Multi Car Insurance Has a little known risk

KnowledgeGatherer

Just found out after my wife had two no-fault accidents in her car, that because I am the policy holder on our multi car policy, even though I was not involved in the accidents and they did not affect out no-claims bonus, it has increase my premiums by 25 percent. If we had separate policies with one in her name,  I would not have had to declare the claim and my own car would be much cheaper to insure. I now have to wait 5 years before I can have a separate policy where I do  not have to declare the accidents. The multi car savings are irrelevant compared to the additional loadings when accidents occur. I mistakenly believed that it was the driver of the car that would affect insurance premiums. If I had known this, I would never have taken out a multi car policy. Welcome to the helpful insurance world.

MyRealNameToo

Is she a named driver on your car?

sheramber

You can have a multi car policy with  a different policy holder , who is the main driver., on each car. 

If  the other person wants to drive the car they need to be a. named  driver.

Each policy holder has their own NCB. 

MyRealNameToo

sheramber said:

You can have a multi car policy with  a different policy holder , who is the main driver., on each car. 

Depends who the provider is... most are not multi-vehicle policies but multiple policies simply receiving a volume discount and at best some sort of wrapper to pull their renewal quotes etc into one document.  This is the type youre talking about. 

A minority do actually offer a true mutli-vehicle policy where all vehicles are insured on a single policy so one policyholder and potentially a single NCD (though a former client was a true personal fleet policy but separate NCDs)

KnowledgeGatherer

My wife is a named driver on both cars. There are separate NCBs on each car, with my wife being the NCB holder on her car and me on my car. The NCB was not affected on either car, but the risk was changed for a new policy for either car.

From what I can see, although this was an LV policy; when you apply for an insurance quote on ANY car, one of the questions to assess the risk is as Policyholder, have you made any claims in the last 5 years. If you had 2 different policies, you would not have to declare a claim on one of the cars. With a multi car policy you have to declare on the car that was not involved in an accident, as you are the policy holder.   

KnowledgeGatherer

MyRealNameToo said:

Is she a named driver on your car?

Yes but that is not relevant as my risk has been changed by making a claim on the Policy 

KnowledgeGatherer

MyRealNameToo said:

sheramber said:

You can have a multi car policy with  a different policy holder , who is the main driver., on each car. 

Depends who the provider is... most are not multi-vehicle policies but multiple policies simply receiving a volume discount and at best some sort of wrapper to pull their renewal quotes etc into one document.  This is the type youre talking about. 

A minority do actually offer a true mutli-vehicle policy where all vehicles are insured on a single policy so one policyholder and potentially a single NCD (though a former client was a true personal fleet policy but separate NCDs)

I can only quote for LV, but I would be surprised if Admiral etc are any different for a private motorist, and I don't have the will or energy to investigate

KnowledgeGatherer

MyRealNameToo said:

sheramber said:

You can have a multi car policy with  a different policy holder , who is the main driver., on each car. 

Depends who the provider is... most are not multi-vehicle policies but multiple policies simply receiving a volume discount and at best some sort of wrapper to pull their renewal quotes etc into one document.  This is the type youre talking about. 

A minority do actually offer a true mutli-vehicle policy where all vehicles are insured on a single policy so one policyholder and potentially a single NCD (though a former client was a true personal fleet policy but separate NCDs)

The only policies I have ever taken out had NCBs for both cars, but it was still a single policy - that's in the name, a multi car policy 

MyRealNameToo

KnowledgeGatherer said:

MyRealNameToo said:

sheramber said:

You can have a multi car policy with  a different policy holder , who is the main driver., on each car. 

Depends who the provider is... most are not multi-vehicle policies but multiple policies simply receiving a volume discount and at best some sort of wrapper to pull their renewal quotes etc into one document.  This is the type youre talking about. 

A minority do actually offer a true mutli-vehicle policy where all vehicles are insured on a single policy so one policyholder and potentially a single NCD (though a former client was a true personal fleet policy but separate NCDs)

The only policies I have ever taken out had NCBs for both cars, but it was still a single policy - that's in the name, a multi car policy 

What a consumer sees and what's really happening in the background are not necessarily the same thing. 

At a former client we were intending to sell a "household" policy, you'd buy one policy that covered your home, cars, travel and pets. At least thats what the customer would think but in reality it was to be just a series of individual policies with a multi-product discount being applied but the letters for the renewals would be surpressed and instead an overarching letter sent out that covers all of them. Unfortunately it was never launched because we needed to do policies for less than 12 months to harmonise the renewal date and the cost to change the systems to be able to do that was too expensive. 

From a consumer perspective it doesnt make much difference but for regulatory reporting for example they'd be counted as individual policies held by the same customer. 

Most terms are marketing not legal hence one policy can be sold with Driving Other Cars, PA and a courtesy car but another policy without any of these yet both are marketed as "comprehensive insurance". 

KnowledgeGatherer said:

MyRealNameToo said:

Is she a named driver on your car?

Yes but that is not relevant as my risk has been changed by making a claim on the Policy 

It is relevant because if she is to continue to be a named driver on your vehicle then you'd have to declare her incidents irrespective if they occurred on a multi-car policy or separate policies. 

If LV's offering has a single overarching policyholder then yes you as the policyholder has made a claim on your policy covering her car so would need to declare it even if you take her off from being a named driver off your vehicle. It's no different if your car was parked and unattended and hit by a third party. With no driver in your car it goes against your name as the policyholder.