Do I need to inform car insurer

bjbyorkshire

I had a mild heart attack 2 weeks ago which resulted in having a hospital stay and 3 stents inserted. I was told that I must not drive for 1 month but need not inform DVLA. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHETHER I need to inform my car insurer and will it likely put up my premium?

Thanks

Aretnap

You would need to read the terms of your own policy to be certain, but in my experience insurers usually only require you to tell them about medical conditions if you also have to tell the DVLA about them. After all, they don't want people jamming up their phone lines every time they get the flu...

BJV

TBH I would tell them anyway. It should not make a difference but I stress I am not a car insurance expert but there is no point not telling them.
Either it will make no difference in which case fab should you need to make a claim they have all the info, or it is something they need to know and charge more for. Bit of a pain but much better than having problems or delays with a claim.

Either way you need to sort it. My Dad had a heart attack, operation - 5 values, not nice. One thing I remember is no stress, no worry was the best medicine.

Good luck and sincerely hope you are feeling better.

Quentin

BJV wrote: »

TBH I would tell them anyway. It should not make a difference but I stress I am not a car insurance expert but there is no point not telling them.
Either it will make no difference in which case fab should you need to make a claim they have all the info, or it is something they need to know and charge more for. Bit of a pain but much better than having problems or delays with a claim.


Good luck and sincerely hope you are feeling better.

No need to ever volunteer any info to your insurer (especially something that could be detrimental to your premium)


As already posted you do need to check the wording on your policy to see what conditions are to be reported (almost certainly just those that have to be reported to dvla)

bjbyorkshire

Thanks to you for the replies. I knew I would get conflicting advice before I posted.

I am the 2nd named driver on my sons car so if I do declare, then it will have to be re both cars, they are both with the same insurer.

DVLA don't need to be notified, I have checked on this.

Our car insurance renewal is due 6th Jan and I cannot drive until 25th December. Son has only recently bought a car and his insurance is pretty high and will no doubt result in a charge to just amend his policy.

My stress levels are going up as we speak!

I feel ok but know that stress is not good for me.

Thanks again.

Quentin

There is conflicting advice, however only one can be correct!

There will be no stress for you if you follow the advice to read up in your policy when you need to report new medical conditions!

(DvlA does not need to know about your condition)

bjbyorkshire

Thanks Quentin, the policy booklet is in the car so I will have a read through it and let you know what the wording says.

(I have also amended the typo's in the above post!)

bjbyorkshire

I have read my insurance policy wording on line and nowhere does it even refer to health conditions and driving. The only area you are told you must inform them is if you change your car, change your job or I think it may have said move home but nothing at all regarding health issues.

I still don't feel confident that in the event of a claim that his might come back to bite me sometime.

teddysmum

When I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, I knew that the DVLA was not involved as I do not take medication for it, but I was unsure about the insurers, as they have a habit of getting out of payments by referring to small print .


My husband, therefore ,rang and was told that they didn't need to know as diabetes without medication is not on the list of reportable ailments.However, as there is obviously a list, I would contact them in this case, just for reassurance.

bjbyorkshire

Thanks teddysmum, I have done just that. I did it without giving my personal details and asked the question regarding a heart attack that did not need to be notified to DVLA and the answer was that they as insurers do not need to be notified so long as my doctor says I am fit to drive. This will hopefully be after the one month expires on 25th December.

Phew, that is good news. It means I can shop around a bit for a better quote than my insurer has quoted so far. If I do tell the alternative insurer about the heart attack and they put extra on the premium then at least I know my original quote is comparable.

Thanks, just one more thing to tick off the list of to do's.