Changing vehicle midway through insurance policy

[New World Order]

Decided to treat my self to a new car, something a bit newer and faster then my current Peugeot 206. Before taking the plunge I got a quote from my insurance company (Bell) on a new policy for a 09 plate 1.4 Seat Ibiza sports coupe grand total was £980 for the duration of the policy. This is £140 more then I paid for my Peugoet 206 policy, so I expected to pay no more then £160 to change the vehicle on my existing policy including admin fees, wrong they want £390 more!

Can anyone help me understand why taking out a new policy is so much cheaper? I'm currently 20% through my policy so would expect to pay more for a full length policy! Would prefer not to lose my progress to a years NCB by taking out a new policy.

 

[p1RATE]

They charge more because they can and know that you usually wont have any better options. Admiral group (bell) can be especially funny with admin fee's and policy changes etc, part of being a cheap insurer i guess.

Get on the phone, plead with them and see if they can offer any better. Tell them you have a cheaper quote elsewhere and they sometimes help you out. If you cancel now you will probably be lucky to get half of the premium back so it might be the cheapest option still even if they dont.

To sum up, insurance is awful and good luck .

 

[iaind]

Just cancel the policy? Sod pleading with them

You'll get a refund of the duration remaining eg if you're 6 months into a policy costing £1000, you'll get £500 back - minus some admin fess probably. If you're paying monthly you'll normally just stop paying, maybe again a few quid in fees.

 

[helpimcrap]

They may well have an admin fee of £100 or something stupid.

Simple thing - ring and ask! You'll know for definite rather than guessing on a forum.

 

[[TW]Fox]

The admin fee is 25 quid, the rest is because for some reason the new car is perceived to be a considerably higher risk.

 

[Jamesyboyjim]

I went from a 1.6 focus to a 1.4 Ibiza, I looked up current quotes for both before phoning Admiral, the Ibiza was a good 100 quid cheaper to insure, yet when I rung admiral to inform them I'd changed cars, it ended up costing me a tenner. Didn't argue over a tenner as I'd already assumed there would be an admin charge anyway so I took it as it being a little cheaper but with 20 quid admin on top.

But I swear they inflate prices when it comes to changing cars on existing policies!

 

[snapdragon69]

Be careful with Hastings - they may claim that you initially had a discount that is voided by cancelling the policy early.

 

[Gaygle]

But I swear they inflate prices when it comes to changing cars on existing policies!

Of course they do. They know that the vast majority of people either can't be bothered to cancel and start a new policy, are concerned about large admin fees by doing so or are worried about losing some progress towards another years NCB.

Not every quote produced by an insurance company is based solely on risk. Sometimes they can see when there is a quick buck to be made.

 

[cheesyboy]

I've been insured with Elephant (Admiral Group) for about 12 years. They place a lot of truck on how long you've owned a vehicle - if you've not crashed it for 3 years, you're pretty safe. A new car is more risky.

I sold a 1.8T Golf IV GTi and bought a 1.4TDi Polo for similar money - the Polo actually saw an increase in my policy cost for the first year. It quickly dropped well below the GTi cost, though.

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

Be careful with Hastings - they may claim that you initially had a discount that is voided by cancelling the policy early.

Now thats sneaky as ****

 

[Nasher]

Better to just cancel and start a fresh one. Otherwise you'll be paying an admin fee, plus a price hike until the end of the year. Just because.

 

[New World Order]

Better to just cancel and start a fresh one. Otherwise you'll be paying an admin fee, plus a price hike until the end of the year. Just because.

Considering I'm 20% through my policy they will give me £572 back from my £860 originally paid. A grand total of saving around £4 cancelling and taking out a new policy, however that will net me a few extra months worth of insurance so worth doing.

 

[Iamzod]

Don't know if this works anymore but get them to cancel the policy rather than you.

I used to work for Direct Line and when we cancelled a policy we charged no admin fees as it was our decision to cancel, a good example would be if you made your existing car uninsurable, like if you told them you have just plonked an 8 litre twin turbo V10 in it with nitrous injection and you are moving to Bradford.

It would create a "Computer says no" moment.

We'd just cancel it with 14 days notice and no charges. I'd check your terms and conditions thoroughly though .

 

[woppy101]

I'm with direct line and I changed cars 3 times in 2 months s40 to s60 to v40 and my payments went down also no admin fees, I would look at changing company's when you can

 

[Gaygle]

Don't know if this works anymore but get them to cancel the policy rather than you.

I used to work for Direct Line and when we cancelled a policy we charged no admin fees as it was our decision to cancel, a good example would be if you made your existing car uninsurable, like if you told them you have just plonked an 8 litre twin turbo V10 in it with nitrous injection and you are moving to Bradford.

It would create a "Computer says no" moment.

We'd just cancel it with 14 days notice and no charges. I'd check your terms and conditions thoroughly though .

Don't you then have to tick the box saying that you've had insurance refused or cancelled in the last 3 years?

 

[grudas]

I thought that by default you loose your ncb? Say I've had my policy for 8 months, now I get a new car, sell the old one and ask them to add new, I assume that they wouldn't simply continue with my policy?

 

[Marvin]

Don't you then have to tick the box saying that you've had insurance refused or cancelled in the last 3 years?

No, that question is aimed at non-disclosure type issues - where the insurer issues a cancellation notice for some reason other than a change of proposal (which is what Iamzod's describing). Basically, if the risk changes, the basis of contract changes with it, and so "cancellation" at this stage is more akin to not accepting the new contract.

However, if the insurer discovers that you've not told them about some material fact or lied in the proposal, then they might issue a cancellation notice (often ab initio), and that is what the question is geared towards. Similarly the "refused" insurance question - it's not asking "have you ever had an insurer not quote" but actually refuse to insure because of something they know about you, e.g. they'd previously cancelled due to non-disclosure.

I'll admit it's not only confusingly written, but also difficult to explain. Such is tradition...

 

[Nasher]

I thought that by default you loose your ncb? Say I've had my policy for 8 months, now I get a new car, sell the old one and ask them to add new, I assume that they wouldn't simply continue with my policy?

If you have more than 5 years NCB, it doesn't really matter. They usually stop giving a discount after that :/

I like the "I've just fitted a NOS kit" idea for getting them to cancel from their end though

 

[mrgubby]

When I changed from a petrol vectra to a diesel vectra mid policy they cancelled the policy. Apparently my insurer would not cover me with that car. I was 52 and it was a basic spec Vectra !

 

[Mr-White]

Admiral were a ball ache when I swapped cars as they couldn't price match my online quote to an already active quote. The problem was they wanted £400 more than the quote and then wanted to charge me £70 to cancel my 3 week old policy. In the end after several hours on the phone and speaking to several different departments they cancelled my policy for free.