Online Car Insurance - irritating

laurajayne

It's just a small vent - and probably only applicable to a small section of people...but it's really annoying!

Last year I purchased, and insured a little car; so that I could learn to drive and also practise. I paid my premiums, and passed my test in April. So far so good! Well, it's renewal time, and like a good MSE'r I've been trawling the online comparison sites, and the cashback sites.

Well, every time I fill in the forms on these sites, it asks how long I've held my licence for, and how many years no claims bonuses I have. Well; less than a year, and one years NCB. Oooooh, they don't like this, and tell me that I can't possibly have done this, and refuse to go any further. Thing is, I can't say I've held my licence for a year, as this would be incorrect, and they make a big thing about false information invalidating your insurance...So I have to call them for a quote. Which means that I can't get cashback, and it's sooooo time consuming.

C'mon insurers, it's definately not impossible...fix your forms.

Thank you - vent over lol.

pinkshoes

Have you tried getting a quote from The AA insurance from their website, because they state on their website about learner drivers being able to get insurance and earn no claims bonuses before passing test: http://www.theaa.com/insurance/learner-drivers-car-insurance.html

Also with those comparison sites, they don't necessarily give the cheapest quotes. The cheapest I got through there was £208 fully comp, then I noticed they hadn't got a quote from direct line, so went on the webpage and filled their forms in for curiosity, and it was £174 fully comp!

(even better, I phoned my current insurer as their renewal price was much more than this, and when I told them I was going to switch to another company, they near enough matched it!)

laurajayne

A lot of insurance companies directly won't do it either.

The only one I've found that works is confused.com. That will allow me to enter in the details correctly- which came through with Norwich Union on top. So I tried going through NU directly (so I could get cashback), and their site does the same thing! I can only get a quote online through confused....makes no sense.

I called my current insurers, they'd quoted £770 for renewal. NU quoted £500. I called Diamond, and they're very happy to tell me they'll offer me a discount....all I have to pay is £702. Errrr........okay.....I spent ages making sure they were like for like too!

Ah well, guess I'll be going with NU

kr15snw

My friend had this problem as she was learning for 2 years (not because she was slow, just couldnt afford many lessons) and had her own policy on her own her during this time.

So when it came to renewal after she passed her test they couldnt believe that she had 2 years no claims already and a lot of companies told her she was lying etc etc.

Even by ringing them up a lot of companies told her to sod off.

Her advice is ring everyone and you may get somewhere, eventually.

Good luck!