DirectLine Insurance Reviews 

Got stuck in a bot circle just trying to change our address. I am fairly computer savvy but just ended up going round in circles with this lot. Absolute shambles!!

For my car insurance I went to comparethemarket.com and came to the conclusion that one of the directline quotes was the most suitable to me, so I clicked on the link that got me through to DirectLine to finalise the policy. Instead of showing a summary of the policy, it showed an error page;
'Sorry!
We're having problems accessing your quote details at the moment. Please try again later or message us now.'
As it had a chat box at the bottom I started a conversation with Himangi after having been through the compulsory AI 'assistant'. Himangi explained that the quote had missing information (despite me having filled in everything on comparethemarket.com) so I provided the additional information. After the additional information Himangi quoted me the insurance which was almost £300 more than what I had on the comparison site. I showed the quote to Himangi and they took it to their supervisor but the price stood - no negotiation. Luckily HastingsDirect did honour their original quote and hence I am now insured with them.

Ive been with this company since passing my test and really have no words right now !!!!! My insurance has gone up for no reason !!!!!! Doubled to what i can get else where !!
Then they say hope to see you in the future sorry
If my insurance is this price now i feel sorry for the young kids out there learning !!! £££££
No loyalty now adays !!! Company going down hill ready to crash out !!!!

Wouldn’t give them 1 star absolute rip off company. Am left with no heating or hot water. They say tracing a leak isn’t their issue said it’s the company who they work with who do home emergency cover. A firm I knew nothing about other than I asked for home emergency cover when I organised my insurance. So far I have had to pay £1200 to track and trace leak but that can’t be done for another 8 days. Absolutely fumin I paid for 5 star insurance it is a disgrace. Please do not sign up with this company. Am going to contact rip off Britain and other consumer advice lines they are not fulfilling their contract

Do not use this company. My car insurance is due for renewal. Every year I've been through the charade of going back to them with a lower quote from a price comparison website & getting them to match it, lowering their obviously rip-off initial quote. This year I thought, no, sick of that circus, I'll go to the rival company, so needed to cancel the renewal quote from DL. Firstly via chatbot. Wish I'd kept a transcript. Nothing short of street-corner hustling, point-blank refusing to carry out my instruction to cancel, responding only with multiple offers to help me by reviewing my quote. Then eventually terminating the conversation entirely ! So I then tried phoning. Looked like a British number but straightaway diverted to an Indian call centre. Communication severely hampered by an accent very difficult to understand, and the same hustling reluctance to carry out my simple request. Did get there eventually but can honestly say it was the WORST customer service I've ever experienced. Outrageous in fact in its transparent pressure selling. Unfortunately,I've cover with the same company in other areas. Upon THEIR expiry I'll be making a point of taking those away from Direct Line also.

Avoid avoid avoid.
Don't use for pet insurance, total rip off.

Currently dealing with these as the 3rd party in my non fault claim and they are an absolute disgrace so I would not trust them to handle my own insurance.

Wanted to update car insurance as I brought a new car. Couldn’t understand the foreign agent asked to speak with another agent as I am hard of hearing, Put me on hold then got an Indian lady whose accent was impossible to understand, she said she could speak the language and understood me . Asked for a uk agent got passed on to another non English person. Definitely a battle ! Never had this problem previously !

Direct Line do not take ownership of their mistakes.

Not only did Direct Line not send out any renewal documents and continued to take payment. They took no ownership of their mistake. No documents were issued. I hadn't realised until recently at which point I stopped payment. I had been paying insurance cover with no cover or payment information.
When I stopped the direct debit, it was only at this time that Direct Line took notice and acknowledged me but only to send me threatening letters for non-payment for a policy of which I had no knowledge or documentation.
I raised this issue with them but they were not interested in their negligence and continued to issue me with late/over due payment letters.
This has caused me so much distress and anxiety they never bothered about me before I stopped my DD.
When I was liaising with Direct Line they sent me a list of incorrect dates of the supposed dates they had sent and received confirmation. However, I had never received or returned any paperwork from them and they had no proof my returning any acceptance documentation.
Therefore, please do not to use this Insurance company. They can afford to be negligent as they are a big company and have the resources to make your life a living hell. Not for something you did but for their own mistake.
Not only did they not own up to their mistakes, they wanted me to continue with my payments with no cover!
You can't believe this kind of thing happens until it does.

All I can say is this - to the claims handler for the Falkirk fire in March 2024 - go home to your family, look your kids in the eye and say 'I made sure that 4 families will never go back to their family home' - look in the mirror and imagine saying that to your maker because as God is my judge, you will never be forgiven....

Not to add to your misery but I’ve had home insurance for the last 30 years without ever making a claim. We had a water leak and I contacted direct line who were absolutely useless. And apart from Making me feel like I somehow in the wrong for calling them. It was an enquiry. The lady started telling me I had not ticked the correct boxes that asked if I’d made a claim in the last 5 which I hadn’t it was a roofing enquiry 5 years ago that I did not claim on but also the form I found out now asked if I’d made a claim in the last 3 years actually. I have or had a home insurance plus policy with emergency cover and you said there is nothing you could do. Crazy and unlucky for you that I was 5 days from renewal. Cancelled and gone with an insurance company that actually seems to care about their customers

Our accident happened September 2023 . We had to pay 100 pounds excess . The fault was not ours as we were crushed from behind by a lorry on a roundabout. After numerous phone calls. For our 100 excess to be reimbursed. No help from direct line at all . As of now still not reimbursed.we are now 22 months with nothing.

We had a pipe burst on 24 December.
immediately reported it and requested an emergency plumber attend. We were told that due to holidays they couldn’t respond until first week of January. We had the gold standard house insurance, and expected there to be an on-call plumber to attend. In the end we managed to turn the water main off, and mop up the downstairs which was under 2 inches of water.
Direct line offered us £100 pounds per person as a one-off payment towards relocating to a hotel. It was impossible to book four people into a hotel over the Christmas holiday, and we would not be able to afford it anyway, so we stayed on the top floor over Christmas. It was the most miserable holiday imaginable. We were fortunate that neighbours offered fresh water for us to use to drink and flush toilets. We could not heat the house, or take showers. Heating was one electric fan heater. Cooking was by microwave.
In January Direct line said all the downstairs tiles would need to be removed and replaced when the area was dry.
As I write this it is now the middle of July and the re-tiling of the ground floor has just been completed. The decorator started this week, and is predicting another ten days before the plumber will return and replace the downstairs toilet.
We have 2 disabled people living at this address, and the last 6 months has been a total nightmare.
I do not recommend Direct Line insurance as they did nothing to help, only following a painfully slow process that I’m sure is the cheapest way forward for them.
The company they use to repair and replace things is overloaded with restorative work, and work at a painfully slow pace, with appalling productivity.
Taking 6 months to do a not particularly high standard of work is just unacceptable.

To be clear I am not a customer, nor will I be after receiving details of someone's insurance using my email. Errors happen, it was probably miss typed, however because I'm not your customer you won't deal with me because I do not pass the security checks. Well I have news for you I know your customers name address, dob, payment details, renewal details and how much you are charging. Yet you are so hung up on data protection you won't let me report a data breach. Honestly I couldn't make this up. Your online chat managed to put a stop on the account, but didn't want to report as a data breach. I am actually really glad I am not a customer.

First contact and the operator can't even speak English. Won't be renewing when the time comes. Do yourself a favour and go to Howdens broker or similar that have proper support. These are muppets using call centres on the cheap. Be the same when you have a problem. Called back and now they eventually pick up but won't speak and just leave me hanging on the line. Tried later and got another person who doesnt speak English (I'm from the Oxford, my English is pretty good). They fob you off on the phone line messaging and try to get you to internet as always, I've even tried the WhatsApp service they push you onto but that doesn't work at all. I will cancel this right now, I don't care how much it costs. This place is a total disgrace.

I have always had good service from Direct Line in the past. I have both my house and car insurance with them. However it seems in 2025 their customer service has gone way downhill and I can no longer recommend them.
An on the phone renewal cost for my house insurance was quoted by the staff at Direct Line as £79.66 more than an online Direct Line quote. When I tried to query why this big difference I got nowhere. Indeed on two occassions my call was cut off. Not a coincidence I suspect.
I even tried ringing to make a complaint and again I was cut off and my complaint/ query remains unheard.
So that is two policies that I won't be taking up with them. Pity. Surely it doesn't tke much to be helpful and pleasant?

Shocking, 20 years loyal customer . So 2023 car insurance around £600 for a 2009 Yaris . On automatic renewal , 2024 went up to £850. Own fault for leaving on automatic . This year , trying to charge £2500. Spoke to customer services , got it down to £1200. No claims. No reason. Goodbye to this company. NEVER STAY ON AUTIMATOC RENEWAL .

I’m writing this while waiting on another phone (26 minutes so far) for DL’s right hand to work out what their left hand is doing.
Our car was run into by one of their Motability customers but they send requests with contact details for non-Motabilty. So I’ve wasted hours in numerous attempts to speak to the right people. Then they say the engineer will ring but nothing happens. A settlement figure is given over the phone but nothing happens in writing. I’m not going to buy a replacement car on the basis of a verbal offer. It’s bad enough to have a car we were fond of written off. I’m asked to write to them with receipts for expenses incurred - I do that and 6 days later it seems no one has opened my email.
The case is complicated by the fact that the car was actually stolen from the verge where it was left (with police authority) over Christmas and new year. But DL’s engineer had already decided from our photos that it was a write-off, so actually that should be irrelevant. It just means I’ve spent many more hours reporting and trying to locate it, without success.
All this for an accident where they accept their customer was responsible.
Everyone I do manage to speak to is nice, one or two very nice and apparently understanding, but still nothing happens. So it gets harder to be polite and patient, although I do try. But if I could bill them for my time and our exasperation I would.

I contacted direct line for landlord insurance. They refused to cover my properties as some tenants were unemployed. If your a illegal immigrants, drug dealer or criminal they don't have a problem, if you worked all your life but been made unemployed due to the state this country is in they won't cover them. This is morally and should be legally wrong I would have nothing to do with this company. Discusted

We had a leak at our house and had various issues with the emergency side of the company as we constantly chased and it took nearly 2 weeks to be repaired, since then we have had a lady deal with the making good and various works to be carried out, my wife calls and emails this person called Lesley ignores us and takes a while to back to us, all the time we have various trades to organise and this is now causing delay's again, they claim to want to help although this is a myth as you are constantly chasing them without response most of the time, avoid Direct line insurance as they take your money but do not deliver when you make a claim.
Claim number 090867128.