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?

@GraceyBeaker just to add for PPs, I am not fronting as I am the main driver on the car, he is an additional driver and drives it to work every week or so. It is completely legitimate in my situation.

Yes there are legitimate ways of doing it

Surely the black box data would have shown it was still active and datato show it was disabled or otherwise??

OP, tell the insurance co to provide you with eveience that your blackbox was removed which it was not as they should have date when its connected and disconnected

NB: I decided to look up the blackbox and if it removed.
Hope it helps
https://www.moneyexpert.com/car-insurance/ask-an-expert/will-my-insurance-know-if-i-unplug-my-black-box/

You were 18 and able to drive so you need to take some responsibility for that.

But unable to drive without another insured adult with her, so cannot be held fully responsible surely. She couldn't force her dad, or any other adult, into the car to sit alongside her.

Pointless to dwell on this but I find it absolutely ridiculous I’m stuck with this forever. My cousin was caught driving unlicensed after taking ecstasy and crashing into the wall of a primary school (thankfully it was the middle of the night!) 15 years ago but his conviction is now considered historical so he can get normal insurance.

BTW

OP, seek help from the insurance ombudsman

Congratulations on passing your test OP🙌 But gutting for you having this insurance issue.
Have you thought about a multi car policy with whoever you live with (dad or your partner)? We did this and added my newly passed son as a named driver on just one of the cars and it was our cheapest option. Ours is with Aviva so maybe worth a try.

If I had committed an unlicensed drug driving offence back around the time I had my insurance cancelled for the black box incident, then I would almost be at the point where I no longer need to declare the conviction to insurance companies (5 years). Utterly fucking ridiculous.

I didn’t realise there isn’t a way for insurers to tell if you had had insurance cancelled. Seems ill-thought out if that’s the case

@DistinguishedSocialCommentator The chance for OP to do that is long gone. They told her they suspected the box was disabled, she ignored it.

They won’t still have the data; and they wouldn’t be expected to have checked the box, given she never requested them too; and didn’t deny it had been tampered with.

It’s quite possible the reason she had the insurance cancelled was because they had a reasonable belief she’d disabled the black box, rather than because she wasn’t driving enough, but both will be breaches of the terms she agreed to, so it doesn’t really matter.

Black box technology has come on a lot since OP had one.

Okay, okay. But genuinely, what the hell am I supposed to do? Just sack off driving forever? I, like most people, cannot afford to pay £800 a month for car insurance. yes I will shop around, speak to a broker and attempt to have my partner as a secondary driver but what if this still doesn’t work? I feel absolutely desperate.

Like others have said I don't think you'll get far with your complaint, especially given the time that has now passed. The warning letter may not be in the portal, but they'll have a record of it on their files.
I wouldn't change the answer on the comparison site either...if insurer's think you've lied, they can check those details. Get caught doing that & you could be added to the fraud database. That will properly screw you.

The best advice given it to go to a broker (Howden are a massive company) and explain the situation. They can speak to insurers on your behalf and explain the situation.

You can also try adding experienced drivers as a named driver. I added my dad this time & it reduced the premium by £100.

@GraceyBeaker try these guys. They specialise in non standard cases.

I use them because a friend works there, and they are truly excellent.

https://bginsurance.co.uk/

But the OP can't just be an additional driver if she is the main driver.
This is simply not allowed!

And yes, first year of driving is always higher but its not normally anywhere near as much as £8k. We found that adding experienced additional drivers to the car brought it down a lot though - we still left dd as the main driver.

DD's first year insurance was quoted at £2200. When I added myself as additional driver it brought it down to £1600. We then added DH as well and it came down to £1200 for the first year.

No 'conning' the insurance either. We knew that dh would definitely be driving her car on occasion, and that I may well do on the odd occasion - which has proved to the the case. DH and I are always insured on one another's cars as it is, just incase one of us needs to take over and 'borrow' the other car at times.

That’s your options OP. If you can’t afford the insurance then you simply can’t drive.

The other thing we found when insuring DD was to wait 4-6 weeks. The quotes on the week she passed were sky high, though not £8k. However we were told by others that waiting a short while can make a difference - for us it really did make a difference, it halved the initial quotes.

Of course not but she could have spoken to the insurance company for advice re changing the policy or cancelling if necessary.

Sorry, no this isn't the same thing, I thought you were saying he'd be down as main driver. I think it's fine to put anyone down as additional if eg they may need to move it off the driveway, take it to garage etc.

I understand you're angry but unfortunately this is the consequences you didn't understand. It is unfair but you need to focus on setting out your argument clearly and escalating it. I agree with pp about going to Guardian/Times etc money section.

Be clear that it was cancelled because you didn't drive for a period, which you were unable to legally do alone.

You weren’t stupid, you were a kid. And if you drove without him it would’ve been illegal.

I suggest doing pass plus if able to?

Yes, you could have started a discussion with them but didn't because you didn't know that a cancelled policy was serious (and I wouldn't have either at 18).

I've had to recently fight a vaguely similar thing (something was cancelled without warning). Took a bit of calm arguing but it worked out. I think you're in a worse position not having responded at the time but hopefully you will reach someone senior that agrees it's unfair. That's all on the assumption that the Ts & Cs don't explicitly cover this situation.

In my defence, when speaking to the customer service agent on the phone, they were able
to resend me the cancellation document I received at the time at my request. When I requested they send me a copy of the warning letter I received, they said they were not able to produce a copy of this. This did strike me as odd. It’s odd that it’s not there in my online account and it’s odd that they couldn’t produce a copy of it when I requested it today.

Put car and insurance in partners name and then get added as a named driver.

Make an appt to speak with Citizen's Advice and your local MP.

I suggest doing pass plus if able to?

It may well not make enough difference. Not all car insurers offer a discount for having Pass Plus. Even fewer will offer a discount if it is still less than a year since you passed your practical driving test. And for £150+ you'd want to make sure it made some difference.

Although, if you are in Wales apparently its only £20 so likely worth it there.