There's no huge deal in being double insured right?

There's no huge deal in being double insured right?

Author
Discussion

Somewhatfoolish

Original Poster:

4,775 posts

199 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
Forgot to cancel the renewal for one of our cars so it's insured twice. I'll sort this out sometime in the next week or so but there's no real "harm" from this right? Cifas or whatever. I can't see why there would be. It won't be driven during that timeframe so unless it literally spontaneously explodes it's not going to cause any damage to our house or anyone else.

Edited by Somewhatfoolish on Saturday 19th April 01:12

LordHaveMurci

12,210 posts

182 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
If you needed to claim, which policy would you claim against?

This I suspect would be their get out.

Aretnap

1,815 posts

164 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
LordHaveMurci said:
If you needed to claim, which policy would you claim against?

This I suspect would be their get out.
You could claim against either policy (but not both). The insurers would ultimately split the costs between themselves, but that would happen behind the scenes and would have minimal impact on the claim process from your point of view.

It's not remotely unusual for a loss to be covered by two insurance policies, eg if you have personal possessions cover on your home insurance, and travel insurance, then all the things you take on holiday will be covered by both policies. It's not a "get out" which somehow stops you being able to claim.

Dingu

4,825 posts

43 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
LordHaveMurci said:
If you needed to claim, which policy would you claim against?

This I suspect would be their get out.
It wouldn’t result in nobody paying. It’s almost certainly slower and more awkward due to there being more parties to argue but there won’t be a “get out”.

No, OP, you’ll be fine to sort next week. Especially if you aren’t driving.

PorkInsider

6,113 posts

154 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
At least you've noticed, OP.

I was confused as to why I'd got 2 renewal until I realised I'd done a full year with 2 policies on the same car.

irked

cliffords

2,324 posts

36 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
We rang to add a car to a multi policy . To find another car we have is on my multi car policy and my wife's . Has been for 8 months with the same insurance company.

5 cars and a motorbike,two of us . Maybe time to ask a broker if they can capture the lot rather than two policies at present .

But a double up with the same insurance company is poor form I think for them , and us I guess.

RoadToad84

885 posts

47 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
cliffords said:
We rang to add a car to a multi policy . To find another car we have is on my multi car policy and my wife's . Has been for 8 months with the same insurance company.

5 cars and a motorbike,two of us . Maybe time to ask a broker if they can capture the lot rather than two policies at present .

But a double up with the same insurance company is poor form I think for them , and us I guess.
You can't have a multi vehicle AND multi user policy, as there will be (potentially) more than one vehicle on the road at the same time, which falls outside of the risk calculations of an personal insurance policy. You'll need a mini-fleet policy. Little bit more specialist but likely a cheaper option

TonyF1

199 posts

65 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
Aretnap said:
LordHaveMurci said:
If you needed to claim, which policy would you claim against?

This I suspect would be their get out.
You could claim against either policy (but not both). The insurers would ultimately split the costs between themselves, but that would happen behind the scenes and would have minimal impact on the claim process from your point of view.

It's not remotely unusual for a loss to be covered by two insurance policies, eg if you have personal possessions cover on your home insurance, and travel insurance, then all the things you take on holiday will be covered by both policies. It's not a "get out" which somehow stops you being able to claim.
It’s perfectly fine (legally) to have two policies on one car. Only one policy can be registered on MID which leads to an interesting question should someone make a claim against you, would the MID one be defacto insurer of loss for any claim?

cliffords

2,324 posts

36 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
RoadToad84 said:
cliffords said:
We rang to add a car to a multi policy . To find another car we have is on my multi car policy and my wife's . Has been for 8 months with the same insurance company.

5 cars and a motorbike,two of us . Maybe time to ask a broker if they can capture the lot rather than two policies at present .

But a double up with the same insurance company is poor form I think for them , and us I guess.
You can't have a multi vehicle AND multi user policy, as there will be (potentially) more than one vehicle on the road at the same time, which falls outside of the risk calculations of an personal insurance policy. You'll need a mini-fleet policy. Little bit more specialist but likely a cheaper option
I am not sure I follow , however I don't think you are correct .
As an example my wife has two cars on a multi car policy. We are both insured on them within her policy . We both go out in the cars separately at the same time . Have I misunderstood your point ?

OIC

76 posts

6 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
Here's what I think.

The policy wording document will cover this eventuality.

Some will say we won't pay out unless the 2nd policy won't pay out, so you will need to claim on the 2nd policy initially.

Others will say we will pay 50%.

You don't need to tell either provider that you already have cover when you take out the policy if they don't ask.

Simon_GH

670 posts

93 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
Your NCD is only likely to be valid for one of the policies so worth cancelling one of them but it’s an honest mistake and you’re still insured.

LordHaveMurci

12,210 posts

182 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
Aretnap said:
LordHaveMurci said:
If you needed to claim, which policy would you claim against?

This I suspect would be their get out.
You could claim against either policy (but not both). The insurers would ultimately split the costs between themselves, but that would happen behind the scenes and would have minimal impact on the claim process from your point of view.

It's not remotely unusual for a loss to be covered by two insurance policies, eg if you have personal possessions cover on your home insurance, and travel insurance, then all the things you take on holiday will be covered by both policies. It's not a "get out" which somehow stops you being able to claim.
Thank you.

Somewhatfoolish

Original Poster:

4,775 posts

199 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
RoadToad84 said:
You can't have a multi vehicle AND multi user policy, as there will be (potentially) more than one vehicle on the road at the same time, which falls outside of the risk calculations of an personal insurance policy.
This actually arised cause I was moving all our cars to a multi car, multi user policy. Unless I misunderstand what you mean by that?

InitialDave

12,961 posts

132 months

Saturday 19th April
quotequote all
RoadToad84 said:
You can't have a multi vehicle AND multi user policy, as there will be (potentially) more than one vehicle on the road at the same time, which falls outside of the risk calculations of an personal insurance policy. You'll need a mini-fleet policy. Little bit more specialist but likely a cheaper option
Surely that's up to the insurers as to what they wish to cover?

If you have another named driver on your policy and driving other cars covered, you could be driving another car while your named driver is using the insured one, which is a similar scenario.

If an insurer insures X drivers across Y cars on one policy, it's hardly beyond the wit of man to realise that means all the drivers could each be using a car concurrently.

BertBert

20,153 posts

224 months

Sunday 20th April
quotequote all
RoadToad84 said:
You can't have a multi vehicle AND multi user policy, as there will be (potentially) more than one vehicle on the road at the same time, which falls outside of the risk calculations of an personal insurance policy. You'll need a mini-fleet policy. Little bit more specialist but likely a cheaper option
That's just wrong. Firstly you day you can't have it then you say you can. Which is it?

Yellow Lizud

2,604 posts

177 months

Sunday 20th April
quotequote all
InitialDave said:
RoadToad84 said:
You can't have a multi vehicle AND multi user policy, as there will be (potentially) more than one vehicle on the road at the same time, which falls outside of the risk calculations of an personal insurance policy.
If you have another named driver on your policy and driving other cars covered, you could be driving another car while your named driver is using the insured one, which is a similar scenario.
Yes, exactly this. I have done this many times with no problems.

Although I must admit I've never had an accident or claim in these circumstances so never put it to the test. Plus, of course, the DOC is only 3rd party.

vikingaero

11,760 posts

182 months

Sunday 20th April
quotequote all
If you take out temp cover, the temp cover policy normally states that it is the primary policy in the event of a claim.

If you have 2 policies covering the same car, then in the event of a claim, most policies will state that the claim will be shared between each Insurer.

So that means for 1 incident, you could have 2 claims and have to pay 2 lots of excesses to each insurer.

Then when it comes to renewal, you would need to declare 2 claims even though it was only one incident.

TwigtheWonderkid

45,756 posts

163 months

Sunday 20th April
quotequote all
vikingaero said:
If you take out temp cover, the temp cover policy normally states that it is the primary policy in the event of a claim.

If you have 2 policies covering the same car, then in the event of a claim, most policies will state that the claim will be shared between each Insurer.

So that means for 1 incident, you could have 2 claims and have to pay 2 lots of excesses to each insurer.

Then when it comes to renewal, you would need to declare 2 claims even though it was only one incident.
Most insurers have mutual agreements in place whereby the policy that was intended to cover the risk covers the risk in full, and the other insurer makes their policy null and void and returns the premiums.

So in a case like this, where you buy a new policy for the car and forget you already have it covered, or forget to cancel the old one, hopefully both insurers would be party to this agreement and the new one would pay because that's the policy you intended to cover the vehicle.

Heaveho

5,951 posts

187 months

Sunday 20th April
quotequote all
I'm trying to cancel several policies with companies, having finally had my multicar come in at sensible money a day too late. Having managed to speak to them all by telephone and gain their verbal acceptance, it appears they are somewhat reticent to inform me in writing of their acceptance of the situation, leaving me to wonder how many cars will become covered twice on the 1st of May, and how easy is will be to retrieve the money that was so quickly taken at inception.

So far only Autonet has been forthcoming. Aviva, Performance Direct and Budget appearing to drag their heels, despite all except Aviva quickly informing me there would be a percentage surcharge, regardless of the fact they were all informed I would be cancelling in the 14 day cooling off period, and none of the policies having actually started.

I don't think I'm being unreasonable in not being very impressed with this inability to correspond, or the pointlessness of a " cooling off " period.

Until this thread, I was under the misapprehension that being insured by two different companies at the same time on the same vehicle was an absolute no no, so at least, if nothing else, I stand corrected on that.

MustangGT

12,859 posts

293 months

Monday 21st April
quotequote all
RoadToad84 said:
You can't have a multi vehicle AND multi user policy, as there will be (potentially) more than one vehicle on the road at the same time, which falls outside of the risk calculations of an personal insurance policy. You'll need a mini-fleet policy. Little bit more specialist but likely a cheaper option
Not true.

My wife and I have one policy for all three of our cars with both of us as drivers, myself as main driver on two cars and her as main driver on the third.