Car Policy got cancelled after notification of change of address

mrsmsebastian

Hi all,
I hope you can advise me on what to do here please.
We moved home and obviously I had to change my address on my car insurance. I rang RAC today to inform the change and I was already expecting an admin fee for it and even a slight increase on premium as a worst case scenario though the house we moved into I believe is far more better for the security of the car as there is lockable garage than the previous address. To my horror, none of that happened and instead the agent I spoke with apologetically informed me that their insurer could not insure my car on the new address for no supplied reason. For this reason the policy will be cancelled immediately and I will incur no cancellation fee (the cancellation documents states that it's me who is cancelling it) and I will be refunded for the remaining payment as I paid it annually.  
Though I am so confused why they wont insure my car ( the area we live is considered a good area in our town) I just accepted it and browse the net for new insurance qoutes. 
Goodness gracious me, the premium went sky high! Last January I only paid £305 annually and now the qoutes are showing from £800 and above then £800 and below would need a black box fitted?!
What has just happened here? I am so confused! What advise can you give me please, shall I just SORN it and keep it off the road temporarily until COVID is over as I dont use the car that much and maybe in that way the premium will go down?
Please help!

molerat

Obviously your view of the area is different to that of the insurer.  Maybe there is a high rate of incidents with people living in that postcode, being a "good area" does not mean the drivers are a reduced risk.

nyermen

Note - insurers often dont like garages (prefer off road private).  But that wont be the only reason, it'll be area / theft / accident rates.  Ask for quote if you were to have a tracker installed (careful not to trigger "fiddling the figures" rules on comparison sites by changing parameters), thatll show if its a theft issue if it comes way down.

davidmcn

Perhaps "good" area means area with nice cars which the people from the "bad" area come and steal?

mrsmsebastian

davidmcn said:

Perhaps "good" area means area with nice cars which the people from the "bad" area come and steal?

Maybe. I may have to ask my neighbours about their insurance premium experience 

A_Lert

Postcode risk list. "Refer" means high risk (possibly even higher than F?)

http://www.carinsuranceexplained.com/car-insurance-explained/car-insurance-postcode-risk-list.html

Location is a top factor in your car insurance premiums. It makes a bigger difference than age, experience, or vehicle.

dacouch

A_Lert said:

Postcode risk list. "Refer" means high risk (possibly even higher than F?)

http://www.carinsuranceexplained.com/car-insurance-explained/car-insurance-postcode-risk-list.html

Location is a top factor in your car insurance premiums. It makes a bigger difference than age, experience, or vehicle.

That is Norwich Union aka Aviva's rating areas for MOTORBIKES from about 20 years ago, it has very little value for ascertaining if an area is highly rated for car insurance

TELLIT01

A_Lert said:

Postcode risk list. "Refer" means high risk (possibly even higher than F?)

http://www.carinsuranceexplained.com/car-insurance-explained/car-insurance-postcode-risk-list.html

Location is a top factor in your car insurance premiums. It makes a bigger difference than age, experience, or vehicle.

Interesting link.  I had a look at my own, and adjoining, post codes.  I live in a pleasant suburban area and that shows as higher risk than the nearest inner city area.  Presumably because it's a location where, generally, vehicles will be higher value and therefore of more interest to tea leafs.

dacouch

TELLIT01 said:

A_Lert said:

Postcode risk list. "Refer" means high risk (possibly even higher than F?)

http://www.carinsuranceexplained.com/car-insurance-explained/car-insurance-postcode-risk-list.html

Location is a top factor in your car insurance premiums. It makes a bigger difference than age, experience, or vehicle.

Interesting link.  I had a look at my own, and adjoining, post codes.  I live in a pleasant suburban area and that shows as higher risk than the nearest inner city area.  Presumably because it's a location where, generally, vehicles will be higher value and therefore of more interest to tea leafs.

It's only an interesting link if you wanted to know how Aviva viewed your post code if you had a motorbike twenty years ago

TELLIT01

Interesting to me to see how an insurer viewed the comparative risk between two postcodes just a couple of miles apart.  The more affluent area (not millionaires row) considered higher risk.  There is a logic to that, but it hadn't occurred to me previously.

DCFC79

A_Lert said:

Postcode risk list. "Refer" means high risk (possibly even higher than F?)

http://www.carinsuranceexplained.com/car-insurance-explained/car-insurance-postcode-risk-list.html

Location is a top factor in your car insurance premiums. It makes a bigger difference than age, experience, or vehicle.

Thanks, its a good link.