Unable to get insurance..

chewycov

This isn't necessarily a financial question but you lot seem knowledgeable so I'm hoping for some advice.

My car insurance ended in July, with LV. LV had just changed their policies meaning they were unable to renew my insurance (or so the nice lady on the phone said), not that I was bothered, so when that policy ended I took out a new policy elsewhere. That one was cancelled a few weeks later due to fraud prevention checks...when I called up the insurance provider to ask why, they said that in reality they did not know, CIFAS flagged me up and just advised them to cancel me without telling them, or me, why. I just thought it was a bit strange and decided to just cut my losses and take out insurance elsewhere...same again....and again...

So this time, I've sent off a "subject access request form" to CIFAS (£10 out of my pocket to find info ON MYSELF). I'm hoping to get a reply from them in the post tomorrow, if not next week. My question is, what would my next steps be? I have never committed fraud, so I would assume it's either some sort of discrepancy in a previous application, or someone is using my address or something like that. I have also read on this very forum that using a comparison website can muddle these matters a bit.

For background, I'm not a particularly attractive insurance customer anyway - below 25 years old, got a write off to my name, and when I was a new driver I had an insurance policy cancelled for forgetting to input my write off claim in the insurance policy - doh!

FutureGirl

If you've done multiple insurance applications with different information. IE different number of no claims, doing quotes with a claim and without a claim etc.

The issue of having a policy cancelled for not declaring a previous claim could be one reason you have a CIFAS marker against you.

Unfortunately we can't really advise on next steps until you get the info back from CIFAS.

Quentin

chewycov wrote: »

... when I was a new driver I had an insurance policy cancelled for forgetting to input my write off claim in the insurance policy - doh!

That could be the issue if you subsequently have never disclosed this policy cancellation when applying for quotes/buying your policies

chewycov

Sorry, I should have pointed out that I always declare that I've had a policy cancelled, and that cancellation was 2 and a half years ago. I'm not sure it'd take it that long to bite me in the bum, or would it?

paddyandstumpy

It sounds like the cancellation is the reason your policy keeps getting cancelled - these are recorded on anti-fraud systems like CIFAS.

As mentioned already you need to see what the result of the SAR says, about you, on this database.

In the mean time talk to a broker to explain your situation clearly.
This isn't something readily solvable on aggregator. Just avoid Swinton, and ensure you check the documents have recorded the facts correctly.

chewycov

Ok a quick update. I've only just been able to send off my SAR, they wanted two forms of ID, one for personal identification, one for proof of address - this being either a bank statement (not printed from online), a bill, or a P60. I've lost my P60 (silly I know), I'm not a bill payer, and like most people these days, I get my bank statements online so I had to change to paper statements and wait for one in the post. Absolute farce but you gotta do what you gotta do I suppose.

Obviously I could be waiting for up to a month for the results of the SAR to get back, and then however long beyond that to get things cleared up (Highway insurance, who underwrite damn near everybody as far as I can see, reallyyy don't want to insure me because of all this), so I don't suppose anyone can recommend me an insurer who will insure ANYONE in the meantime? Because of the CIFAS flag, they all seem to just assume I'm a fraudster, and the multiple cancellations since July obviously don't look good.

Please help guys, this is stressing me out to no end.

paddyandstumpy

Speak to a Broker (not Swinton) and explain the circumstances.

They will most likely need to phone it through to the insurers, but that's your best bet.

chewycov

I appear to have car insurance sorted now, simply by going with another underwriter. I got the results of my SAR from CIFAS, I do indeed have a Category 3 (I think) marker on my profile, dated March 2014. I was under the impression that anything below Category 4 was written off after a year?

I don't recall if I actually bought insurance at that time, but I was certainly looking for a new car and thus was doing a LOT of quotes on comparison websites (being a young driver, price of insurance was pretty much the number one factor lol) so I imagine that's probably what did it?

I'll have to dig deep through emails and paperwork and stuff to see if I did actually buy insurance at that time or not, but in the meantime can anyone confirm or deny the bit about these markers only due to stay on your record for a year? There's so much conflicting info about it available online.

Quentin

Insurers normally ask if you ever had a policy cancelled.

As far as actual claims and losses are concerned different insurers ask for different periods of history

Three to five years is the normal span

paddyandstumpy

As I understand it a cat 3 on CIFAS is 'application fraud' i.e. you didn't disclose previous claims when you took out a policy.
You need to write to the company (I presume insurer) and ask them to remove this market, and provide justification as to why.

As to this being removed after a certain period, that's true of financial markers on your credit file, but this is a fraud marker.

I'll check with our fraud team when I'm in work, but you may be tarnished for good, unless you can persuade the company who put it up to remove it.

Most insurers use this or similar databases when checking applications, so you need to disclose this when applying.

Nasqueron

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

As I understand it a cat 3 on CIFAS is 'application fraud' i.e. you didn't disclose previous claims when you took out a policy.
You need to write to the company (I presume insurer) and ask them to remove this market, and provide justification as to why.

.

Because, as the OP stated, they wrote off a car and didn't declare it on the next quote they got?