Class 1 Business Insurance
Discussion
I've decided to go full time into my self-employment, so I thought it would be a good idea to get everything in order in anticipation of getting more work.
Part of this is offering house calls, rather than relying on customers visiting me in my home workshop.
Rather than use my everyday car (Touareg) for this, I decided to look for a small, cheap, car to use for customer visits. I found a 2006 Panda that looks good. I've agreed a price, subject to a test drive tomorrow.
I phoned my car insurer (named after a northern city and a London station) to get a quote for the second vehicle, as I have another lot of NCD with them from when I was running 2 cars last year.
Everything was fine until I mentioned that I wanted business cover. I explained what it was for (a couple of house calls a week), and that I didn't need goods in transit cover, as I already have that as part of my business insurance. They said they couldn't cover me for this, insisting that I needed "hire and reward" cover if I wanted to carry a customer's clock in the car. They said they could cover me if I did the repairs at the customer's house, but not if I wanted to take it back to my workshop. I challenged this, so he put me on hold while he "checked with his supervisor". No, class 1 wouldn't cover me, and they don't do class 2 or class 3.
This didn't sound right, so I searched for other companies that offer class 1. RAC came up as a good deal on a comparison site, so I phoned them to double check that what I wanted to do would be covered. No problem, class 1 will cover me. He found it a bit strange that my existing insurer said it wouldn't.
While I was on the phone, I got a quote for the Touareg too. Came in £175 cheaper, with a lower excess. I'll be switching to RAC insurance come renewal time (2 months from now). I can insure both cars with them for less than I'm currently paying for one car. Not a completely wasted morning.
Part of this is offering house calls, rather than relying on customers visiting me in my home workshop.
Rather than use my everyday car (Touareg) for this, I decided to look for a small, cheap, car to use for customer visits. I found a 2006 Panda that looks good. I've agreed a price, subject to a test drive tomorrow.
I phoned my car insurer (named after a northern city and a London station) to get a quote for the second vehicle, as I have another lot of NCD with them from when I was running 2 cars last year.
Everything was fine until I mentioned that I wanted business cover. I explained what it was for (a couple of house calls a week), and that I didn't need goods in transit cover, as I already have that as part of my business insurance. They said they couldn't cover me for this, insisting that I needed "hire and reward" cover if I wanted to carry a customer's clock in the car. They said they could cover me if I did the repairs at the customer's house, but not if I wanted to take it back to my workshop. I challenged this, so he put me on hold while he "checked with his supervisor". No, class 1 wouldn't cover me, and they don't do class 2 or class 3.
This didn't sound right, so I searched for other companies that offer class 1. RAC came up as a good deal on a comparison site, so I phoned them to double check that what I wanted to do would be covered. No problem, class 1 will cover me. He found it a bit strange that my existing insurer said it wouldn't.
While I was on the phone, I got a quote for the Touareg too. Came in £175 cheaper, with a lower excess. I'll be switching to RAC insurance come renewal time (2 months from now). I can insure both cars with them for less than I'm currently paying for one car. Not a completely wasted morning.
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