Insurance: Applying For Car Insurance
When you apply for car insurance it's important to disclose anything that may affect your quote.
The best car insurance consultants are meticulous, because if they miss out a vital question it could go wrong for the policyholder. Problem is, many consultants aren't thorough enough with their questions and it's often the insured who loses out. If a small detail is overlooked, it may invalidate your insurance, or otherwise your cheap car insurance may end up being more costly in the long run.
The main problem is the oft-used catch-all in the small print, called by the insurance industry your 'duty of disclosure', which translates into plain English as: "Even if we haven't asked you for the information, you still have to disclose anything that we consider will affect the premium or the terms and conditions." So basically you have to know what the insurer wants to know, even if they didn't ask you about it. How rubbish is that?
Buying car insurance online is a bit different. You are lead through the process, so you should be fine. However, be careful how they phrase questions to ensure that you are actually giving them an accurate answer. Also, if they ask you in the small print to declare anything else that may be relevant, you must do it.
The general rule, then, is if you're not sure tell the car insurance company everything. It's not as hard as it sounds though. Most of it is common sense, but here are the five key things that you're not always asked about that you should reveal when taking out a car insurance policy:
Motoring convictions
You can remove most motoring convictions from your driving licence before you are legally considered to be rehabilitated. However, you must tell your insurer about all driving convictions that you haven't been rehabilitated for.
Other criminal convictions
You also need to tell your insurer about any criminal convictions you have, because this can affect your premium or terms of cover. If you fail to do so it may invalidate your car insurance policy.
On the other hand, insurers often ask you to declare your whole conviction history (for both motoring and other criminal convictions), but you are not obliged to declare any that you are legally considered rehabilitated from. In fact, the insurer is not allowed to take account of these convictions, so don't even bother telling them.
Motor incidents
Most insurers want to know your complete incident history. This means they don't just want to know about any claims you've made, or claims made against you. Here's a list of what they want to know:
- All the claims you've made on your policy (fault or non-fault)
- All claims made against you
- Outstanding claims or unsettled incidents
- All incidents even if there was no damage or injury
- All incidents even if no one makes a claim or if the parties settle direct.
An 'incident' may be an accident, fire, theft, joy riding, vandalism or windscreen damage.
Modifications
This is going to sound weird, but you need to tell prospective insurers about every modification to your vehicle, even if it doesn't enhance its performance. Many insurers won't insure you, or will charge you extra, if, for example, you have had one of those noisy (but otherwise harmless) exhausts fitted, or even if you've just painted Go Faster Stripes!
The reason for this is that many insurers have found that people who own cars with any modifications at all tend to cost more in insurance claims. Strange, but true.
This is a problem, because as soon as you state that you have modifications, more than half the car insurers may refuse to give you a car insurance quote and most of the rest will charge you extra. You can see some tips on getting around this here.
Make and model
When you get a car insurance quote, ensure that you have entered precisely the right make and model of your car. Selecting an L instead of an XL, or a three-door instead of a five-door could make a difference to the premium. If you pay too little, it may invalidate your car insurance.
Other than the above and the typical questions you're asked, you're a rare bird if there's anything else you need to declare. But, if you have any doubts, give the insurer a call before you go ahead. If they're fine with what you have to say, take a reference, or write down the person's name, the name of the department they work in, and write down the date and time. Keep this information safe with your insurance documents in case you are later questioned about it.
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Published on December 8, 2006
