My daughter took out insurance with Admiral in August 2017. She had just passed her test and went for an insurance policy which involved a telematics “black box” being installed in her car as this kept the cost down. One of the stated benefits of this was that it would help clarify fault claims in the event of accidents. The box was fitted incorrectly by Admiral initially - a fault they only picked up after several weeks although it was put right eventually. In June 2018 they kept calling her about an accident that had been reported to them by a Direct Line customer who had indicated my daughter’s car as having caused the accident. In fact, the car was not driven on the day in question, a fact she verified by sending in a statement from her boss, who was on a 48-hour shift with her at a residential facility for children, making clear that she did not leave the premises on the day the accident was said to have taken place. She also asked them - on many occasions - to check the telematics data which would have proved her non-involvement but they kept on refusing on the (bizarre) grounds of “data protection”. They did not accept her employer’s evidence as proof, an independent inspection proved - according to them - “inconclusive” and they would not check the telematics data. Consequently, the case remained open with no evidence that Admiral were doing anything to resolve it despite repeated requests. I had paid for the insurance on my credit card initially and, when checking my statement, was shocked to discover Admiral had taken nearly £2500 out of my account without asking either my permission or my daughter’s, or even alerting us to their intention to do so. They admitted this was an “error” and refunded the money but told my daughter she would have to pay this sum up front to renew her insurance as they wanted a large deposit against the claim being settled against her. She did not have such a sum and she needed a car for her job. Because of the outstanding claim no one would insure her either at all or only for a huge sum so she had to take out a series of one-month temporary policies costing on average £200 a month while battling with Admiral to sort this out. EIGHT MONTHS later, after her latest complaint (and having paid about £2000 in temp insurance) the complaints guy from Admiral called and asked why no one had checked the telematics data. WHY INDEED? He did so and within a couple of minutes confirmed that the car had been stationary throughout the period this accident was meant to have occurred and said they would remove the unresolved claim from their data. She took out a policy with RAC but after a couple of weeks they cancelled it because they had received data from Admiral still showing this outstanding claim they said they had removed. Because of the policy cancellation (and despite Admiral contacting them to confirm their error) they quoted her a much higher price to start a new policy. She went elsewhere - and exactly the same thing happened because of Admiral’s failure to remove the data in a timely fashion. Following the unequivocal evidence provided by the telematics data that she had no involvement in this supposed incident they sent her a cheque for £300 and said the matter was closed - no negotiation, no offer to discuss the matter, just washed their hands. Being about 15% of the amount she was forced to pay for temporary insurance because of their appalling service, and taking into account their unauthorised raid on my credit card to the tune of a few thousand pounds, this was paltry enough. To add insult to injury they have refused to offer even an apology for the wrong information being given to other insurers let alone any compensation. My daughter now works for a charity located in the depths of the countryside with no public transport links and is totally dependent on her car for work. Due to Admiral’s negligence she was left stranded there without insurance after the new insurer cancelled with immediate effect - not once but twice. All attempts to sort out the dubious claim against her and all subsequent matters have been met by Admiral with disinterest, inaction, incompetence and evasion. This is truly shocking behaviour by a company which clearly cares nothing for the plight of its customers. My advice - avoid the hassle, stress and expense and go elsewhere.