Car Insurance- 3 Speeding points

Expedia

Hi everyone

My friend got 3 speeding points back in 2012. She has been with Direct line for 7 years and the insurance had been renewed annually with them. When she noticed a few days ago that she has not informed her insurance company, she rang them in order to update them.

She has not had an accident or anything however they are asking her to pay ~£200 fee "for the increase of premium for the previous years". Otherwise they would not give her the 7 years no claim discount in order for her to switch her insurance.

I am sure that if she had any accident they would have refused to pay out anything as she had not told them so why is she been asked to pay £200 for last years premium? Is there anything that she could do?

I would be grateful if you could help me out.

gik

Pay what they are asking I suggest, it's not unreasonable. There's potentially a world of pain ahead if she doesn't.

forgotmyname

Would she prefer they cancel the insurance and mark it down as intentionally witholding information or potential fraud?

They cancel the policy and she declares having a policy cancelled for many years if not forever.

Expedia

My question was how can they ask her to pay for last year's insurance that ended in March?

She has already switched her insurance to another cheaper one and has already paid those fees. I just thought it was strange for her to pay towards the increased premium of her insurance for March 2012- March 2013 & March 2013- March 2014.

forgotmyname

Because she failed to notify them all all the relevent facts when obtaining insurance.

They may have charged an increased premium with the 3 points.

vaio

Expedia wrote: »

My question was how can they ask her to pay for last year's insurance that ended in March?

She has already switched her insurance to another cheaper one and has already paid those fees. I just thought it was strange for her to pay towards the increased premium of her insurance for March 2012- March 2013 & March 2013- March 2014.

The argument goes that by picking up the points she is a higher risk and so it follows that during the years she didn't notify them they were covering a higher risk than they thought they were and were being paid for.

TBH, the additional premium is due and should be paid for the full years in question. If the points were pre march 2012 then that's two years, if they were post march 2012 then it should only be one year.

Having said that, if I was her I'd run a couple of dummy quotes just to check that the additional premium being charged is reasonable and if it's not then lodge a complaint.

trukdiver

Expedia wrote: »

I am sure that if she had any accident they would have refused to pay out anything as she had not told them so why is she been asked to pay £200 for last years premium? Is there anything that she could do?

Not only that, non disclosure could have made the policy void which would mean she was driving without valid insurance. If she'd been caught by the police, she could have been in more trouble..

OnanTheBarbarian

trukdiver wrote: »

Not only that, non disclosure could have made the policy void which would mean she was driving without valid insurance. If she'd been caught by the police, she could have been in more trouble..

Not true, the cover cannot be "void" unless the insurer has declared so. To retrospectively void a policy from the outset requires there to be a significant breach of policy terms and the police cannot just decide at the side of the road that you have no cover because you didn't declare some previous points or because you didn't inform your insurer of some tasteful mods.

trukdiver

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

Not true, the cover cannot be "void" unless the insurer has declared so. To retrospectively void a policy from the outset requires there to be a significant breach of policy terms and the police cannot just decide at the side of the road that you have no cover because you didn't declare some previous points or because you didn't inform your insurer of some tasteful mods.

I didn't say "would", I said "could". You've just said the insurer can declare it void (if they want to) - so it isn't "not true".

Anyway, you won't be able to get away with soon - when insurance companies will be able to check licence details when you take out a policy.

Expedia

I asked them the exact same question regarding her insurance being void if anything had happened and they suggested when such incidents occur (e.g. accident) they will ask the policy holder to pay the increased premium and they would not void the insurance. They would void the insurance if the policy holder does not pay that increased premium and therefore they would not pay out.

kingstreet

In cases of claims and complaint where there has been unintentional/innocent non-disclosure, the FOS has deemed an insurer's requirement for an increased premium for the time inbetween to be a reasonable compromise.

IMHO the request for a payment is reasonable here. The amount however, is open to question.