Insurance Madness! Simultaneous Car and Van Policy

cormie

Ok, I have 3 yr NCB, full B license, 22 years old with a 1.1L car at the moment. I also have a 1.8L diesel Ford Transit. I'm with BrittonInsurance.com.

Trying to get insurance to cover driving them both is enough to put anyone off doing things the right way.

I didn't think there was any difference between the two policies, so when I went to buy the Transit, at the weekend, my insurance providers weren't open, but I was told a fax would be fine for a temporary transfer, so I sent a fax before I set off saying to do the transfer for 3 hours or so. I got the van back to my house, all was fine.

I then wanted to drive the van down to get serviced after a few days and rang up mid-week to do the transfer only to be told it would cost €144 (same for a day as a week) to do as my private car policy wouldn't cover doing a temporary transfer to a commercial van and that I must have just been lucky that they didn't charge me the time I sent the fax in. It wasn't urgent that I got the service so I decided to wait.

Yesterday I ring up again and ask is it possible to drive my car when I've done a temporary transfer to a van. Then I'm told that I'm not even able to do a temporary transfer to a van, not even an option to pay the €144 or whatever it is to get cover for a van for a few days. That the only way I can get cover on a van is to start a whole new policy for a commercial van and my only option to get the van driven without taking out a new policy, is if I know somebody with a van policy who can do a temporary transfer from theirs to my van and drive it for me:eek: Surely this isn't right?

I was talking to a guy I know last night who's been driving a van for 10 years and he recently switched to a car and said those 10 years didn't really count at all because it was a whole new category he was being insured for, that he wasn't able to carry his No Claims over or anything. He also said that if I insure it for private use, that the insurance may be cheaper, but the tax will be about €750 as opposed to €200 odd. He also said that there's a way to get a 6 month extension on the DOE with some Tax circumstances

As well as all that, I'm looking to eventually get courier insurance. I've been quoted €900 on the transit for private use and €5,000 ish for courier cover:mad: Now the thing is, when I rang up the O'Reilly and Cullan, who seem to be the only company who will insure a first time courier policy, they said I could switch to them, using my NCB that I've earned with the car as a means to getting it cheaper. They also said, that if I take out a policy with them, that I can still be insured on my car until that policy runs out, but then I'll only be able to use the NCB on the van from that point on

Now €900 and €5,000 is a big difference for insurance on a van. The courier insurance basically covers carrying other peoples goods. So what's to stop me from just taking ownership of the goods as they are given to me, and then just giving ownership to somebody else upon delivery... without written documents of ownership transfer etc, so I don't have to pay 4K extra on insurance?

If anyone here is insured on both a van and car at the same time, could you please shed some light on this and let me know the best way around this?

I want to use the van for the next few days and it seems I'm going to have to start a whole new policy just to use it for a few days. I'm not ready to get it insured to do courier work yet, as I'm just starting that business and have not yet launched, therefore have no work lined up and don't want to be paying €100 a week insuring a van that's just sitting in the drive.

If I could get cheap (<900) insurance on the van and could upgrade at a later date to a courier policy, without then having to open a new policy, it would be handy. If I could do a temporary transfer, it would be even better.

Any feedback would be appreciated:o

kikel

i new you couldn't transfer your car NCB to a van. it really sucks

Hagar

cormie wrote:

The courier insurance basically covers carrying other peoples goods. So what's to stop me from just taking ownership of the goods as they are given to me, and then just giving ownership to somebody else upon delivery... without written documents of ownership transfer etc, so I don't have to pay 4K extra on insurance?

Don't get into that, it's suicide. As soon as the first package goes missing the sender will expect you to replace it. Even a small package can hold a very expensive item of electronics. Big companies like Interlink carry the risk themselves as the insurance is prohibitive even for them.

cormie

But why are O'Reilly and Cullan taking my 3 years NCB into account then?

This whole thing is wrecking my head. If anyone with a car and van policy could give some input, I'd really appreciate it:)

cormie

Hagar wrote:

Don't get into that, it's suicide. As soon as the first package goes missing the sender will expect you to replace it. Even a small package can hold a very expensive item of electronics. Big companies like Interlink carry the risk themselves as the insurance is prohibitive even for them.

As far as I know, the courier insurance does not cover the goods being carried, I think it's because I might be carrying dangerous things like toxic goods, If I go over a speedbump to fast I could cause an epidemic kind of thing, oh and I might crash:rolleyes: