Car insurance increase

superbmum

My 18 year old son had a quote for his second year of car insurance from Hastings Direct for just over £590. We opted for this as it was the best deal (with a black box). He's been insured with them since the last week in September. He has now had an email from the insurers saying that there is a discrepancy in the information he provided (essentially the purchase date of his car - I got the quote for him and put 1st March 2020 as couldn't remember when he'd bought it and it turns out it was mid June 2020). Hastings Direct are now asking for an extra £640.59! This includes a price increase in insurance of £610.59 plus £30 admin fee.

Is this right? It certainly seems unjustifiable.

Thank you.

[Deleted User]

It almost certainly is right, but you'll need to check with Hastings if you want absolute confirmation.

However, I'd advise paying it, as the alternative will be a cancelled policy, which will be very painful.

Make sure he applies for insurance himself in future and always puts down accurate information.

superbmum

Thank you zx81. Do you know how it can be right that it increases by more than what he was paying in the first place for a year's worth of insurance. He's now getting quotes for £600c from other insurance companies (with the correct date that he bought the car). I only got quotes for him as he was busy applying to uni and it was a genuine mistake - I put the date on the quote and didn't think of changing it when he bought the policy.

Aylesbury_Duck

superbmum said:

Thank you zx81. Do you know how it can be right that it increases by more than what he was paying in the first place for a year's worth of insurance. He's now getting quotes for £600c from other insurance companies (with the correct date that he bought the car). I only got quotes for him as he was busy applying to uni and it was a genuine mistake - I put the date on the quote and didn't think of changing it when he bought the policy.

I suspect it's because they've looked rather dimly on you supplying incorrect information, no matter how genuine the mistake was.  I suspect they're particularly jumpy when it comes to very young drivers, possibly because some young people and parents fiddle their declarations to keep the costs down.

I think he has three choices:

1. Ring Hastings and see if a human interaction generates a different result from what was probably a systems-generated change.
2. If it doesn't, pay the extra charge, or
3. Cancel the policy and take out a new policy elsewhere, but he will almost certainly owe a percentage of the increased premium for the last three weeks of insurance, plus the admin fee.

superbmum

Oh I see, Aylesbury_Duck, thank you. I can see why they'd possibly think that (although not quite sure what difference the fact that he bought the car 14 weeks after I'd entered onto the quote would make such a difference), I guess it's just that they don't trust other information maybe - an expensive lesson learnt by all. He has spoken with Hastings and told them what had happened with no luck. 

Aylesbury_Duck

They will have hiked the premium either as a result of the suspicion around the date change, or the date change has fundamentally changed the risk profile.  Remember that premiums are based on risk profiles of similar postcodes, ages, etc. so it can sometimes be that a seemingly inconsequential change makes a significant difference.  I've heard stories of people moving to the next street and their premium changing substantially, purely because the adjacent postcode region carries a very different risk profile.

biscan25

I presume the 14 day cooling off window has already expired?

neilmcl

Deleted_User said:

It almost certainly is right, but you'll need to check with Hastings if you want absolute confirmation.

However, I'd advise paying it, as the alternative will be a cancelled policy, which will be very painful.

Make sure he applies for insurance himself in future and always puts down accurate information.

The OP can always cancel it themselves without any hardship and look elsewhere with the correct information.

biscan25

neilmcl said:

Deleted_User said:

It almost certainly is right, but you'll need to check with Hastings if you want absolute confirmation.

However, I'd advise paying it, as the alternative will be a cancelled policy, which will be very painful.

Make sure he applies for insurance himself in future and always puts down accurate information.

The OP can always cancel it themselves without any hardship and look elsewhere with the correct information.

Yes - The fee will be a bit larger if it is outside the 14 days, looks like £45 for Hastings

Ditzy_Mitzy

To look at this another way: the £30 admin fee is reasonable in the circumstances and needs to be paid to correct a mistake that wasn't made by the insurer.  Forget about it.  The premium increase proper is £20.59, give or take; not too much in the scheme of things when it comes to insurance.  It's possible that the company bases premiums, in part, on the length of time the policyholder has owned the car without making a claim.  Decreasing that time by a few months possibly jacks the premium up by a few quid.  I can only really suggest paying it.  

giraffe69

I think the most remarkable part of this thread is "..... and put 1st March 2020 as couldn't remember when he'd bought it and it turns out it was mid June 2020" I'd move insurers if you can get it a lot cheaper and pay their admin fee.