Car Insurance Article Discussion

tiggy77

This is driving me mad, I too am with the Post Office, fully com, I am 33, my ins last year went up to £370 when I moved to a better area (not near dodgy estates)!!!! Now this year I will have 5 yrs no claims and they want to put it up to £467!!!! I have been looking around, adding my mum on policy (42 yrs licence, no claims etc) and still I can only find around £430 aaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh :mad:.
I don't understand.

camcat81

I am due to renew soon and have accrued points in the year. I thought that the insurer would be informed about the points so took no further action.

They have quoted me £1000 more than last year so I will definately be switching & of course declaring to the new insurer that I have points.

Can my old insurer ask for backdated premiums even if I switch?

Quentin

If you owe them, they can chase you for the money.

Froggy123_2

Am I being stupid or are the comparison websites ignoring the interest being charged? I have just tried both main sites and it seems the cheapest annual amount is listed as first but as they all charge different interest rates in fact the cheapest is not on top.

Also I chose Swinton who then told me I could not buy the insurance as a one off premium?????? That is not what is says on the box as they say??

Getting really peed off as I have been trying to find a decent clear quote for the last 2 hours:(

loopylootwo

Having seen this started with speeding, can someone advise me!
In January I had an old man try to park his car between two others (one being mine!), unfortunatey he didn't quite get them in first time so he 'nudged' until he was parked - back and front, as watched by the staff in an estate agents opposite.
When I returned to my car the staff ran out to tell me what had occured and I approached the gentleman in question as he got out of his car - with two walking sticks. He had 'no idea' that he had used the other cars as buffers.
There was not a huge amount of damage but I was concerned as to whether he should actually be driving, consequently I took his details and informed the police and....my insurance company!
BIG MISTAKE.
I got a call a few days later from a lady asking if I needed a car and I said no. As far as I was concerned there was no need and I thought that the matter had ended.
The car was sold in April and I rang the company to change details on the policy, paid the difference in premium, happy as a lark.
As my renewal is due 31 December I thought I would be organised and called Sureterm, not having had the renewal. After discussion it turns out that not only have they classes me as having made a claim, but I own 2 cars!
I do not know where to turn - because I informed them of this knock, for which no claim was made or paid, my premium has jumped by £40 and, apparently, I have to inform all insurers that I have made a 'Notification only' call.
Is this right? Is there some way around this? I have written to their complaints dept - awaiting response - and am prepared to go to financial ombudsman but am unsure about insuring meantime. Do I declare or not?

loopylootwo

If you read the original thread (click on the insurance title) there is really good advice from a debt collector (is dated 2007 though).

Quentin

loopylootwo wrote: »

..... I have to inform all insurers that I have made a 'Notification only' call.
Is this right? Is there some way around this? I have written to their complaints dept - awaiting response - and am prepared to go to financial ombudsman but am unsure about insuring meantime. Do I declare or not?

Yes, this incident will (correctly) have been added to the database and you will need to inform other insurers of this when applying.

mikey72

Quentin wrote: »

Yes, this incident will (correctly) have been added to the database and you will need to inform other insurers of this when applying.

Not sure I entirely agree with this.
It's a pity you told them about it. Would have been much better to have arrived later and missed it all if there was no damage. Obviously you'd feel bad if he drove off and ran someone over, but as he's bound to still be driving, it's cost you £40 for nothing, but at least his insurance has probably gone up too.

OWATAMESS

klint wrote: »

There's a couple of questions that Martin leaves unanswered. First, he says premiums are cheaper at this time of year. Why's that? And when will they go back up again?

Secondly, in his weekly email he says:

"One MoneySaver e-mailed me to say he'd not realised he had to declare his speeding cam points to his insurer. When he did, it charged him £900 back-dated as a retrospective rise in premium."

This is exactly what has happened to a colleague of mine at work (well nearly so, as it wasn't quite as much as £900.) I wonder what happened, did he pay up or is he taking the insurance company to court?

My colleague's insurance policy had already expired before they realised about the undeclared speeding points. It was a genuine oversight caused by a belief that the DVLA would have told the insurance company about the points. My colleague did not make any claims, so the points had made no difference to the insurance company. And yet they are still asking for a retrospective additional premium. The speeding points did not cost the insurance company a single penny, so what would happen if my colleague refuses to pay?

After reading the above by Klint, can someone tell me where I stand on this.
I had 3 points put on my licence on 30/08/2006 for doing 35 in a 30 zone, I also had to pay a 60 pound fine and have paid higher premiums for my insurance ever since as I did disclose it to the insurance companies that I've had.The points are no longer valid as an SP30 only stays on your licence for 4 years and after a phone call to the DVLA they confirmed that from the 30/08/2010 the points had come off and I was no longer on their database.
As I no longer have the points on my licence and have 8 years NCB plus I have now turned 50! which I've been told goes in your favour I thought my insurance would be cheaper. The cheapest quote I could find was with ONE CALL Insurance at a cost of 545 pound (last year it was 360)
I rang ONE CALL and went through some questions with them and then they took my debit card payment for the full amount over the phone. They then said that I needed to send in a copy of my paper and photocard licences which is something I've never been asked to do before. I faxed a copy of my licences through to them the next day and about a week later I received a letter from them telling me that because of an undisclosed conviction they were going to take 107 pounds from my bank account using the card details they held on their files. I rang them and explained that if they looked at the date of the conviction that the points were no longer valid, but the woman I was speaking to said that they were because they were on my licence! I told her that it was like charging me extra on my premium for having a tea or coffee stain on it and repeated that the points are no longer valid. I told her that I could have sent my licence back to DVLA to have the points removed but it would have cost me 20 pound and as I have to re-new my photocard licence soon which is going to cost 20 pound as well that I was going to wait until then and get them both sorted and it would only cost 20 pound for the two of them instead of 40 pound if they were done separetly. She was having none of it, she said that she would have a word with her manager and put me on hold. When she came back she said that they have reduced it to 35 pound which I was still unhappy about. I said that if I had sent my licence back and had a new one issued without showing the points on it and faxed that through to them then they would be none the wiser. Her answer was "but you didn't did you". The conversation was starting to get a bit loud, I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall so I just ended up paying the 35 pound (ransom).

I didn't disclose it to them as it is in the past and does not exist anymore. Are they allowed to charge me extra for something that is in the past? :think:

dacouch

The points can be removed from your licence so they do not affect any other convictions, however you are still obliged to declare them to the Insurer