Car Insurance Address Change - Unable to offer quote

pipistrellus

Hello,

I have recently moved to a new address, and tried to change it on my car insurance, and was told they are unable to offer me a quote, and that I need to cancel. To their credit, they did say that if I cancelled in 2 weeks, they wouldn't apply a cancellation charge (which would have been £15).

The main problem I have with this, is that they didn't say in their policy that I wouldn't be able to change address (in fact they explicitly said I could), or that they would be unable to offer a new quote elsewhere etc. If I knew I wasn't going to be able to receive a new quote, I would have looked weeks before for a new insurance, to be able to get a cheaper quote, but now once I cancel I'm going to have to find a new insurance for as soon as possible.

I looked at some different dates and quotes and I'll show them here. So, the first quote is the cheapest (usually 2 star) and the second is the cheapest 5 star option:

28/09 (today) - £605.24, £696.99

29/09 - £586.95, £659.63

11/10 - £559.81, £646.51

23/10 - £551.54, £637.33

So given the numbers, if I were to have known beforehand that I wasn't able to change my insurance address, I could have made an ~8.7% saving or £53-£60 saving (given my preference in defaqto rating). So this doesn't feel fair that I'm not able to take advantage of this, and I will have to go for a more expensive option of car insurance because they couldn't offer me something they said they could in their initial insurance policy.

Is there anything I can do about this? Or do I have to just take this on the chin??

Thanks!

la531983

"The main problem I have with this, is that they didn't say in their policy that I wouldn't be able to change address"

Well they wouldnt know where you were moving to when you initially took it out, the area you are moving to must have them spooked (risk profiles)

MyRealNameToo

Why didnt you call them when you knew your change of address was going to happen? Then you would have had more notice that you are going to have to go elsewhere or had an opportunity to change your plans of moving address if the insurance is that important?

At the original point of purchase the insurer and/or broker only agreed to the original address, its you thats changing the ballpark by moving and the one thats created the rod by delaying notifying them. An insurer can only consider another address at the point you tell them, all are interested in being given the opportunity to quote but not every insurer covers every possible address in the UK.

What to do? Ask earlier next time.

flaneurs_lobster

Tell us the name of the insurance company.

Can you actually quote the section in their terms (or wherever) where it explicitly says that you can expect coverage if you change address?

Most policies are quoted on a fixed set of criteria (car, driver, address etc), if any of these change then a new/updated policy is needed.

There's a difference between not offering coverage and not quoting, the quote is the decision not to offer coverage.

Woodstok2000

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6684796/car-insurance-address-change-unable-to-offer-quote

Take it on the chin, and if you move house again start looking for quotes well ahead of the move.

Mildly_Miffed

Different postcodes have different risk profiles - and it might be that your insurer simply don't like the new area, for whatever reason, even if the PRECISE address is not that bad.

I presume both addresses are mainland GB? Northern Ireland complicates things even further…

So, no, it's not a "they won't cover an address change", it's "they won't cover THAT address". If your initial quote had been for that new address, they probably wouldn't have given you a price at all.

LukeB_92

One thing worth noting in your own numbers — the quotes get noticeably cheaper the further out the start date is. Since your insurer has given you a two-week window before the cancellation charge applies, you don't actually have to buy for today: you can line up the new policy to start later in that window and capture a chunk of that saving.

Just make sure there's no gap between the old cover ending and the new one starting — even a day without insurance while the car is on the road is an offence. And when you cancel, ask the old insurer for written proof of your no-claims discount so the new one can apply it.