and that she had a responsibility to review the renewal documents, which she did not open. The ombudsman did not uphold the complaint, finding Tesco not responsible for the alternative insurer's premium increase and deeming the £60 compensation already paid to be fair redress for the portal error.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

Although Tesco's online portal summary screen contained an error displaying the fault claim as non-fault, the ombudsman found that all other documentation provided to Miss J correctly identified the claim as fault, including correspondence sent when the claim was reported and renewal documents. The ombudsman held that Miss J had a responsibility to check the content of documents sent to her and should have been aware of the fault status from the original claim correspondence. The ombudsman could not hold Tesco responsible for the pricing decisions of the alternative insurer, as the claim was genuinely a fault claim. The £60 compensation already paid was considered fair redress for the loss of expectation and the error on the portal summary screen.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website