Cancelling Car Insurance in Advance of Gender Directive

PollyOnAMission

I am a 28 year old female and my car insurance is due for renewal in early January. I turn 29 in December.

My current insurance (Aviva) cost £395 which I paid in one lump sum. They charge £38 (plus insurance premium tax) cancellation fee if you cancel before the end of your term, but will issue a refund for unused months.

I am trying to decide whether it will be worth my while to cancel my insurance early and take out a new policy elsewhere in advance of the gender ruling changes in December. The best quote I have found (Admiral) is £315; I didn’t include an extra year’s NCD from my current Aviva policy when getting quotes as I assume it doesn’t count if you cancel early.

What likely impact will the gender ruling have for a female my age? Many people I’ve spoken to have said it will only really affect under 25s.

Is it legal to be insured twice for the same vehicle? Could I take out a new policy before December 21st while concurrently running my old one until the first week of January, then just choose not to renew it?

From my calculations it would cost an extra £15 - £27 to leave Aviva going but take out Admiral in December (variation based on how late in December I leave it).

To cancel Aviva and take out Admiral a month before renewal would cost an extra £33 ish.

To cancel Aviva and take out Admiral two months before renewal would cost an extra £26 ish.

To let Aviva run to the end then take out a new policy with Admiral would cost an extra £x, depending on how much the gender ruling affects my premium.

Are my premiums likely to jump by more than these amounts come gender day?If not I’d be better just taking out a new policy on my renewal date with the cheapest quote, by which time I’d have an extra year’s NCD. Is option one even legal? I'm assuming it isn't.

Thanks in advance for any help.

PollyOnAMission

Having re-read this, assuming it's not legal to have two policies concurrently, I think I've answered my own question:

For the sake of £26 why risk there being a rise after the law change?! I might as well just cancel as soon as possible and take out the new one.

InsideInsurance

First of all check your cancellation assumption as that sounds low, remember that things like Legal Expenses or Breakdown often receive no refund in addition to the admin fee etc.

You can dual insure a car but (1) you can only use an NCD on one policy and so unless you recently got rid of a second car then the new policy would have no NCD and (2) you will have problems in making a claim as almost certainly both will say they dont provide cover if another policy is force effectively in theory meaning you have no cover (though not in practice)

What impact the change will make is something that a select few currently know and those that know wont be telling anyone just yet. If you were a betting person you'd guess it is going to result in all premiums being closer to the higher of male and female but the exact point is questionable (there are some points in older age where men currently pay less than women - at least with some insurers)

Remember that some insurers allow you to do quotes up to 90 days in advance (Direct Line's website allowed me to do a quote at the end of Jan) and so it may be possible to lock in your quote now before the pricing changes are made.

PollyOnAMission

Thanks for you reply!

I checked my documentation to find the cancellation charge and couldn't find anything other than the £38 + IPT. I don't have legal or breakdown with them so that shouldn't be an issue.

It sounds like dual insuring is something to avoid so I won't be doing that.

I have been doing quotes and saving them as far in advance as they will go, but the 90 day ones tend to be from the insurers that don't have competitive prices for me. I have a bank of saved quotes that go up to the next 30-60 days at least. I was thinking I could keep doing them right until the change day and pick the best one if I could really be bothered!

I'm pretty set on cancelling Aviva to take out a different policy now. I just need to call them to find out exactly how much it will cost me to cancel so I can work out when would be the best time to do it.

Thanks again for your input

forgotmyname

Dont forget your losing a years extra no claims. Unless you made a claim of course.

InsideInsurance

Be a little careful with doing multiple quotes - some insurers will see it as a fraud indicator plus some credit score you and you possibly dont want 300 searches showing (even if most are unrecorded and thus invisible to others)

With many insurers you cannot have a "sensible conversation" about it afterwards because to the telesales guys on the phone the system is a black box and they cannot see whats been done or why nor are able to reverse anything on it.

Of cause the problem of doing dummy quotes is that you generally cant then use it in 90 days time because its not actually your details

InsideInsurance

forgotmyname wrote: »

Unless you made a claim of course.

If you claim and lose the NCD generally you cant cancel the policy early either

PollyOnAMission

I rang Aviva this evening and explained the situation. The woman was very lovely and friendly and totally sympathetic to my predicament. She didn't try any kind of hard sell but I did ask if they would be able to get close to matching Admiral's quote of £315 (including protected NCD). Aviva's best price? £485! And that didn't include legal cover which is standard with Admiral.

I've canceled Aviva (cancellation fee £40), been given a rebate for two unused months and have bought a new policy with Admiral to start when Aviva ends in November. I didn't ask about NCD when canceling early; I just specified 7 years (it would have been 8 if I'd left it to run full term). There didn't seem to be much difference between 7 and 8 quotes anyway; in fact many only differentiated up to 5 years.

I'll certainly do a quote out of interest once the gender rules have changed then either congratulate or kick myself accordingly!