What to do with my insurer?

Fragilicious

Hello Forum.


I am a 31 year old man who has had his licence since 2010, I had only been driving for less than a month when I was involved in an accident. Specifically I was driving down a narrow road with cars parked on my left. There was a good sized work van (around 3.5T) parked badly, it was slightly outside of it's parking zone, so I slowed down and prepared to go around it. When doing this another driver came around the corner ahead and came at me doing about 40-50mph. He clipped my right hand side and I went into the side of the van. I did all the right checks but because I was on the wrong side of the road, regardless of intent, the insurance company said it was my fault. I argued against this and stood my ground (for all the good it did) that it wasn't my fault, but at that point it was academic. The other driver was long gone so I didn't have to worry about his claim. My car was a write off, the van needed repairs, I'm waiting for a decision from my insurer. My questions are as follows:


Can they cancel my policy, on the grounds that I will be getting a new car, or will they add my new car to the existing policy?


If they do cancel my policy, must I stay with them or can I shop around for a cheaper quote?


As I paid in full, if I do get a cheaper quote can they keep the money I paid for the remainder of the policy?


If they cancel my policy will they simply keep the rest of the money from the in full payment regardelss? (I know this is pretty much the same as question 3 but it's for the sake of clarity.)


Sorry the post is long winded but I feel like as much information should be provided.
Thanks Forum.

lesalanos

You paid a sum to insure your car for 1 year.

They will not cancel the policy but will pay out the policy and it will in effect end then. You will not get any money back for "unused" months.

You can take out a new policy with whoever you want

arcon5

You won't get any kind of refund as you've used the service by having them indemnify you.

Get a new car, continue with the insurance and move on.

NVRAM

arcon5 wrote: »

You won't get any kind of refund as you've used the service by having them indemnify you.

Get a new car, continue with the insurance and move on.

This :T

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InsideInsurance

Fragilicious wrote: »

Can they cancel my policy, on the grounds that I will be getting a new car, or will they add my new car to the existing policy?

If they do cancel my policy, must I stay with them or can I shop around for a cheaper quote?

As I paid in full, if I do get a cheaper quote can they keep the money I paid for the remainder of the policy?

If they cancel my policy will they simply keep the rest of the money from the in full payment regardelss? (I know this is pretty much the same as question 3 but it's for the sake of clarity.)

If you can transfer the remainder of your term onto a new vehicle will depend on the insurer and the terms in your policy. Most do allow this to be done as long as it is done fairly swiftly. Others will conclude the policy having paid a total loss claim on the item they were asked to indemnify.

If the policy is concluded by the total loss you are free to stay with them or go.

The policy was for a year/ total loss, if they conclude the policy then as its a fault claim they can retain the remainder of the premium. Likewise if they allow you to transfer but wont cover what you want as a new vehicle or their rates are too high for your tastes so you decide to go else where then no refund would be due.

Paul_the_Painter

Terminology is important here. The insurance company will pay out your claim, at that point they will no longer be insuring you, and the policy ends. You will need to buy a new policy for your new car.
It is important that you remember that your policy has NOT been cancelled, it has been claimed against, and paid out appropriately.
When you apply for your next policy, you will be asked a question like "have you ever had a policy cancelled or voided" DO NOT ANSWER YES! The correct answer is NO. You claimed correctly against your policy and the insurer paid out it's obligation to you and the policy then ended.

dacouch

Paul_the_Painter wrote: »

Terminology is important here. The insurance company will pay out your claim, at that point they will no longer be insuring you, and the policy ends. You will need to buy a new policy for your new car.
It is important that you remember that your policy has NOT been cancelled, it has been claimed against, and paid out appropriately.
When you apply for your next policy, you will be asked a question like "have you ever had a policy cancelled or voided" DO NOT ANSWER YES! The correct answer is NO. You claimed correctly against your policy and the insurer paid out it's obligation to you and the policy then ended.

All well and good except most Insurers will continue offering cover if you have a vehicle to replace it with

NVRAM

Admiral/elephant had no issues allowing mine to continue like

[Deleted User]

lesalanos wrote: »

They will not cancel the policy

That's not necessarily true.

If they declare the existing car to be a total loss, and pay out on the policy, they may require you to put another vehicle (eg. a replacement vehicle) on risk, within a reasonable time frame, otherwise they can cancel the policy.

Fragilicious

Thanks for the answer guys. After consulting friends it seems the general consensus is; if the terms don't dictate that the policy is claimed and paid thus it has ended, they will allow me to add a new car to the policy. I've had enough time to look around and I will be able to replace the car pretty quickly. They have insisted that they do the car valuation off the MOT certificate, I got the impression that this was an attempt to undervalue the car as the average miles for a car of my age is 100k+ so they aren't going to be happy to see 35k miles on the certificate lol.


Big shout out to Paul the Painter! That is a mistake I would have likely made. Cheers!

arcon5

Never heard that one- suppose they can see of its condition by advisories etc. If claiming for your car as well they'll probably use it as an excuse to reduce the value