Has anybody been able to continue driving after having an insurance policy cancelled? I’m in bits

[GraceyBeaker]

I’m mid 20s. Passed my test yesterday, absolutely over the moon. I have a car ready for me, my partner’s old one. It’s a 2007 Yaris. The car did fail its MOT a month ago but it’s only a small part replacement that we will get round to doing now that I’ve passed. It’s essential I drive ASAP for various reasons. It’s too far to walk to most places and I can’t do buses, within 5 minutes of being on a bus I have to get off to be sick. I have severe motion sickness on buses.

Problem is, I don’t think I can afford any insurance. When I was 18 I tried learning with my dad and used a monetary gift from my grandparents to buy a little car. We arranged learners insurance, a black box policy. When filling in the forms we said we’d be practicing 2x times a week. However, my dad never kept to his promise of practicing with me, constantly fobbing me off when I asked and so we went months without using the car. This made the insurance company think we had turned the black box off and were driving without it, which resulted in them cancelling the policy. I received notice at the time that they were cancelling the policy but being a naive 18 year old I never realised it would affect me going forward, so I just let it happen.

Now when applying for insurance I have to declare I’ve had a cancelled policy, and my quotes are all £8000+. I have no idea what to do, I feel like I’m being treated like a criminal.

Any advice?

Honestly, trying to base a complaint on not receiving a warning that you know and admit that you did receive feels like the sort of thing that could just get you into more trouble.

Yes, the OP having received a warning is a sticking point!

But I’m always one for questioning things that are unfair - and cancelling insurance because you’re not driving (ie less risk to the insurer) is clearly unfair. Might be what she signed up for, but it’s still unfair.

Unless there’s a reason not driving adds risk? Was this some sort of special learner policy? It’s been a long time since I learnt…

@Scottishwildcat I'm an insurance solicitor and believe me, lots of decisions made by insurers get challenged successfully.

If you don't have insurance, how could you pass your test? Sorry if I am missing something but was this not raised when you have learners insurance?

I ended up passing with an instructor

Why be snippy? Going to one of the financial consumer champions on a broadsheet may help get you somewhere.

I’ve apologised to that poster and explained I mistakenly thought she was insinuating that I was a journalist

This is why I won’t promise to take my teens out practicing - I know they would never fit in with my schedule and then want to go out when I’m knackered after work. OP congrats on passing your test, now please tell me you haven’t moved in with a male partner in the middle of nowhere, from hoping your dad will help you to being stranded with a partner? You’re in your mid 20s and you could be having an amazing life not one worrying about buses and travel sickness. (Off topic I know)

Not if partner declares her as main user.

What do you mean by ‘she’s completely in the wrong’. There’s definitely a basis for a complaint. The insurance was cancelled because they felt that she has disconnected the black box however she didn’t, she just didn’t use the car. I’ve had a black box insurance before and there has never been a requirement that I have to drive, it’s always a requirement that I have to always use the black box though. The op had the black box fitted in the car the whole time, she didn’t turn it off, she just didn’t use the car ( she might have been sick, hospitalised, unable to drive for whatever reason) so why will she then now be penalised for another 5 years for this.
You were 18 at the time though I feel that should have been when you should have complained about it but it’s definitely worth complaining now, what’s the evidence that you tampered with the box, ask then to send you a final response letter if they don’t change their stance and go to FOS. I’ve worked in complaints in a financial institution in the past and there are lots of reasons why an old decision gets overturned, we’ve been known to amend people’s credit file, etc when due diligence has not been done on our part even when the T&C’s are watertight so it’s worth complaining and stop using your limited experience to state your opinion as though they are facts

Don't bother with online quotes.

Find yourself a good old fashioned insurance broker. I used to place a lot of "non standard" business

@Scottishwildcat Yeah, it’s because it’s a learner policy. A black box evaluates data over a rolling three week period. If you give it no data, you “score” maximum points. It’s a bit more intelligent now, but this is an older policy, from when OP was 18.

You committed to driving a minimum number of times each week so that there was data to assess. There was a “hack” for a while that was getting a black box but never driving, so you got maximum points and could get better insurance the following years. The minimum driving came in to stop that.

If you couldn’t drive the minimum, they’d pause the policy. OP didn’t. She says they told her they thought she’d disabled the box, and she didn’t deny that. So there was contact, they explained their concerns, they sent a warning letter about her amount of recorded driving.

Im all for challenging unfair things; it’s why I got the degree I did, even though I no longer practice law - but I wouldn’t want to mislead OP here. It seems vanishingly unlikely that what they did would be considered unfair.

My niece got a warning for taking bends too fast on one journey.

When she checked the date, it was when her dad was driving her car!

I have no idea if this is useful, just throwing it out there incase it is. Maybe a statutory declaration or UK equivalent confirming the situation from your Dad might be good corroboration when taking this to the FOS.

Is there any reason why you’re not responding to the suggestions to approach an insurance broker @GraceyBeaker ? 30 years ago you had to go to a broker for any insurance, it’s not a dodgy thing to do. The rise of Direct Line and similar companies over the last 30 years changed the industry, but as you’ve found they are very picky about who they accept as customers. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Brokers specialise in getting you a decent policy. My husband had car insurance cancelled a few years back as he made a claim and when the company investigated it turned out his ex wife had a speeding ticket that she hadn’t told him about. The insurance company decided that as he hadn’t “been honest about a named driver on the policy”, they were cancelling the policy. She wasn’t even in the car at the time, and of course they didn’t care that he didn’t know about the ticket. The car was a right off, so he was down £10k.

Anyway, he gets his insurance through a broker and he pays about the same for his car that I do for my car through Direct Line (who are ok with him being a named driver on my policy as it was over 5 years ago).

A broker is still an option I’m considering and likely the route I will end up taking for my first year insurance. Hopefully by the time I renew in a year I will have done something about the cancelled policy but I know it’s a long shot. It still upsets me though to know I have a cancelled policy in my name, it makes me feel like a criminal.

And? She is the one who took out the insurance. By all means take it up with your dad OP but the insurance company sent you warning. You know they did. Your contract is with them not your dad.

Anybody had any experience with Howden’s brokers? Particularly after a cancellation? There is a branch near me which I’ll pop in to. The only reason I’m not there today is because we still need to repair the car.

Do you means, repair the car to use it to get to the broker?

No. The car failed it’s MOT last month so we need to fix it before actually signing up for insurance.

We had been with Howdens for years for home insurance when we needed to take out insurance on two cars for the first time in years after having had company cars. They came out very expensive for us and we ended up with Direct Line. Because our circumstances were a bit complicated (due to being hit by a bus whilst parked literally a couple of days before the company car was returned) I thought as brokers I could speak to, they might get us a better price - but it wasn't the case. At the end f the day you need to find the right insurer, and each broker presumably only deals with a limited panel of insurers.

Maybe the insurance quote is so high because it doesn't have MOT?

Sounds a nightmare

Not sure what to suggest

Was there not anyone else who could have taken you out when you were 18 or was your dad names and had to be him ?

Who insured you while learning to drive

You don't need to be insured while learning to drive if you are driving with an instructor.

Can you add yourself and your car onto your partner's insurance policy and just pay him the money that it costs to change his insurance?