Insurance cancelled due to painted wheels !
Discussion
blaineuk said:
I hope it’s not the same black box installer who comes to fit box for the new insurers.
You and me both, we are picking up a set of standard fiesta alloys that are original and kerbed so clearly NOT refurbed or painted. We will get her to drop her car round my house for the black box fitting and if there is any grief this time I will pull his f
king head off ! Going by my 19 year old lads driving, they are VERY forgiving ! We occasionally check his online score and he has never had anything worse than amber . Having been with him in the car on his best behaviour I would have expected to see several reds never mind Amber . Both lads had them and they have worked wonders for keeping them in line. They both even admit they were quite happy they did have them otherwise they would have probably driven like utter tts
ts captainaverage said:
Do you think he will be considered "modified" and insurance void or just Category A total loss? Poor lad will have to declare a voided/cancelled policy six feet under too.
I have zero patience or tolorence..so it could be quite interesting being the powerfully built director I am 
anonymous said:
[redacted]
She is already insured with a new policy through More Than . Ironically the new policy is around £200 cheaper than the last clowns and is currently £1059 full comp. Black box fitting is booked for a couple of weeks time, and replacement standard wheels (to replace current standard wheels) are being collected on Saturday. Let’s see what cock and bull they come up with this time !
Sky are brilliant for modified cars, but you really need substantial mods to get a good price.
I have a non turbo GTO that i did a twin turbo conversion on, it runs on methanol mix and has pretty much uprated everything. They guy on the phone starts yawning when I read off the list and gets me to email the list and laod of photos each year instead. Car come with 220hp and now runs 500, cost to insure is £380 fully comp and every single thing declared. It was around the same price when the car was near enough 100% standard !
I have a non turbo GTO that i did a twin turbo conversion on, it runs on methanol mix and has pretty much uprated everything. They guy on the phone starts yawning when I read off the list and gets me to email the list and laod of photos each year instead. Car come with 220hp and now runs 500, cost to insure is £380 fully comp and every single thing declared. It was around the same price when the car was near enough 100% standard !
StottyGTR said:
Ridiculous. I'd cancel and then escalate to the ombudsman, they'll never learn if not!
Apologies if you have, I haven't read through all 5 pages
We were forced to cancel with Zurich and have since taken out with More Than. A complaint and escalation to the ombudsman is on the cards. Apologies if you have, I haven't read through all 5 pages
Spoken to at least 4 different people including a manager and online support. All sang from the same page stating any paint on the wheels or any refurbishment of standard wheels constitutes a modification and thus makes the policy void ! No amount of reasoning or arguing made them see sense. They also would not afford us the opportunity to rectify the issue either, it was a case of ‘once we have seen it, that’s it’
stargazer30 said:
Well if you just took out the insurance (less than 14 days?) you are entitiled to a full refund anyway.
Policy was less than 14 days old and we were refunded less a £35 admin fee for creating the policy, a £35 admin fee for cancelling the policy and then £67 odd for time on risk. They would not listen to reason and waive the £70 admin fees . The time on risk I could accept as she was able to drive the car while being insured for 10 days, the admin fees were a piss take corozin said:
The more I've thought about this thread the more I've come to the conclusion that perhaps the best thing for the OP to have done when the black box agent decided to opine about his car would have been to have told him to keep his f**king opinions to himself and just fit the kit to the car...
That would most certainly be the case if I was present when all this went on, sadly it was the lass alone at work who then phoned us in a panic. I've booked the next black box fitting to be done at my house, we shall see !Flibble said:
It really is crackers that they consider a refurbished wheel differently to a resprayed panel. Or maybe they don't, so if you have a scuff they won't cover you. 
And this is precisely what made the whole saga so flipping frustrating. We got them to confirm in writing via online chat that exact scenario. If we had scuffed a wing and had it repainted back to factory colour and finish it was not a modification.... correct. By that logic then if we scuffed a standard wheel and had it repainted back to factory colour and finish then it was also not a modification right ? No, sorry but that IS a modification...... Tom, give your head a wobble and read that all back to yourself . No further replies from ‘Tom’ on online support 
vikingaero said:
All in all a useful thread - Vikingette1 will be 17 soon and it's told me which broker, black box company and Insurer to avoid.
A huge useful tip for new drivers is do not value the car at less than £1000 when insuring it. If I placed the value of my sons Civic at £999, his first year policy came in at £3000. If I changed nothing whatsoever but increased car value to £1005 the quote dropped to £1300 . There seems to be some magic threshold at £1000 , been down this road 3 times now with my kids and all have been insured for under £1400 fully comp on their own policies in 1.4 cars 
Monkeylegend said:
But the saving grace is that at least OP has been able to move to a more reasonable insurer hopefully with no such restrictions.
Imagine not finding this out until after a crash/claim to find you are not covered as you thought you were.
Indeed... very much dodged a bullet hear I think ! Couldn’t even begin to image the hoop jumping when the inevitable happened Imagine not finding this out until after a crash/claim to find you are not covered as you thought you were.
vonhosen said:
Repairing an accident damaged wheel & taking it back to an appearance of how it was before it was damaged wouldn't be a modification.
Painting a wheel so that it is a different colour would be a modification.
Refurbishing the standard wheel back to factory colour and finish is deemed a modification by them and grounds for instant cancellation. I have this in writing from them Painting a wheel so that it is a different colour would be a modification.
I think you have entered this thread 20 pages to late.
I can assure you nothing was lost in translation. A wheel refurb of a standard wheel is considered a modification by them no matter what. A sticker on a car was another reason they gave as an example which would cause them to void a policy. In both cases they would not allow you to remove stick or fit another set of standard wheels. Once we have seen it that’s it is the response from them
I can assure you nothing was lost in translation. A wheel refurb of a standard wheel is considered a modification by them no matter what. A sticker on a car was another reason they gave as an example which would cause them to void a policy. In both cases they would not allow you to remove stick or fit another set of standard wheels. Once we have seen it that’s it is the response from them
CanAm said:
I know! But in these cases the fitter actually told the client that cover will be cancelled (which is absolutely nothing to do with him) and the "underwriters" then seem unable to use their common sense.
We only know what the OP had said to the Insurers and their reply; what we don't know is what else the fitter may have said to the Insurer to colour their view of the risk.
The fitter made out her was really sorry and in a roundabout way implied he was doing her a favour. He said he had to tell the insurance and send them photos, he also said it was fine and all she had to do was return wheels to silver , or change with another standard set. It’s the broker who then went into silly mode and when challenged replied they had spoken to the underwriter and they were instructed to cancel policy or let us cancel within 7 days . We only know what the OP had said to the Insurers and their reply; what we don't know is what else the fitter may have said to the Insurer to colour their view of the risk.
I think the black box fitters have to be on some form of kickback for finding and reporting the most trivial of things. We had already stated a refurb to standard colour was on the cards.
Mandat said:
It seems to me that the insurer is targeting this policy to young drivers, hence the black box installation.
It also seems that they also want to weed out the chav, barry boy, etc element from their client base, hence coming down hard on enforcing the no modifications policy, however nonsensical the application of this strict policy might be in the OP's particular circumstances.
And that I’m totally in agreement with. It also seems that they also want to weed out the chav, barry boy, etc element from their client base, hence coming down hard on enforcing the no modifications policy, however nonsensical the application of this strict policy might be in the OP's particular circumstances.
Most the young Herbert’s declare car as standard and then have fart can exhausts, induction kits and lowered ext. that kind of nonsense is not on. Having standard wheels badly painted and then not even being given a chance to rectify is the piss take
Brooking10 said:
The Mad Monk said:
fastbikes76 said:
My lads girlfriend has .......bla di bla di bla
What's up with her?Can't she hold her own hand?
.Must be a record.
vonhosen said:
Insurance is a contract built on good faith. You are asked a question & they will believe the answer you give (in good faith). Not being honest in declaring undermines that contract & therefore the process. That's the issue.
Except she did answer honestly to the best of her knowledge. They state they don’t cover ‘non standard wheels’ , well to her mind they are the standard ford wheels that come with the car new. If thier wording is less than specific how is she to know any better ? It wasn’t a blatant attempt to con them by saying the car is standard and yet having various mods in the hopes they wouldn’t detect it. Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff