Unaffordable car insurance

Alexis27

Any tips for getting the girlfriend's insurance down?

She's 31, drives a Y reg 1.4 Polo worth about £500 and has had a full licence for 12ish years. Has a clean driving licence and does about 6000 miles a year.

It all went wrong early this year when a stolen car trashed the Polo when it was parked on the street outside her house. Thanks to that claim, she had to pay £250 excess and her premium has jumped to a massive £1800.

£1800 is actually the cheapest I can find on comparison sites. Wiping out her no claims has meant it would have been cheaper to fix the car herself in hindsight.

Am I missing anything? £160 a month is absurd.

scheming_gypsy

has it wiped out her NCD? an accident will normally wipe out 2/3 years off your NCD rather than take it straight to 0.
Although it sounds like she's just claimed through her own insurance rather as a 'fault' rather than the MIB which would have been a no fault claim.... although i'm not too up on claiming through them so i could be wrong.

McKneff

Try getting a quote from CIS, Cooperative Insurance Society.

Ive had 2 no fault claims and my premiums havent been affected.

Why didnt she go to the MIB instead of claiming on her own insurance, not sure if you can do it retrospectively but Im sure someone else
will come along with that information.


Edit - Great minds SG lol

paddedjohn

Did she claim on her own insurance to repair her £500 car and pay her own excess? if she did then that is were she went wrong, it would have been cheaper to wave bye bye to the car and get a new one.

Voyager2002

Perhaps she could take a break from driving for a few years? I find the cost of compulsory insurance on my bicycle very reasonable indeed.

Alexis27

The case is still currently with the police and they said it could take many more months for the paperwork between them, the owner of the stolen car's insurance and her insurance to be sorted out. After that we're hoping she'll get the excess back.

I'll see what her NCB has gone down to - I assumed it was 0, but I'll have to check.

She needs to get on the phone to her current insurer (Tesco) to be honest and find out what the hell's going on. The smash was in June and her renewal came through in July, and she just agreed and went ahead with it. It's only this week that I've found out what's she paying.

paddedjohn wrote: »

Did she claim on her own insurance to repair her £500 car and pay her own excess? if she did then that is were she went wrong, it would have been cheaper to wave bye bye to the car and get a new one.

Yep, probably, but she was job hunting and needed the car sorting ASAP so that she wouldn't miss the interviews that were lined up.

rev_henry

Alexis27 wrote: »

The case is still currently with the police and they said it could take many more months for the paperwork between them, the owner of the stolen car's insurance and her insurance to be sorted out. After that we're hoping she'll get the excess back.

If/when that happens, it will mean that the MIB or the other insurance company have paid her insurers back for what they paid out, so her NCB will be reinstated and it will from then on count as a no fault claim and her insurance should return from the land of monopoly money. She may even get a reimbursement of the difference in premium, I'm not sure. But as you say, could take months.

Trebor16

It should be a straightforward claim off the insurers of the stolen car. It is probably time for some suitably worded letters of complaint to her insurers about their tardiness in sorting it out.

TrickyWicky

Get in touch with the insurers and buy back the claim. You'll have to return them all the money etc but likewise they'll have to null the claim and restore the NCD.

Before the "You can't do that"'ers start, yes you can I did it myself recently. Admittedly the ins comp wasn't overly helpful in the process but they did eventually get it done after a bit of shouting. Decent tip that was.. came from a friend who is a motor insurance underwriter

Next time go through the MID. There is a special scheme in place for incidents like that. You get compensated and our premiums all over the country go up to cover it.

paddedjohn

If the claim is against the stolen cars insurers, then this means that in theory, as long as there is insurance on a car then anyone is insured to drive it.
If someone steals my wifes car (thats insured) and cause damage then the insurance will pay out, so if i drive my wifes car (me not being a named driver) and cause an accident, will the wifes policy pay out?
Right or wrong

TrickyWicky

You could possibly still go through the MID scheme actually. Ring the insurers and ask why they didn't inform you of it and then drag the ombudsman into it once you've received their letter. Get the claim cancelled and go through the scheme. Remember to get your excess back too.

It might not be straight forward and you might have to do a bit of wangling here and there but in theory it should be doable.