Car Insurance went up with British license!

Hello everyone!  I just passed my practical test on Monday and officially have a full British license now or whenever it arrives in the mail.  When I phoned the car insurance company today (we are with the Post Office), they said that this would increase my premium by almost £200!  When I asked why, they said it was because I had just passed my test.  I'm not really sure what the logic is here, since having just passed the test doesn't mean that my 15+ years of driving is all of a sudden wiped because I have a new British license.  Did anyone else have a similar experience?  Everything that I've read on this forum seems to indicate that having a full British license should make my premium go down so I'm wondering how to deal with this.

Phone a different insurer.

Companies who specialise in dealing with those who ahve recently passed their test or have come from overseas may be cheaper than generic insurers. 

I'd try Endsleigh.  If you can prove you have no points on your US licence, and are over 21, you should get a good rate from them.


Vicky

I would, except the Post Office will charge me about £200 to cancel with them.  I've already tried doing that once, and they were horrible about the whole thing, so I'm stuck with them for another 10 months!

The same thing happened to us.  Our insurance company wanted about a 40% increase after DH and I got our UK licenses.  Luckily we have a good insurance broker and she switched us to Royal & Sun Alliance, which did not increase our rate.

Well, at least it's not just us then.  I didn't go with any brokers, I think I used moneysupermarket.com to compare prices and directly contacted the companies ourselves.  I wonder if I could ask a broker to help us at this point?

When does the policy end?  You can at least have a better company arranged for the end of the contract.

And £200 might end up being saved by switching anyway.

Vicky

It ends next September, so I think we're stuck.  It actually might be more than £200 to cancel it now b/c it's actually some percentage of the premium and since it just went up, it will be more.  I've been finding dealing with the Post Office insurance extremely frustrating! 

That seems like a con to me.

Surely you agreed to a policy on the original terms.  I don't see how they can put the price up mid-policy without letting you out of it?


Vicky

Actually, I am angry on your behalf, and I really think that you should do something about it.  I recommend writing to Tony Levine, the Guardian's consumer champion.  If he can't get action on this, then no one can.

Vicky

Thanks, Vicky, I am angry too.  I spent an hour on the phone with them a couple of weeks ago arguing exactly what you mentioned: that I agreed to the policy on the original terms and that any increase in price meant instigating a new policy which meant I had the right to terminate if I didn't agree to the terms.  I did not win that argument as they refused to concede it was a new policy.  This was after a long ugly battle about my No Claims Discount being transferred from the US insurance companies.  I will write to Tony Levine as you suggest.  I haven't been able to find any sort of Better Business Bureau equivalent here, but the whole premise is very sketchy.

I think the closest thing over here to the BBB is the Office of Fair Trading; http://www.oft.gov.uk

That's very strange. I called the Post Office up when I passed my test and my premium went down by around £150! 

£200 cancelation fee?   My premium for the whole year is less than that!      I think that definitely warrants a strongly worded complaint.

Insurance companies are just a law unto themselves when it comes to working out premiums.  You'll go crazy tryng to figure out the logic behind them.   It really does pay to call around.  I can still remember quotes I was given on a particular vehicle about 17 years or so ago, simply because of the huge range from lowest to highest:  A little under £110 at the low end and over £850 at the high end!

It certainly pays to go to the more specialist brokers if you have anything which could be considered even slightly "unusual" for the U.K., such as an imported car, non U.K. license, etc.    Here's one you might like to try:

http://www.adrianflux.co.uk/

(Can't guarantee what they'd be like in this particular situation, but they've generally been good on quotes for driving American cars here.)

I would think because your coverage is changing (new license) that you would have the right to accept the new policy or change to another company.

It doesn't sound right to me.

Good luck!!

I think the closest thing over here to the BBB is the Office of Fair Trading; http://www.oft.gov.uk

I'd forgotten about it when I posted earlier, but there is a specific Financial Services Ombudsman which might be some help:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/