really need car insurance help please

minus28

Hi folks

Encountering a bit of difficulty at the moment and really hope you can help me out

Basically my car insurance renewal is up next week. It rose by £20 in January as I had an accident and uneconomic repair so had a pay out of £1000. I knew at the time there were other companies offering cheaper insurance for my new car but it was uneconomical for me to cancel so I stuck it out with esure. I felt the premium they were offering for renewal was high so I started looking at price comparison sites a month or so ago and was pleased with the quotes.

This week came the time to act so I punched all my details in again, opted for AXA, went to buy, and to my amazement was declined the policy. I'm totally perplexed by this as I have a good credit rating now.

I'm wondering though if my many searches on price comparison sites has hurt my credit rating?

I also moved from my own mortgaged home which I now rent out and live with my partner elsewhere. I just realised last night that my driving licence was for my mortgaged address and that I'm on the electoral register for my new home so I completed the online form on dvla to add new address. My bank details are for my mortgaged address and I'm wondering if the different addresses effected the policy being approved?

When it asks if I'm a homeowner should I say yes eventhough I'm putting down a different rented address or should I be saying no (even though I do but don't live there) and put the rented address? I know how daft that must sound but I'm wondering if its confusing the system?

My bank is still registered with my mortgaged home and I have a mail redirection. I'm just wondering if the different addresses has appeared dodgy to AXA or something?

l also for the first time chose a £0 voluntary excess as the quotes were favourable but I'm now wondering if this could of affected the decision?

I did try phoning AXA but they were unable to give me a specific reason. The car I'm insuring for is only £3000. 5 years no claims were deducted following accident leaving me with 7 years NCB. I'm just not getting why they would refuse.

I have a good credit rating/score now as i said. 33, full time employed, reasonably good salary, no outstanding debt out with mortgage so I'm really confused and panicked somewhat at what to do now. I don't want to keep doing price comparison sites if it is effecting me getting credit. If it would have made a difference I would have just paid the annual premium up front if I thought there was going to be any issues.

Would really appreciate peoples advice on this and what to do next? Part of me is just wishing I had kept with ensure to save any of this hassle.

Hope I have made sense in my queries and many thanks again to anyone who can help, it really would be greatly appreciated

forgotmyname

No. Comparison site earches wont have affected your credit rating.

Different address, yes that maybe the issue the soft check the do may well have shown the different address.

£0 excess will vary the premium. Sometimes too much or too little has quite a large affect. But other times very little.
For a young new driver some companies/vehicles increased the premium if the excess was over £500 but others made little difference upto the £1000 max on the comparison site options.

When taking no claims into account after an accident you may have 7 or 70. The max they usually count from is 5. So if they deducted 5 years then you will usually have zero.

Do you have your renewal? Did you have your no claims protected? Did you declare tha accident to the new insurer?

minus28

forgotmyname wrote: »

No. Comparison site earches wont have affected your credit rating.

Different address, yes that maybe the issue the soft check the do may well have shown the different address.

£0 excess will vary the premium. Sometimes too much or too little has quite a large affect. But other times very little.
For a young new driver some companies/vehicles increased the premium if the excess was over £500 but others made little difference upto the £1000 max on the comparison site options.

When taking no claims into account after an accident you may have 7 or 70. The max they usually count from is 5. So if they deducted 5 years then you will usually have zero.

Do you have your renewal? Did you have your no claims protected? Did you declare tha accident to the new insurer?

Hi forgotmyname,

Thanks very much for your post, it has helped clear up several queries for me and increased my understanding. Just to clarify before accident I had 12 years ncb (no accidents since getting licence) and they deducted 5 so I had assumed I had 7. Is that not correct?

To answer your questions yes I have my renewal from esure but cancelled it as I thought I was a click away from saving £300. I didn't have no claims protected, just assumed I was left with 7 as above. I declared the accident to the insurer it was nothing major at all was just an old car which they felt was uneconomical to repair, but I was fully honest about the accident.

The mix of addresses is something that is worrying me as being partly the culprit. Any ideas what I should do? Would it be worth phoning AXA again and doing a telephone application to explain in more detail? My only concern would be that they then wouldn't offer the same as the price comparison sites did.

Thank you for any advice you can give feel quite stuck with it and I need my car for work purposes so is adding to stress. Thanks again

InsideInsurance

minus28 wrote: »

Just to clarify before accident I had 12 years ncb (no accidents since getting licence) and they deducted 5 so I had assumed I had 7. Is that not correct?

Not normally, if you had Max NCD and had a fault accident then you'd normally drop to 3 years NCD. You shouldnt really be assuming though and should be putting in the correct number. If you've had your renewal invite from eSure then the correct figure will be on that.

It could well be they have validated your NCD, its not matched and thus declined as a fraud risk

minus28

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Not normally, if you had Max NCD and had a fault accident then you'd normally drop to 3 years NCD. You shouldnt really be assuming though and should be putting in the correct number. If you've had your renewal invite from eSure then the correct figure will be on that.

It could well be they have validated your NCD, its not matched and thus declined as a fraud risk

Your onto something here. I originally was insured by more than then moved to esure. I assumed I had 12 years ncb before accident and I was told by someone at esure that 5 ncb would be deducted had reduced to 7. Subsequent to your post I re read renewal document and it does state premium after deduction of 5 years. I have taken that to mean 5 away from 12 leaving 7 whereas it literally means I have 5 ncb. I confirmed this with esure just there so I have been putting in 7 instead of 5. Is it normal to deduct 7 years ncb from an accident?

Anyway I'll try and go through comparisons again and see what happens. Thank you for pointing this out. One thing I'm still not sure what to do is when it asks if I'm a homeowner (which I am) but rent it out and rent somewhere else with my partner .....should I be saying no to the homeowner question as I'm putting in an address that I rent from or should I be saying yes even though I go on to mention the address that I don't own? I know how silly that must sound but I'm trying to see it through their eyes and if they will think it seems fraudulent ?

Thanks again for your help

David_InsDef

You own a home, so you're a homeowner - it doesn't ask if you live at that home.

Re. your renewal notice / NCD - it's the first time I've heard of a renewal notice stating NCD in terms of the number of years deducted following a claim. Are you sure that's what it says?

Regards

David

forgotmyname

Its usually a max of 5 years before duducting any no claims. So likely to be 3 years as above rather than 5 or more.

The homeowner bit is best to check, BEFORE taking out the policy. Does the fact you dont live at the home you own affect the policy?

InsideInsurance

minus28 wrote: »

I have taken that to mean 5 away from 12 leaving 7 whereas it literally means I have 5 ncb. I confirmed this with esure just there so I have been putting in 7 instead of 5. Is it normal to deduct 7 years ncb from an accident?

NCD is not actually an industry standard thing and every company is free to make up whatever rules it wants.

All insurers that I am aware of have a maximum NCD after which any additional years are of no benefit. Many that is 5 years, there are some that go as high as 9 years, though that doesnt mean they give a bigger discount at 9 years that some others give for 5 years, thats part of the smoke and mirrors of NCD.

Traditionally you only had up to a max of 5 years NCD and discounts were roughly:
1 year - 30%
2 year - 40%
3 year - 50%
4 year - 60%
5 year - 70%

Have a fault claim you lose 2 years NCD so 5 goes to 3, 3 goes to 1 etc.

When 9 years were first introduced most did something like:

1 year - 30%
2 year - 40%
3 year - 50%
4 year - 60%
5 year - 65%
6 year - 66%
7 year - 67%
8 year - 68%
9 year - 69%

If you followed the same rules then simply losing 2 years NCD from 9 years would put you at 7 years and still getting a 67% discount which probably wasnt deemed enough of a loading and so most said that if you had 5 or more years NCD you still dropped to 3 years after a fault claim.

NCD tends to be a bit more complex now and insurers are a lot less overt about the percentage discount the NCD relates to but the basic principles and diminishing returns is still true.

I'm not sure where you are getting your "reduced by 5 years" from, eSure's current policy wording follows the norm of saying it reduces by 2 years for a fault claim.

minus28

David_InsDef wrote: »

You own a home, so you're a homeowner - it doesn't ask if you live at that home.

Re. your renewal notice / NCD - it's the first time I've heard of a renewal notice stating NCD in terms of the number of years deducted following a claim. Are you sure that's what it says?

Regards

David

Hi, Thanks for your post.

The schedule states verbatim 'motor premium after deducting 5 years no claim discount and without no claim discount for the life of your policy' and then states the amount. It doesnt state what was deducted following claim on this letter just what was deducted. Im clueless when it comes to all this

minus28

forgotmyname wrote: »

Its usually a max of 5 years before duducting any no claims. So likely to be 3 years as above rather than 5 or more.

The homeowner bit is best to check, BEFORE taking out the policy. Does the fact you dont live at the home you own affect the policy?

Perhaps esure was different as he definitely stated I had 5 years no claims left. I might phone again to confirm again.

For the comparison sites it asks if im a home owner yes/no then states address. Is there any way you know of how I could confirm how it should be put down? I think when i tried a quote from an insurer they had the option of staying at different address than home owned but the comparison sites dont have that option. The chaps point above though makes sense, ie im a homeowner but stay at different address. Just want to get it right this time before im seen as a total fraud risk. Thanks again for your help

minus28

InsideInsurance wrote: »

NCD is not actually an industry standard thing and every company is free to make up whatever rules it wants.

All insurers that I am aware of have a maximum NCD after which any additional years are of no benefit. Many that is 5 years, there are some that go as high as 9 years, though that doesnt mean they give a bigger discount at 9 years that some others give for 5 years, thats part of the smoke and mirrors of NCD.

Traditionally you only had up to a max of 5 years NCD and discounts were roughly:
1 year - 30%
2 year - 40%
3 year - 50%
4 year - 60%
5 year - 70%

Have a fault claim you lose 2 years NCD so 5 goes to 3, 3 goes to 1 etc.

When 9 years were first introduced most did something like:

1 year - 30%
2 year - 40%
3 year - 50%
4 year - 60%
5 year - 65%
6 year - 66%
7 year - 67%
8 year - 68%
9 year - 69%

If you followed the same rules then simply losing 2 years NCD from 9 years would put you at 7 years and still getting a 67% discount which probably wasnt deemed enough of a loading and so most said that if you had 5 or more years NCD you still dropped to 3 years after a fault claim.

NCD tends to be a bit more complex now and insurers are a lot less overt about the percentage discount the NCD relates to but the basic principles and diminishing returns is still true.

I'm not sure where you are getting your "reduced by 5 years" from, eSure's current policy wording follows the norm of saying it reduces by 2 years for a fault claim.

Thanks very much for your post, very informative albeit a bit mind boggling for me (numbers arent my strong point

I have maybe worded the reduced by 5 years wrongly. Im just sure I remember speaking to esure at the time and someone said that.

Certainly as mentioned above the renewal schedule states verbatim 'motor premium after deducting 5 years no claim discount and without no claim discount for the life of your policy' and then states the premium.

Hope im making some sense. Any ideas about the address issue for the comparison sites?

I wish i had made her move in with me would of made this much less complicated thanks again for your post