Insurance on a second car while original car missing?

Shoshannah

Hello all!

Unfortunately my car was stolen over Easter weekend. This year it is insured with Tesco, TPF&T. I pay in monthly instalments and the cover expires at the end of May. I have 5 years' NCB which is protected.

The car has not yet been found, and as much as it breaks my heart I have to assume it is not coming back. It may be several weeks before the insurance company pays out for the car, and my policy does not provide a temporary vehicle. I have two questions that I hope someone may be able to help with:

1. If I was to buy a cheap car tomorrow, for example, what would my position be from an insurance point of view? Obviously I cannot cancel the Tesco policy on my stolen car, otherwise the claim would not be completed. I'm assuming I would have to start a completely new policy and would not be able to use my NCB for this, because generally you can only use NCB for one car? If I was to do this, and in 1 month's time the insurance ends on the solen car, is there any way of transferring the NCB to the new policy? I suspect not, but I just wanted to know if anyone had any experience of this.

2. Will my NCB be affected if the thief is never caught? My policy booklet states that the NCB will be lost if they cannot recover their costs from elsewhere, but I'm assuming that it will be protected so this won't be the case? I paid the extra fee to protect it when I started the policy last May; is the NCB protected with immediate effect?

I hope all that makes sense, I was struggling to word some of it.

Thanks.

dogbot

1)

To claim NCD you need proof of NCD. To get that you need proof from Tesco (in this case), so would need to end the current policy. You could end the policy, but will (probably) not be due any return premium under the policy conditions because of the claim.

You have lodged the claim and given the incident date. If you end cover now, then the claim can continue to be processed. Think about it like this: If you had an accident the day before your policy renewed, the claim would still be dealt with by the insurer on cover on that day (cover is on a claims occured basis not claims reported)

Personaly, I would call tesco and ask them about cover for a new car. Given you car has been stolen they should be able to replace it on the policy with the new car you buy. They may insist that you wait untill the claim is settled, but hopefully this shouldn't take too long if everything is in order and you keep the pressure up on them. That said, maybe they will cover it anyway once they have accepted liability under the policy terms but before settlment is agreed and made.

2. Your NCD will be protected yes, though NCD is only protected depending on how many claims you have had - details will be in your insurance documents. Sounds like you haven't had any more so should be ok.

You won't get any more NCD for this year if you terminate the policy now of course.

Sadly though the chances of your vehicle every been seen again not in bits or burnt out, or the theiving git being caught are very slim. If they do catch the culprit the chances of recovering the costs are miniscule, so chances are this will remain a prejudicial claim.

Remember, you still need to declare the claim on future insurance applications, fault or not, protected ncd or not. NCD is a marketing tool, not an actuarial one, and protected NCD even more so. The claim will bring your premium up, and the ncd bring it down again. Hopefully not be too much!

Hope that helps.

Shoshannah

Thanks dogbot for that very useful and reassuring post.

I will chase up my insurance company and make them answer a lot of the questions.

woodys_wonders

Also just be careful as if you did cancel the Tesco policy, as you have had a claim on the policy you would have to pay the full annual premium for the policy and will get no refund if you cancel.
It would be much better to do a change of vehicle under your existing policy.

Shoshannah

woodys_wonders wrote: »

Also just be careful as if you did cancel the Tesco policy, as you have had a claim on the policy you would have to pay the full annual premium for the policy and will get no refund if you cancel.
It would be much better to do a change of vehicle under your existing policy.

Thanks for that. I spoke to the insurance company and if I did buy another car I would just swap the vehicles.

In my case I only had one month left on the policy to pay so it wouldn't have been a major loss (one month + £10 I believe for mine) but worth noting as other cases may be different.

dacouch

Swopping the car over on your current policy is probably the easiest and cheapest way to cover it.

If you need any advice when the Insurers value your car post up here and we can see if we can help

Shoshannah

Thanks dacouch, I have had an initial discussion with the company regarding value, I will post in a new thread to avoid confusion. Give me a mo.

lisyloo

Just an idea but could you manage without a car for a short while?

If you add up the costs associated with owning a car i.e.

depreciation
tax
insurance
breakdown recovery policy
MOT, serviceing, repairs
parking fees
parking/speeding fines (voluntary)

then you might find that you are able to afford alternative transport (including taxis and possibly car hire when buses/trains/cycling/walking is not possible or convenient).

I would encourage you to do the maths as even if you need to pay for taxis some of the time, it might work out to be a possibility.
The temperatures and weather are now a bit more on your side as regards walking and cycling.

I did without a car for 6 months on this basis.
It wasn't always convenient but then I was too mean to get taxis sometimes even though logically I could afford it.

Shoshannah

Hi lisyloo.

Technically, yes, I could manage without a car for a while. I did without a car for six months a while ago and survived! :rotfl:

However, it may sound strange but cars are also my hobby. I am member of car clubs and used to take my stolen car to shows all the time. Whoops, that sounds a bit dodgy, the car wasn't stolen then!!!! I am also never happier than when tinkering on the car at weekends.

The costs of running my car are just part of my life. I don't smoke or drink, I don't do retail therapy and I rarely go out. So I spend my money on my cars instead.

I have thought about things since my original post and I am not in a rush to get another car. I will get one when the right one comes along, but only when I see the one for me. Until then it's Shank's Pony for me.