Loosing all no claims when going from van to car?

LeannePete2011

Hi

My husband sold his 2.0l vauxhall astra van at the weekend to move to a 1.2 corsa SXI. He is with the post office and has 3 years no claims. He rang them to ask to switch his insurance from his van to his car. He was told that he would loose all his no claims and start with 0 no claims and they would charge him £700+ for his new policy. He has never had an accident or any convictions in the 9 years he has been driving. Can the post office just do this, just cancel his insurance and no claims because of going from a van to a car? It seems criminal, but the lady at the post office said it is very common.

She said we should go buy a van and sell the car and that I had to call her back in 15 minutes as they close at 9pm. How is one supposed to sell and buy a car in 15mins? I talked her into keeping the policy open till the morning when we had some time to think. So I have to call her back in the am.

My husbands insurance was £270 last year fully comp, and this all seems crazy.

Quentin

You might get some help from a local broker (not swinton).

Although the NCD won't usually be accepted from van to car insurance, a broker may be able to get an introductory discount to reflect his driving history.

LeannePete2011

So this loosing your no claims discount when moving from a van to a car is common? I had never heard of it before and it's something we have not budgeted for.

Thank you for the information.

LeannePete2011

As he has cancelled his post office van insurance today, if he doesn't transfer to a new policy on the car and loose his no claims bonus will he still be entitled to proof of his no claims if he just cancels the van insurance. And then we can try find another company that may accept the transition. He has 3 years. The post office made out he would not be able to have his no claims with them, but they never said if we just cancelled the policy we would loose them all.

Sorry this sounds so confusing.

raskazz

LeannePete2011 wrote: »

So this loosing your no claims discount when moving from a van to a car is common? I had never heard of it before and it's something we have not budgeted for.

Thank you for the information.

The No Claim Discount has not been "lost". You still have Commercial Vehicle No Claims Discount to use on a commercial vehicle policy. However, you never had any Private Car No Claims Discount in the first place - you cannot lose something which you never had!

LeannePete2011

We never knew we he had a 'commercial' policy, originally he had his first year on a car, then transferred it to a van, but the van was just for personal use, not business, so we were oblivious to the fact that this could happen, we thought no claims were no claims. I understand what your saying, but it we had no idea about this so its a shock to have to start a new policy with no claims and higher priced insurance.

mavisangelica

I have had a car policy with Directline for several years - firstly with a car and then we bought a transit van for personal use (son does karting). Directline still continued to insure me with full no claims. I was also able to use my full no claims (a letter from Directline) to 'mirror' my no claims for insurance of my Motorhome with another company. So we have not had the issue that you have.

But thinking about it would they not have asked the question about what it would be used for when you first insured it, ie Social, domestic and pleasure? I, like you never though that there would be a seperate commercial policy as I would have thought that this question would cover it.