Can i cancel car insurance?

debtfree_bride

Hi

I am firmly on the DFW wagon and looking for ways to further reduce my expenditure. I currently pay monthly installments of £67 for my fod ka. This is for fully comp insurance and I am 3 months in to my policy. In the six years I have been driving I have had two claims where I was at fault (no injuries and damage under 1k) however the last one was the day after renewal so at present I have no no claims at all.

I am currently not really using my car as work is now within walking distance and my partner has two cars should we need to go anywhere. I am considering cancelling my policy and selling my car, to get some debt cleared. My car is only worth £500 so the other option is cancelling the policy but keeping the car on the drive, then signing up for a policy after 4/5 months and using it again when I am more financially balanced.

The question is, how would I go about this? Can you cancel a policy? Would it make my premium higher next time I take out a policy? Can I still own the car with no insurance? Is it worth just keeping my policy and paying the money for the sake of building up some no claims?

I hope someone can advise xx

InsideInsurance

Have you made a claim in this policy year? If you have you will be able to cancel it but still have to pay the full years premium due to the claim.

If you havent made a claim this year then you can cancel it but there will be a cancellation fee. In addition to this some of the extras you may have (eg legal expenses or breakdown) cannot be cancelled so would have to be paid in full.

Remember that you now legally must have insurance on a vehicle unless it is off the public highway and had a SORN declaration made.

If YOU cancel the policy there is no loading of premiums the next time you buy but evidently if you have been claim free this policy year so far and so would lose the 3 months NCD you've accrued so far.

If you did claim this year then there is little point cancelling it if you are keeping the car because you will be paying full price anyway and you may as well get the benefit of the fire and theft cover whilst your not driving

Lovelyjoolz

I believe that even if you keep your car off road on your drive you still need to have it insured. Even if you declare it SORN and return the tax disc for a refund, I think you still might need insurance on it. Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

If you're not driving it, would it not be better to reduce your insurance down to just third party if it's only worth £500? That should give you a decent amount back in refund. I'm not sure why you need to have it full comp.

EDIT:

I just had a poke around on the internet and found this:
Why do I need to get car insurance for a car that never goes on the road?
The first thing to say is that you don't, necessarily. You could apply for a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) which means that you don't need to tax or insure your vehicle. It also means you can't drive it on the road though.
The reason the Government has taken this step is to tackle uninsured drivers. There are an estimated 1.4 million vehicles that don't have insurance, and this is a big problem for the car insurance industry. Uninsured drivers push everyone's premiums up.
The previous law was that a driver had to be caught driving in order to be prosecuted as uninsured. The new law means that you could be prosecuted just for having an uninsured vehicle.

So yes, you can cancel your insurance, but you need to declare it as SORN and you will not be able to take it on the road EVER without removing the SORN and re-insuring it.

McKneff

Lovelyjoolz wrote: »

I believe that even if you keep your car off road on your drive you still need to have it insured. Even if you declare it SORN and return the tax disc for a refund, I think you still might need insurance on it. Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

If you're not driving it, would it not be better to reduce your insurance down to just third party if it's only worth £500? That should give you a decent amount back in refund. I'm not sure why you need to have it full comp.

Text in bold is correct....

And if you cancel your insurance you likely to pay a cancellation fee too.

Rover_Driver

If the car is off the public road and SORN, it is not required to be licensed or insured.

If it is off the public road but not SORN, it is required to be licensed and insured.

forgotmyname

As above if you claimed theywill probably ask for the balance now.

But you will be saving on the other costs involved. Refund on tax and no petrol/repairs or servicing costs.

Caz3121

Assuming you are making 12 equal payments
You purchased an annual insurance policy for £804 per annum that you are paying on a monthly basis
You dd not purchase a monthly policy of £67 per month that you can just stop paying

What you need to find out is how much of the remaining premium would be refunded if you were to cancel so you can work out how much you still need to pay

mikey72

Don't cancel it. As you have said you have made a claim this year, you will not get a refund, in fact they will ask you to pay the outstanding balance, plus a fee. You could keep it on the drive and sorn it, at least you will get the road tax from the beginning of August back.

debtfree_bride

Thank you for all of the advice. I am going to keep the insurance as it will hopefully be a claim free year (3 months and counting) so my premuim should benefit next year.

mikey72

debtfree_bride wrote: »

Thank you for all of the advice. I am going to keep the insurance as it will hopefully be a claim free year (3 months and counting) so my premuim should benefit next year.

"the last one was the day after renewal "
did you mean the renewal of this year, or last year?

alisdiar

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After reading this discussion i found more information about car insurance ,now i also keep my insurance and take my car on road without SORN.