Tried to add my wife - refused

sebadee

My wife passed her test yesterday and now has a full license. She is 30 years old, no previous convictions, she also has ten years driving experience, although this does not count as it was in her home country (although she is now a full UK citizen and has been in the UK for 7 years).

I am someone who has a license for 20 years, no bans or convictions, no claims (meaning I have a NCB of 20 years), we own pretty standard SUV (1.7 litre, no turbo), so its not a powerful car. Its a hyundai tucson.

Called up my insurance broker to add my wife to my policy, and they said the underwriter refused as she had no held her license long enough? They would not tell me how long she needs to hold it for. I then contacted the underwriter, and they came up with the usual (call the broker, we cannot see their system and so cannot tell you why). Now I am stuck between two companies with both shrinking responsibility.

I am looking into canceling, but this means being hit with charges and having to pay the outstanding amount (of about 9 months left).

Is there anything I can do here, or is it just tough and get on with it?

Am I going to find others start to refuse us and we end up leaving a trail of refused quotes?

Quentin

Refused quotes because an insurer doesn't insure "novices" isn't detrimental to your record, and doesn't have to be disclosed.

(Have you made a claim this year? If not then you shouldn't be paying the full year if you want to cancel after just 3 months)

But there is nothing you can do about getting a no thank you off your insurer as far as adding on your wife.

If you cannot find cover online see if a local broker (not Swinton) can help.

(Unless there is something in her history or job they don't like, you should be able to get cover - there are plenty of posts from 17 year olds getting cover - but horrified at the premium)

sebadee

No claims have been made at all, and there really is no skeletons in the closet I have not mentioned here.

Her current job, is stay at her mum for our two little ones.

I guess I might be able to try a broker, just on hold now while they try to sort something out between the broker and the underwriter (fingers crossed).

Quentin

sebadee wrote: »

No claims have been made at all).....

In that case read up in your policy and see what it says about refunds when you cancel early.

(It is not unusual to find that some insurers won't insure newly qualified drivers)

muppet610

The worry that the insurer will have is that before she passed her test, she would have had supervision but now she can go out on her own.


This can be unacceptable to some insurers (who unfortunately see her inexperience on UK roads and this can apply for either one or two years) and others will apply a loading.


The other posters are right. As the risk is unacceptable, you should get a better rate of cancellation and you do not need to disclose this sort of cancellation.


NB - if she is not claiming benefits (apart from child benefit), you could put her down as a houseparent rather than being unemployed.

sebadee

That don't wash with me muppet, don't get me wrong, I appreciate your taking time to post. My 18 year old niece just got accepted for insurance on a new fiesta. Yet they have an issue with a 30 year old woman.

In the end the insurance broker came back to me and proposed the following:

1. We cancel the current policy, and pay the cancelation charge and possibly a few months of the outstanding premium.

2. We start a new policy for £1200 (which is £1000 higher then the current premium).

So I told them to hold on. I just carried out a search, and with all the needed details on my wife (license held less then a month), we got back a policy for £257 comprehensive.

My own view, they are bunch of swindlers and in dire need of regulation, as anyone not quite a savvy might have got royally ripped off.

dunstonh

y own view, they are bunch of swindlers and in dire need of regulation, as anyone not quite a savvy might have got royally ripped off.

it is regulated. However, they cannot be forced to do business with anyone (as long as the reason is not discrimination). They felt the risk was too high (low volume retailed car, SUV for a new driver is high risk).

sebadee

I should have worded it as 'needs more regulation'.

I honestly don't believe they quote largely on risk. Insurance companies are well known now for hiking prices on renew. I have had this for years. I have clean record, another years no claims bonus and yet they hike the price up by a few hundred pounds. I even wonder if NCB has any value at all now. They do this in the hope of someone just letting an auto-renew trigger and charge at a vastly higher sum.

I work as a software engineer, not in insurance, but in fintech (statistical data processing), so number crunching is my bread and butter. There is no sound reason to consider someone higher risk, when the duration of them clear of any claims or convictions, increases by one year. That would be flawed algorithm.

It also makes zero logical sense, that insurance companies using the latest big data crunching tools, would statically compute risk so differently, that one prices at £250 and the other at £1200.

I guess I am ranting now, and at the wrong audience here, but my views are unchanged. It's a flawed industry, and I hope automated self driven cars decimates their core business. It likely won't, but one can only hope.

Quentin

Different companies have their preferred profiles.

As you have been told, many companies don't like novices and are happy to insure learners but won't once they have passed their test.

You will see lots of advice in these threads over this (to always check that your insurer will accept a novice being added to the policy if that is your intention)

Equally you should check with your insurer before changing cars in case your new one is not to their liking.

And of course read the policy before you buy it! (You would have been better armed to deal with the cancellation issue if you knew whether or not you could get a refund)

NCB clearly has a value - do dummy quotes with zero NCD and 5 years NCD to see you are mistaken about this

Always do as you have done and shop round for the best deal.

If you use the popular comparison websites you will see massive differences between the highest and lowest premium for your own profile - it's competition in action - some insurers simpy don't want you, whereas others (as you have found) see you as an ideal profile for them!

sebadee

Well made points Quentin.

You seem knowledgable here..Why is it they increase each year, lose a customer, even though the customer has shown they are lower risk?

I had this last year, it went from £227 to £524, yet everything was the same (address, no claims made), the only thing that had changed was myself and my car becoming one year older. I of course told them to jog on, and got it cheaper elsewhere, but it's a bizarre business model at face value.

Quentin

It seems that savvy money savers are in the minority and the insurers can afford to lose those customers who are prepared to shop around because a sufficient number of their customers accept the renewal offering.