Car Insurance

AmyMaria

Hi everyone,

I'm moving to the UK at the end of August but my car insurance is going to expire directly before I leave, obviously I would like to have the car insured because I want to visit people before I leave and ideally want to take the car over on the ferry.

Does anyone have any idea if you can get an insurance extension by a few weeks just to tide me over?

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

I've never heard of anybody doing that, but that's not to say it can't be done. Why don't you give your insurance company a call and ask them?

Atlantic Dawn

No you have to pay for a full years policy either upfront or per month, if you then cancel it you will get a proportion of it refunded.

coylemj

What you could do is lay up the car and get the policy suspended for a couple of weeks, then when you revive the policy they should give you a new cert and disc with a later expiration date. So if you could do without the car for a couple of weeks in July or early August, park it in your driveway (it will need to be off the public road), drop the cert and disc back to the insurance company and ask them to suspend the policy. Then go back a couple of weeks later, ask them to reactivate the policy, they will give you a new cert and disc and you should have the cover for the additional time you need.

Atlantic Dawn

Also if you let your policy lapse for over 2 years you lose your no claims bonus here. It could be worth you taking out a cheap 3rd party policy on some non runner here when your 1 year 11 months away, will stop you losing it.

CiniO

coylemj wrote: »

What you could do is lay up the car and get the policy suspended for a couple of weeks, then when you revive the policy they should give you a new cert and disc with a later expiration date. So if you could do without the car for a couple of weeks in July or early August, park it in your driveway (it will need to be off the public road), drop the cert and disc back to the insurance company and ask them to suspend the policy. Then go back a couple of weeks later, ask them to reactivate the policy, they will give you a new cert and disc and you should have the cover for the additional time you need.

That's not going to work.
Suspending a policy won't cause it to extend it's expiration period.
Policy will still expire a year after it was issued, no matter if it was suspended or not.

CiniO

AmyMaria wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I'm moving to the UK at the end of August but my car insurance is going to expire directly before I leave, obviously I would like to have the car insured because I want to visit people before I leave and ideally want to take the car over on the ferry.

Does anyone have any idea if you can get an insurance extension by a few weeks just to tide me over?

Just renew your policy for another year.
Once you don't need it anymore, you will cancel it.
Normally most insurers don't impose any early cancellation charges or cancellations fees for subsequent periods of policy (after renewal).

coylemj

CiniO wrote: »

That's not going to work.
Suspending a policy won't cause it to extend it's expiration period.
Policy will still expire a year after it was issued, no matter if it was suspended or not.

Looks like that's correct. Axa say they will continue F&T cover even if the policy is suspended and they will refund 75% of the premium for the period of suspension - 80% if TP only. Which means that the original expiration date will stand.

coylemj

CiniO wrote: »

Just renew your policy for another year.
Once you don't need it anymore, you will cancel it.
Normally most insurers don't impose any early cancellation charges or cancellations fees for subsequent periods of policy (after renewal).

Disagree with you here Cinio, there are normally very severe penalties for early cancellation, like if you cancel after only a month you may only get back 75% of the annual premium. It varies from company to company but you definitely will not get a straight pro rata refund.

There would be all sorts of company hopping going on if you could switch after a few months with no penalty, people would be shopping around and switching all over the place. The early cancellation penalties see to it that that does not happen.

CiniO

coylemj wrote: »

Disagree with you here Cinio, there are normally very severe penalties for early cancellation, like if you cancel after only a month you may only get back 75% of the annual premium. It varies from company to company but you definitely will not get a straight pro rata refund.

There would be all sorts of company hopping going on if you could switch after a few months with no penalty, people would be shopping around and switching all over the place. The early cancellation penalties see to it that that does not happen.

Of course cancellation rates apply, but only in a first year of the policy.
If you renew and it's a subsequent year of your policy, then this is not the case anymore (at least not with most insurers).

F.e. have a look here (from Aviva Policy document):

Cancellation
3 You may cancel this policy at any
time by returning your certificate
of motor insurance and windscreen
disc to us. As long as no claim has
happened during the current period
of insurance, we will work out the
premium for the period for which
we have insured you and refund any
balance, provided that the refund
due to you amounts to at least e20.
If you cancel the policy during the
first year, the refund will be based on
our short-period rates.

coylemj

CiniO wrote: »

Of course cancellation rates apply, but only in a first year of the policy.
If you renew and it's a subsequent year of your policy, then this is not the case anymore (at least not with most insurers).

Yes but there's usually an 'administrative charge' which is an effective way to screw you for terminating early, even after the first 12 months.

Axa:

If you have had continuous cover for more than 12 months, we will work out the percentage of premium for the period you have been insured and refund any balance after an administration fee has been taken away.

CiniO

coylemj wrote: »

Yes but there's usually an 'administrative charge' which is an effective way to screw you for terminating early, even after the first 12 months.

Axa:

If you have had continuous cover for more than 12 months, we will work out the percentage of premium for the period you have been insured and refund any balance after an administration fee has been taken away.

Administration fee is usually in range of 20-40 euro and that's the same one they charge you for any amendment to the policy.