Basil Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Hi All, Ok not motorhome insurance but something I thought might be of interest or a warning to some and could just as easily been the motorhome insurance. I contacted one of my car insurers to find out the cost of haveing my daughter added as a name driver on 14/05/07 and after having a conversation with the agent the price was high so I declined to go ahead at that time and said I would ask around so he said would phone me back in the afternoon, which he did bang on time. I advised him that his quote was far too high and I had been able to obtain quotes at less than half the price and not much dearer than the premium I was paying, at no time during the conversation did I ask, or was it mentioned by him, to cancel the policy. Yesterday I recieved a letter from the company saying you guessed it, 'we have cancelled your policy as of the14/05 and request you return the Certificate.......Blah...Blah. Now my immediate thought was my wife is currently out in the car some 45 miles away and uncontactable, uninsured and unaware, help!! I immediately phoned the company to be told that they are unable to reinstate cancelled insurance however I could take out a new policy which would give immediate cover for a year, not satisfactory to me as I have not cancelled the policy you, the company, have made an error. To cut along story short, I was on the phone for 85 minutes trying to get to someone to help, eventually a manager listened to the origional call and accepted at no time had I asked for the insurance to be cancelled so on this occasion it was reinstated and back dated to when it was cancelled by them. So my point is if you ever phone up for a quote or to ask about anything make sure you make it clear you do not want to cancel anything until you have made a decision and tell them, we have for the last16 days been driving the vehicle uninsured over which time some 800 miles have been covered. Goodness knows what would have happened had the worst occurred, at the very least we would have been arguing over who was responsible and trying to prove we had not cancelled it. I won't name the company as once I got to the right person within 10 minutes the problem was put right and I do accept that mistakes do occur but felt it worthwhile posting for others information. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Might pay you to check immediately if your daughter's new insurance is still valid Basil! There is a concept that the same item, beit a vehicle or whatever, cannot be separately insured on two different policies. This is primarily intended to prevent fraud, where the item may attract multiple claims, but one possible (I think likely) explanation of the reason your own insurance was cancelled, was that your car had shown up with an alternative policy in place on the BIA database.By reinstating your original cover, I think your insurer will have obliged the new insurer to cancel your daughter's cover. I think you may need to switch all the insurances to the same insurer, before you are all legally insured to drive the same car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel E Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 I'm afraid that you should also be aware that, if your daughter is the main (or even a very significant) user of the car, then the insurance in your name may not be valid if there is an accident. This issue arises because, for many years, people have tried to get around the very high cost of motor insurance for under 25s by insuring the vehicle in their own name and having the 'junior' as a named driver because it is generally much cheaper. Thus if you are away for extended periods in your motorhome and your daughter is then the only user of the car, any claim may be rejected on the grounds that you did not declare your daughter as the principal user. Mel E ==== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted June 1, 2007 Author Share Posted June 1, 2007 Hi Both of you, Sorry perhaps I have not explained properly, I have not taken out any other insurance I have only obtained quotes, currently my daughter is not on our car insurance and I have not as yet progressed it any further. It was just a thought that as we are away quite a bit that it might be worth having her on our insurance in case she needed to use, or for that matter move it, it while we were not there rather than having to rely only on third party cover from her own insurance to drive any vehicle not owned by her. I was aware of the 'main driver' clauses in insurance and the particular car that I am referring to, although it is insured on a policy of mine and I am the registered keeper my wife is the stated main driver so that was all above board, my daughter would only be an occasional driver if the need arose. This was the main concern over what happened because I had actually not initiated any change to the status quo so I was quite shocked and unprepared for the policy being cancelled, so hence my warning for others to be wary if enquiring about anything with their policys. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 OK Basil, glad it was simpler than I thought! Under the circumstances, it seems your insurer was a quite a bit "previous" with the cancellation, verging on the irresponsible, in fact! However, your point is well made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tosserspotter Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 wrong again Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted June 1, 2007 Author Share Posted June 1, 2007 Brian Kirby - 2007-06-01 5:37 PM OK Basil, glad it was simpler than I thought! Under the circumstances, it seems your insurer was a quite a bit "previous" with the cancellation, verging on the irresponsible, in fact! However, your point is well made. Thanks Brian, Yes I think you are quite right in your sumation, you can see now maybe why I posted for everyones attention, it has happened to me it could happen to others. I do accept errors occur, the difficulty was getting to someone that could/ would listen to me and help, the lady manager that sorted it out actually said that the agent should have confirmed with me before cancelling and from the recorded phone conversation clearly hadn't. The other thing that comes to mind why did they wait 16 days before sending out written confirmation of what they had done as we were driving around blissfully unaware. I just wonder what would have happened if the worst had occurred, doesn't bear thinking about. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Keats Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 I would suggest that had a serious event occured there was proof 'as said' by the telephone recording Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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