Car Insurance Article Discussion

Quentin

If you had full ncd, then this premium would be in the region of £187, so it does seem in the ballpark.

You could try getting a comprehensive quote, with a big excess (say £1000) (if you are happy to have just third party coverage), and see how that looks.

flyingflea

KLB wrote: »

I’ve just gone thru all the comparison websites and am surprised at how high the cheapest quote is - £533.60 for 3rd party fire & theft. I’m 37, live in east London (that probably doesn’t help!), a new driver and this is my first car (also probably doesn’t help). I didn’t think it would cost that much tho! Does it sound about right?

What car you driving out of interest? My friend who is 18 and just passed her test got quoted £400 on a Suzuki Vitara (4x4) fully comp in her own name. That was with Tesco Value Insurance, though Quinn Direct were similar (all other quotes were £800+). Obviously her being a full-time student and being female must help. I remember when I changed my name and gender see what difference it made, there was a £100 difference!

gavpowell

Not sure how easy this is for others but I'm 27 and passed me test about a month ago and the best deal I got on insurance was from NFU Mutual (National Farmers' Union), who have branches in a few places.

I got fully comp with breakdown cover and a courtesy car for about 520 quid, and the monthly payments are only charged at about 3% interest.

Having said that, I did get 30% knocked off for having done Pass Plus, but for the sake of 6 hours more lessons I figured it was worth it - the lower you get your insurance the first time, the better for every subsequent time, right? I mean you presumably don't go from 800 in year 1 down to 500 in year 2 for a year's no claims?

Thought it might be useful anyway

200pounder

Does anyone know if you can get a standalone guaranteed hire car policy to run alongside your car insurance policy.
I've found cheaper motor legal insurance than my insurance company are offering but want to cut the costs further but can't see anything on the internet

any ideas?

dacouch

There is a company that offer this but it is very expensive

dstanden

Every year my wife and I hit the comparison sites, then engage in haggling with insurance companies to get the best deal going. We regularly make good savings by talking on the phone to the companies with the best prospects of a good deal.

However, beware the renewal quote. The price of loyalty is not cheap.

One year, we successfully haggled over £145 off a renewal quote by providing evidence of cheaper insurance. The following year, the renewal was way above everyone elses best prices (about £145 higher) and so I decided to ring and find out why.

After getting through the call centre, I finally cornered a supervisor who explained that, "Discounts given in previous years need to be recovered and so if we give you get a really good price, the computer will try and get it back over the next few years".

Apparently a calculation "fault" had left the computer asking for the whole "retention" benefit back in one go instead of breaking it down into more palatable chunks.

My advice - Do the comparison first, then befriend the call handler and haggle/negotiate as much as you can. Don't get angry, always be polite but firm. At the end of the year, always check your renewal price and don't settle for it just because it hasn't gone up too much on the previous year - other companies may (and probably are) charging far less for the same.

Good Luck!

Legally_Brunette_Student

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.

ALL HELP/ ADVICE WOULD BE REALLY APPRECIATED

Hi I'm new to the forum, so my apologies if i've got this all wrong.

My predicament is as follows:

I called to cancel my existing policy due to the current climate and not being able to afford my car insurance as it stood.

I called my Car Insurers and informed them that I would not be renewing the policy (I pay annually) and would revisit the idea in a couple of months.

They were charging me in excess of £700 for a 10month policy, this I was led to believe was the fact that I had 6pts on my licence when I first insured with them. The following year, unfortunately I incurred an additional 3pts i called and spoke with someone and simply stated that i had additional pts. In hindsight I should have taken a ref or noted time date etc, however I did not. 2 years since insuring with them i called to cancel and the salesperson was insistent i hear whether he could offer a better deal. I explained my predicament as noted above and that consquently I had looked online and been quoted £550 for 12 months so just wanted to cancel.

He then flagged up that there system had only record of 6 and not 9. Notwithstanding that I had called to inform them. Nonetheless I stated that I wished to cancel and that my policy had ended and I had never made any claims.

In addition to which, my 6 of my pts were due to come off this September and another 3 soon after.

I was told they would look into it and would call me back, I have now received a letter stating they are going to take in excess of £400 out of my account, without actually stating what for. I would like to know if they can make retrospective claims if my policy had been cancelled and that no claims have been made.

I found an article online which questioned the legality of such actions. I was wondering if anyone might be able to shed some light on it.

I have told them that i do not authorise any payments to be made and that i would be sending a letter and (with the benefit of hindsight) would like all correspondence in letter so that i have a record of them.

I would appreciate any in put and have posted the article if anyone would like to have a look. Thank you in advance for your time.

Customers are experiencing retrospective charges for non-disclosure - a demand which might not even have legal justification.

Car insurance firms are hiking premiums retrospectively on customer disclosures of previous driving offences - with the increased prices sometimes extending back for years.

An investigation from the Guardian newspaper has also revealed that it is unlikely that such customer non-disclosure, for speeding fines and other penalties, legally entitles insurers to ask for more money.

Helen Hernandez-Sanchez claims that she was charged an extra £518 for four years of using Diamond's insurance without having informed them of her two speeding fines from 2004 and 2005. "I was aware you had to tell them about motoring convictions but this was a fixed penalty, not a court appearance," she said.

"I realise now this was a mistake. If it had been on purpose, I would not have told them at all."

Commenting on the case, Diamond told the newspaper that their policy of retrospectively charging was supported by the Financial Ombudsman. "This is a policy we have always had," it added. However, the Ombudsman said that the policy was, in fact, "not something we recognise".

A spokesperson commented: "A non-disclosure problem without a claim is a very unusual scenario. We have not issued any guidance on this specific set of circumstances."

Michael Whitton, a solicitor at law firm Edwin Coe, also said that non-disclosure of the charges "does not automatically [cancel] the contract of insurance". He added: "I do not consider Diamond has an entitlement to recover premiums for previous policy years where they say premium would have been higher had it been aware of material facts which were not disclosed."

dazworld

I should re-word 'cheap' in the title - I mean 'not as expensive' as insurance ISN'T cheap.

INADEQUTE COVER IN EVENT OF DEATH
I've just read the small print after receiving the paperwork for my car insurance with YES Insurance this year.

If I die in an accident, they will pay £5,000. A life worth just £5,000!
But the great thing is that they'll pay an un-known, third party, an unlimited amount up to £20million! Wow - they really take care of their customers.

I don't have the cash to buy additional life insurance - I EXPECT the car insurance to cover me in the event of my death. I am writing to YES in respect of this and I want to stress to others on their insurance renewal to ASK on the phone BEFORE PAYING and ALWAYS read the small print and especially in the first 7 days (so you are covered in the 7 days long distance selling) you can cancel it and get a SUITABLE insurance.

AT FAULT
There are other issues with insruance:
When I was on holiday in 2005, a criminal broke into my car by yanking the doors open, damaged my engine bay (trying to stop the immobiliser/alarm which was going off) and then tried pulling my leather seats out along with stealing items including 100's of my CDs. My YES insurance says at this claim, 'fault' - meaning it was my fault claiming for personal effects! Disgrace.

Insurance - Legalised crime.

raskazz

I'm sorry, but this post is absolutely barking!

dazworld wrote: »

I should re-word 'cheap' in the title - I mean 'not as expensive' as insurance ISN'T cheap.

INADEQUTE COVER IN EVENT OF DEATH
I've just read the small print after receiving the paperwork for my car insurance with YES Insurance this year.

If I die in an accident, they will pay £5,000. A life worth just £5,000!
But the great thing is that they'll pay an un-known, third party, an unlimited amount up to £20million! Wow - they really take care of their customers.

I don't have the cash to buy additional life insurance - I EXPECT the car insurance to cover me in the event of my death. I am writing to YES in respect of this and I want to stress to others on their insurance renewal to ASK on the phone BEFORE PAYING and ALWAYS read the small print and especially in the first 7 days (so you are covered in the 7 days long distance selling) you can cancel it and get a SUITABLE insurance.

The cover you are referring to is not intended as a complete life assurance - that is what a life assurance policy is for; it is merely a 'benefit' which can provide a little extra to your estate in the case of death (and usually a little extra to yourself for loss of sight, loss of limb and perhaps permanent total disablement).

The insurer is obliged by virtue of the Road Traffic Act to compensate the innocent victims of negligent motorists - and provide indemnity for unlimited liabilities for third party injury/death and £1 million for third party property damage (although most policies extend this element to £20 million). So, god forbid, if you lost a limb because of a negligent third party motorist, you would get the £5,00 benefit from your insurer and then would receive a fairly large sum in compensation from the third party's insurer.

There is no point in searching for more 'suitable' car insurance in this respect as no motor insurer exists which offers what you are apparently looking for.

dazworld wrote: »

AT FAULT
There are other issues with insruance:
When I was on holiday in 2005, a criminal broke into my car by yanking the doors open, damaged my engine bay (trying to stop the immobiliser/alarm which was going off) and then tried pulling my leather seats out along with stealing items including 100's of my CDs. My YES insurance says at this claim, 'fault' - meaning it was my fault claiming for personal effects! Disgrace.

No. You need to realise that insurers are not using the word 'fault' in the typical dictionary-defined sense of the word (i.e. implying blame). They are using the word 'fault' as it is used in insurance terminology - i.e. a fault claim is a claim where they pay out but do not or cannot recover their costs from a third party.

dazworld wrote: »

Insurance - Legalised crime.

Ill-informed MSE posting - Legalised madness.

bakers

Hi I am new to the forum and could do with some advice. My daughter has just taken out her own insurance for the first time. I was added as a named driver to reduce the premium but was told that a non fault accident recorded 2 years ago would up the premium by £90, I accepted this as it was still cheaper than the next quote. Today she has had a letter saying that she failed to notify them of a non fault accident on herself, which happened when she was the named driver on her mother's policy. They want to charge her another £193. She was the victim of a rear end shunt when parked. When I queried both these charges I was told that even a non fault accident would affect the rating of the drivers. Surely this cannot be right that you are disadvantaged by the actions of a third party long after the matter has been agreeably settled. Iwould appreciate any thoughts. Thanks Steve