Car Insurance BISL

cook0310

Hi,

I've recently bought a new car and my old insurer wouldnt match a price quoted by swift cover.

I have 5months left on the old policy but i need my no claims discount transfered onto the new policy. The only way to do this according to BISL/Autotrader is to pay the policy off and they add admin fee and interest taking the final payment to £116.84 - but the monthly payments are only £15 something. I've paid £205 up to now of a policy worth £300 something. And i've recently taken a name off the policy bringing it down to £195.

Can they demand this crazy sum of £116 fo get my no claims?!?

mattymoo

How much NCD do you have? If you need to earn an extra year then you are more or less stuffed. If you are already on full NCD though you could always cancel and use last years NCD notice as proof - if you kept it that is.

To earn the extra year you will need to have run the policy for a year hence their demand for payment of outstanding premium. Bit rich adding on the admin charges as well though.

You could consider whether it will be cheaper in the long run to add the new car to the BISL policy, then lapse at renewal at which point you can shop around for cheaper quotes. This will not attract any cancellation fees or admin fees. Is the price difference big enough to justify moving to a different insurer just over halfway through the year?

cook0310

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

BISL wanted £850 for the new car whilst swift cover wantd £340, so as you see its a cracking saving.

I'm already up to 9+ years of no claims, so finishing the year off is neither here nor there as far as im concerned. I just dont want to pay the !!!!!!s £116 to terminate my contract which the automatically renewed for me! I know I'm into it by 7months but still...

mattymoo

This page explains what they are doing.
http://www.budgetinsurance.com/Car-Insurance/Cancellation-of-Car-Insurance-Policies/

You've bought a 12 month policy and it is likely a finance company has paid the premium and you are paying them. Their name will be on the credit agreement you received.

When you cancel, BIGL, like most insurers will work out the premium refund due (if you had paid up front) on short term rates. For example, after 6 months, 75% of the premium needs to be paid, not 50%. Everything is front end loaded. Typically from month 9 onwards there is often no refund.

So lets suppose (because BISL do not print the rates on their site) that 80% of the premium is due now -at the point you wish to cancel. You've paid 58% of the premium (7/12) so owe 32% of the premium. This together with an admin fee should get you out of the annual contract.

In your case they seem to want all the o/s premium which is a little odd after 7 months. The admin fee - yes it will be payable. Interest as well - that would have been factored into your monthly payments so I do not think they can ask for additional interest.

I should add, BISL are a broker, not an insurer. This is probably the reason the short term rates are not published since they will vary between their panel insurers. Some insurers do publish the rates in the policy booklet - have a look at yours and let us know who the insurer is.

Quote

cook0310 wrote: »

BISL wanted £850 for the new car whilst swift cover wantd £340

Alarm bells would have started ringing here, for me.

cook0310

Hi,

Thanks for your replies..

I'll have to check who the exact isurer is for you.

What would you guys do in my situation? I'm really grudging to pay the £116 to get my NCD transferred onto my new car! But is there another way?

Cheers

mattymoo

Have you got last years renewal slip? That should show you have full NCD entitlement.
Insurers will generally accept proof of NCD up to 2 years old so you can use the old one.

Another alternative might be to let the two policies run side by side for a while. It looks like you owe £75 on the BISL policy (15 a month) plus the £30 a month from swiftcover. (340/12 plus a bit for interest, its a guess at this stage). That way you would pay £45 for 5 months then drop off to 30. However, you do need the old proof of NCD for this to work.

Quentin

mattymoo wrote: »

Have you got last years renewal slip? That should show you have full NCD entitlement.
Insurers will generally accept proof of NCD up to 2 years old so you can use the old one......

This is no good with Swiftcover (who are awkward about NCD).

They insist that the NCD you take to them comes from your previous insurer.

(For info only: They also need it to be less than 12 months old, though this won't affect the circs being discussed here)

mattymoo

^ ah - !!!!!!

cook0310

So basically I have no option but to pay the £116?

Quentin

Not if your heart is set on going to Swiftcover.