Insurance

[Russ68]

Right on brother, sounds like that came from the heart! Sorry to hear about your partner being injured and the process not supporting you as it should. The insurance system is something of an abomination, especially as we get increasingly litigious, as per our American cousins. I'm not qualified to suggest how it could be improved though...

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Er, yes it was a bit heart felt wasn't, it kind of detracted from my rambling a bit. Wow, I'm even boring when I'm drinking!

Yes I appreciate insurance is there to make money, as I said a in reply to Dan earlier it's a financial product. I don't actually have a problem with the concept, it's the execution that fails. As far as suggesting solutions go I'm not qualified either but I'll have a crack at it, if for nothing more than see how other people feel about the subject.

I don't know if putting a government department in charge would be the solution (think of DVLA and all their data losses, selling of your personal information etc.) just tighter control of the sector would be a start. To me when the ABI lobbyists attempt to mislead the government on the sectors turnover in the hope of getting stricter personal injury claim laws imposed that is a clear sign that the companies they represent are not fit to be the self-appointed arbiters of peoples personal losses.

Thank you for your thoughts Russ.

 

[Russ68]

In vino veritas Laz, I wouldn't say boring though 

On the same theme but slightly different topic. I'm renewing the Jag policy and setting up a policy on a van I'm buying for work (170PS Transit Custom, nice!).

Can one normally use NCD across different policies, is this discretionary to the insurance company or never allowed? A-Plan Bletchley have been my insurers of choice for the last years, as they used to have an MGF specialist there and they're relaxed about minor modifications. 

I'm sure I had the MGF and Jag policies running simultaneously with them using the same NCD, not sure if this was an oversight on their part or something I should push for this time too? My 9 years makes £1238 into £500.64 with Direct Line on the van with 3 named drivers and 15000 miles, so quite a difference! 

I've asked them if they can do it and said getting the business will depend on it, but I thought I'd ask what the consensus is on whether there is any precedent for doing this, legal or otherwise. Or is it just a commercial decision an insurance company can apply at their discretion? 

[Lazlo Woodbine]

I've asked for experience and no claims against me to be taken into account for a standard policy quote before when my NCB was already in use and it made little difference. I say if you have not cost any insurer anything for however long then you simply are a lower risk regardless of your NCB status. This made up entity, NCB, being a one policy use thing is a swindle, but don't get me started again.

Will A-plan entertain insuring the Transit? It may be useful to your argument if they're already getting a fair wedge of money from you each year.

I very much suspect the decision will be discretionary and I would imagine it would be more dependent on the underwriter than the broker.

[Claws]

Hi Russ

if memory serves, when I got the Jag, I still had my Omega, so got a short term multi car policy, the insurance company (it was either Hastings or The Insurance factory) said I had to stipulate which vehicle to associate my NCB to, The Jag of course!! but as you mentioned it may be  a discretionary thing

[Russ68]

Thanks guys, A-Plan can do the van, they were £584 vs the £500/1200 Direct Line so much better if NCD can be applied to both. I'll do some metaphorical arm twisting if necessary to have the NCD used across all of my policies, as I'm putting the MGF back on the road next year so will need that one too! I can't see it's any odds to them, I can only drive one car at a time, and I'm surprised Direct Line made such a big deal of it, doing so has effectively lost them the business...

[Russ68]

A-Plan applied the equivalent to my NCD to the 2nd policy on a discretionary basis, so I'll take that as a win! £362 with the few mods I've done (exhausts, spoiler, staggered alloys) and 4 named drivers including me