Car Insurance Article Discussion

Quentin

Why did you cancel your policy (as opposed to just telling them not renew it)? They do charge a fee if you cancel a policy. And by cancelling like this you lose out on any NCB you would have earned for allowing the policy to complete the year.

jamesperrett

Deleted_User wrote: »

Anyone out there insuring a long owned PLG van on ultra low annual mileage and now also a car as a daily runaround? Both owner driver only. Im desperate to lower the costs of my annual £450 bill :eek:as i might be forced to lose the van otherwise and its been a godsend for picking up cheap house goods and carting motorbikes around.

I was in your situation a few years ago. I had a van for occasional use - maybe a couple of times per month and a car for regular use but running both of them was taking up a large chunk of my earnings for little return. I ended up buying a van sized trailer for about the same cost as a beaten up van would cost. I was covered for towing a trailer on my car insurance and the servicing expenses on the trailer were minimal.

Cheers

James.

stephen.bradley

Hi,

I have tried to use those car comparison websites and it just doesn't give me a great quote. I admit, as a student, most places arent going to give me a good quote on insurance.I originally went with elephant but they stung me for 1500 quid in my first year, third party on a 94 renault clio.

I'm with quinn at the moment but can anyone else suggest a better company for young drivers. I was thinking of going local with a company like Broadsure Direct (ww.broadsuredirect.com) - if anyones used them can you tell me if they are good, they have a good reputation.

Thanks

Steve

Quentin

The catch to this plan is that there are restrictions on "driving other vehicles".

The problem here is that the "other vehicle" cannot be owned by the policyholder (or spouse).

marmarama

My problem is that days after paying upfront (£500+) for a years insurance with a new company, I became aware of various costly work needing doing. I decided the best thing was to sell the van to someone who knows about that kind of thing, and buy a new one.

Well, I got as far as buying a new one, but on enquiring about cancelling the £500+ policy, which hadn't even started yet, I found out about the cancellation charges.

Yes, maybe I should have spent a bit longer on research before going for the cheapest price. Now it will cost me £25-50 cancellation (depending on 14 days), plus pro-rata, plus £45 setup fee. IT's the last bit that I reckon is cheeky! By the time I weigh up my options, I reckon I'm looking at over £100 for a couple of days insured.
I'm guessing no-one's found a way to avoid the setup fee in this situation.

I thought about driving one as 'other vehicle', as I suggested above, but the insurers reckon that industry standard is not to include 'other vehicle' when the policy is for a van!

Does anyone know if this is true or not, 'cos in the past I've definitely got 'other vehicle' (and even 'unnamed driver' - ah! those were the days!) as standard.


I'll also be changing address and maybe job in the future. I'm worried that I'm gonna be stung by so many alteration / cancellation charges that I'll end up spending near to another year's insurance cost.


Last thing I need to know is- anyone know what companies will do less than a year's policy at a sensible price?

I reckon these 3 smileys apply to me:
:eek::mad:

Quentin

As already posted you cannot use "driving other vehicles" if you own the "other vehicle".

lisyloo

IT's the last bit that I reckon is cheeky!

Just playing devils advocate, but why should the company subsidise you because you hve changed your mind.
I realise you didn't deliberately engineer the situation so it's not your fault but it's your responsibility not theirs and they have incurred work.
They have set up your policy and they won't now recoup their costs so they are entitled to charge you for this.

I don't know what line of work you are in, but if you did "setup" for a client but they could no longer continue due to a "non fault" sitaution e.g. redundancy, then you'd expect to be paid fo your time right?

It seems that people expect insurers to just say "well never mind, well do it for free".
I'm not in the insurance business but I'm jsut suprised at what people expect.
Would you work for free in your line of work?

Does anyone know if this is true or not, 'cos in the past I've definitely got 'other vehicle' (and even 'unnamed driver' - ah! those were the days!) as standard.

It's not standard anymore (mostly because of people abusing it) so you need to check your specific policy I'm afraid.

I'll also be changing address and maybe job in the future. I'm worried that I'm gonna be stung by so many alteration / cancellation charges that I'll end up spending near to another year's insurance cost.

Sadly the main industry business model is to work on 12 months contracts.
They factor in the set up fees, profit margins etc. on the basis of 12 months of business.
If someone takes a shorter policy then the work is similar e.g. quotation, policy set up, infgracstructure, so inevitably it's realtively more expensive.
Unfortunately due to the nature of your requirements it's going to be more expensive than people who can take a 12 month contract.

j.c.

Hello everyone

Could you give me advise to find a short term insurance?
The insurance'd be for a old, cheap car. I need an european insurance as well with it.
Thank you for your help.

marmarama

lisyloo wrote: »

Just playing devils advocate, but why should the company subsidise you because you hve changed your mind.
I don't know what line of work you are in, but if you did "setup" for a client but they could no longer continue due to a "non fault" sitaution e.g. redundancy, then you'd expect to be paid fo your time right?

er, because I'm paying a cancellation charge already. Which one relates to the work done? Pick and then let that be capped at £50, rather than just the cancellation charge, leaving insurers free to make up extra charges with a different name.

lisyloo wrote: »

Would you work for free in your line of work?
[/UNQUOTE]
I'm self employed and for me the question doesn't often come up, but unfortunately the answer is self employed workers generally don't have that luxury, unless they're pretty savvy & have been burnt a few times already. If a builder does not finish his job because the customer realises in the middle they don't like what he's doing, or it wasn't what they expected, he's unlikely to get paid. It's not right, but it is normal. And it's generally only the big boys (eg insurers) that get to set their terms on things like this.

[QUOTE=}
Sadly the main industry business model is to work on 12 months contracts.

...

Unfortunately due to the nature of your requirements it's going to be more expensive than people who can take a 12 month contract.

Obviously.

But with literally hundreds of insurers out there, you'd think someone would have seen the niche in the market. And yes, I would expect to pay more pro-rata. Plenty of insurers did in fact get the not-too-difficult-to-understand concept that some customers will want less than a year's cover.
But it is simply more profitable to base the business model on a 12 month minimum and charge through the nose for any deviations. As long as the move takes place industry-wide then customers have no choice but to lump it.
I'm sick of financial service providers telling me 'so and so extortion is in line with industry practice'. All it translates to is: "we've formed a cartel on this one and have no intention on giving up the advantage we've got".
It's just dressed up in passive language to make people think it's some great insight into the mysterious world of finance.

(Sorry for the rant)



Anyway, if anyone has experience of getting short (but not that short) period insurance, or minimally running two vans, I'd love to hear it.
Promise I won't bite

k_imp

hello.
i have car insurance with more than select, since feb 2009, last month i changed my car , easy enough just informed them and they sent me a new polocy. but im paying nearly 70 pound a month, and can no longer afford this. so i want to cancel i can understand a cancelation fee fair enough. however when they informed me i will have to pay over £120 remainder of the so called contract i was not happy , i have canceled a polocy with a previous company and they never asked for that , i have spoken to people and they have never heard of this.
how can they justify charging me for something with i would not own. i am paying for a non existing item. i havent used it, nor is it acual property. surely this is corporate bullying?
i just wish to find a way of canceling my polocy (im happy to pay the cancel fee) but not to end the contract as they say.
is there a way to avoid this?
i have not signed or returned any paperwork to the. am i still in the contract if i never signed anything, or sent them anything back.
can i find a way out of this unjust action.
thank you
karl young