We’ve all seen those TV ads about multi-car insurance – they claim to save you money on your car insurance if you have more than one car. But do they?
It’s simple in theory – if you have two or more cars you can put them all on the same policy, avoiding the cost and complication of taking out single policies for each one. But it’s not quite as straightforward as that.
Higher car insurance premiums
Some insurers will charge a higher premium for a multi-car policy than separate single car policies for each vehicle, depending on your circumstances.
And Which? members have told us that some multi-car policies won’t allow you to transfer the no-claims bonus you have accrued over to another policy.
One member’s daughter, who was on the same policy, lost three years of no-claims bonus she had built up after the member was involved in a ‘not-at-fault’ accident.
Another, who was eligible for a discount on his premium, had to call his insurer repeatedly to get them to apply it to his policy after it initially told him the offer was only available to new customers.
Differing terms and conditions
We’ve also found that there’s a big difference between the policies available. If you add two or more cars to your policy, some insurers will allow you to keep your renewal dates. However, others require you to renew them all at the same time, meaning you have to pay your premium in a big lump sum.
Other issues we found include named drivers not being ineligible for a no-claims bonus on some policies or discovering they weren’t fully covered after being involved in an accident.
I’m keen to hear about your experiences with multi-car insurance and whether you have fallen foul of some of the pitfalls. Do you think they offer good value compared to single car policies, or do the downsides outweigh the benefits? And what can insurers do to make the terms and conditions of their multi-car policies clearer?
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