free insurance for 14 days?

opinions4u

Insurers share a database and while there are a lot of names in the market, many of them are the same parent company.

Sooner or later many of the companies will know who you are and refuse you cover.

I like your thinking, but the combination of cancellation fees, impact on NCB, being refused cover for messing companies about and sheer pain in the rump of all the paperwork makes it really not worth the effort.

Buy your cover from a cheap provider via the Quidco site and earn a chunky discount that way!

h4zel

I was of the opinion that you only got another years NCB after you had completed the 12 month policy?

But I suppose if you are never going to be paying for insurance, why would you care about NCB!

...just find the best price and pay for the policy like everyone else has to!!

Quentin

h4zel wrote: »

...just find the best price and pay for the policy like everyone else has to!!

Your comment isn't in the spirit of this money saving site!

There is no reason at all to make a disparaging comment, the scheme is above board and in line with the insurers advertising, which encourages us to take out a policy with "your money back if not satisfied" type phrases.

This is also of use for quidco purchases - should a purchase not track within the 14 days (and the insurer is one that offers the 14 day fee free cancellation), then you can cancel and try again with another till the transaction eventually does track. Any eventual increase in premium caused by the first choice company not tracking the transaction is diminished by any free fortnights you have been given.

raskazz

Technically it is possible. However, if the OP did submit a claim then as soon as the insurer concerned became aware of the highly suspect MID history of the car they would be all over the claim like a rash looking for possible misrepresentations and non-disclosures or any other reason to repudiate it.

In addition, many insurers do charge pro-rata premiums for days on cover plus an administration fee for cancellation, which they are entitled to do even if the customer exercises his 'cooling-off' rights.

Whilst it may be legal to do this, I have no doubt whatsoever that if an insurer ever did discover that a policyholder had been switching provider every two weeks several times in a row they would exercise their right to cancel the policy. The cooling-off rights are intended to give the policyholder a chance to assess the suitability of the contract terms, not to enable them to obtain free insurance.

Quentin

If a claim ocurred during the 14 days, then the money back offer is no longer valid. Insurers don't wait for this scenario when a claim comes before being "all over the claim like a rash"!

Obviously they don't offer you "free insurance", but many do offer "money back if not satisfied" guarantees.

You can't have it both ways - they make the offer, and cannot turn round and complain whenit is taken up.

raskazz

Quentin wrote: »

If a claim ocurred during the 14 days, then the money back offer is no longer valid. Insurers don't wait for this scenario when a claim comes before being "all over the claim like a rash"!

Well, in my experience the claim would be passed to a more, shall we say, 'specialist' unit to handle it once the insurer discovered the insurance history, who would investigate the matter in more depth than would otherwise be inspected.

Quentin wrote: »

You can't have it both ways - they make the offer, and cannot turn round and complain whenit is taken up.

No, of course not. But then it wouldn't be the insurers who had suffered the previous cancellations who would be bothered by it - the danger would be the insurer who merely sees a policyholder who is technically entitled to do what he is doing but presents something of a moral risk due to the highly abnormal behaviour and exercises their right to cancel, thus meaning that the OP has to declare it when obtaining quotes for the rest of his life.

It would probably be discovered fairly quickly by an insurer who contacts the previous insurer to verbally confirm NCD. When the insurer contacted the previous insurer to confirm NCD then it is likely that the NCD would not have been transferred within the14 day period. So they call the insurer previous to that and discover the same. Then they call yet another insurer and so on.

Quentin

There is no reason to hide what you have done.

If asked why there is a break in the NCD history, you explain that you have cancelled unsuitable policies during the offered cooling off period.

Obviously the NCD proof never gets passed on to any of the 14 day insurers!

raskazz

Quentin wrote: »

There is no reason to hide what you have done.

If asked why there is a break in the NCD history, you explain that you have cancelled unsuitable policies during the offered cooling off period.

Obviously the NCD proof never gets passed on to any of the 14 day insurers!

I'm in agreement with you on this - as I said, technically it's possible. But certainly if an insurer did discover the true history, and the insured has been doing this for months, I'm fairly certain that they would exercise their right to cancel, resulting in all the usual ramifications for the policyholder in obtaining cover in the future. It's just more trouble than it's worth IMO.

Quentin

I doubt you could do it for months - the op just suggested trying it on now and then during the course of a year as he only occasionally would need to drive, and if you tried to do it continuously you'd run out of companies who do it free anyway!

Insurance companies are usually quite happy to sell policies first and ask questions only after claims turn up.

They would soon lose whatever reputation for fairness remains if they cancelled a legitimate policy because they shared your view and considered the policyholder to be "immoral"!

woodys_wonders

While it may be legal it is morally wrong