Difficulty renewing car insurance for the first time.

SeagullFTB

Hi,

My wife has been driving for almost a year now (since May 2023) and her car insurance is up for renewal. We are looking to move insurer as the price is better. After a few comparison site checks, we can get insurance for around £900. 

When we tried to complete this with Aviva, it encountered a problem. It seems that they have been unable to verify the 1 year no claims bonus presumably because she has only held the current insurance for just over 11 months so far.

We were trying to sort the insurance now, as Martin Lewis advises to do it a few weeks earlier than the start date to get the best price. But we cannot provide evidence of the NCB yet. I'm concerned that if we leave it another couple of weeks until the NCB document is provided, the price will go up as we will be near the policy start date. If we apply for the exact same insurance without a NCB, it jumps up by another £400!

Has anyone experienced this and got any advice?

chrisw

You could save the quote on the Aviva website, this usually locks the quote in for 30 days. 

Mildly_Miffed

Has she had the renewal notice yet?

If so, it'll say "1yr NCB" on it, and that's all the proof the new insurer needs.

SeagullFTB

Mildly_Miffed said:

Has she had the renewal notice yet?

If so, it'll say "1yr NCB" on it, and that's all the proof the new insurer needs.

Not yet. It's due for renewal in 21 days, so hopefully the renewal notice from Admiral arrives soon.

la531983

In my experience an insurer will happily take your money and then ask for the proof thereafter if they cant validate it, have never known it the other way round before.

SeagullFTB

la531983 said:

In my experience an insurer will happily take your money and then ask for the proof thereafter if they cant validate it, have never known it the other way round before.

To be fair, it isn't specifying that the NCB is the issue. It just says that my wife must call them as they've encountered a problem. We'll have to call them and see what they say.

DullGreyGuy

la531983 said:

In my experience an insurer will happily take your money and then ask for the proof thereafter if they cant validate it, have never known it the other way round before.

Insurance is a contract of utmost trust... imagine how long the process would be if they had to validate every answer to every question before selling the policy? Like is your car really worth the £5,000 you claim or is actually a rust bucket?