Help me with insurance

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MancMike

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Jul 29, 2014
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Hi,

Not wanting to pull the "how much do you pay for insurance" thread off on a tangent, I thought I'd create my own thread.

I've always paid thousands for insurance, obliterating everyone else's rants about 450 a year being excessive, I used to pay more than that a month.

Anyway, my insurance company have just cancelled my policy as I apparently owed them 30 quid for an admin charge I thought they'd added on to the policy but apparently I was supposed to go on their website and pay it.

I'm furious as I was just about to clock up another year's NCB. I currently have 2 years. (I changed cars a lot, and had times with no car, so didn't keep insurance active for many full years).

I've got a clean licence, no accidents recorded, my fault or otherwise, have a driveway.

At it's peak I paid £890 first payment followed by 10 payments of £465/month to insure my RX8.

Now I was paying £110/month (about 1300 in total) for the C class. As my policy has now ended, I'm getting new quotes. They're all coming in at over £1,800 with a 3 grand compulsory excess.

Every person I speak to about it, people in the same area, people with faster cars, points, accidents, convictions, etc all choke on their own spit when I mention my premiums, and they're somehow paying just a few hundred a year, and moaning about it.

With my cards on the table, what am I doing wrong? :dk:
 
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Anyway, my insurance company have just cancelled my policy
This is not good. Having a motor insurance policy cancelled normally sounds alarm bells with other motor insurers and will almost certainly result in a premium hike :(

I've got a clean licence, no accidents recorded, my fault or otherwise, have a driveway.
OK, so those attributes would normally be considered positives.

Age, location and occupation are the other three big influences on motor premiums. You can't do anything about the first, but it may be worth playing with occupation and/or address on a comparison site or with a broker to find out what's making your premium so much higher than you expect.
 
How many years have you held a full licence?
 
Firstly - Have you spoken to your insurer and asked if they can re-instate the policy ?
Not usually possible, but it can sometimes be done.

Secondly - If it's possible for you to not insure the car for a couple of days - Try getting a quote for the policy to start in 2 or 3 days time.

Good luck
 
Thanks for the advice so far.

I live in M22 which isn't a good postcode risk wise, but I used to live in moss side, and that was the same risk rating, which is ridiculous as I now live in a peaceful leafy suburb.

I've had my full licence since May 2011.

I have spoken to them, they're not even entertaining the idea of reinstating it, acting like it's as impossible as inhaling Jupiter and blowing smoke rings with it.

They're trying to quote me on a new policy, and are obviously taking the fact that I've had a policy cancelled into account! They've just quoted £1830, with a 3 grand excess.

They also won't release my 2 years NCB until I pay the cancellation fee, plus some remaining money, £134 they're after...

What's the reason for the couple of days? It's weekend, so surely doable, but what's the significance of this?
 
Don't really see that they can get away with cancelling you for non payment if they didn't send you an invoice.

how to complain
 
To be clear, I was fully up to date with the premium. It was only the admin charge due to change of address that I failed to pay, but they hardly made any deadline clear to me.

Is there some rule that they must send an invoice first?
 
I hate dealing with insurance companies they are always more interested in cash in 1st service 2nd. But that's is their business model. I used to have horrific insurance rates but always ensure that if they wanted the car garaged, tracker and an immobiliser, limited mileage I did it all.. Also adding some older people and women for some reason often lowers the premium. Also look into these driver trackers, they monitor how you drive and if your a good driver lowers you premium.


Plus buy cars with lower insurance rates..... Sound obvious but for example the latest Golf GTI/R/GTD is 5 grades lower than the mark 6 due to the std fit collision avoidance system.

Also used compare and these sites and play about with your options.... Mileage/excess/drivers etc
 
Cancelling the policy because of a misunderstanding about an admin fee sounds a bit odd, who is the insurer?

Did the policy go the full term or did they cancel during the (usually 12 month) term?

If you have only been dealing with a local office I would escalate to a higher level within the organisation.
 
Hi, all.

They don't see it as a misunderstanding, they tried to contact me via email (which they did, to ask me for proof of address, which I am still in the process of waiting for from the bank) the email made no reference to any monies owing, and phone. I had one missed call from them which was around the same time the email arrived and I couldn't take it as I was in work. As it was around the same time and I couldn't fulfil their email's request for POA until arrived, I didn't return their call, but it was only the one... That's the bit that's my fault.

The insurer is a broker, one call direct. They were the cheapest, at the time, at £1300~

The policy was taken out for the day I collected the car, 28/07/2014. It then renewed a year later.

What I'm trying to understand is that I had 2 years when I went to them in 2014. When it renewed in July 15, I should then have had 3 years. The fact it's ended now, short of 16's July should mean I'm missing out on the 4th year NCB. They're saying I've got 2 years NCB, which they'll send me when I clear the £~85if I take out the £1800 policy, and £134 if I don't.

Everyone keeps pointing me at the financial ombudsman, which is much appreciated, but that's a long drawn out process to get back at the insurer. What I need now is some way of getting insured for monday morning without it costing me a fortune. I'll get quotes with my older sister on the policy and see if that helps.

Thanks so far.
 
If you had 2 years when you went to them in 2014 you must have documentation that you had a policy then. Go back to your 1st insurer and ask them to confirm (in writing that you had no claims when insured with them.
Use this firstly to beat on call direct around the head. If that doesn't work take it all to the insurance ombudsman.
You need to build the claim up:-
extra cost of insurance in years 3 & 4 as they ignored your first s years of NCD
extra cost of policy cancellation fee
extra cost of insurance for the coming year due to policy cancellation
extra cost of insurance this year due to lost NCD.
cost of your time wasted, calls etc

They claim to record telephone calls & the ombudsman will ask them for copies of recordings - I had this once & the insurance co claimed not to be able to find the recording - the ombudsman found in my favour.

Keep copies of everything & make notes of phone calls.
 
The reason for suggesting you get a quote for a policy to start in a couple of days time - Some insurers might offer a better rate for somebody who plans a few days ahead, rather than needing a policy immediately.
This is not guaranteed, but does sometimes work with some insurers - Just like trying to book travel arrangements at the last minute.
 
I just got a quote from admiral multi car for my car and my mrs' Mini Cooper.

For mine to start on monday, and her's to start late March when her's is up for renewal.

£1759.67 for mine, £1275.02 for hers, so £3034.69 for a couple of 57 plates with combined value of 10k with two clean licence drivers. Seems crazy to me. :mad:
 
On the NCB issue. I was doing my father in laws car insurance and his previous insurance company said they only issue 9 years NCB even though he had over 20 years. His premium would go up at nine years NCB. I contact the financial ombudsman then phoned the insurance company, told them that I contacted him and his reply was if my father in law suffered any financial penalties or loss because of their 9 year NCB policy that they will be liable. Had a letter with full NCB within an hour
 
Cheers Kenny. I'd heard about the 9 year cap too, I assumed that was an official limit?


---

For ****s and giggles I just made up a quote masquerading as a 46 year old, who lives in stockport, with a full licence for 20 years, 9 years NCB, clean licence, no accidents, nothing. No children, married, and it still came back at 650, with 500 compulsory excess.

It's not the licence, NCB length either, as trying again with 8 year licence and 5 year NCB still quotes me 1300.

I'm sure I've read on the insurance cost thread that stuartk? maybe, is about my age, 27, has a C63 and is about that 650 mark on insurance...

Really thinking I'm missing something major here. Someone car to model my scenario on money supermarket?

Enter any manchester postcode, doesn't seem to make a difference, but here's my details that I'm willing to disclose;

1988
Full UK licence, here since birth, held for 4 years, nearly 5. 2 years NCB (should be 3, but can prove 2 right now), software developer, clean licence, no accidents, 2 kids,not married, up to 10,000 miles, social/commuting, on a driveway at home, secure carpark at work.

It's a 57 plate C280 petrol auto.

I've tried without kids, married/single, not commuting, keeping on the street (incase they prefer that as it's not as easy to know which house to burgle for the keys). If you can get it to less than a grand, I'd love to know how...

I'm not trying to deviate from the truth, I'm just exacerbated that my details don't seem that strange, but the quotes are huge.
 
It looks like it is a combination of the car (W204) and the Manchester postcode.
You may find that an E Class would possibly be cheaper.
Any Manchester postcode will fall into the two highest ratings, or may not even get a quote.

Have you tried clearing your web browser cache and cookies, restarting your PC and then running the quotes ?

Again - just a thought.
 
I can solve all your problems, what you need to do is get old very quickly. There is a lot of reasons getting old is ******** but not on the insurance front.

Me and wife E63 £376 a year, her fiat 500 £92 I just turned 46 in Jan with no points since a my 309 GTI at 19 and full no claims. I do drive 15 to 20k a year but most of that is in a Vito ( auto obviously as I am old).

So there you go top tip get old and do it quickly ! :thumb:
 
Oh pick the E63 up in two weeks just in case the c350 in signature proves confusing :doh:
 

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