Car Insurance - Cancelling etc

scotlady

I have a question..

Say you have insurance and paying about £2500 per year for a cheap car due to being a younger driver...

After having a crash (dispute with pheasant) the car was "written off". Nothing happened as the excess was the value of the car. In fact it cost her a few hundred pound when she bought another car to change the policy details.

Anyway, she has found a cheaper company, by £100 per month, exact same stuff included, fully comp etc..

Can she cancel the insurance? Or it was suggested she "sell the car" but then change her mind after the insurance was stopped. I assumed that if she didnt have the car then they cant charge her for insurance.

Any suggestions/advice would be great so I can tell her. Thanks

fivetide

You need to weigh up the odds.

If you've claimed it is doubtful you'll get a refund at all as you've technically used the policy. It isn't bad they have continued to offer cover really but I'm surprised you are still beign allowed to pay in installments as usually the full premium is due with a cliam.

How long is left to run on the existing policy? If it is a few months you'd be best off waiting I'd have thought.

In short - more detail needed.

5t.

scotlady

I cant remember all her details but I know that the claim was cancelled when the car was written off. She had to pay a few hundred pounds as well as lost the car and the 11 months she'd paid so wasnt too happy.

She got another car and everything was transferred over to that one, they renewed the policy from that date so she still has something like 8 months left on it.

At the moment she is paying £177 per month and she can get insurance now for £70 per month.

I think she just doesnt want to ring up to cancel the policy if its going to cost her loads.

Thanks for replying

loracan1

I know that if paid upfront and you cancel a policy you get refunded, but it's not 50% after 6 months it's more like you get back 30% after 5 months. Nothing at all after about 8/9 months.

As for this insurance drop - what's changed, other than her having an accident, to change the premium so much - regardless of the car she's driving it's the age risk that inflates the prices.

fivetide

Well the deal you've got sounds like a scam.

If there was no claim made then she should have still had the one month to run and picked up a year's no claims (albeit with an incident to report).

Any new policy should have started at the end of that one.

Saving will be £800 of course so I'd call the current insurer and see what they say re:cancellation costs and explain the situation to them. Be sure to get your no claims off them though and complain about mis-selling if they refuse. It can't hurt can it?

It'll probably be about £50 'admin fee' and you need to know if it is just a case of stopping the payments from now for the rest of it.

5t.

scotlady

I'm not sure whats changed, she has had a birthday so is 20 now. The only reason we checked was I was checking insurance for my son as he's gonna be coming back to the country soon and need to get his insurance back running. Last year he was paying £298 per month and now we've managed to get him insured for £86 per month. He turned 21 while away on duty so I assume thats the reason.

Definitely a massive difference on both of them.

Thanks for the advice, she is gonna ring them to ask about cancelling, I've sent her the replies on here so hopefully she will be ready for them.

Just shows how fast things can change.

I'll keep you updated.

Quentin

Has she declared the write off she had to the new company? (If not, that may explain the premium difference).

scotlady

When this happened, the insurance company wouldnt pay out because the excess was more than the value of the car so it was literally scrapped with nothing being on file about the accident. As far as the paperwork is concerned she just got a new car.

But yeah I can see what you mean, would she declare it even if she never claimed?

Thanks for mentioning this.

Quentin

scotlady wrote: »

....would she declare it even if she never claimed?

She must!

(And as she reported the incident to her insurer, then there's no doubt she will get found out should she not declare this to any future insurer - they usually ask for your driving history over the previous 3 - 5 years).

vaio

LOL, I remember the days when I drove cars that would be written off in a collision with a pheasant……

If she made a claim then most (all?) companies will not refund in case of later cancellation.

If she made a claim which paid out nothing then it seems reasonable to me that the insurance company should cancel the claim and reinstate her NCB. If they do this then I’d also say she should be able to get a refund if she then cancels.

If she does cancel then she won’t get any NCB for this year, you need factor that into the decision, she might save £100 a month for the rest of the year, but if she gets a years NCB that will reduce next years premium by maybe 30%.

Cancellation refunds should be broadly pro rata plus an admin fee of up to £50. Anything significantly more than this should be challenged

As the pheasant incident is now on the insurance database then she must declare it to any future insurance company

scotlady

Quentin wrote: »

She must!

(And as she reported the incident to her insurer, then there's no doubt she will get found out should she not declare this to any future insurer - they usually ask for your driving history over the previous 3 - 5 years).

Ok thanks I told her, she's gonna see what the difference is. She just thought that as it wasnt claimed it would be ok. I hadnt a clue as I dont drive haha thankfully, all confusing

vaio wrote: »

LOL, I remember the days when I drove cars that would be written off in a collision with a pheasant……

If she made a claim then most (all?) companies will not refund in case of later cancellation.

If she made a claim which paid out nothing then it seems reasonable to me that the insurance company should cancel the claim and reinstate her NCB. If they do this then I’d also say she should be able to get a refund if she then cancels.

If she does cancel then she won’t get any NCB for this year, you need factor that into the decision, she might save £100 a month for the rest of the year, but if she gets a years NCB that will reduce next years premium by maybe 30%.

Cancellation refunds should be broadly pro rata plus an admin fee of up to £50. Anything significantly more than this should be challenged

As the pheasant incident is now on the insurance database then she must declare it to any future insurance company

Thanks, pheasant won btw, it escaped when she swerved and she met a tree. She still has nightmares about them lol. Thankfully wasnt a big tree as her baby was in the car too but big enough to wreck the car.

I'll pass this info on to her. She hasnt managed to speak to anyone yet but waiting on a call back from them.

She's with Admiral incase anyone have dealt with them before.

Thanks again peeps