Speeding Courses

bjbyorkshire

If a driver has attended a National Speed Awareness Course (NSAC) within the last 3 years can they also attend a National Motorway Awareness Course (NMAC) within this period?

An offer to attend the NMAC course has been sent to a friend and he is not sure if he is eligible to take up the offer. The letter says his details have been checked on a National Database but we all know that mistakes do happen?

Do others usually inform their insurance company that they have attended these courses? The course instructors usually say this is not necessary but I think there is some debate about this matter.

Thanks

Car_54

Yes, they can attend.

Some insurers do ask (e.g. Admiral Group). If asked, you must answer truthfully.

Warwick_Hunt

Given they have already attended a Speed Awareness Course within three years then no, they can’t do another Speed related course.

Mercdriver

Warwick_Hunt wrote: »

Given they have already attended a Speed Awareness Course within three years then no, they can’t do another Speed related course.

there are reports on Pepipoo of people being able to attend both the normal speed awareness course and the 20mph speed awareness course. I don't know whether the Motorway one is a new one that has similar conditions or not...

Warwick_Hunt

Mercdriver wrote: »

there are reports on Pepipoo of people being able to attend both the normal speed awareness course and the 20mph speed awareness course. I don't know whether the Motorway one is a new one that has similar conditions or not...

I’ve no doubt some slip through.

http://www.ttc-uk.com/police-referred-courses/nmsac/

bjbyorkshire

Thanks for the replies so far, still not a definite answer though. For clarification this second letter states that the offence was "exceed a variable speed limit - automatic camera device" 60 in a 50 limit.

shaun_from_Africa

Mercdriver wrote: »

there are reports on Pepipoo of people being able to attend both the normal speed awareness course and the 20mph speed awareness course.

This may well be because they are two different courses.
There is the NSAC (National speed awareness course which covers everything from 30mph upwards) and also the NSAC20 (National speed awareness course, 20mph).
Because they are 2 different courses, going on one may not mean that you are not eligible for the other.

Car_54

bjbyorkshire wrote: »

An offer to attend the NMAC course has been sent to a friend and he is not sure if he is eligible to take up the offer. The letter says his details have been checked on a National Database but we all know that mistakes do happen?

If your friend received a letter saying he'd won the lottery, would he worry that a mistake might have been made?

He has been invited to attend by the Chief Constable. It would be rude to refuse.;)

Aretnap

bjbyorkshire wrote: »

An offer to attend the NMAC course has been sent to a friend and he is not sure if he is eligible to take up the offer. The letter says his details have been checked on a National Database but we all know that mistakes do happen?

If the database says that he's eligible, then who is he to argue?

If he accepts the offer and goes on the course then he certainly isn't committing any offence, even if a mistake has been made. The worst that could happen if that at some point they say "oops, sorry, our mistake, here's your money back and a fixed penalty instead".

Do others usually inform their insurance company that they have attended these courses? The course instructors usually say this is not necessary but I think there is some debate about this matter.

There isn't really any debate. Insurers can ask you about anything they like, unless there's a law which says that they can't ask about it (there is no such law as far as speed awareness courses are concerned) and if they ask you have to answer truthfully or risk having your policy invalidated.

The large majority of insurers do not ask about these courses, but a handful do - mainly Admiral and its associated brands. So if you did use Admiral you would have to tell them of risk having your policy invalidated.

Insurers do not (yet) have access to the database of attendees, so you might have more chance of getting away with this than some other lies you might think of telling your insurer. However that doesn't mean that you won't be in trouble if they find out by other means. Admiral are quite hot on using new technology to detect fraud, so they might well find out if you post about your course on social media or put it into a price comparison site to see what difference it makes. Or if they ask you to "confirm a few details" when you make a claim, and you forget to lie second time round.

Personally it's not a risk that I'd take for the sake of saving a tenner on my premium - I'd either declare the course, or just use a different insurer (there are plenty of good reasons for not using Admiral which have nothing to do with speed awareness courses)..

bjbyorkshire

Thanks a bunch for all the replies. As you get older you seem to worry about everything. Youngsters just seem to accept that if a letter says this or that then it must be correct, us older folks have found out the hard way that the office junior did the research and got it wrong.

We're now convinced that it is possible to do both of these courses so thanks again for all the replies.

Missy5881

Hi what was the outcome of this please