Extremely worried about my insurance claim

[TW]Fox · 8 Dec 2018 at 17:52

Feek said:
I've only skimmed the thread but this raises an interesting point for me. I work from home, my normal place of work is my home office. Twice a month I travel to the main head office which is about a 220 mile round trip. I need to check my policy but I don't ever remember having to specify commuting before. Should I be concerned if my policy doesn't specify it?

Previously when I didn't work from home I always had business cover but when I was made redundant, I removed that from my policy on renewal.

Surely you need business use for work travel to a place that isn't your base.

Housey · 8 Dec 2018 at 17:54

[TW]Fox said:
Surely you need business use for work travel to a place that isn't your base.

Yup

Kaeo · 8 Dec 2018 at 19:00

Yeah Feek, any travel to a business location that isn't your normal working location for business purposes should have business cover. Stupid, but there it is.

Raggs · 8 Dec 2018 at 20:28

the op needs this.

actually its a good plan once given to me by a councellor.

action plan bit phone insurance don't ask a load of old farts on a internet forum what to do.

Tee Hee Johnson · 8 Dec 2018 at 22:18

For anywhere other than a single point of work, business should be added to the policy.

Thought it was like this for many years. I don't as I have a static head office where I work, my partner ddoe as she's visits a potentially different location daily.

Swifty55 · 9 Dec 2018 at 08:05

grudas said:
My mate was pulled over by police and done for no insurance while on his way to work. He had everything but did not tick commuting and got done and car seized. 6 PTS on his license too and a fine, can't remember how much now.

I call bull on that.

Feek · 9 Dec 2018 at 08:37

[TW]Fox said:
Surely you need business use for work travel to a place that isn't your base.

Housey said:
Yup

That’s fair enough, thanks. I’ll get it added back on. It was never expensive, about a tenner on the cost of the policy. I have just double checked the wording on mine and it includes commuting but I’ll add the business cover.

Clearcut · 9 Dec 2018 at 10:00

Who doesn't drive to work? Why would you need to add extra to your policy for that?

Kenai · 9 Dec 2018 at 10:12

Clearcut said:
Who doesn't drive to work? Why would you need to add extra to your policy for that?

Lots of people who are housewives/husbands, anyone unemployed, anyone who owns a weekend car, people that walk/cycle/train/bus/tube/etc.

Clearcut · 9 Dec 2018 at 10:17

So everyone who goes to work in their car is commuting. I thought that meant to another city. Looks like a lot of people (including me) are under insured.

Kenai · 9 Dec 2018 at 10:20

Clearcut said:
So everyone who goes to work in their car is commuting. I thought that meant to another city. Looks like a lot of people (including me) are under insured.

Yes, simply put if you drive to work you are using your car for commuting and should be insured as such. Nothing to do with how far.

If you drive for work, during work or to get to various places at work you probably need business use.

Terminal_Boy · 9 Dec 2018 at 10:24

MagicBoy said:
When was commuting to work an optional extra? Surely the included in the Domestic part of SD&P. WTF!

Can you tell I've not changed insurance companies in 5 years....

Damn! When did this change? The missus only had SD&P on our last 2 UK cars whilst using them for commuting..

Kenai · 9 Dec 2018 at 10:26

It has been like this for as long as I've been driving :confused:

You choose between SDP, SDPC or Business.

Semple · 9 Dec 2018 at 10:39

Frankly they should just scrap SDP and and leave the minimal as SDPC, for the little extra it costs, they would actually be a able to lower the cost for everyone across the board.

Meaker · 9 Dec 2018 at 11:27

As a teacher my wife has about 250 business miles in case she travels to a school paid conference or needs to transport some stuff for a school trip.

Lopéz · 9 Dec 2018 at 13:16

Clearcut said:
So everyone who goes to work in their car is commuting. I thought that meant to another city. Looks like a lot of people (including me) are under insured.

Why would commuting specifically mean travelling to another city?

For all the people saying "when did they sneak this under the radar?" - they didn't. It's been there since I started at least since I started driving in 1997.

Hagar · 9 Dec 2018 at 15:25

Lopéz said:
Why would commuting specifically mean travelling to another city?

For all the people saying "when did they sneak this under the radar?" - they didn't. It's been there since I started at least since I started driving in 1997.

I am sure it was not there when I started driving in 1970, but as to when it began, I am not sure.

Hades · 9 Dec 2018 at 15:38

It wasn't there when I started driving in the late 1980's. But it's certainly been there for the last 20 years or so.

Rroff · 9 Dec 2018 at 15:44

Lopéz said:
Why would commuting specifically mean travelling to another city?

For all the people saying "when did they sneak this under the radar?" - they didn't. It's been there since I started at least since I started driving in 1997.

Well definitely some of the options/presentation has changed anyhow as it nearly caught me out a couple of weeks back or so - if I hadn't been doing multiple car versus van comparisons and double checking the actual needs of social versus business use on van insurance I might not have noticed or even thought about it at all. (fortunately I've not been previously "under" insured in this way).

Ryanjames · 9 Dec 2018 at 19:04

If you are driving from work (after a shift) and not going home, but instead going to a friend's house or whatever, is that still classed as commuting?