After you have received a criminal conviction, driving conviction or finished a driving ban it can be difficult to find insurance. This is because all types of insurance prices are based on risk and how likely it would be that the insurer would have to pay out a claim during the policy. Whether it is travel, home, motor insurance or any type of insurance, the insurer will check out the details the customer has submitted, and from these details they will work out the likelihood of a claim occurring. The higher the chance they feel of a claim occurring, the higher the premium. Although if they feel the chance of a claim occurring is too high, they will not offer insurance at all. This is where it can be difficult for drivers with bans and convictions, as a lot of insurance companies will refuse to cover a driver if they have, for example a drink driving conviction. If the insurer feels the risk is too high for them, they can just simply not offer a price or in some cases they will offer an incredibly high price which is just unrealistic. However, there are insurers out there, and as we are a specialised, driving convictions broker we can find the right insurance for you.
Will my insurance always be more expensive?
No, not necessarily. Unfortunately, we cannot avoid that your first year’s insurance after your driving conviction will most probably be more expensive than usual due to the higher risk explained earlier. Insurers will take into account your conviction when pricing up the policy and may deem this a higher risk, and the price will match that. It is also worth knowing that some convictions will be deemed a higher risk than other convictions, for example a drink driving conviction, i.e. a DR40 will be a higher risk than a speeding conviction, i.e. an SP30.
However, you should start seeing your premiums decrease over the years if you continue to complete year long insurance policies, incident free. If you complete a year, incident free you should see you no claims bonus go up by 1 year, plus your driving convictions will be a year older, which insurers do take into account when pricing up the policy and assessing the risk. After so many years your convictions will not need to be disclosed to insurers anymore, so unfortunately for us, Insurance Revolution, you would not need to seek specialist insurers anymore, which opens you up to more options. We do still insure clean risk drivers though, so we will always try and find you the best policy for your needs.
Tips for purchasing convicted driver insurance
Like mentioned above, the price of insurance for a driver with convictions or a driving ban may be more expensive than you are accustomed to. There are however tips for bringing the price down for the first year or so before you may see prices decrease;
• If you usually purchase Comprehensive insurance, consider switching to Third Party, Fire & Theft or Third Party only. This may bring the price down. You can eventually switch back to Comprehensive insurance if you like, in a year or 2 if the price has started to come down, if you have remained incident free.
• Consider switching your car if the car you currently own is deemed a higher risk. As well as the driver’s history being risk assessed when pricing the policy, there are many other factors that determine the risk and therefore price of the policy, and the vehicle itself is a big factor. Usually a more expensive vehicle with a more powerful engine would be considered a bigger risk than a less powerful vehicle. You may want to consider trying multiple quotes with a few different vehicles, to see the price differences. Purchasing convicted driver insurance may be hard enough as it is, but a customer with a drink driving ban and a high-powered sports car will be risked very highly by insurers! You may have to sacrifice your dream car for the short term.
Please call us if you would like to speak to us about a convicted driver quote or you would like any more information.
