Car insurance going from provisional to full licence

Ollie36

Hi all,

Sorry if this is in the wrong section. I will get straight to the point.

My girlfriend passed her driving test on Friday 30th of Sept this year. In July she purchased a little Ford Ka to learn in and got it insured under her name with Hastings Direct on a monthly payment scheme. When she passed she contacted Hastings and told them that she had passed etc. They told her that her costs would go up now (which she expected) and that the details of the payments would be emailed to her.

She then received the conformation email a day later, where it stated that her payments have gone up from roughly £50 to £200 a month (Sorry I don't know the exact details as its not my policy!) This obviously now is costing her around £2000 for the year. She has since done research on comparison sites and other insurers sites to get quotes which are coming in at nearly £1000 cheaper than what she is currently on. She even went on Hastings Directs website as a new driver and got a quote close to being £1000 cheaper than what shes on.

She has just been on the phone to them and they have said there is nothing they can do and that to cancel the policy it is going to cost her £400+. I am unsure if this equates to being a new policy but they say it isn't, which means she is outside of the 14 day cool of stage, whereas if it is a new policy as of when she passed then she is still within it. She was also lied to and given mis-leading information when on the phone to them confirming that she had passed her test which they are 'looking into'.

I know that cancelling insurance isn't cheap or free but surely this can't be right? I know that there is a difference for monthly cancellations compared to annually but what are they exactly? She is feeling very glum and trapped.

If anyone has any information or details to pass on I would be very grateful.

:beer:

Quentin

It looks like she has to pay the new premium back to September (why didn't she act sooner??), plus cancellation fees and any pro rata charge (based on the new premium)


When you pay on the drip, then cancelling early does also involve "early termination" type charges on the loan involved to pay your premium

agrinnall

I'm not really clear what your question is, but perhaps if you give us more information we can offer some thoughts.

Find out what the new monthly premium is and tell us.
Get a breakdown of the cancellation charges - this is likely to include insurer cancellation fee, premium for time of cover, and may include broker fees if Hastings Direct is not the insurer.

Ollie36

Sorry if my post wasn't very clear, was trying to type what information I had in my mind at the time at million miles per hour.

Hastings Direct have told her that the original salesman said to her on the phone on the day of passing her test that her direct debit would be '£200 odd'. Shes gone from paying £68.95 to £214.88. She has paid 3 months of 68.95 and has to pay £214.88 for 8 months, equalling a total of £1925.89.

I'm not trying to get her away from blame but when you've just passed your test and haven't dealt with something like this before it can be a little bit of a blur and you make rash decisions due to being excited to drive and being inexperienced within that field.

Quentin

You look to be hoping that she should be able to use the "cooling off" period to reduce this charge - but that only applies at the start of the policy.


She is changing the goalposts herself by now wanting cover as a full licence holder mid term, and is bound by the policy conditions she agreed to when originally taking out the policy


Ask them to itemise the cancellation fee being asked for and take it from there (if they are acting in accordance with the policy there is little she can do but pay up, but if not then she has grounds to complain)

Ollie36

I guess she should of asked back in July when taking the policy out what impact passing her test would have cost wise on her policy. I think the main annoyance is that shes been quoted nearly £1000 cheaper by the same company if she was a new customer.

Thank you for your help with this by the way, it is unknown where/who to turn in this situation, so it's nice to get some advice when possible.

Hastings_Direct_company_representative

Hi Ollie,

Thanks for posting about your girlfriend's experience, I'm sorry that the premium to cover her on her own is quite a bit higher. As a broker, our job is to administer the policy and make changes, keeping your insurer fully up to date. Should a policyholder claim and there are inaccurate details or changes in circumstances, it could negatively impact the claim's outcome. When a policyholder goes from Provisional to Full, the risk to the insurer changes quite significantly. The driver will no longer be accompanied by an experienced driver and is also in the first year of their driving history. This has historically been shown to have the largest risk of a claim and insurers will modify the premium accordingly. I do apologise that it's a larger amount to cover although when you look online, cheaper quotes are very often from different insurers or offer a lot less cover for instance Essential policies. I hope I've been able to shed some light on the issue for you and your partner

Regards,

Joe

Ollie36

Yes Joe I understand that but thats not what I'm asking. What you've told me doesn't explain as to why if she was a new customer the cover would be significantly cheaper. She supplied the same, correct details and the difference was nearly £1000 cheaper. Why can't it just be amended, it's the same product at the end of the day. If I bought a product from one branch for one price and then found the same product at the same company but a different branch for half the price I would expect the cost to be altered to match the correct cost to the customer.

Hastings_Direct_company_representative

Hi Ollie, we can swap her over to the new quote and waive the cancellation fee. The new policy would be starting 12 months cover and could still be a different product or insurer which we'd need to explain to her. Mid term change rates are not the same as comparison website offers, do remember. If she calls free on 0800 0354801 we can tell her more about the quote you've seen.

~Joe

Ollie36

Thank you. I will pass this information onto her.

Quentin

Bear in mind that if she now changes her policy to a new one that the NCD she has earned to date will be lost.


She needs to hold the policy the full year (without a claim) to get any NCD


The first year's NCD is high compared with future years (usually worth 30% discount on year 2's premium), and waiting another 12 months to get this may not be cost effective!


(Touch wood she doesn't make a claim!!)