Car Insurance Mix-Up

cotter_2

hi,
i was looking at a new car so i rang up my insurance company to get a quote to see whether i could afford to pay the extra cost for the new car. when doing so i was informed that i had put my son on my insurance as my spouse by mistake. they said that they had to back date it and change the payment. i have to pay an extra £796.54 :eek: due to me oweing them from previous months and for the remaining months. i don't mind paying the correct total for the next few months but not for the months they have back dated. i dont know what to do.

is there anything i can do so i dont have to pay the money?

cheers

MarkyMarkD

It all depends who made the mistake in the first place and whether you should have noticed the mistake on the documentation.

If either you filled in a proposal form, or signed something completed with details which you provided to them over the phone, which showed your son as your spouse then absolutely you owe them the money and I don't see any reason why you shouldn't pay.

If you filled in a proposal form correctly, and they've just cocked it up, then they don't have any right to charge you more - they've agreed an annual premium and that's binding on them for the full year.

cotter_2

i did it over the internet, there is nothing on the documents that say about the connection to the main driver.

cheers for replying

iceicebaby

If you did it over the internet then you would have entered the details. You need to pay up in afraid

cotter_2

but what about the back dating of it? surely they would not of payed out if my son had a crash thou?

flang

Cant you try and cancel the insurance?

MarkyMarkD

I agree with iceicebaby. You entered the details wrongly yourself so you are liable to pay up.

The fact that they wouldn't have paid up in the event of an accident is irrelevant. Your error gives them the OPTION to avoid the contract once they become aware of it. They aren't exercising this option at this stage, so the contract is binding but you've entered into the contract by deceiving them. Accordingly you are due to pay the correct premium for the year of insurance.

You could try and cancel the insurance, as flang suggests, but you wouldn't get anything back because you'd still have to pay the correct annual premium and probably wouldn't get any reduction for cancelling at this stage in the year.

morg_monster

are you a man or a woman - if a man, hm maybe you could have argued that they should have picked up that he wasn't your spouse if the policy was started before civil partnerships came in!!

i always think it is unfair that in cases like these they make you back pay even though you never could have claimed off them in that time because they would have picked up the error and refused to pay out.

MarkyMarkD - perhaps you can answer - if cotter had claimed during the past few months and they had found out about the spouse really being the son, if she had agreed to backpay the differene would they have paid out for the claim? if so that seems a bit fairer.

also - why does it make a difference if its spouse or son - if you have (say) a 20 yr old male on your insurance, they are hardly going to drive differently are they depending on if they are married to you? [actually they might - although a named driver son could be married or not and the insurance doesn't ask about that does it?] Or is it just one of those things that if you are married you're perceived as a lower risk? (but they'd know about your marital status from elsewhere on the form?)

MarkyMarkD

morg_monster wrote: »

i always think it is unfair that in cases like these they make you back pay even though you never could have claimed off them in that time because they would have picked up the error and refused to pay out.

Part of the point here is that you DO get a benefit by apparently having insurance, even if the insurer wouldn't pay out in the event of a claim. This is because you have a policy and if the police ask you to produce it you can, so you're very unlikely to get done for driving without insurance. The insurer also HAS to pay up to third parties under the Road Traffic Act irrespective of whether the policy was obtained by deception - but they can then seek to reclaim the money from the "insured".

MarkyMarkD - perhaps you can answer - if cotter had claimed during the past few months and they had found out about the spouse really being the son, if she had agreed to backpay the differene would they have paid out for the claim? if so that seems a bit fairer.

That might seem fairer, but if it was the case everyone would lie on their proposal forms and pay £2.50 in insurance premiums, knowing they'd only pay the real premium if they had an accident. Think about it - it wouldn't work. If you state the wrong details, your policy is avoidable and the insurer will avoid it, unless they choose to let you fix the problem by paying up when they find out. Once the accident has happened, they'd be mad to accept a few £ in extra premium when they'd have to pay out £000.

also - why does it make a difference if its spouse or son - if you have (say) a 20 yr old male on your insurance, they are hardly going to drive differently are they depending on if they are married to you? [actually they might - although a named driver son could be married or not and the insurance doesn't ask about that does it?] Or is it just one of those things that if you are married you're perceived as a lower risk? (but they'd know about your marital status from elsewhere on the form?)

Married people are lower risk according to insurers' accident data. You don't normally state marital status on a proposal form, but you do state whether the other drivers are married to you. So the OP will have under-represented the risk leading to a lower premium.

cotter_2

thank you all very much.

i take it that i'm gonna have to pay up then after all.

next year i'm getting a push bike.

cheers

jennifernil

An EXTRA £796 sounds a lot! DD is only an extra £300 on my insurance.