car insurance quirk

Nodding_Donkey

The risk is assessed partly on postcode. There has to be a boundary somewhere.

bertram_IX

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

The risk is assessed partly on postcode. There has to be a boundary somewhere.

Agreed about the risk relating to postcode but next door? Provided the postcode does not have a history of vandalism why should it make any difference if the parking is 35 metres or 3500 metres. It is the risk that decides it, not the distance. Well, it would to anyone with a little common sense.
Where the car is parked now cannot be seen from home and neither my wife nor myself walk past it as the way to town we use is much nearer. At no time has the insurance company we use asked that we check on a regular, or irregular for that matter, basis. Some, ours, insurance companies are accommodating, others are strange.

rs65

bertram_IX wrote: »

It is the fact that the postcode is different that is the deciding matter, not the fact that it is a distance away from where I live.

Is it?


Your first post says two other reasons - the first that they don't recognise the postcode and the second that they can't write to that postcode.

bertram_IX

rs65 wrote: »

Is it?


Your first post says two other reasons - the first that they don't recognise the postcode and the second that they can't write to that postcode.

I don't think I said that they don't recognise the postcode. The postcode certainly exists but it does not show a car park as an address at the postcode, just a number of houses and businesses. And no, they can.t write to "******** Street car park, ******** Street, ZJ1 9QX (not the real postcode). If the car park had been in the same postcode as my home then there would not have been a problem as they would write to me at the same postcode

arcon5

Send a letter to where the car is parked? Tell them you park it in the middle of a field

bertram_IX

arcon5 wrote: »

Send a letter to where the car is parked? Tell them you park it in the middle of a field

I assume from what I was told that if the middle of the field was entered in their data base of addresses that would be perfectly acceptable.

Gloomendoom

I have had the same thing happen to me when I kept a car at a friend's farm. Some insurers will not cover a car that is kept at a different address to the policyholder even if the postcode is on their database.

Car_54

Contrary to popular belief, postcodes don't define geographical areas, but specified lists of addresses. A car park won't have a postcode unless it has an office that receives mail.

If the OP's car park doesn't receive mail, then if he tells the insurer it's in his postcode they should be none the wiser.

bertram_IX

[quote=[Deleted User];69957673]Contrary to popular belief, postcodes don't define geographical areas, but specified lists of addresses. A car park won't have a postcode unless it has an office that receives mail.

If the OP's car park doesn't receive mail, then if he tells the insurer it's in his postcode they should be none the wiser.[/QUOTE]

But it isn't in my postcode, a point I made in my original post. You seem to be suggesting that I make an untrue statement when applying. That is not a good idea at all because if I ever had to make a claim and the insurance company found out I might well find there was no cover at all and that could have far reaching consequences.

droopsnoot

bertram_IX wrote: »

I would, with no respect whatsoever, suggest that this typifies what is wrong with British management.

I'm not entirely sure I agree, though I see the point you're making. The issue is more likely to be that the management decided that they couldn't necessarily rely on the individuals who answer the phone to make a proper judgement call on an individual circumstance, so they develop a procedure that everyone who works there must adhere to. It probably works just fine for the majority of customers - let's face it, if it didn't, they'd change it or (deservedly) lose customers. Their IT systems will be developed to offer exactly those procedures and nothing more, and their web site(s) will be the same. Although it's the management that put this procedure in place, the likelihood is that it's done because they feel that leaving each individual call handler to make their own decisions may well lead to more problems.


In the past, when most people would visit an office and speak to a person who might call the insurer and discuss the individual proposal, then the situation would have been different. But nowadays the majority of people don't want that, so the offices close down and unusual situations are harder to deal with, simply because it's harder to actually talk to someone who is prepared to take responsibility, and even if they do, it's harder to get that "special situation" into a computer system that's not designed for it.


I once attempted to insure a car and one of the stipulations was that if it was within a mile of my home overnight, it must be kept in the garage. So as that's not possible (no room in garage), leaving it on the drive would not be acceptable, so I would have had to leave it at least a mile away where I couldn't keep an eye on it. Made no sense to me, but another insurer didn't have that condition so off I went.