Car Insurance Article Discussion

tom_bennett

Careful, I was on holiday when my insurance policy finished. I did not know until I got home and found bill for the renewal premium of £350 (£255 last year). I objected but they said I had to pay as had agreed to an automatic renewal......it was hidden in the small print of the contract ...what a con.
I don't know if I allowed to mention the insurer...it was Budget.

The_Big_Cheese

Hi all,
Took out insurance via the moneysupermarket.com web site last September with Autotrader as part of my annual check at renewal time, they were the cheapest and had good customer satisfaction reviews so i opted for this and paid a one off lump sum premium.
I bought a new car similar to the last, just newer earlier this week, when i phoned Autotrader to update my existing policy, i was told that because the new car was a percieved higher risk, that they would not insure it but could offer insurance with a different underwriter, but my premuim would be doubled.
So i asked them to cancel my policy, expecting a refund of the existing premium. They informed me that because of their cancellation policy and with cancellation charges applicable, i actually owed them money!!!,
So i have two options, pay them and cancel the policy or accept the doubled premium.
As part of my search for new insurance, i checked the usuals for new quotes (confused, gocompare and money supermarket), only to find Autotrader listed on these comparison web sites at premiums comparable to those quoted last September!! ( so much for not being able to insure the car)

As you can imagine, i feel Autotrader are taking advantage of existing cutomers and are placing us in a lose, lose senario.

Surely this cannot be right, can anybody offer any advice as to ways to avoid any of these charges? Can insurance companies offer insurance on comparison web sites and then not offer them to existing customers?

Thanks in advance for any advise/comments.

GlobalSquare

First thanks for the infomation .. most useful again!!


but .... almost a year on and still no mention by martin that users can go through cashback sites themselves to the comparison sites and save/earn more money

The proudly advertised Emmonk could have actually got the insurance for less than £14 if you had been upfront about searching with the cashback sites .... but you'd rather line your own pockets it seems

Everytime i think of this, for all the good that the site has done im am left with a bitter taste in my mouth and pictures in my head of martin as one of the fat cat bankers laughing with our money .... moneysaver... more like moneypincher with this article

What is an awesome article about consumer power is marred by greed

vanito

I did not even know that "normal" speeding point had any effect?

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?

dacouch

You must declare any motoring convictions and criminal convictions to your Insurers even "normal" speeding convictions.

ewebaby

TokSik wrote: »

This is right up to a point - the contract IS partly based on good faith. However, no insurer is legally entitled to retrospectively claim an additional amount that they MAY have charged had they known the additional information. Given the number of insurers who insure people with penalty points as a matter of course, it's not a foregone conclusion that omitting to mention this to any insurer would invalidate the contract.

And contrary to other views, this would NOT be upheld in any court if the insurer took the matter to court to try to seek enforcement. The only option open to the insurer is to ask for an additional amount for future cover, or to cancel the policy. Demanding retrospective additional amounts IS a variation to the contract, and arguable in court only by the policy holder as breach of contract (not the insurer) and only then IF the insuraqnce company refuse to uphold the existingly priced contract. I doubt that they would want this type of argument to go to court to be tested, as it would open the floodgates to thousands of others if the ruling went against them.

As a debt adviser, I advise people with this type of demand to call the bluff of the company involved (because that is all it is - unenforceable bluff) and contact the company today by fax to enquire whether they are cancelling the contract by invalidating the insurance as a result of the omission, or whether they are attempting to vary the terms and conditions by adding an additional premium (albeit backdated) to the policy.

I would advise anyone on this situation to get a new insurance in place forthwith (if the insurance company do not respond favourably by return the same day, as the existing policy may be invalid from this point - a grey area of law that would have arguable points for both sides should an accident happen from this point on and the validity of the policy was brought into question by the insurer).

You are far better dealing with this situation BEFORE any accident occurs rather than after an accident, as the insurance company involed will almost certainly try to wriggle out of liability and wait for you to challenge them in court (which you COULD lose - the cost of which could be significantly higher if you are ordered to pay the other sides costs as well )
If you just get a new policy from another insurer where you HAVE quoted any penalty points you have, and cancell the existing policy (about a £30 cost usually to cancel) you can safely tell your existing insurer where to put their demand for the extra money. Only then can you start to argue about who owes what to whom (ie if you paid for a years cover in advance, then the value of the existing amount of cover left owing will become a point of contention between you and the company demanding more money, as they almost certainly won't hand back any excess after they taken their admin fee (the £30 or so mentioned above) as they will claim that you owed them this amount retrospectively anyway so they are entitled to reclaim what you owed them from the existing value of your remaining cancelled policy. Your only recourse after this is to either complain to the FSO or take them to court to try to reclaim the remaining value of the cancelled policy.

Hi, I have just enquired about canelling my car insurance with Direct Line because I have a far better quote elsewhere. Direct Line are claiming that I too have to pay a canellation fee of almost £40. Do I really have to pay this or can I refuse and let this issue run its course to court? If so am I likely to win or lose including all the incured costs?

Quentin

You would lose, and have to pay costs.

The cancellation fee will be covered by the ts + cs which you accepted when taking out the policy.

mich_t

Hi all

Just wanted to ask a quickie before i renew.

I have about 15 years of NCB, is it worth protecting them? I always have done in the past but just wondered if i claimed would the policy go up the following year anyway, even with protected NCB? It's only because it is adding nearly £50 to my premium to protect them.

Thanks.

Quentin

The premium may go up even without a claim (eg because of inflation, your new age group is more expensive than the previous year etc). A claim on your history may result in a premium increase, even if not your fault. But with protection the max NCB would still be applied to the new premium.

Your 15 years isn't NCB - it's 15 years without a claim. The max NCB is 5 years (ie If you have a fault claim during the year, then your NCB would be down to 3 years at renewal without protection)

mich_t

Thanks Quentin, didn't realise that. Probably not really worth the additional £40 then.