Insurance issue, experiences wanted

[mintyfresh]

So today i was outside working on the car and my next door neighbour came out and told me how someone he knows' son with a modded car had hit the back of someone. She'd claimed for injuries, the police got involved, it went to court and the kid lost his licence, was banned for 12 months and got done for driving without due care and attention and also driving without insurance as his car had undeclared mods (lowering/wheels/zorst i think). This kind of put the heebyjeebies on me and i promptly rang the insurers to get my lowering covered, but to my surprise (and to be quite honest shock) i was told i could not insure the modification because 'the underwriters had blocked it'.
Now, i had the same response when i tried insuring lowering on my old 1L but then i rang up again and spoke to someone else, who then said it was fine and would cost £73 extra.
My question is, is this common to happen? will the response always have the ability to change? Why, if i could insure it before (and they could see this on my policy history) can i not do it again with what is essentially the same car?
I'm a bit worried to drive now.

 

[Eliot]

*cough* just clamied you bought the car like it and you were unaware (im gonna get abuse for writing this!)

 

[Stani1029]

Depends what company your with. Im with adrian flux who welcome modifications, i have 0 modifications so far so doesnt matter yet but things that are obvious your best to tell. Like when i hit a drunk pedestrian in my track prepped micra, stripped out bucket seats, plastic windows and turbo'd. All declared and nothing happened eventhough they are chasing me for money but thats another story. I also had an accident 3 days later in my slightly modified super-s with no mods declared once again police on attendance and nothing happened. Declaring mods is always your own risk and own choice

 

[mintyfresh]

*cough* just clamied you bought the car like it and you were unaware (im gonna get abuse for writing this!)

Yeah, dont think that'd stand up in a court of law tbh :/

and im with Admiral, who as i said had insured lowering on my old car on the second attempt.

 

[r-reg-sr]

is your neighbor a friend ? or just putting frightners on you?

 

[James]

Yeah, dont think that'd stand up in a court of law tbh :/

and im with Admiral, who as i said had insured lowering on my old car on the second attempt.

Why am I not surprised grr

Admiral are a ****ing nightmare for stuff like this, I swear half the company work independently from the other!

Also, be very careful whatever you say to them, they seem to note down anything you say and try to use it against you. When I got a quote online I couldn't remember the exact date of my accident so I guessed, they then sent a letter to me about my current policy saying that I hadn't told them about this "other" accident which was the same as the declared one, and wanted me to pay £70 extra. I had to ring up my old insurance company and get them to send me a letter explaining I'd only had the one claim.

Very rarely you'll hear people say this, but: ring up after 6pm, that's when the Indian call centre take over and they will literally do any change you want to your policy. If you get through to someone in Swansea hang up as they will grill you over anything you want to do, "Why are you doing this?" etc.

The only reason I'm still with them is cos they beat any other quote for young drivers. As soon as a decent company can equal my quote I'm off!

Hope this helps,
James.

 

[mintyfresh]

Cheers James, yeah I'm trying to ring again tonight, will try before and after 6. Yesterday I just said 'I did this mod before and am thinking about doing it again' and they found it from that. Before I just said I was making my car more modern as the reason for modding.

And my neighbours a friend, was just telling be because he didn't want the same to happen to me and know he didnt say anything

 

[James]

Admiral should accept most mods from what I've read, anything that doesn't increase power by over 10% is allowed I think, they just won't pay out for them should you have a crash (they'll replace them with standard parts).

 

[mintyfresh]

Yeah, that was what I understood as well. I have read the modifications policy document and doesnt say anywhere that mods can be refused, will just keep trying and if no luck, complain and see where it gets me. Failing that I'm searching for a new insurer but that's extra money also, the guy on the phone said it had been refused by the underwriter, like it was not up to admiral?

 

[mckenziecz]

I was with admiral and I had lowering, wider wheels on the policy, next time tell them that you lowering it for safety. You got much better control over the car, especially when its micra.

 

[mintyfresh]

Yeah will do, was the same sort of reason as I gave for my old car. How much was lowering for you and wheels? Lowering on the old car was £73 for me

 

[mckenziecz]

Yeah will do, was the same sort of reason as I gave for my old car. How much was lowering for you and wheels? Lowering on the old car was £73 for me

£25 pounds I think, wasnt much and the wider wheels made it cheaper.

EDIT: Tell them you got wider wheels instead of telling them you got alloys. alloys cost more and super s came with some so its not a mod technically.

 

[Low Rider]

I declare all modification on my policies, then there is no question regarding the possibility of a claim legally speaking. All a court has to do these days is to discredit you and your name is mud.

In a nutshell, it seems as though many people in insurance companies appear to work for themselves. I have recorded many a transcript with an insurance company and it's clear as day that they do not have good training systems in place. Ask one person a question, then ask another person and in a large percentage of cases you will get 2 different answers. Many of them simply cannot be bothered to work a deal and will give a stupid price. This recently happened to my dad when he had a no-fault claim because someone in an Astra van rear ended him at 50mph and wrote his car off. He's got full no claims, low risk area, driving a 2.0L Volvo V40. His current insurer at the time quoted him £750 FC to insure it when the typical quotes were around £350. When questioned they came back and said, this was the cheapest they could offer.....it seemed years of repeated quotes had made the brokerage rather complacent. When we asked who the underwriter was and then did an online search, one of the companies we contacted used the same underwriter. Details differ slightly but not by that margin..........they lost our business and all of our other cars as a result, so the cost to them was actually a little higher in the long run

Bottom line, it pays to do your research and know your rights. Insurance companies are a necessary evil and cannot be trusted to give concrete answers 100% of the time. We however, can cover our own asses with some careful research and honesty. I for one certainly wouldn't like to be dragged through the courts for prosecution for such a small sum of money.

 

[mintyfresh]

Thanks for the info and advice I rang again today after 6 and I'm pretty sure I got India (there was a constant hum of Indian accents I could hear in the background) and after being put on hold, and then told they would call me back, I still got a no. My dads going to ring up on my behalf tomorrow when I'm at work and try with someone who's hopefully in Cardiff this time, I've even said to try and ask for the person who did it for me last time if she even still works there.
Wish me luck :/

 

[James]

Thanks for the info and advice I rang again today after 6 and I'm pretty sure I got India (there was a constant hum of Indian accents I could hear in the background) and after being put on hold, and then told they would call me back, I still got a no. My dads going to ring up on my behalf tomorrow when I'm at work and try with someone who's hopefully in Cardiff this time, I've even said to try and ask for the person who did it for me last time if she even still works there.
Wish me luck :/

Good luck It's not fair that there's such differing opinions in the same company!

 

[mintyfresh]

And that they let me do it before on my 1L, and I was 18 then with less time driving so surely that outweighs the fact my cars now a 1.3?

 

[mintyfresh]

My dad managed to get it done today after the person he was talking to spoke to someone in the mods department in person, cost £27 extra but I only have a month left on my policy so I hope it's not going to bump up my renewal by £270 next month :glare:

 

[NIPPY]

to be honest i think the same as this (Y)