Car Insurance Article Discussion

Quentin

OWATAMESS wrote: »

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:

Yes.

(When you were asked about your convictions you didn't disclose when you should have done)

Insurers don't just ask if you have points on your licence!

OWATAMESS

When you apply for car insurance, you are asked if you have had any accidents or convictions in the past five years. I didn't think I had to say yes to that this time. So even though the points are spent after four years it will still affect my insurance premium? When I apply for insurance next November will I still have to tell the insurance company about the points I had, or will it finally not count as it will be over five years?

Quentin

OWATAMESS wrote: »

When you apply for car insurance, you are asked if you have had any accidents or convictions in the past five years. I didn't think I had to say yes to that this time. So even though the points are spent after four years it will still affect my insurance premium?

You say you know you had to declare convictions over the last 5 years, but "didn't think" you had to say yes????

As you discovered, it did affect your premium (though had you come clean in the first place it wouldn't have cost you so much - apart from the premium increase they will have slapped an admin charge on you too).

If your last conviction date has passed its fifth anniversary when you next apply for a policy you can safely say no.

Darkwoods

Car insurance prices are getting way too much, the prices have almost doubled from last year I payed 550£ and now I got the renewal notice letter and the price is 928£, the car i'm driving is just a Nissan Micra 998cc for god's sake maybe we should go back to donkeys and horses..
Soon only rich people would afford taking car insurance, the prices are just rising every year what do they think we are doing printing money at home?

Guardian: Car insurance premiums rise by 40% in 12 months

40% in 12 months !!!!!!? the only ones to blame is the government in all this...
they are simply encouraging people who doesn't afford to pay these high prices to drive illegally which means prices will get higher and higher!

ohmega

Can an insurance company automatically renew your next years premium?

Without your permission?

And then when you high light the fact that the car is no longer in your possession and that their price for loyalty is a rip off, can they take money out of your account because they say that they have insured you and you haven't cancelled a policy that you did not agree to?

Confused? Me too, they also want to charge an cancellation administration fee of £75.00 but have generously said that they will accept £55.00 :mad:

Any advise?

Quentin

Snatch their hand off. It's all your fault for not reading up your documents.

Surfin_JC

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?

I've been made acutely aware of how much the insurance industry stands to gain from this sort of situation quoted above. I've just had insurance CANCELLED immediately as the company despite having 19 years driving without a claim. The reason? My previous insurer issued a renewal notice which states "5+ years" so within the space of a week, I went from years of protected no claims driving to being told I would be driving illegally. It does seem that it is in the insurers' interest to make these administrative loopholes work for them. I'm now going to have to see if I can assemble nearly twenty years of insurance evidence... anyone got any ideas on how to stop these companies from pulling this sort of 'limiting' activity? I've refrained from naming the guilty parties involved but do recommend looking at which companies provide accurate renewals notices... :mad:

mungojet

raskazz wrote: »

As any other business does, including, presumably, the business you work for?



There is no 'clubbing together' or collusion. Motor insurance is a highly competitive market and indeed several motor insurers have made a loss in the last couple of years. This insinuation that there is 'clubbing together' betrays an inherent bias in your opinion, I think your mind has already been made up as to what you think of the insurance industry. Please post any evidence you have to back up this extraordinary assumption.



This is very creative but unfortunately is bad statistics! Two coin tosses are independent events, i.e. the result of the first toss does not affect the result of the second. The incidence of a claim is not an independent event, because if someone has been involved in a claim in one year (fault or non-fault) then the probability that they are involved in one in the next year is higher, as proved by the clais data the insurer has gathered.



Again, this is simply not correct. The insurer's claims statistics show that you are more likely to incur a fault claim if you have been involved in a non-fault claim. Why that might be is open to debate, but insurers are need not be concerned with the causation, only with correlation.



I disagree, I have never been involved in any accident and pay lower premiums as a result. I don't want to subsidise higher risks and don't see why I should either.

To extend your argument, perhaps insurance companies should charge youngsters the same premium as middles-aged drivers because 'we all get old'. Ridiculous.

Typical case of Math Hysteria - the original poster was correct - the probability of tossing a head AND then another head in a row is indeed 25% or 0.25 to express correctly.

If we assume your premis then the probability of tossing a head a 100 times in a row is still 50/50 !!!!

Spooky709

Hi, I have a question.

I had a policy from Admiral less then a year ago and cancelled it early, paid my administration fee, got my refund all good.
I'm looking to do that again now so I can use my car for a bit before I go back to uni, as I'm a few months off 21 I can't get a short term policy, so insuring then cancelling really is my only option.

Will Admiral have a problem with me cancelling my policy for a second time? I don't want them to think I'm taking the p*ss and tell me I have to ride the policy out, because I couldn't afford to do that.

Thanks

Quentin

Nope, they will be quite happy to take you on (and have your early cancellation money if that's what happens).

Virtually any insurer would welcome you (though check their cancellation charges before making a decision)