To be shaking about car insurance

[Panicsatlot]

I'll try to keep it short, we have two cars and two insurance policies, because a few years ago we swapped cars, the car I mainly drive is insured with DH as the policy holder and me as the main driver and visa versa.

DH handles care insurance and took out a policy on the car he's the policy holder for which expires in three weeks, he's just come to do the renewal, the premium has increased so having shopped around he decided to go with another company.

It now turns out that the insurance company have used my no claims bonus on this policy instead of his, he's been with them for two years and so his own no claims bonus has now expired and is lost. His new policy will have to be done on 0 no claims, when it expires, but this company recognises the no claims and so there isn't a problem with them.

The reason I'm shaking is that I was told to contact my company to explain the situation, as you can only use a no claims bonus once, so both companies can't recognise it. I think I need to call my insurance company and explain that it's a genuine mistake and see what they do,

what do you think they'll do?

I can't really afford to pay additional premiums and the other policy expires in a couple of weeks any way after which I'm only using it once, but in the meantime I'm knowingly claiming it twice.

DH says don't bother it's only a few weeks.

But I'm physically shaking, as I really worry about this sort of thing. DH is
pissed off about the whole thing and not really in the mood to be symathetic.

No idea why I've name changed for this, just part of the general panic.

My IBS is going to start kicking off if I don't calm down.

My tendance to consider all the potential consequences of a situation stands me in good stead at work, but not in these sorts of situations.

You're not a lawyer or in some other risk averse profession are you?

Well, I can empathise if you are but it isn't helping you or doing you any good. The best thing you can do is learn from others. The issue equally concerns your DH but he isn't fretting about it or overly concerning himself. As it's only a few weeks, IMO it's better to let sleeping dogs lie.

Do you know the actual date your dh last had his own policy using his own NBC?

I don't think you need to be worrying huge amounts btw, there will be a way to sort it and if you do have to pay any extra it wouldn't be massive if you're both clean risks.
Are you 100% sure they actually used your NBC rather than giving a discount equivalent to your driving experience, as they would have needed proof of NBC originally and you say that was on the other policy.

I'm not a lawyer :) but I do work with very risk conscious professionals and have to prempt what they'll worry about in order to support them to accept changes.

It often doesn't help in personal situations, hence the IBS originally linked to a period of stress and anxiety.

fluffy if they'd have asked for proof of no claims DH would have sent them his last policy information, rather than one showing proof of my no claims and this would have come to light at the time.

It's all very confusing really, I'm not sure why DH didn't pick this up, but on the other hand I don't think they explained it properly and he just assumed it worked the same way as every other policy we've had.

I think I'll have to try to sleep on it.

Don't worry. I also get very confused about all this stuff but the people on the phones know what they are doing and I'm sure they have the right information.
Just wanted to add that admiral multi car has also worked very well for us. We're also in the situation where I own the car dh drives and vice versa. Admiral not phased by my requests and confusion. Worth giving them a call if you've got a car sharing household

Thanks everyone, I'm going to attempt to chill out now, and then decide whether to call them or not based on how I feel tomorrow.

At the moment the shaking has stopped but my stomach is still churning.

I think it's partly the insurance companies to blame as they just don't seem to get that a couple/family don't really think in terms of each car being used by the family, just try to simplify it but actually reality makes it more complicated.

And if you think that your dh will lose his no claims - isn't it 2 years at which it expires? In which case hasn't he got a couple of weeks to try to resurrect it?

And yes - admiral multicar is great for the first year (and being able to start it then add a second car to it later is very handy) but beware the second year - they more than doubled our quote for the second year . I hit the comparison sites and moneysavingexpert and got it down to less than it had been the previous year. I could have got it even cheaper but I decided to stick to names I had heard of.

The bad thing then is that you end up with two separate policies to renew at once so if you are liable to forget or leave things to the last minute you have to do lots at the last minute and you don't have the 'other' car that is sitting there insured and waiting to be used!

OK, but just look at it from the car insurance company perspective if you ring them. 'Oh, here's some anxious person ringing about an error that they've (unwittingly) lived with for nearly 12 months and which is going to disappear in a few weeks. Yes, let's increase their charges on them - and possibly backdate if we can'.

OP - because you seem overly anxious and admit that this anxiety affects you physically (for example, IBS flareups) have you ever sought help to deal with it (the anxiety, not the IBS)?

Being up all night worrying about 'this sort of thing' and physically shaking over a simple error over car insurance that one of the insurers has told you not to worry about is not something that you should be doing.

Having read the OP, I'm struggling to see what you have to worry about.
You and your insurance company have done nothing wrong. You have told them the truth, and have the correct policy.

The problem is that your DH's insurance company have made an error, whether that is entirely down to them or your DH isnt that relevent to your insurance.

The other policy is the one with the mistake. I dont know if I would bother to contact your insurance company at all, because that policy is not the problem.

One option would be for your DH to cancel his policy now and start again with the new policy from today. I would mean that 3 weeks insurance have effectively been paid for twice, but does mean that there is no doubling up on NCB.

I work in insurance, so just to clarify your NCD has been applied to both your insurance and your husbands insurance policies for the past two years?

When you set up the policy was this set up with the intention of your husband using his NCD on his policy?

If so I would not stress to much, either the company that has rated the policy has done so incorrectly, in which case you cannot be held accountable for this, even though it is your responsibility to check all your documentation is correct it is their responsibility to request proof of bonus at inception stage and chase this if not received.

Perhaps the company mirrors discounts?

If your husbands NCD is still within a two year period then it can be used.

Regardless of any of these scenarios our underwriters would not be looking to backdate or void a policy when they could be potentially liable with a complaint logged with the FSA.

Let me know if you need any assurance, or I am sure there would be people in legal who could help if you find this escalates.

antsy That's really helpful, and yes, the intention was always that DH would use his NCD, this is truly a cock up rather than any attempt at fraud.

I've looked at the policy documents and i can't see how we would have known there was a problem even if we'd read them really well, which I also find reassuring.

They can't have asked for proof of no claims, otherwise DH would have sent them proof of his no claims and this would have come up at the time. I certainly think the insurance company needs to look at how they handle the sales call, the customer services lady read the questions out to me, and the use of the main drivers NCD rather then the policy holders is just implied, not properly explained.

DHs insurance company said they'd cancel the policy and start another one on 0 NCD until I pointed out it was due to expire soon anyway, at which point they said they were OK with the NCD situation and just to let it expire (sorry I don't think I mentioned that earlier). But they did recommend I contact my insurer.

I've had a dig around in my bank records and I've worked out who DH was insured with before this company, thanks to those who have pointed out he still has a couple of weeks to claim his NCD from the previous insurance, he had maximum NCD at that point, so I'll feel better if we can get that reinstated at least on the his policy as we were both entitled to maximum NCD throughout this whole period, and we're both on both policies. I have an account number associated with the direct debit so hopefully that will help.

This is DH's job for tomorrow, and again I feel better thinking of us in dispute with DH's insurance company, rather than it all being clear and me feeling in the wrong.

re my levels of anxiety I am planning to refer myself for counselling through a scheme at work (building up to it at the moment) as this anxiety stems from childhood issues and an event in adulthood that I haven't properly addressed, I mananged to tell my very supportive line manager part of the story last week which helped.

I have a mother who would always point out the negatives and put down my abilities (not the main problem) which doesn't help with my confidence in these situations. helps with work though strangely as I tend to think about details and potential problems others miss.

I have never heard f a company rating a policy on a main drivers NCD, policyholders are the people who earn the NCD, if you had a young driver of 17 on a car you owned and kept but they used the majority of the time, essentially with that company they could have a full bonus for a fraction of the cost.

I think that sounds like an appeasement or excuse not to deal with a possible escalated complaint and if I heard one of my staff stating such a thing I'd be concerned.

I have worked in insurance now for almost 15 years and never heard of it, not even through brokers.

Personally if you have any problems pursuing your DH's previous NCD proof I would be requesting an investigation, a full bonus accounts for aprox 60% discount on some policies so it's worth pursuing.

Good luck with it all

panic Hope all goes well with the self-referral, and I am pleased that opening up to someone even partially has helped. Did you manage to get much sleep last night? I hope you did, and that you feel better about the situation this morning :)

I didn't get much sleep last night, but I should sleep better tonight.

I still don't quite understand what's happened but it is apparently all sorted.

The company with the policy in my DHs name apparently transfered DHs NDC to me, as they always attribute the NCD to the main driver not the policy holder (weird but true), so effectively I hold 2 lots of NCD (one on each car)and it's possible for me to transfer his back to him. Which restores us back to the position we were in before the policy with this company started as we were both already on maximum no claims.

The new insurance company believes this to be true and is prepared to honour a full NCD in DH's name, while I still hold a full NCD in my name on my own policy, and I think now is the time to stop asking questions, nod and say thank you.

I can square it for myself in that we have both held separate policies for 20+ years and are both entitled to a full NCD, which we've been paying extra to protect, so we are entitled to what we're getting, and we haven't gained anything financially from this.

I haven't spoken to my insurance company, I'm happy now to take the word of DHs new insurance company as they had nothing to gain from doing this, in fact they've lost money by honouring DH's NCD, which I appear to have been temporarily keeping for him for the last two years.

Phew.

Thank you all for your support.

BTW I've tactfully told DH to pay more attention in future when he's getting quotes [bsmile].

I'm still tempted to write a letter of complaint about this company as they don't directly tell customers that they do this, it's just implied in their questions, when you've never heard of companies giving the NCD to the main driver rather than the policy holder there's a good chance of not picking up on this, I wonder how many more customers are in the same position and don't know. I should probably let sleeping dogs lie though, as this seems to be sorted, DH will have a fit if I mess is up.

Glad it's sorted :)