Freezing insurance for 7-9 months?

JohnCleary · 07-05-2011 4:11pm #1

My car insurance is up for renewal in July - no problem

Thing is i'm heading travelling for 7-9 months in October. Does anyone know of any insurance companies that offer to 'freeze' insurance for a certain period?

I'm currently with Aviva and plan to ring them on Monday to see if they'll do anything for me, but would also like to shop around for price and it would obviously be a major advantage to be able to freeze cover

Cheers folks

YouTookMyName · 07-05-2011 4:21pm

Pay in july and cancel it before you go. You should get your money back. Or try and pay Direct Debit and cancel it and no money should be owed.

JohnCleary · 07-05-2011 4:23pm

YouTookMyName wrote: »

Pay in july and cancel it before you go. You should get your money back. Or try and pay Direct Debit and cancel it and no money should be owed.

Sorry I should have added that I want to retain my NCB (Have 5 years) - If I cancel, I lose the NCB, don't I? Or am I mis-informed? My only concern is to keep my NCB for when I come back from travelling

07-05-2011 4:29pm

NCB is valid for two years I think, clarify with your insurer or a few others.

Atlantic Dawn · 07-05-2011 4:31pm

I don't think you will be able to freeze it that long, perhaps a month or two would be the max. Most companies in Ireland and across Europe allow you to keep your no claims bonus for up to 2 years from when you last cancelled.

It's possible if you had a 5 year no claims bonus and you cancelled and then looked for insurance a year later they may then say you have a 4 year no claims bonus, you should verify this with them but I think the full no claims remains once it's within the 2 years.

JohnCleary · 07-05-2011 4:33pm

Thanks a lot folks that's excellent advise

CiniO · 07-05-2011 6:21pm

I don't think there's a maximum period of suspension.
With most companies minimum is 1 months, but no maximum.
You can get your insurance, and suspend it even on first day for the rest of the year.
The only thing they will still charge you something like 10% maybe 20% of premium while suspended, without keeping any cover.
If you will want to keep fire and theft cover, you will probably pay about 30% - 40% for suspended period.

If you already have 5 years NCB, and you are renewing now in July, just get it cancelled in October when you go, and you should get full refund of unused period, as this was not first insurance year (most insurance companies charge big cancellation fees only during first year of policy).

TestTransmission · 07-05-2011 6:52pm

I paused my insurance for 10 months before when I went travelling,I also got the 10 months added to my NCD.This was with AXA btw

CrowdedHouse · 07-05-2011 6:56pm

JC -with Aviva you can suspend up until the renewal date.You will get the refund due when you re-instate the policy.NCB not affected.
Note if paying by dd they still charge the monthly amount while suspended. You can maintain Fire and Theft cover for around 20/25% of your premium.You have to return cert & disc.

I have this on good authority but check yourself

Freezing insurance for 7-9 months?

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