Help please with car insurance and penalty points esp if from Northern Ireland

merrywell

Hi everyone
We are having a problem with car insurance. On Christmas Eve 2017 my partner, hereafter DH, got stopped by the PSNI as he pulled out of a garage without putting his seatbelt on. He wasn’t fined and there is no course available for this offence here, so he got 3 penalty points. He told his insurer after the holidays and was told that there was no code for this endorsement so it wasn’t necessary to amend the insurance. Everything was fine until he got another car and insured it with the same company. They asked for his licence and by this time the licence had been renewed and the points were printed on it (they’d been written in biro before this). So the insurer cancelled this insurance because DH didn’t tell them about the points. They charged a considerable fee for cancelling it despite DH telling them there is no code for this offence and no way you can apply for their insurance online and also inform them of this type of points. That happened in January and this was for car no2. 

Car no.1 had automatic insurance renewal on August 15 and an email arrived on Friday morning saying they needed to see his licence and if it wasn’t sent by 16 September they would cancel that insurance. As it happens car no.1 has died and is going scrapyard this week. 

I tried to get a quote from direct line because I knew they had a web chat help service. I got an advisor who told me to contact the DVA and ask them about a code. So I’ll do that on Monday. I’ve tried ALL the online comparison sites but none have a facility for the code on DH’s licence and so car 2 cannot be insured. 

I wondered if this has happened to anyone else as it seems to be a Northern Ireland issue to which there is no protocol. And if the insurance companies do their business online (as they do) and northern Irish customers cannot declare their points on the system how can they hold US accountable and cancel our insurance? This is surely unfair if not discriminatory. I fully intend to go to the financial ombudsman about this issue and I’m sure we can’t be the only people who have been affected so please if you have experience of this please leave a message. 

DH’s friend incidentally got his insurance at the same company and I did the online application then they came back to him later saying there were mistakes on the application and he had to pay £170 extra. I won’t name the company here but they tend to come up at the top of the quotes and they charge you money for phoning them. Thanks for reading. 

Sarah 

jimbo6977

There's a code MS60 which is for "miscellaneous miscellaneous offences" and carries a 3 point penalty. 

Never seen one on a  licence.

Heaven knows what it does to your quote! 

Jumblebumble

merrywell said:

Hi everyone
We are having a problem with car insurance. On Christmas Eve 2017 my partner, hereafter DH, got stopped by the PSNI as he pulled out of a garage without putting his seatbelt on. He wasn’t fined and there is no course available for this offence here, so he got 3 penalty points. He told his insurer after the holidays and was told that there was no code for this endorsement so it wasn’t necessary to amend the insurance. Everything was fine until he got another car and insured it with the same company. They asked for his licence and by this time the licence had been renewed and the points were printed on it (they’d been written in biro before this). So the insurer cancelled this insurance because DH didn’t tell them about the points. They charged a considerable fee for cancelling it despite DH telling them there is no code for this offence and no way you can apply for their insurance online and also inform them of this type of points. That happened in January and this was for car no2. 

Car no.1 had automatic insurance renewal on August 15 and an email arrived on Friday morning saying they needed to see his licence and if it wasn’t sent by 16 September they would cancel that insurance. As it happens car no.1 has died and is going scrapyard this week. 

I tried to get a quote from direct line because I knew they had a web chat help service. I got an advisor who told me to contact the DVA and ask them about a code. So I’ll do that on Monday. I’ve tried ALL the online comparison sites but none have a facility for the code on DH’s licence and so car 2 cannot be insured. 

I wondered if this has happened to anyone else as it seems to be a Northern Ireland issue to which there is no protocol. And if the insurance companies do their business online (as they do) and northern Irish customers cannot declare their points on the system how can they hold US accountable and cancel our insurance? This is surely unfair if not discriminatory. I fully intend to go to the financial ombudsman about this issue and I’m sure we can’t be the only people who have been affected so please if you have experience of this please leave a message. 

DH’s friend incidentally got his insurance at the same company and I did the online application then they came back to him later saying there were mistakes on the application and he had to pay £170 extra. I won’t name the company here but they tend to come up at the top of the quotes and they charge you money for phoning them. Thanks for reading. 

Sarah 

Did your OH get the fact initially that the insurance company told him that there was no need to amend the insurance in writing?
What did the ombudsman say  he complained about  his insurance being cancelled for failing to inform them about the points when had been informed he did not need to do so?
Why do I get the feeling we are not hearing the whole story?
On the other hand I think it is not very sensible to argue that it is OK to take out insurance when you are asked about points but you did not do so because there is no way of doing so in the way you wanted to take out the insurance.

rudekid48

Last time I was in NI everyone had phones - is that no longer the case?  They must have still been around when he told his insurer about his points initially....