Our Values
What to expect from us
Knowledge
Risk management Advice & Insurance protection
Our specialist knowledge enables us to give professional guidance on effective risk management. And it’s free. We want to demonstrate our expertise so you can feel confident about trusting us with your insurance arrangements.
Service
Access to Individuals
When dealing with large companies you may never speak with the same person twice. We give all clients the opportunity to access our consultants directly. We want you to know who will be there to help when it’s needed.
Authority
Proper Assessment of Risk
We evaluate every case on its own merits so the terms of our insurance quotations are a fair reflection of the risk presented. If you properly manage your enterprise, you can expect to be rewarded with a comprehensive policy for less money.
About us
Bridges insurance Brokers Limited also trading as Bridges Select Schemes of 1 Ozengell Place, EuroKent Business Park, Ramsgate, Kent, CT12 6PB is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Our FCA Firms Registration Number is 302411. We are permitted to arrange, advise on, deal as an agent of insurers and clients, and assist in claims handling with respect to non-investment insurance policies. You can check these details on the FCA’s Register by visiting the FCA’s website http://www.fca.org.uk/register or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768.
Your duty of disclosure
It is your duty to take reasonable care to answer all questions honestly and to the best of your knowledge. If you do not your insurance policy may be cancelled or treated as if it never existed or your claim may be rejected or not paid in full. It is important that all statements you make on proposal forms, claim forms and other documents are full and accurate. If a form is completed on your behalf, you should check that the answers shown to any of the questions are true and accurate before signing the document. Failure to provide requested information to your insurers could invalidate your insurance cover and mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid.
Disclosure of Material Facts (Commercial Customers Only)
It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to insurers when you take out your insurance policy, throughout the life of your policy and when you renew your insurance. Failure to disclose any material information to your insurers could invalidate your insurance cover and mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid. If you are in any doubt as to whether information is material, you should disclose it.
Our Service
In the majority of cases we will carry out a ‘fair analysis’ of the market in order to identify a suitable product. This means that we will compare products from a sufficiently large range of insurance providers in terms of cover, price, quality of service and other relevant features in order to select appropriate policies for you.
How to cancel
You may have a statutory right to cancel a policy you take out through us within a short period. Please refer to your policy summary or your policy document for further details. If you cancel within the statutory cancellation period (where this applies) you will receive a pro rata refund of premium from the insurer. Insurers are also entitled to make an administrative charge. In addition, we may keep an amount which reflects the administrative costs of arranging and cancelling the policy. Details of these amounts are given in our tariff of administration charges.
If you wish to cancel outside the statutory cancellation period (where this applies) you may not receive a pro rata refund of premium. In addition, we may also keep an amount that reflects the administrative costs of arranging and cancelling the policy (see tariff of administration charges). Details of these amounts are given in our tariff of administration charges
Protecting your information
All personal information about you will be treated as private and confidential (even when you are no longer a customer), except where the disclosure is made at your request or with your consent in relation to administering your insurance or where we are required by law.
Some or all of the information you supply to us in connection with your insurance proposal may be passed to insurance and other companies for underwriting, claims and premium collection purposes. Your data will be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, under which you have a right of access to see personal information about you that is held in our records, whether electronically or manually. If you have any queries, please write to Greg Bridges, Managing Director at the above address.
Call Recording
For our mutual protection all telephone calls may be recorded.
How to claim
Please refer to your policy summary or your policy document if you need to notify a claim. You should contact the insurer direct as soon as possible using the contact details provided. If in doubt about whom you should contact, please contact us on 01843 293614.
Assistance with claims
Whilst we recognise that many claims do not require our detailed input, we may assist clients who are having difficulty with their claims or who appear to be unfairly treated by an insurer. It should be noted there could be occasion for our withdrawal from assistance with claims, where there is a potential conflict of interests or where the subject matter falls outside our professional remit, for example. For more information, please refer to our Claims Procedure (available on request).
Fees and charges
Please refer to our tariff of administration charges for fees payable under this Terms of Business Agreement. These charges will apply if you instruct us to carry out a mid-term adjustment, renewal, cancellation or other work on your behalf.
Our earnings
You are entitled, at any time, to request information regarding any commission which we may have received as a result of placing your insurance business.
Block transfers
In respect of some classes of insurance we may operate block insurance arrangements in order to provide competitive terms. This is where we place all insurances of a certain type with one insurer who can provide particularly competitive terms for all our customers. On occasions it will be necessary for us to transfer such blocks from one insurer to another where this is beneficial for our clients.
This Terms of Business Agreement constitutes both your acceptance that we may do this and your prior request for us so to do.
Protecting your money
Prior to your premium being forwarded to the insurer, and for your protection, we hold your money as an agent of the insurer in which case your policy is treated as being paid for.
We may transfer your money to another intermediary in some cases. However your money will be protected at all times because of the requirements of FCA rules. We also reserve the right to retain interest earned on this account.
By accepting this Terms of Business Agreement, you are giving your consent for us to operate in this way.
What to do if you have a complaint
Our aim is always to provide our customers with a first-class service, however we are aware that, occasionally, it is possible that we may fail to meet your expectations.
If you need to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact us either in writing to:
Greg Bridges, 1 Ozengell Place, Ramsgate, Kent CT12 6PB or, by telephone 01843 293614
We will provide you with a copy of our full complaints procedure and respond to you promptly. We will keep you informed of the progress of your complaint and aim to make a final response to you within eight weeks, or keep you informed as to why this is not possible. In the event that your complaint relates to activities or services provided by another party, we will ensure that your complaint is appropriately forwarded in writing, and will track the progress of the complaint and responses of that party.
After our final response has been issued, if you still cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service, for an independent assessment and opinion.
The Financial Ombudsman Service provides consumers with a free, independent service for resolving disputes with financial firms and we will cooperate fully with them in respect of any complaints referred to them.
The FOS Consumer Helpline is on 0800 023 4 567 (free for people phoning from a "fixed line" (for example, a landline at home) or 0300 123 9 123 (free for mobile-phone users paying monthly charge for calls to No’s starting 01 or 02 and their address is:
The Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
London E14 9SR
Compensation arrangements
We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim, without any upper limit. For compulsory classes of insurance, insurance advising and arranging is covered for 100% of the claim, also without any upper limit. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS on 020 7892 7300 or by visiting http://www.fscs.org.uk/.
Effective 19/01/2017
Governing Law
This Agreement is governed by English law, and if recourse to the courts becomes necessary the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
Tariff of administration charges
Private motor, household and travel:
| EVENT | POLICY |
| New Business & Policy Renewal | £10 Administration Fee We reserve the right to charge a further service fee both when a policy is first taken out and at its renewal. This will be clearly stated in our written correspondence with you. |
| Duplicate Documents | No charge made |
| All mid-term adjustments | £10 Administration Fee We reserve the right to retain the commission element of any return premium. |
| Cancellation of the policy within the first 14 days
Cancellation of the policy thereafter |
£10 Administration Fee Provided the Certificate of Motor Insurance has been returned to us, a pro rata premium for cover given (and possibly an administration charge – please read the Insurer’s Policy Documentation) will be charged by the insurer. We will deduct the commission element of any return premium as an administration fee. The full premium is usually payable if a policy is cancelled after any claim has been reported. |
| Short Term Travel (policy term 30 days or less) | No refund on cancellation |
| Short Term Travel (policy term over 30 days) | No refund on cancellation |
| Uncleared cheque | We reserve the right to charge £30.00 |
| DD failure | No charge made by Bridges Insurance Broker. However, a premium finance provider or insurer is likely to charge. Your finance agreement will confirm full details. |
All other insurances:
| New Business & Policy Renewal | £10 Administration Fee We reserve the right to charge a further service fee both when a policy is first taken out and at its renewal. This will be clearly stated in our written correspondence with you. |
| Duplicate Documents | No charge made |
| All mid-term adjustments | £10 Administration Fee We reserve the right to retain the commission element of any return premium. |
| Cancellation of the policy | £10 Administration Fee We reserve the right to retain the commission element of any return premium. The full annual premium is usually payable if a policy is cancelled after any claim has been reported. Some insurers either do not charge on a ‘pro-rata’ basis where a policy is cancelled or make no return of premium. If this is of concern to you, please ask for details before you commit to the insurance. |
| Uncleared cheque | We reserve the right to charge £30.00 |
| DD failure | No charge made by Bridges Insurance Broker. However, a premium finance provider or insurer is likely to charge. Your finance agreement will confirm full details. |
Privacy Policy
Bridges Select Schemes is a trading title of Bridges Insurance Brokers Ltd.
Bridges Insurance Brokers Ltd take the issue of privacy very seriously and we would like to assure our visitors of the security, privacy and confidentiality they should expect.
We do not collect any information from anyone who is merely visiting or browsing our web site. However, personal information may be requested from people who enquire about our services.
Through the various enquiry forms visitors to our web sites are encouraged to send messages to Bridges Insurance Brokers in order that we may respond to enquiries regarding Bridges Insurance Brokers or our products or services.
Data Protection
The uses of your personal information are covered by the registration of Bridges Insurance Brokers under the Data Protection Act 1998. The personal information you supply will be held on a database in accordance with the Data Protection Act. Under the Act you have a right to obtain a copy of the data we hold for you which you may be charged a fee for. If you do not wish the details to be used in the above manner and/or if you do not wish to receive marketing material please write to Bridges Insurance Brokers, 1 Ozengell Place, EuroKent Business Park, Ramsgate, Kent, CT12 6PB.
Third Parties
Bridges Insurance Brokers does not transmit any information collected through its web site to any third party marketers. However, Bridges Insurance Brokers does offer the opportunity to link to third party web sites who provide products and services not supplied by Bridges Insurance Brokers. Once the visitor leaves the Bridges Insurance Brokers web site, Bridges Insurance Brokers does not receive any further information from the visitor.
Issued by Bridges Insurance Brokers Ltd.
Disclaimer
The information provided in the website is general guidance and does not constitute incitement, invitation, personal recommendation, or legal, taxation, financial or investment advice. If you would like formal advice from us, please use the appropriate enquiry form, email us, or call us on 01843 282 099.
We have taken care to ensure that this website is accurate and up-to-date. However the accuracy and completeness of any information cannot be guaranteed. No liability can be accepted, for any direct or consequential loss arising form the use of, reliance upon, this information.
If you become aware of any defects or inaccuracies on the site, please notify us immediately:
Email: compliance@bridges-insurance.co.uk
Phone: 01843 293614
Every effort is taken to ensure that changes in legislation, regulation and taxation are reflected in the site as soon as possible but there may inevitably be a delay while this takes place. We therefore recommend that you ask for confirmation of any facts before relying on them as a basis for a decision.
Bridges Select Schemes or Bridges Insurance Brokers Limited cannot be held responsible for the consequences of any action taken by any users whether authorised or not.
We do take, however, every reasonable precaution to ensure the accuracy, security and confidentiality of information available through this website.
The products, services and information offered in this website are intended for UK residents only. The contents of the website are not to be regarded as offers to buy or sell, or a solicitation for any products shown on this site.
Bridges Insurance Brokers reserves the right to alter or amend these terms and conditions at any time and users of this website are responsible for ensuring they are aware of such changes.