Is "Uninsured Driver Promise" worth paying extra for if you have Fully Comp anyway?

Annielou

Hiya - I am about to renew my car insurance (fully comp, legal assistance, courtesy car, NCD protection etc.), but when I go to pay they tempt you with "uninsured driver promise" for an extra £100 pa or £8 pm.  Do I really need that?  I'm happy to risk paying any excess in the event that happened and happy to risk losing NCD, but at the same time I really wouldn't want a huge unnecessary legal problem if I were to be hit by an uninsured driver.  So my question is, would I still be fully covered if I was hit by an uninsured driver if I just chose the fully comp option and didn't pick the extra for the uninsured driver promise?  Can anyone help with that?  Would be much appreciated, thanks in advance.

XRS200

What huge unnecessary legal problem do you envisage?

Isn't the promise just reimbursement of excess and reinstatement of NCD?

Annielou

Hi, what I wasn't sure about was if that happened to me, the insurance company would say sorry you're not covered because you didn't pay extra for the uninsured driver promise.  If I am in fact fully covered then I'm happy to not pay the extra and take that risk.  Its a bit of a new thing to me so I wanted to make sure by NOT paying that extra bit I wasn't digging myself a bit hole should the worst happen.  But if I'm fully covered for that in the fully comp anyway then that's good, and that's the part I wasn't sure about

Annielou

actually I think you've answered my question because if the promise is JUST "reimbursement of excess and reinstatement of NCD" then I'm happy to take that risk.  I was wondering if in the small print it somewhere that the insurance company would say you didn't take that out so we can't help you at all, even with fully comp.  but that sounds like its not the case! 

DullGreyGuy

Annielou said:

actually I think you've answered my question because if the promise is JUST "reimbursement of excess and reinstatement of NCD" then I'm happy to take that risk.  I was wondering if in the small print it somewhere that the insurance company would say you didn't take that out so we can't help you at all, even with fully comp.  but that sounds like its not the case! 

No it won't, but you may find it drives behaviour like not waiving your excess in a clear cut non-fault case which some insurers would normally do but thats an extra-contractual thing and no insurer is obliged to do so. 


What is your overall premium? £100 seems very steep price for it but most insurance pricing is done as a percentage so if your base premium is very high it could explain the high fee for this additional service. 

Annielou

So "Bronze" cover is £32 pm (without uninsured driver promise), "Silver" cover is £40pm (with uninsured driver cover).  

Paddybill

I find that insurance company's ask you for the uninsured drivers reg number as happen to me I was asleep when the driver hit my car and they asked me for the drivers reg number how would I know if I was asleep the police found the car that hit mine and they then asked for the drivers name, the car that hit mine was stolen and the police couldn't find who was driving it. The Gestapo sorry insurance company did pay out and I didn't loose my ncn but when I wanted to insure next year I changed my insurance company It seemed the insurance company wanted to blame me for the accident I don't bother to pay for uninsured drivers accident anymore. 

DullGreyGuy

Annielou said:

So "Bronze" cover is £32 pm (without uninsured driver promise), "Silver" cover is £40pm (with uninsured driver cover).  

The image isnt displaying to me but would be surprised if the only difference between Bronze and Silver is an uninsured driver promise. 

Taking a guess its Policy Expert as thats the only one I know that does a Bronze with Silver introducing the uninsured driver promise. The extra £8 month is also getting you cover for audio and sat nav, windscreen/glass cover, increased PA and child seat cover. 

Of the items it adds the promise and PA cover is going to be a very small part of the increase.