Should car insurance companies be giving a rebate due to lockdown restrictions?

fun4everyone

Since government restrictions have been imposed I have followed them to the letter.  This means my car has not been driven for nearly a month and instead is sat in an inside secure private car park covered by CCTV.  However my car insurance company continues to charge full price.  I am most certainly not the only one in this situation, these companies must be raking it in at the moment. The vast majority of cars are stuck at home or merely sauntering down to the supermarket and back.
Phoned up today and asked for some sort of discount and was flatly told no (but I could cancel if I wanted to without charge).  In the US refunds are being handed out yet over here the policy is no discounts or refunds, profiteering to the tune of £1bn according to the newspapers
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1266007/car-insurance-uk-companies-refunds-discount-coronavirus
Surely this is unfair.  Sky and BT have both stopped charging me for the sport channels as the restrictions are stopping live sport.

elsien

No one has told you not to use your car, just to stick to essential journeys.
"Sauntering" to the supermarket still involves all the normal risks that you insure for. I'd also quite like mine to be available for family illness/emergencies which are potentially more rather than less likely at the moment.
There are also many of us who don't gave private parking facilities and whose cars are parked on the road with the subsequent risk of vandalism, the idiot factor, etc. 
You could always SORN yours if you  feel you aren't going to be using it.

jimbo2108

If your car go stolen would you want to claim? The answer is probably yes. Just because there is restrictions doesn't mean the risk doesnt apply. Going for essential journeys still carrys a risk.

TELLIT01

Your car can still be used so no refund.

dunstonh

 However my car insurance company continues to charge full price. 

Because they are still giving you full coverage.

The vast majority of cars are stuck at home or merely sauntering down to the supermarket and back.

But can still be stolen or crashed into by someone else or crashed during your sauntering.

n the US refunds are being handed out yet over here the policy is no discounts or refunds, profiteering to the tune of £1bn according to the newspapers
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1266007/car-insurance-uk-companies-refunds-discount-coronavirus

Don't quote the Daily Express.  That paper is aimed at the clueless brain dead.

Sky and BT have both stopped charging me for the sport channels as the restrictions are stopping live sport.

That is different as there is no sport.  You can still drive and you still want your car covered.

Aretnap

Presumably by the same token life insurance companies should be able to demand existing customers pay a whopping extra premium to reflect the extra risk that they're suddenly taking on?

If you're not using your car then the offer of cancelling your policy without charge seems pretty generous. You can do that, and either take out a new policy with a lower annual mileage (if you expect to use it occasionally) or not insure it at all until lock down ends (if you're not planning on using it at all and you're confident that the car park is secure). 

fun4everyone

It appears pressure is mounting on car insurance companies in the UK to refund customers.  They are raking it in at the moment
https://www.standard.co.uk/business/uk-car-insurers-urged-to-refund-claims-windfall-a4414841.html

UK MOTOR insurance firms are facing calls to refund stuck-at-home drivers after peers in the US started to hand back money due to a drop in claims.

Car insurance companies have seen accident claims fall by up to 60% in some cases as traffic vanishes from the road thanks to lockdown measures.

rs65

69% reduction in car use for 3 and a bit weeks.
That article says that's worth £1bn in pure profit to insurance companies ????

JGB1955

Even if your car is SORNed it should be insured.

Aretnap

JGB1955 said:

Even if your car is SORNed it should be insured.

There is no requirement to insure it if it is SORNed and not kept in a public place. 

fun4everyone

I complained formally to my insurance company about them continuing to charge me full price whilst Government restrictions meant my car could only be used for “essential travel”.

In the end the response was strange.  My complaint was not upheld and the handler found nothing wrong with what was going on.  However in the same response I was told I would be receiving a £25 refund to my payment method due to government restrictions on vehicle travel during the lockdown period.  I was also told this would be happening for every single customer who was insured during April.  I have since received this credit.

a £25 refund seems perfectly fair to me and I have no idea why they didn’t do this to start with.  There would have been no hassle then.  Perhaps they were pressured in some way.  If they were going to refund because it was the “right” thing to do they would have done it near the start like Sky TV.