Forgot to update car insurance when I got my full license

DaftMonk

Hi MSE community,

I got my first car insurance in late 2021, where I had signed up with a provisional license. About a month or so later, I passed my driving test — and completely forgot to declare this to my insurance company.

In December *2022), I was approached by my insurer's data validation department, where they asked me to confirm all my records, which I did. A few weeks ago, they sent me an email saying I needed to pay an additional charge of over £2700 due to the changes!

I'm strongly considering simply cancelling and shopping around, but would love to get your views first...?

DE_612183

So when you were driving on a provisional licence the insurance company would fully expect you to have another driver with you - now you have passed you will be on your own so are a bigger risk - hence the increased policy.

I'd shop around - as a new driver you may well get a better deal if you have a black box or similar monitoring equipment installed - by the way - what car have you got?

born_again

Shopping around will help going forward.
But you still owe the £2700 for the period you failed to advise them of change of details. Failing to pay that will lead to all sorts of issues getting insurance going forward. 
As they could revoke the insurance. leading to costs going through the roof as you have to declare this.

DaftMonk

DE_612183 said:

So when you were driving on a provisional licence the insurance company would fully expect you to have another driver with you - now you have passed you will be on your own so are a bigger risk - hence the increased policy.

I'd shop around - as a new driver you may well get a better deal if you have a black box or similar monitoring equipment installed - by the way - what car have you got?

Thanks for the quick answer! I have an early-2000s Honda CRV, which I've driven ~6000 miles in 2022 with only one claim: theft of catalytic converter 😞

Here's the excerpted text from the insurance provider, if it helps:

Hi,

Thank you for sending your requested documents to us. To ensure we have the correct information on your policy, to match your provided documents, we will have to make the following changes;

Amended your licence type from a UK Provisional licence to a UK Full Automatic licence held for 10 months, pass date [redacted].

As a result of these changes, there is an additional charge of £2789.86.

This amount includes a charge for credit of £369.17, our £30 administration fee and will be spread over your remaining Direct Debit instalments. The APR for this change is 31. Please refer to your updated documents for confirmation of your new payments. Any payments prior to this date will remain unchanged.

diystarter7

DaftMonk said:

Hi MSE community,

I got my first car insurance in late 2021, where I had signed up with a provisional license. About a month or so later, I passed my driving test — and completely forgot to declare this to my insurance company.

In December *2022), I was approached by my insurer's data validation department, where they asked me to confirm all my records, which I did. A few weeks ago, they sent me an email saying I needed to pay an additional charge of over £2700 due to the changes!

I'm strongly considering simply cancelling and shopping around, but would love to get your views first...?

Hi OP

We can all forget.

You will have to pay the outstanding amont even if you leave.

I made a mistake with ?? car insurance as Mrs Diy was named driver as I am on her sports car.  When it came to the third reneweal and when we get out paper docs, it was only then I noted my mistake made two years previous as I just ticked off as nothing has changed. Mrs Diy year of birth was wrong by 5 years - just got year mixed up I guess but it was clearly my facult

The chap on the phone said "not to worry" as I rang the insurance outfit straight away when I noted it. So the phone person wnet on "there may be an additional amount to pay.." i said ok, He came back after 2 mins, they wanted an additional 550 quid. I was a bit shocked but said ok, i will pay it now as it was my mistake and I canclled the new insurance within the 14 cooling off period and paid for the days used and got a much cheaper like, for like quote from another.

I paid, I canclled and then straight away I got new cover at cheaper rates.

Good luck

diystarter7

Btw Op
I'm almost 100% certain you will get a better deal

DullGreyGuy

Part of that bill will be underpayment on prior years and the rest will be the uplift in your future premiums. Cancelling the policy will not avoid the back payment aspect which is going to be the majority of the fee. 

If you think the premiums are high with a fault claim and being a newly qualified driver you will be i for a shock as to what they become if they cancel your policy for non-payment (which they can do retrospectively) and whereas the other two will go away eventually most insurers ask if you've ever had insurance cancelled. 

As them what the cost will be to cancel the policy, compare that saving to the cost of buying a new policy and losing your part year NCD (assuming the fault claim was in the prior year... if it was in this year you cannot cancel for a refund so would be paying the full amount plus your new premium elsewhere)