BR and car insurance renewal

Piggywinkle

Hi all,

I made myself BR in September of this year and my car insurance is up for renewal during the first week in December. The renewal offered by my current company, even though it's gone up a tiny bit since last year, is still extremely competitive. I had a quick look around the price comparison sites anyway and nothing else came near. The few that looked like an alternative option wouldn't give me an online decision (I'm pretty sure the soft credit search set the alarm bells ringing!) and asked me to call instead.

Anyway - I'm a rambler, sorry - if I stick with my current insurer and accept their renewal offer, do I need to inform them that I'm BR? It's M&S if any of you have any dealings with them. The annual amount is around £329 so it's under the £500 credit limit that the BR restrictions deal with.

The only mention of anything to do with BR is in the small print of the T&Cs which says something along the lines of '... in the event of a claim, we reserve the right to conduct a background check which may include bankruptcy records, fraud records... etc etc'.

What should I do? Should I just bite the bullet and call them to see my price hiked or my renewal refused or should I just let my insurance carry on rolling and hope everything is fine?

NotEvanAPot

You do not need to declare, but you may find that they decline to offer monthly payments as an option when finalising policy, as is their right. Just be prepared to be asked for the total annual premium.

National_Debtline

Hi Piggywinkle


The amount of credit involved is below the threshold for declaring your BR so there's no specific need for you to inform them.


As you are aware, the insurer may run a check on your credit file which will flag up the bankruptcy in any case, and then it's for them to decide whether they are willing to let you pay it over the 12 months as opposed to one lump sum.


Dennis
@natdebtline

peterkay369

Hello,

As far as I'm aware, you only need to notify them of the bankruptcy if the total credit is over £500 so if yours is £329 you will be fine and don't have to disclose anything. That only applies to if you're paying monthly too, if you're paying the annual premium all at once and it's over £500 you shouldn't need to declare anything as you aren't taking out any forms of credit.

I would however try giving them a call and explaining that you have been a loyal customer and would prefer to stay with them, yet cannot understand why the price has gone up seeing as you have "been offered better by elsewhere"

Hope this helps

Piggywinkle

Thanks for your advice all (I flippin love the MSE forum!)

Ah, I didn't even consider them accepting my request for renewal and then wanting me to pay the annual cost up front! D'oh.

Even if this is the case, my husband has said he will pop it onto his 0% on purchases credit card and pay it off within about 3 months so that's hopefully the worst case scenario.

Thanks again

london1973

For my 10 cents, my insurance has just renewed, BR about 5 weeks ago, gone up a shade, have said nothing and all seems fine, the marginal increase far outweighing the potential hassle as a consequence of shopping around or trying to get a better deal
Did someone on this forum once say 'don't poke the bear' -
Incidentally my premium is waaayyyyy over 500 p/a, welcome to central London, do I really have to inform....?

tigerfeet2006

Yup! I'm afraid so if you are paying monthly. It's one of the conditions of BR. If you make a claim and they see you are BR then they can refuse to cover the claim and withdraw cover.