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I am in the process of changing my car and was surprised when I contacted my insurer today to arrange a cover note. The insurer wanted to know not only what day I was changing the car, but also the exact time - I was warned that this was important and if I was incorrect I would not be covered (horrible image of being delayed en route to collect new car and finding myself driving without insurance, or being unable to drive old car to dealer to collect replacement). I've never encountered this before, is it usual? The sting in the tail came when I was told it would cost a further £219 to insure the car for the remaining 5 months of the existing policy's life. They are, needless to say, my former insurer.
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Very relevant i'd say. What happens if you insure from for example 3:15pm and you have crash, go thru speed camera, get pulled up at 1:00pm etc.
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All it says is. You are changing cars at that time. If you take new vehicle on road before time stated..You are not insured..Mind you dealer will want to see cover note before releasing. I think this has been the case for years.
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Steve
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When I was changing my car last year & speaking to ins co to give the details, I asked if they needed me to call them when I collected the car so that they could switch the ins over.
Speaking from memory (I don't recall the exact words used) but basically they said that my insurance would transfer to the new car when I picked it up - as long as that happened within a timeframe of hours, certainly not minutes.
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Hmmm, this sort of thing does give me the impression that the company is trying to give themselves any excuse to deny a claim. You know the sort, "But you didn't tell us your mother-in-law was Belgian!" (No offence to the Belgians, incidentally)
I thought the purpose of insurance was that you paid them money and they accept the risk. They still want your money, but don't seem to want any risk.
We had an insurance company here in New Zealand a few years ago that got a reputation for trying to worm out of claims. The word got around, people voted with their feet, the company is now desperately trying to trade its way back to solvency, assuring us that they now "pay 80% of claims" In local vernacular, "Yeah, right!" (Translation "I don't think so!" )
Perhaps there needs to be some concerted action like this for UK insurers, or are they all the same now?
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My insurer issues me with a cover note, valid for three months, which allows a week's insurance on the new car at the same time as the original car is still insured, i.e. I have a week's overlap for the purpose of changing cars. The cover note can be (or rather needs to be) requested to be valid from a date/time prior to when I expect to actually get the new car. When I have completed the change of cars, I inform my insurer and they transfer my policy from the old car to the new one.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Picked my new motor up last Saturday and my insurer told me that they just wanted to put a time down on the new insurance cert, but both cars would be covered for 24 hours i.e as soon as I sold my old car to the dealer I would be insured for the new one, but I had a whole day to do this in.
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When we put my husbands car in as part-ex we contacted our insurers and they told us that although the insurance cover was transferred from his old car to his new one as of 12noon that day, they would in fact cover his old car on the drive from our home to the garage right up until 12 midnight.
Unfortunately, there were probs with the new car (or should that say the dealer??) and when we explained the situation to the dealer they told us if they could not get the new car ready in time they would issue a temporary insurance policy to cover our old car until we picked up the new one.
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CIS Insurance give you no hassle with this, they allow three cover notes per year which last for a maximum of three days and they are free!
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Direct Line were good for me a couple of years ago. Got a new (to me) MX5 and they issued a new certificate for it. They also gave me a covernote for the old Renault for a month whilst I got rid of it. At no extra cost. Thumbs up.
Martin
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I'm due to pick up a new Golf MkV next week, provided of course that it has been shipped from Emden, Germany, to Sheerness in time, as promised.
My insurance Company is 'Morethan' and when I last queried them about car changeovers, in general, they told me that my current car's insurance would be valid for seven days from the start of the insurance of the new car in case of any hiccups encountered taking delivery etc. I hope that they are as amenable next week when I put theory into practice.
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I thought the purpose of insurance was that you paid them money and they accept the risk.
It is. And they would cover both cars at the same time for you if you paid for that risk. Why would you think you could pay for the first situation but be covered for the second ?
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The insurer wanted to know not only what day I was changing the car, but also the exact time -
It does have to be done from a specific time. However, it is unusual for them to insist on a total changeover at that time - a little overlap is usual.
I presume that you were dealing with an administrator.
As a general rule with insurance; if you don't like/trust/believe something you are told then insist on it being referred to the claims assessor or underwriter as appropriate.
You will find that often you will get a reply which, whilst similar in principle, results in quite a different situation.
Would you ask the receptionist at the hospital about the intricacies of your medical treatment ?
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