Terms of Business Agreement

This explains what we can expect from each other, who we are, how we work and what we will need from you.

Please give it a careful read and let us know if you do not understand anything or have questions or concerns. Unless you do this, by using our services you will be confirming that you are happy and agree to everything in this agreement.

About us

The Green Insurer is a trading name of The Green Option Limited, registered office 2 Adelaide Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL3 5BH, and our company number is 14446809. When we refer to ‘us’, ‘we’ and ‘our’ it means The Green Insurer.

We are an insurance intermediary authorised and regulated to arrange and administer insurance by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Our Firm Reference Number is 998384 and can be checked by visiting the FCA’s website https://register.fca.org.uk/s/ or by contacting them on 0800 111 6768.

Our service

We have partnered with several insurers to create a motor insurance offering that enables you to offset your carbon emissions and earn rewards for driving more sustainably. Once you have registered with us, we provide you with an app to view and manage your insurance details, view your journeys, carbon offsets and redeem your rewards.

You can find out more information about the service we offer by visiting our website www.thegreeninsurer.com and if you need to contact us you can use online chat via the app or website, call on 01727 222777 or email at help@thegreeninsurer.com. We may record telephone calls for your protection and our training and monitoring purposes.

We are committed to providing you with good service and delivering cover that meets your needs. We aim to treat you fairly, act with integrity and with your best interests in mind at all times. We have carefully selected our partners to provide you with the following types of cover:

• private car insurance
• van insurance
• motor legal expenses insurance
• breakdown recovery insurance
• guaranteed hire car and van
• tools insurance

We will also offer other products and services from time to time which we feel may be of interest to you.

We offer motor insurance from the following panel of insurers:

• AXA Insurance UK plc
• Eridge Underwriting Agency Limited underwritten by Zurich Insurance Company Limited
• Highway Insurance Company Limited
• Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company Limited
• Sabre Insurance Company Limited

We also offer additional products which work alongside your motor insurance. We usually select one specialist insurer for these additional products which is most likely to meet your needs for these products.

When buying a policy and providing your contact details, you are giving us permission to contact you by telephone, email, text message or push notification regarding the following:

• policy related issues
• payment related issues
• claim related issues
• journey confirmations
• your app setting issues
• feedback to drive more fuel-efficiently
• your rewards
• your carbon off-sets

We will provide you with all the information you require to make an informed decision on whether to buy new policies and amend or renew existing ones. We do not offer any advice so please make sure that the policy provides the cover you require and is suitable for your needs.

Our communications with you are designed to be clear, easy to understand and free of jargon and abbreviations.

You will be able to report claims using our claims line 01727 222770 or 01727 222771 for glass claims. You can also report claims using the app or our website.

Green terms

When you buy a motor insurance policy through us we can help you to protect the environment by doing something to mitigate the climate damage from driving, regardless of how much or little pollution your vehicle produces. Improved driving could also save you fuel and other costs, for example, wear and tear on your brake pads. We provide you with an app that tracks your mileage, location and driving behaviours (acceleration, braking, cornering, speed and mobile phone use). We use this to calculate your carbon emissions produced whilst driving and to provide you with rewards (we call your reward points leaves) for reduced mileage and fuel-efficient driving. To earn rewards and offset your carbon emissions you must download the app, accept the permission settings and check that it is recording your vehicle trips. You can contact us if there are any problems with this. We also pass this information to our insurers to help them calculate your premiums, which they may adjust based on your driving behaviours. Journeys may be recorded up to 24 hours after your policy expires or is cancelled.

Our app is designed to record how many miles you drive, and it learns your driving style during the first few hundred miles to help identify if you were driving or you were a passenger. During this time it is important you use the app to confirm whether you were driving the insured vehicle or not, and we can then start predicting whether you were driving and automatically allocate your journeys. If you don’t do this, we may under or overestimate your mileage which will affect our ability to offset your carbon as accurately as possible, as well as the rewards you earn.

When repairing your vehicle recycled (green) parts will be used whenever they are available. These parts will be guaranteed for the length of time you own the vehicle, excluding general wear and tear.

Your responsibilities

You must take care to answer all questions fully, honestly and accurately. Inaccurate or information you do not tell us about may lead to your insurance being cancelled and/or a claim not being fully or partly paid. Please check your documentation carefully when you receive it and contact us if there is any incorrect or missing information.

You must tell us immediately if any of the information you gave us to arrange your policy changes, including:

• change of vehicle
• changes to the vehicle (modifications)
• change of address
• change of occupation
• change in use of the vehicle
• criminal convictions (including motoring offences)
• motoring accidents
• medical conditions that must be notified to the DVLA

Any changes could mean your premium may go up or down or your insurer may not continue to offer cover. If that happens, you need to pay our cancellation charge and any cancellation charge the insurer requires and a new insurance with someone else will need to be arranged.

Your premiums

When we collect your premium it is placed in a trust account and is treated as if it has been paid directly to the insurer. Until we pass it to the insurer, we cannot use your money for anything other than paying them and we keep any interest it earns. If you are due a refund your insurers will place money in our trust account and then we will return it to you.

When you get a quotation from us, we will tell you the total price to be paid including any fees and taxes. You must always pay the premium in full but you can pay the annual premium up front by credit or debit card or you may be eligible to use premium finance to obtain a loan to pay us back in monthly instalments subject to paying an initial deposit. In this case details of your monthly payments will also be provided along with any interest which may apply.

We will securely store any card details that are used for making payment to us. We use these details to take future payments, for example, if you make a change to your policy or renew. This is called a Continuous Payment Authority. You can opt out of the continuous payment authority by contacting us by phone, email or through live chat. We will always let you know before we take a payment from your card.

Any refunds will only be made back to the card you paid with. If your card details have changed, we will still process refunds on those details. Your bank will have to make sure the money is allocated to the correct account.

How premium finance works

Premium finance is a loan that you take out for one year and pay back in monthly instalments to cover the cost of your insurance premium. We are not the lender we are the credit broker. If you want to pay in monthly instalments, we'll introduce you to Close Brothers Limited trading under the name Close Brothers Premium Finance and they will be your lender.

As we are the credit broker, we do not charge a fee for this, but we do receive a commission for introducing you to Close Brothers.

Close brothers will do credit checks to make sure you are eligible for the loan. Other lenders will be able to see this on your credit report. If they approve you, Close Brothers will send the loan straight to us so that we can pay your insurer and set up your insurance.

The premium finance agreement is a contract between you and Close Brothers. It is separate to your agreement with us. You are responsible for repaying the loan through monthly payments to Close Brothers. Close Brothers will send you their terms and conditions separately so make sure you review and agree to these.

Close brothers will add interest to the amount you need to borrow. The rate and how much this will cost you will be made clear when you set up your finance with them. They may also charge you fees which you will have to pay to them which includes £25 for a missed payment.

If your vehicle is written off, the insurer will offer you a settlement, this will be based on your vehicle's market value. If you cancel your policy you will be required to pay the outstanding amount of your premium.

If you do not pay the money that you owe us we may not offset your carbon emissions and you may not earn and collect rewards. We may also appoint a debt recovery agency. They are authorised to collect repayments that you can afford. They may charge you a fee for this. If you can't come to an agreement about repayments, then the debt recovery agency may take you to court. This could make it much harder for you to get credit products like mortgages or credit cards in the future.