Car insurance – ARRRGH!!

So i’ve been driving for 20 odd years with me as primary driver and my wife as named driver, no accidents/claims for either party so far.

Either stay with same provider assuming renewal is reasonable or change if the hassle is worth the saving. I always use compare the market for quotes – never had an issue.

Just switched recently and the first issue is that i should have 17 years NCB but my last insurer says they only go up to 9, but as i’ve been with them 3 years they can make it 12 on the proof letter.  The new insurer is saying its not the 17 i put when applying?

Secondly the new insurer is asking for proof of claims history because they say there are claims agains my wifes name, when i’ve asked for info they gave me this…

*** ****** – fault accident dated 20/10/2023. You entered this information when searching for quotes.

*** ****** – fault accident dated 15/09/2022. You entered this information when searching for quotes.

These never happened.

They seem to suggest i have entered them into compare the market when getting quotes?? WTAF? why would i do that?

Now my previous insurer says they can’t send that letter as there were no claims

Anyone had this?

New insurer sounds shoddy as anything and not someone I’d want to be relying on if I ever did have to claim.

Still within your cooling off period? I’d likely be cancelling and going elsewhere

+1 mashr

If they’re making it this hard now, you don’t want to deal with them for a claim.

i should have 17 years NCB but my last insurer says they only go up to 9, but as i’ve been with them 3 years they can make it 12 on the proof letter. The new insurer is saying its not the 17 i put when applying?i

If (if!) you can find something showing how much NCD you had before you went to the last company, they may be able to add x + 9 + 3 = 17.

But new company may only award you what you can prove. Which is likely to be 12 I guess? It’s worth asking what its NCD scale is.

The other part is a bit weird. You should be able to see what you input into Compare the meerkats? I don’t use them but don’t they email/store your data? Start there.

Oh and who is the new insurer?

Most insurers only show up to 9 years NCD, and I think the comparison sites normally only go up that far. Your new insurer should know that and presumably calculate risk/premiums on the same basis.

Did your wife have the supposed accidents or not? You’ve said you didn’t enter it on the comparison sites, but insurers share data behind the scenes.

Either way, I agree they seem like more effort than they are worth – cancel yourself before they cancel you, which looks awful when getting insurance in the future.

I know insurance has shot up this year but I tend to stick to well known companies and pay a bit more rather than be **** around by cowboys.

*** ****** – fault accident dated 20/10/2023. You entered this information when searching for quotes.

*** ****** – fault accident dated 15/09/2022. You entered this information when searching for quotes.
These never happened.

They seem to suggest i have entered them into compare the market when getting quotes?? WTAF? why would i do that?

To check whether it’s worth making the claim, or declaring it? Plenty of people run quotes with little changes to try and get the best price, and plenty of people decide not to declare an accident when they realise how expensive their premium will be. Does your wife insure her own car, or is she on any company car insurance where her name might be linked to claims? Or is she a named driver on offspring’s policy?

Usually most insurance companies talk to each other in their systems, but there should not be those two claims markers if it never happened.  We had to have a policy adjustment, as my son had been hit by debris on a motorway. All logged via insurance, but he decided to fix it himself as it was too much to pursue the lorry company whose drive shaft fell off the truck in front of him (one that should have been driving the truck).  This then appeared as a no fault claim on our renewal documents although I hadn’t declared it as I overlooked it (he’s just a named driver on our run-about cheapo car.

To check whether it’s worth making the claim, or declaring it? Plenty of people run quotes with little changes to try and get the best price, and plenty of people decide not to declare an accident when they realise how expensive their premium will be. Does your wife insure her own car, or is she on any company car insurance where her name might be linked to claims? Or is she a named driver on offspring’s policy

just for the record, these accidents never happened – Truefully. I’ve never entered any claims into compare the market – because they never happened. I can hand on heart say if there was a claim i would declare it.

She has only ever been named driver on my policy

Just spoke to compare the market.

***** (24/10/2024, 14:25:02): I have checked all your quotes, not just your recent one. And I can confirm that since 2020 there have been no claims added to any of your completed quotes for any driver, and therefore we would not have provided any of that information (above) to 1st Central.

That sounds utterly shit. I’d be complaining like mad over that, but cancelling as well. If you moan enough I think it’d be reasonable to ask/get a full refund with no fees. Then go somewhere else.

does cancelling not make me look dodgy, don’t want to be added to CIFAS or anthing like that

NCD of 16 years here made 99p discount on a £600 premium for me.

I would be more concerned about the incidents and clarifying why/how these are on the system.

I would also be moving on from such a crappy provider – what are they going to be like when you need to claim?

pat12Free Member
does cancelling not make me look dodgy, don’t want to be added to CIFAS or anthing like that

Not at all.

Cancel it and move on. Bunch of chancers and a whole world of pain if you ever need to claim or even dispute a 3rd party claim.

Bunch of chancers and a whole world of pain …

They are like buccaneers with legal authority to rob the passing ships as they wish.

My renewal this year with AA had shot up from around £340 to £600! No claims, my mileage had dropped by half, although they didn’t know about the mileage. I looked through the likes of Meerkats and found cheaper, but experience shows that once you start going through the finer details things go up, so I phoned AA and spoke to a very pleasant human being, the result of which my policy went up by about £30, which I was very happy with.

I phoned AA and spoke to a very pleasant human being, the result of which my policy went up by about £30, which I was very happy with

In situations like that I try NOT to give the business to my current supplier: they have given you a big hike so see if you would pay and when you wouldn’t they offered you a lower price.  I think that is immoral – they should offer a fair price based on your risk rather than “how much can we charge before he complains”.

So if they try that with me I usually dump them.

The AA are dreadful for sending overinflated renewal demands for their breakdown cover, which is essentially an insurance policy. Every year they send a high demand, I phone them up and miraculously they can reduce it to within a few pounds of last years quote. For our two vehicles this year a five minute phone call saved £80. We stick with them because my partner has more confidence in them than others such as  Green Flag for example whether this is justified I can’t say.

No, but I’ve just renewed my Mum’s (same method as you but use Confused when the renewal is +£50 greater than the previous year) and when I picked the top/cheapest quote with the right policy/excess for her it took me to their site and prefilled their application.

And then told me she was too old for them.

Simple failure of their API/development but a PITA as I’d already spoken with Mum’s current insurer as they’d increased her premium £200 year-on-year.  The conversation we had did elicit a discount, but nowhere near the company aboves’ quote.

Then I had to go find another quote and TBH for the difference between this and Mum’s original quote, I’d have stayed with the original company…

And then told me she was too old for them.

Get past a certain age and you are essentially stuck with your current insurer. Very few will take on new business from older drivers.

There is some underhand shenanigans going on with a fair few insurers. My son renewed his insurance in June for an older BMW 320 tourer. Roll on 3 months and he gets an email from them saying they are cancelling his insurance as they aren’t insuring young (he’s 24) drivers on BMW’s.  Despite being in ‘contract’.

He had to cancel the insurance as the don’t want an imposed cancellation on your records.

He had to cancel the insurance as the don’t want an imposed cancellation on your records

When they won’t cover anyone in that situation, that’s not an imposed cancellation.

The ones that are problematic are the ones where they cancel YOUR policy only. Usually fraud or misrepresentation etc.

However, especially at the age of 24, I’d be tempted to say that while an insurer can cancel (policy wording will allow it) the outcome on your son would potentially be unfair as it means he couldn’t earn full NCD and I would be willing to bet that various fees were charged when setting up/cancelling the policy?

However, you’ve made it easier for the insurer by cancelling it yourself.

Might be worth a moan. Depends on the premium and how much you were charged etc.