car insurance after bankruptcy!

charleyroo

Hi all

My partner built up debts in a previous life and finally decided to go bankrupt in January 2010 and was discharged 12 months later.

Ever since he went bankrupt we've had terrible trouble with our insurer, with him as the main driver. On renewal after his bankruptcy began, they would accept him as main driver but the premium more than doubled from £500 to £1,317. This is with no claims or convictions and 11 years no claims bonus. It also clearly acknowledges that the APR is unchanged at 23.6% and shows an option to pay monthly.
With me as the main driver the premium went up to £600 (understandable as I only have 2 years no claims!) which we went with last year because we could were unwilling to pay over £110 a month for the quote in his name.

Renewal is coming around again and I was under the impression that if you don't use your no claims for 2 years you lose them and not wanting OH to lose his no claims, I have done another quote with the same insurer and it's pretty much unchanged Clearly the huge increase is not due to APR or anything. Do insurers factor bankruptcy into their 'risk assessment' of customers and add this risk to the premium?
Lots of insurers have quoted less, some have not allowed a pay monthly option with OH as the main driver which is ok because I can just pay it all off at once, but the one good thing about our insurer is that I build up a named driver discount too.

Has anyone else had similar experience? Sorry for the rambling on.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

I have done a lot of work on how bankruptcy affects insurance, but bankruptcy is mainly a problem for home insurance not car insurance. The only time I can imagine it might cause a problem is if you opt to pay monthly instalments and a credit check flags up a problem.

I get the distinct impression from your post you are only going on figures provided by your current insurer. Over the past few years it's not uncommon for existing insurers to come up with silly renewal figures, sometimes doubling or more the amount you pay. You sound like a victim of the industry norm on this.

My advice is to follow Martin's guide on car insurance and see how you get along. It's rare for bankruptcy to cause problems for car insurance and I am not certain your high renewal cost is down to bankruptcy.

adyj73

Agree with City Slicker - get yourself over to comparethemeerkat

Car insurance in general has gone up 40% in the last 12 months, fuel and utilities seem to go up every quarter (and they have the cheek to suggest they are doing us a favour now by 'fixing' our tariffs for 12 months!! they used to only go up once a year anyway with inflation....) yet wages are static and more and more of us are being forced into poverty.....

charleyroo

Thanks both for the replies.

I did Moneysupermarket last week and Swinton came out on top at £572 so I guess I'll be leaving my current insurer Direct Line in October - they couldn't give a reason for the massive increase in 2010 (nothing changed as far as OH goes except the bankruptcy) which is when we took out a new policy with me as the main driver at only £600, but now would rather keep OH's NCB going than my measly 2/3 years lol.

It doesn't add up - a huge increase yet they still offered OH monthly payment even when he was undischarged.

Never mind, shall vote with my feet!