Car insurance- changing address after renewal

Marissoura17

Hello,

Hoping to get some advice about taking out car insurance when moving address.

My car insurance renewal is coming up on 10 July, however I will be moving to a new address on 29th July. The quotes at the new address are significantly cheaper than at my current address- a £400 difference! I live in London and will be moving down to Kent. I'm tempted to take out a policy using the new address which is what my family are advising me to do but I know this is wrong if I'm not staying at that address yet.

If I take out a policy with a provider at my current address and then change the address once I've moved, can I be certain that my premium will decrease and I will receive a refund? I usually pay annually. 

Perhaps someone has been in a similar situation and has some advice?

Thanks in advance

MattMattMattUK

Marissoura17 said:

Hello,

Hoping to get some advice about taking out car insurance when moving address.

My car insurance renewal is coming up on 10 July, however I will be moving to a new address on 29th July. The quotes at the new address are significantly cheaper than at my current address- a £400 difference! I live in London and will be moving down to Kent. I'm tempted to take out a policy using the new address which is what my family are advising me to do but I know this is wrong if I'm not staying at that address yet.

That would be very unwise as the insurers would deem it fraud.

Marissoura17 said:

If I take out a policy with a provider at my current address and then change the address once I've moved, can I be certain that my premium will decrease and I will receive a refund? I usually pay annually. 

You cannot be certain that will happen, but it is the most likely outcome. You could call them and ask them.

prettyandfluffy

You will probably have to pay an admin fee to change the address.  It may be better (cheaper and properly covered) to look at a short-term policy to begin, and then take out an annual policy at your new address.

ButterCheese

Defintely do not take it out under your new (future) address - if anything happened then you may not be covered, plus you may have insurance cancelled (due to lying to the insurers) and have to declare that for years to come.

Most likely they will charge you anywhere from £25-£50 to change your address, and may refund you the difference on the cheaper policy.  It may be wise to phone them rather than try to do it online (if you even can) as their systems tend to conveniently forget about refunds if you're not actually speaking to an advisor.

Worst case, you may not get much of a refund at all but at least next year you should make a saving

DullGreyGuy

Marissoura17 said:

Hoping to get some advice about taking out car insurance when moving address.

My car insurance renewal is coming up on 10 July, however I will be moving to a new address on 29th July. The quotes at the new address are significantly cheaper than at my current address- a £400 difference! I live in London and will be moving down to Kent. I'm tempted to take out a policy using the new address which is what my family are advising me to do but I know this is wrong if I'm not staying at that address yet.

If I take out a policy with a provider at my current address and then change the address once I've moved, can I be certain that my premium will decrease and I will receive a refund? I usually pay annually. 

Perhaps someone has been in a similar situation and has some advice?

Thanks in advance

The policy will be rerated when the notification of the move is given to them. It's likely the premiums will decrease though this may be at least partially offset by an admin fee. If the return premium is £400 or more or less than this no one can predict at this time. 

Using a false address will invalidate your insurance so you may as well not buy insurance unless you can actually move earlier. 

Once you are circa 20 days out contact your insurer and ask them to advise the price of changing the policy and at the same time do quotes for a new policy incepting 29 Jul and then you can work out if its cheaper to cancel and buy new or to amend. Obv factor in the cancellation fee before deciding. 

Sovereign_Hunter_999

Not all insurers will decrease it, it's conditional, it may even go up

Grey_Critic

Our youngest moved from Londo (isle of Dogs) to Huddersfield last year and was faced with a similar problem. Fortunately he works freelance and was offered a residency at Bristol University and he does insure for commuting so changed his address to Hudderrsfield and used the fact he is a freelance artist/film director with the commuting thing and got a substantial reduction in premium. This gave him a bit more time to wind up his affairs in London.

I tell the tale as depending on what you do might just open up a way. He still insures on the basis his job requires him to move around at times. At present he is in London until mid July then coming back North and then back to London as he has some friends coming over from Chicago so will be spending time in London and touring around. 

Ectophile

Grey_Critic said:

Our youngest moved from Londo (isle of Dogs) to Huddersfield last year and was faced with a similar problem. Fortunately he works freelance and was offered a residency at Bristol University and he does insure for commuting so changed his address to Hudderrsfield and used the fact he is a freelance artist/film director with the commuting thing and got a substantial reduction in premium. This gave him a bit more time to wind up his affairs in London.

I tell the tale as depending on what you do might just open up a way. He still insures on the basis his job requires him to move around at times. At present he is in London until mid July then coming back North and then back to London as he has some friends coming over from Chicago so will be spending time in London and touring around. 

Was that commuting or business?  Commuting only covers to and from a single place of work.

Grey_Critic

Business - he works where the job takes him

Arunmor

I would second short term insurance, having said that prices I think prices have rocketed but speak to your current insurer first.  Pre covid 2018/19 I paid just under £30/month (had it running for a couple of months)

prowla

Why not ask your insurers - they might even let you do a 1-month extension.