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?

Thing is, legally you couldn't have driven more as a learner unless someone else qualified to do so was in the car with you (eg someone who'd had a licence for at least 3 years) so it's pretty shit that you're responsible for someone else refusing to do this. I am sure they wouldn't have expected you to drive solo without a licence?

I would maybe make this point... perhaps you could've paid for lessons in your own car but instructors usually have really long waiting lists.

Can your partner not just get insurance on it and add you as a second/additional driver on his policy?

Partner will not be driving the Toyota at all and we don’t want to put him as a main driver for this reason

Sounds like you won't be driving the Toyota at all either then. Not unless you're going to fork out £8k-£19k.

If you won't put him down as the main driver on the car, have him put you down as an additional driver on his new car, and then see what quotes you get next year. The first year is always ridiculously high.

Now I’m really confused. Just called my old company again to just double confirm that they cancelled my policy and the reasons for it. I asked them to confirm whether they have passed this information on to an insurance database. Then the advisor said that having worked there for 15 years he can confirm that they wont have passed this information on or uploaded it to any database because such a database apparently doesn’t exist?!

He then said clarified that I should still answer honestly when applying for other insurance and get asked the question. I’m so confused. I have no intention of lying at all when applying for insurance but I think he thought I was calling to find out if I could lie or not. I just wanted to get the details in writing for if I end up speaking to FOS. But if there is no official database with my cancellation on it, I have nothing I can appeal because they can’t remove a marker that isn’t there.

A bit silly if the alternative is no insurance at all 🤷‍♀️

Well yes he's not going to say to lie is he.

That’s not what I was asking him though. I stated I understand that the policy had been cancelled by them. But that I just wanted confirmation as to whether my cancellation information had been passed on to the insurance database. I expected him to confirm this. But then he started waffling on about how such a database doesn’t even exist but that he still recommends I declare it, which I obviously will anyway.

But if the database doesn’t exist, then I can’t appeal to have anything remove from it.

Nope. You can't I guess. So you're just going to have to declare it

I’ve been in tears over this to be honest. I’m also feeling resentful towards my
dad which I feel guilty about. He had promised to take me out practicing then didn’t deliver, then when I asked his advice when they sent the warning letter he told me it didn’t matter. Yes I was 18 and an adult but I needed his support and he let me down. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to drive, I don’t earn a lot.

I’m an honest person, never been in any legal trouble. Never even had so much as a train ticket fine or had any debt. And yet I’m being treated like I’ve gone out driving drunk and high and crashed into a walking club

Have you tried to see how much quotes are if you don't include your cancelled policy? I'm also in my mid 20s, passed my driving test a month ago and my insurance quotes are also around 8k without having any bad insurance history. I managed to get my quotes down by having my partner as a named driver on my car (he does drive it).

Obviously that doesn't help you regarding your cancelled policy, and I'm not suggesting you lie, but there's posts on here regularly about the cost of insuring a new driver, it's extortionate and I doubt you'll find much cheaper without a black box and no other named drivers on your policy, unfortunately.

You say you have no intention of lying and that you’re an honest person but that’s not strictly true, is it? You know full well you received a warning letter to your home address but just because it’s not online, you’re trying to argue that you weren’t adequately warned when in fact you were.

i’m reluctant to check and compare the difference by doing a quote without declaring the cancellation in case I get caught for lying. I always thought you were fine to play around getting quotes and that you only had to be 100% honest when asking confirming the policy, but I heard they track every single quote you get.

But why is every single other document I’ve received from them available on my online account but not that one? I think it is a fair point to raise in a complaint.

I would compare the difference, I compared with and without additional drivers on mine when I was looking, never did me any harm, you don't need to confirm a policy.

My point is anyway, though I suppose it's irrelevant, is that even without your cancellation history it's likely that it will still be a few thousand to insure. I'm on a little more than minimum wage, but without my partner being a named driver on my policy there is no way I could have afforded my insurance. It's just so expensive lately.

Why does it matter? They know they sent it, you know you received it. So unless you’re going to point blank lie about receiving it then it’s a totally pointless thing to bring up.

Do you mind me asking how much having your partner on the policy changed the price? No worries if you don’t want to answer. We initially decided against it because I’m so scared to get another cancelled policy so I didn’t want to put him as a named driver when I know he won’t really drive it. But I guess if necessary I can ask him again and suggest he just does a quick drive with it once a month

Genuinely, I don't think you're going to get far with this reasoning.

The main thrust of your argument, and where the 'injustice' lies, is that you had your insurance cancelled for not being legally able to drive your car, something you had little control over.

I would go through your Ts & Cs with a fine comb and see what it actually says about not driving for a period.

Fronting is illegal OP and I would not do it in your position.

It wouldn’t be fronting I don’t think as I’m still going to be the main driver. But is it illegal to put partner down as a secondary driver if, realistically, he isn’t actually ever going to drive it?

You're not though. You're being treated like someone who said they'd agree to certain conditions and then didn't

Even fucking driving convictions get dropped for insurance purposes after a few years. This while thing as a joke

Not when you clearly remember getting it it isnt

@GraceyBeaker it more than halved it to be honest. I was insuring my car before I passed to practice in (with Admiral) but renewed with a different company.

Once I passed (start of this year) my insurance went up to 8k for the year (and I had paid a deposit too, so just over 8k total). I cancelled my insurance with that provider, and went back to admiral with my partner on my policy and I now pay 2.5k for the year.

When I was shopping around after the shock of the increase, I was looking at prices around 6k minimum for me alone.

It's all relative though, obviously locations differ, engine size and mileage etc. Yours could quote massively different to mine, but I would strongly advise having him on your policy to help lower the cost over the first year.