Car Insurance Article Discussion

onesonsmum

Does anybody have any ideas IF there is cheap car insurance for a mature student nurse and if so where do I start looking? Merely surviving on a bursary.

I'm a member of a the students union but not a discount card holder.

shredder69

Hi all..
Great site.. great information etc.

I have a problem..
Since being made redundant last year, I have been finding that keeping up with paying the bills a bit difficult to say the least.

I have dealt with things pretty well, and now only have my car insurance to pay for each month.

Unfortunately, I missed my monthly payment of £29.95 this week (the money was cleared in my account the next day), and as a result of this, the insurance company have charged me £40 for defaulting on my payment!

I spoke to the insurance company last night, and they told me they couldn't do anything to refund the £40 (default payment) as it wasn't to do with them, but down to the 'loan company' who finance my insurance agreement!?

I actually didn't realise I had taken out a loan when I decided to pay for my insurance over a year rather than all at once.. is this usual?

I'm going to ask the insurance company to send me a copy of the finance I 'apparently' signed.. not that I have any memory of this!

Anyway.. should I be paying this £40 on top of my monthly payment, or should I just sack the insurance company off and start again?

Thanks in advance people.. shredder69

harriet.victoria

Hello,

I'm 18 and passed my test in April of this year. Since then I have been a named driver on my parents insurance however in the next few weeks i will be getting my own car.
However, a few months ago I had an accident. It wasn't my fault as it was another driver who went into the back of me whilst I was staitionary. My question is, when I am asked on comparison sites ect, have I made a claim can I say no because the other drivers insurance covered the cost of repairs for my car?
&Also, when asked have I had an accident, I am aware that i will need to say i have but how do i let them know it wasn't my fault? Will it have much effect on my insurance?

denalli

Our car is insured with one company and we couldnt get my 18 YO son on the policy so we managed to get a good quote with someone else, trouble is we forgot to cancel the insurance with the original company which we are still paying, is it legal to have two insurance policies with the same vehicle? My wife and i are on the first one and all three of us are on the second one.

Advice would be helpful please.

nicolasa

We are buying a new car and I have just followed Martin's advice regarding the order of comparison sites to use and then checking individual companies.

The Aviva website is not working so I called the company directly for a quote, only to be told that they automatically run a credit check which shows up on your file regardless of whether you go ahead and make arrangements to purchase car insurance from them. The customer service representative I spoke to told me that this was generally the case with other insurance companies. Is this correct? Surely this should not be allowed at the enquiry stage? I have very good credit but a dozen or more enquiries would impact my rating and could also impact me in the next year (new mortgage or credit card applications) as well as current lines of credit as it is now common practice to keep monitoring existing customers. For someone whose credit is average or poor this could be disastrous.

Obviously companies have the right to check a potential customer prior to a sale, and indeed to withdraw or change an offer based on a financial check, but to be able to do this before responding to an enquiry seems outrageous to me. In addition this could severely impact a consumer's purchasing costs in the future because they have shopped around in the past!!

As far as Aviva is concerned the credit check notification on the website is right at the bottom of the conditions of quotation and not particularly noticeable, easy to overlook if you are ploughing through a lot of quotes looking for the best deal!

This is a catch 22 situation and unfairly penalises shopping around.

AnneH1957

harriet.victoria wrote: »

Hello,

I'm 18 and passed my test in April of this year. Since then I have been a named driver on my parents insurance however in the next few weeks i will be getting my own car.
However, a few months ago I had an accident. It wasn't my fault as it was another driver who went into the back of me whilst I was staitionary. My question is, when I am asked on comparison sites ect, have I made a claim can I say no because the other drivers insurance covered the cost of repairs for my car?
&Also, when asked have I had an accident, I am aware that i will need to say i have but how do i let them know it wasn't my fault? Will it have much effect on my insurance?

When you start shopping around for insurance the insurer's site should ask what sort of accident it was - it usually comes up with a list and there should be a category which says 'hit by third party' and then 'full recovery made' (from the third party insurers,this means they accepted liability, paid for the repairs, and you got your excess back). You do have to say you made a claim, as it's all recorded on a big insurance database these days to which all the main companies have access, so they'll query it if you don't tell them, but it shouldn't increase your premium. However, it does depend on the insurance company. When my son was shopping around for his car insurance last year, with him as main driver and me as a named driver on his policy, Endsleigh wanted to charge an extra £100 as I'd had an accident nearly 5 years ago, even though it wasn't my fault - I too was stationary and a lorry went into the side of me. It was totally his fault, which he accepted, it was all sorted, didn't lose my NCB and I got my excess back. But Endlseigh wouldn't budge on the extra £100. So I suggest you shop around, as some insurers will charge more just because they feel like it. We didn't have any trouble finding a more reasonable quote and went with Admiral in the end.

I guess if you're only 18 your insurance will be pretty high anyway, my son's was £1500 just for third party fire & theft in his first year after passing his test, and only went down to £1200 this year, but that's fully comp with two named drivers and his car is in quite a high insurance group. If you're female (the name suggests you are!) and have a modest car, it should be under the £1K but probably only just! Once you get to 21, as long as your driving record is good, it should get a lot better. If you have a cheap car it may be worth going for just third party cover until you have a couple of years NCB.

Good luck!

Anne

londongirl1984

Hi, i hope someone can help me.

i was insured with Diamond, but due to my payment defaulting, they said i had to pay the rest of the premium upfront £500+) or find another insurer. So i took out a policy with admiral today (who are part of the same company).

Everything was fine, got my quote and gave the operator my card details to take my deposit as i need to pay it monthly. i was told my deposit would be £125. i've checked my bank balance online, and i've had £125 taken out, PLUS a payment of £120 (which is my monthly premium - high i know).

Anyway, i called admiral because a) i hadnt been told that i'd need to pay a deposit and another months premium, and b) because i'd never authorised them to take out 2 payments.

I spoke to them, and first they said they hadnt taken anything out. then they said they'd taken £120 as my deposit, but deny they've taken out the £125. they looked on my diamond file, and said it could have been them.

the problems with that is:

1. on my online statement it says 'direct debit payment' - it doesnt yet say who to.
2. i'd cancelled my diamond direct debit which was also for £125 this morning, and they'd explicitly told me they would not take money out of my account to continue my policy (pay 500 or nothing). they dont have my card details and so cant take a 'debit card payment' only a dd.

i called my bank and they cant tell me who has taken the payment yet, but my issue is that if diamond have taken it out - how? they only had details for a direct debit, not 'debit card transaction'. i'd only given my card details to the admiral guy, and i havent used my card anywhere else.
if it turns out to be admiral or diamond and not some other type of dodgy fraud, will they automatically pay this to me? if they try to refuse, can i do anything about it?

when i took out my policy they said i needed to pay the deposit and then 10 monthly payments, but not a deposit and a months payment at the same time.

thanks

markeymark

Ive just taken a policy out with elephant, I have to produce my no claims bonuses but ive lost them, i didnt have insurance last year as i was on my g/fs insurance.

would i be able to obtain a letter from my old insurer with proof of no claims?

any help appreciated

dacouch

Just contact your last Insurer and ask them to send you proof of your no claims bonus

markeymark

dacouch wrote: »

Just contact your last Insurer and ask them to send you proof of your no claims bonus

will the still have this after a year or so?
will the charge me for it?