Car Insurance Article Discussion

flyingflea

I'm no expert but I do know debt collectors only buy the debt at a fraction of the whole debt. You could offer them something you can afford as final settlement and see what they say.

fluffyboots wrote: »

i'm so confused can anyone help?

I had a 12 month insurance policy on my Clio as a provisioonal driver which I cancelled as it had an SORN on it.. I didnt inform the insurers in advance of cancelling the direct debit as I was changing banks anyway-I then called them and told them a week or so later and they wanted to hold me to the full year of which I had only paid a couple of months, I told them I couldnt afford that but offered just to start paying the £51 a month again on a new policy.They refused to do this but then said if I paid them £130 they would settle. This was 2 weeks ago I told them I didnt have the £130 until my payday a week later but they refused to wait. As a result I now have a bill for £293 from a debt recovery agency which I dont have the money to pay and which is going to affect my credit rating. The car is still SORN and I have financial problems and am worried about this. Does anyone know my right on this? Should I contact the debt recovery company and offer instalments?It does seem very harsh I had tried to meet them halfway.

XRAT

Dear Quentin and Steve,

If a car is on a road, parked or driven it MUST be insured. It's absolute! Road includes the footway.

If it's on a trailer.., which is on a road, or on axle stands for example and therefore not technically "on" the road, that's a different matter. (But since it's an offence to 'maintain' a car on the road the axle stands would create another dilema.)

As for 'using', I've seen a gent convicted of 'using a vehicle without insurance' when he put forward as his defence that, "I was aware that the car was not insured, I was not driving it, I was merely sitting in the drivers seat after having arrived as a passenger in it." The summons was ammended by the judge from 'driving' to 'using' and a guilty verdict given..., seemed a bit harsh..., but fair!!!

'Using' is usually appropriate when the owner permits another to drive a vehicle which commits an offence.., often it's the company when an employee drives. But in the insurance senario, it may be when the owner alleges that he didn't leave it on the road.

Quentin

XRAT wrote:

Dear Quentin and Steve,

If a car is on a road, parked or driven it MUST be insured. It's absolute!

Dear XRAT, Thank you.
But this is exactly what I have said earlier!!

Quentin wrote: »

There is no leniency at all (now or in future) for leaving an uninsured car in a public place. It's an offence. (Actually an "absolute offence").

linz

Got my renewal quote through last week and was surprisingly pleased, it had gone up about a tenner since last year but was still beating all the others on comparison sites apart from one (when cashback taken off). My renewal was for £152, but another company was offering £197 (£60 cashback on Topcashback) so I rang up to see if they would come down to £137. They said they couldn't specifically give me a reduction but what they were able to do is to refund my legal cover (£24.99) if I renewed with them, effectively giving it to me for free

Result! Next years insurance sorted for £127 :D

bankypanky

My car insurance is due in a week or so. I am not able to pay the full amount from my current account. Therefore, the options I am left with are to either pay monthly direct debit or to pay in full from a credit card and pay the credit card interest (as I am equally unable to pay that back in one 'hit')

I won't detail costs and percentage interest etc but can anyone tell me a quick formula for working out which option is best once I enter these variables?

Many thanks for any help you can give me.

igdirect

Using the MSE article advice I found Kwik Fit to be the cheapest option (via Moneysupermarket) for insuring my student daughter's car - £517 for third party. fire and theft cover.

When I went to their website and confirmed the comparison site details the quote had jumped to £655 - a £138 increase! No changes in any answers given, so no apparent justification.

I then rang their freephone helpline and asked for clarification. The assistant couldn't explain the discrepancy so she then spoke to a manager. I was then told that there was no apparent reason for the price hike so the lower quotation would be honoured. Good news, but......

The assistant went through the details again and the final price was confirmed. She then said that there were some additional benefits that I may be interested in. The first was cover for passengers in the event of accident.

I immediately stopped her there and said that TPF&T covered passengers already as they were "third parties". The assistant said Kwik Fit policies do not but I could purchase the cover for an additional £20 or so. I then said "Let me get this absolutely right - you're telling me that passengers in my daughter's car are not covered in the event that they are injured in an accident?". The answer was no, they're not, but I can take additional cover so that they are.

I stopped the transaction there and then and said that I'd be checking their claim with the authorities, at which the assistant tried to get me to stay on the line but I wasn't prepared to listen.

I did check the law and confirmed that passengers are fully covered by a TP&F policy and can indeed claim compensation if injured in an accident whilst in my daughter's car.

I rang Kwik Fit again to take up the matter with their complaints department, but was referred on to a manager. The manager challenged my findings and said again that Kwik Fit TPF&T policies do not cover passengers. I said that such cover was a legal requirement, that they could not vary it, then asked for the name and address of their Regulator so I could take up the matter with them.

The manager then changed what she was saying - "what I mean is that passengers are not automatically compensated for injury, they have to claim on the policy". I then asked again "Be absolutely straight with me - passengers injured as a result of an accident in my daughters car are covered for their injuries under the policy, yes or no?" The manager answered "Yes, but they have to make a claim". I asked her to clarify. She then explained that the additional payment was for "Personal Accident" cover that would automatically compensate injured passengers with a fixed sum, and that they would not have to claim.

I then twigged their game. They would say to TPF&T applicants, as they did with me, that "injury to passengers is not covered by TPF&T" so that applicants would then feel obliged to take out completely unnecessary additional Personal Accident cover.

Scare tactics and fancy word play deliberately used to take more cash off applicants.

Did I take out cover with Kwik Fit? Yes - they were still the cheapest and their TPF&T policy does cover all it's meant to - including passengers!

As usual - BUYER BEWARE!

saucy77

We have just changed car's, and I went to the AA as that was who we were insured with to find out how much we'd be saving (based on quotes I had looked at online prior to contacting them) only to find out that on a £387 fully comp policy that the saving would work out just £5 cheaper! Whoopdy doo daa

Ok they want to charge me a cancellation fee on £67 (which they let me spread over 2 months - thumbs up for that one) But went with the Post Office who offered exactly the same policy with a NIL excess (was £150 with AA) for a staggering £195!!!

So after all that The saving worked out to be £121!!! And I got £25 cashback on Quidco too... Total £151 :T

The best bit of all... I'm only on a provisional whilst hubby is on max no claims and still has them protected!:rotfl:

Leanna86

I had a renewal notice from Churchill for £576.00 (instalments) for 3rd Party F&T, I had 3 points on my license which I got last year so following Martins post most insurers were quoting hundreds more, 1 insurer even quoted £2785!!! are they mental lol

Anyway I was at the point of giving up when I went on Aviva's website who quoted me for FULL COMP, including a second named driver for £520! So I saved money, got a better service, and to top that off because my boyfriend is a named driver he is going to pay half with me!!!

So happy!

Quentin

Regarding your question 1:

Do some virtual quotes online now (making him 22) and see what difference it makes.

If you do this, bear in mind you will take 18 months to end up with just one year's NCD.

spyker_dude

I have been driving in UK since Apr 2008 to Feb 2009 on international license and later on Full UK license. I had a claim in Mar 2009 which affected my NCB but now i have got 1 yrs NCB. The problem is insurares do consider my UK exp as 2yrs they only consider it as 1 yr (from time i got Full UK license).
The quotes are so high (Much higher than value of my car £500) that i feel like stop driving. I am 27 so age doent help either. My previous 2 yr insurance was (600 Compr for year 1 -- throught broker heavy discount) and (685 TPFT using MSE).

My best quotes so far..
TPFT using MSE is 610 (moneyexpert.com included 25£ cashback)


Can someone please suggest me other options as i need to renew befor 23rd April. Is there an insurer out there who can consider foreign national plight