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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Car insurance during lockdown

92 replies

Bearnecessity · 09/04/2020 13:54

I am currently paying £85 a month car ins on DS car sat on the drive in lockdown potentially for months.Anyone managed to sort this problem out?

OP posts:

FunkyKingston · 09/04/2020 17:40

PS. There's a lot of repitition on here.

Translation; I'm pissed off no one is agreeing with me.

Sugarplumfairy65 · 09/04/2020 17:45

You signed an agreement with the insurance company to pay £85 per month for a year. It was a 1 year policy but they allowed you to pay monthly.
In what way are they ripping you off? They are still providing cover. Not their fault your sin isnt using the car. They are fulfilling their part of the contract. Its you who's the cheeky fucker trying to wriggle out of a contract.

parrotfashionista · 09/04/2020 18:30

When you go on holiday do you call your home insurers expecting a refund because you are not using your house?

BemidjiMinnesota · 09/04/2020 18:52

@LittleLittleLittle Could you go out once a week and let your car run for 15 minutes to charge the battery? (Assuming you have enough petrol!) If it's on your drive and you're the only person using it you should be safe.

CaptainCabinets · 09/04/2020 18:59

I thought you were trolling at first but it seems you’re being deadly serious

Why on earth do you think you shouldn’t have to pay the insurance because your son isn’t driving the car at the moment? The insurance company isn’t telling him he can’t drive it.

What would you do if if was stolen? Caught fire? Vandalised? You’d claim on your insurance. The insurance is there to protect the CAR, whether or not it is being driven.

Hilarious flounce, though m

menthollyinsane · 09/04/2020 19:05

The op has probably been oh hold to the insurance company for the last couple of hours 🤣

buttcrackmcheese · 09/04/2020 19:12

I had literally -3 days before lockdown- insured myself as a learner driver on our family car for 90 days at a cost of almost £200 and now obviously can't use it. It's shite but you've just got to suck it up.

LittleLittleLittle · 09/04/2020 19:54

@BemidjiMinnesota it is legally parked on the pavement in front of my windows so actually on the public highway. It is also filthy on the outside as it was lasted washed at the beginning of February so no I rather not take the risk and touch it.

bettybattenburg · 09/04/2020 19:56

You must have at least third party insurance, even if the car is just sitting in your driveway

Not if you do a SORN declaration (in England, not sure about elsewhere)

safariboot · 09/04/2020 20:02

I think the reality is British insurers (of all types) do whatever they can to maximise their revenues.

On a black box policy your premiums may be adjusted, I expect it will depend on the terms agreed.

For people not on black boxes, if you expect your year's mileage to drop a lot below normal you could try and get your premiums adjusted to reflect this. But if you're already a 3, 4, 5 thousand mile a year kind of driver then you won't get anywhere there.

Theyweretheworstoftimes · 09/04/2020 20:03

You can still drive it? Nothing stopping you. Just use it on essential journeys

sayanythingelse · 09/04/2020 21:03

You've got 2 choices:

Cancel the policy and SORN it
Keep paying it

Source: I work in insurance, specifically motor and home.

Some insurers will still give you the years NCD as long as you've been on cover for so long. It's worth checking if you want to cancel early. I wouldn't hold your breath for a discount though. We've got customers who are stuck in their holiday homes in Spain and their car is on their drive in the UK. Ultimately, they may not be driving it but they're still insured for things like fire, theft and random joy riders smashing into their car.

ginghamstarfish · 11/04/2020 10:15

Yes, it's pretty annoying that car insurance companies will be better off, same income but far fewer claims.

OhNoNoNoNotThatOne · 11/04/2020 12:32

Yes, it's pretty annoying that car insurance companies will be better off, same income but far fewer claims.

Could this be a positive in that they may increase no claims bonuses and bring premiums down next year.
Showing slight naivety in the hope that insurance companies would be so kind

minionsrule · 11/04/2020 13:09

ginghamstarfish
I work for a huge insurance company in the IT dept.
I can tell you my company will not be quids in. Why? Because they still have to maintain the customer service, insurance is a key industry. However rather than put their staff at risk by keeping their offices open, they have spent millions to get ALL their staff wfh, including all call centre staff, something not done before.
The technology needed costs a lot and they can't recoup this at the end.
So yeah sorry your premiums might not go down but at least they are doing the decent thing.
Also insurance is not just house and car you know. Businesses left empty are a risk and i'm sure PMI and life insurance are pretty busy right now.

NotSorry · 11/04/2020 13:15

It could be crashed into on your drive

That happened to us - our car was written off!

bottlenose301 · 22/04/2020 01:14

Sorry to bump this but Elephant and Admiral (and possibly others) have both decided to give £25 back to each driver insured with them so hopefully that'll be useful to you OP.

admiralgroup.co.uk/media/news/admiral-commits-over-190-million-coronavirus-response

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