Car insurance, fault claim. New car they won't insure.

teeandrew

I had an accident at the beginning of the year, two months into a new policy. Third party who caused accident drove off leaving me at blame. Anyway I have just bought a new car, tried to change my policy details and was told the underwriters won't insure me with this policy and I have to buy a new policy and forfeit the last 6 months payment of my old policy.
Is this standard? I have never had an accident and had 15+ years no claims (not protected:-/)

Quentin

Whenever you are considering a new car you need to check with your insurer that they are prepared to cover it (if not you need to factor in the cost of cancelling the policy and insuring it elsewhere or changing your choice of new car to one that they will cover)


Your first sentence in your OP contradicts the last one.


You say you did have a fault claim, so your policy is payable in full for the whole year.


But despite not protecting your 15 years NCD, you should still have 3 years to use on a new policy (following a fault claim no NCD is awarded for the current policy year and you lose 2 years from a maximum of 5)

mattk_180

Regarding the 6 months, maybe the monthly payments aren't spread across the whole year?


Otherwise, it is strange as you would need to pay for the full year for the claim to be valid.


Insurers are not oblige to take on the new car if it doesn't meet their criteria and by cancelling it, the claim is then going to come in to play in the way you've described and will have to pay up before taking out a whole new policy on the revised NCB.


Unfortunately you've found yourself in a catch 22 but this is why it's always best to check out insurance before committing to buy anything.

teddysmum

Although the policy has 6 months of cover to run, you have used the insurance in your claim, so it's served its purpose.


If you mean that there are still six months payments to make (Like people who object to paying pet insurance instalments after a pet dies), then the premium was due at the beginning of the 12 months, but you have taken monthly credit (with an increase in price) to cover the cost, so still owe the rest of the premium.