I tried to get a quote today, and after discovering that my registration number brings up the wrong vehicle on every single online insurance site (it's a 2000MY car registered in 2001), got some decent quotes for what the insurers thought it was and went from there. One of them was NU. Turns out that they won't cover my actual car (couple of ins groups higher than the 01MY version!!) with my wife on it, as she is 24 and I will be 25 on renewal - she is 25 on 31st March and my renewal is 28th Feb - I expressed that this was a joke, and why couldn't the guy just get an underwriter to look at it who would presumably authorise it in the interest of new business / a 24 and 11 month old being realistically no higher a risk than a 25 year old.... the only option he gave me was to insure it myself for a month then add her on, incurring obv. a higher premium (as it's cheaper with both of us for whatever reason) and admin charges - do the underwriting team work on a saturday? The chap just kept telling me that he is trained and that he knows that the team would refuse my request too - I don't believe this to be true, mostly because I know someone who works for the department in question - what is the best number to call to try and give norwich union my 8-900 or so quid in a few weeks time rather than some other firm that doesn't do GB / provide decent cover?? I'd have thought it'd be easier to choose them and give them my money than this, after all it's not like I'm 17 anymore is it :o

I don't think the underwriting team work on Saturdays; I think they only work Monday to Friday 9-5pm, which is unfortunate as many customers will themselves be at work between those hours.

Maybe the next time you phone, you could ask the adviser to send a note to the underwriting team to ask whether they will be willing to cover you, then someone else could get back to you later to let you know the outcome.

Fair enough, I couldn't get through to my friend to find out if they did or not. Will try calling back in the week (I work every saturday and have a couple of weekdays off anyway, just wanted to get some quotes whilst I was being paid this afternoon) and see what they say, I was under the impression that they would cover pretty much anything for new business / if you paid for it

Hiya,

Firstly I can confirm that the UW team at NUD work exactly the same hours as the rest of the call centre staff ( so pretty much 7 days per week)

Whilst I understand your frustration I can also state that this does sound right, certain cars we will not insure people under the age of 25 ( and on some under 21) doesn't matter if they will be 25 shortly etc, unfortunatly the U/W team won't move on this ( if you already were an existing policyholder they may have) as it is a term we have stuck to for years! ( believe me as an ex sales advisor it's quite frustrating NOT to be able to take someones cash!)

as for the partner thing, it can often work out cheaper to have your spouse added to the policy ( domestic partner discount) as according to our claims analaysis if husband/wife etc are on the policy chances of an accident are reduced ( especially if a 2 car family) - at least thats what they tell us!

You can take out the policy and then have you partner added as soon as she's 25 however obviously this may not be the best solution all round.

The annoying thing is that we would be open to the idea of sarah not being insured to drive this car for a month (she has her own, although it's actually a bit of a toy and therefore not a terribly refined driving machine) - if we could STILL GET THE DOMESTIC PARTNER DISCOUNT for the term (as I pay my insurance annually and don't fancy my chances of getting 3-400 pounds back the following month....)

I know what you mean, when you have a spouse added you always get the discount however theres no guarentee that the price will be the same when you come to add her therefore you are in a tricky situation.

Have you tried getting a quote (wef the date of her birthday) on the correct details? although you MAY ( ok prob would) have to pay a slightly higher price over the year to do it in 2 stages it shouldn't be a massive amount more.

Hiya,

 

Firstly I can confirm that the UW team at NUD work exactly the same hours as the rest of the call centre staff ( so pretty much 7 days per week)

OK, sorry if my previous post caused any confusion! I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that the underwriting teams only work 9 to 5 Monday to Friday and I just assumed it was referring to NUD. Maybe what I read was actually referring to one of the IB underwriting teams or possibly one of the specialist commercial underwriting teams?

OK, sorry if my previous post caused any confusion! I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that the underwriting teams only work 9 to 5 Monday to Friday and I just assumed it was referring to NUD. Maybe what I read was actually referring to one of the IB underwriting teams or possibly one of the specialist commercial underwriting teams?

yes, some U/w team will work 9-5, certainly some units at the direct side don't work lates or weekends.

However for all the day to day issues, u/w team work pretty much constantly to support all the call centres, this includes NUD, ford insure,barclays etc

Oh well, their loss anway, going with esure and waiting till the wife is 25 to add her to the policy - which ironically was suggested by the norwich union call centre guy I spoke to!!!