Car insurance, is this right?

[JunoMacGuff]

I have just updated my address on my car insurance policy, as we have moved house.

All I have done is changed the address, and the 'number of cars in this household' has gone down from 3 to 1.

My policy has gone up by £5 a month? What? How is this right? Have I made a mistake? Is this normal?

Oh - actually that's an interesting point..

Our home contents insurance was cheaper in this property than our last.

This is a 3 bed detached home.
Last was a 2 bed flat.

And it's cheaper now... So one would presume the postcode made it cheaper? But it's made the car insurance more?!

I pay monthly so there is nothing to 'get back'.

It'll be to do with differing risks; the risk of burglary/house fire etc will be different in different postcodes as will car risk, but not necessarily in concert (could be an OK postcode for theft in homes but poor for theft from vehicles etc)

Check your Ts&Cs.

Often car insurance paid monthly is essentially a credit agreement, whereby an agency (often a credit arm of the same insurer) pays in the insurance company in full at the beginning and you are actually paying that agency every month; you have essentially been lent the yearly premium. If you cancel before the end, you will find the agency still want a fair amount of that money back as well as admin fees. Check before committing to anything else as for £5 a month it may well not be worth moving

I changed cars from a silly boy racer mobile to a Volvo and my premium went up! I will be shopping around at renewal time (couldn't be bothered when I changed cars as there was too much else going on).

You could cancel but you'd be liable for an early cancellation charge

policy cancellation conditions depend on the policy. Ask your insurer for the charges, no-one here can answer.

before you do that, run a comparison quote to get new prices to see if it is worth it.

We moved to a nicer area. The premium went up.

I questioned it and was told that a nicer area has nicer cars so it increases the risk of theft.

You are entitled to cancel your insurance policy at any point during its duration, and you will only be liable for your 'time on risk' i.e. the actual period you are insured.

However, there will be a cancellation charge, and possibly an admin charge as well (you sign up to that in your t&c small print), usually in the region of £30-£50.

Run your details through the price comparison sites - follow the MSE process - www.moneysavingexpert.com/car-insurance/ to cover all the companies quickly. If you can get it cheaper elsewhere, taking into account the cancellation/admin fee then move.

Also take into account the finance charge for paying monthly. You're paying £45/year, finance charge is usually around 15%, (45x12)/115*100 = 469 is your premium cost.

It is all to do with the calculated risk, my premium went UP when I took my ex off my policy - direct line assessed cohabiting couples as having less accidents!! My DP halved his insurance last year when he bought a newer, faster, more powerful, much more desirable car - but thats cos he never shopped around and believed that his insurance company must be doing him a good deal cos he'd been with them for years...

PS, if you do move company, run it through quidco, get some cash back too :)

PatriciaHolm's advice is what I would have said too, along with those saying cancellation fee and administration fees may be charged. You can try haggle with the insurer about them. The point about paying monthly but you may need to pay off some or most of the remainder policy may well be the case, I know someone that had to pay the rest of the insurance time, it was a while ago so may not have been all but it was alot of it.

JunoMacGuff I'd be interested what the case will be for you, let us know.

And the Members mentioning algorithm and factors, I believe that's true and insurance companies will favour certain factors e.g, be better for a 20 year old with a Fiesta in a countryside location or a 40 year old with a Lexus in a town. Other factors also such as points and occupation may affect and have changed in your circumstances OP?

And forgot to say PatriciaHolm, interesting that on pay monthly that the credit company is involved, I never realised that. Makes sense.

Well.

I have changed it again, this time changing the address and reduced the 'number of cars in the household' from 3 to 2 and this time it only changed by £1 a month.

So it obviously is the number of cars, which is incredible given that the increase of usage of each car hasn't changed at all.

And interesting that my parents didn't inform their insurance companies when I moved in with them, and they would, presumably, have seen a slight decrease in their premiums given that the home now had a third car.

How utterly bizarre!

I can understand if one person was insuring more than one car for their own use, as you would think you'd use each one less, but when there are 3 adults and 3 cars? Odd assumption.

" took out the policy agreeing to the amount."

Technically you actually agreed the amount based on the facts you gave at the time - those facts have now changed, so you want change your half of the contract, they can change their half.
very un-technical view of insurance

Think someone mentioned an algorithm earlier ..... It's not so simple as your car, your nice area, here's the premium ..... There's all sorts chucked into the sum, along with a lot of assumptions. Phone up and ask if they can do a better deal - if not, request the cost to cancel and find a better deal elsewhere. Or at least remember to check it out when your annual renewal comes up.

I moved from an incredibly rough, inner city address where my car was parked on a street, to a little village with practically zero crime, and my car is parked in a locked, private car park. My insurance went up £80 a bloody month!!! I shopped around and managed to get a new policy for half what I was paying in the first place, so £105 a month less than they wanted to charge me!

The only downside is that with cancelling halfway through a year, I lost that year's no claims bonus (not really bothered as I've got 18 years worth) and had to pay a cancellation fee and deposit for the new policy.

I rang to change the name on my house insurance policy (buildings) from Ex H to me. No other change whatsoever. Premium went up! I am currently waiting result of investigation as I thought unfair and sexist. BTW I was joint name beforehand, too. Incredulous.

The number of cars affecting things isn't bizarre at all. It might not work in your specific circumstances but with a household like my cousin with both parents having a car and one son at home with a car. Although they all use their cars for work they don't in leisure time or food shopping or all those other little journeys that are done. Also holidays most families won't take 3 cars on holiday, or park 3 cars in airport parking and it's silly little things like that which reduce the insurance.

jacks but it is bizarre, because it should really take into account the fact that we weren't operating three cars as a 'family' - which I would understand in the case of two parents and some teenage children who all owned cars - one presumes they would do some car sharing.

We don't go on holiday together, do shopping together or have 'leisure time' together. My parents do, of course, so I can see why this process would be applicable to them.

As this wasn't the case for me, it is clearly not a very good way they work it out! My usage hasn't changed in the slightest.

Anyway, I managed to get it to only a £1 a month increase so it's not a big deal. I can handle £12 a year

But the insurance company don't know that. All they care about is the number of cars you have access to. They have no idea that you would never drive any of them.

But they surely can see I wasn't insured on the other two cars? Therefore, my access to other cars hasn't changed?!

You can normally drive other cars as third party under most policies, so they probably factor in a bit of driving under that.

Not on my policy - which they would know!

I used to be able to, when I renewed last year, this came off. They couldn't give me a reason. I didn't really care as I never used anyone else's car anyway.

Car insurance rates fluctuate, as insurers balance their risk profiles, so a quote one day will not necessarily be the same as a quote a few days later, even using the same information to calculate the risk.

I moved 3 streets away last year, phoned the insurance company to tell them and they wanted an extra £200 year. On a £300 policy!
And my new road is a quiet one, where as my old one was a main road, where a lorry had crashed into parked cars a few years ago. I couldn't work out their reasoning, so cancelled and went elsewhere