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Declaring Insurance Mods


tomo91
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Hi all, coming up for an insurance renewal in the coming weeks and just wandering what you lot do when declaring the mods for insurance? It's just a pain having to put them all down in comparison sites and none of the ones I have done e.g. scuff plates, painted calipers, wind deflectors, powdercoated alloys etc are able for selection or would it best to just put down no mods then just write them a letter after the insurance has started declaring them? Just wandering what you lot do. Cheers!

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A pain it may be but I think the advice of most would be to declare them all before the inception of your insurance.

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Declare them all out on the comparison site the closest to what you have so interior accessories for scuff plates and then discuss this with the insurer you want to go with to give them the full list

Sent from my MY SAGA C2 using Ford OC mobile app

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Hi,

If you need any help with modified car insurance renewal then please feel free to drop me a line. If you wanted to PM me your details I'd be happy to arrange for one of my quotes team to give you a call back.

Regards,

Dan.

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I did mine last month, comparison sites are fairly limited in the modifications you can choose and as you have found don't always match what you have done. Tick as many of the modification boxes as possible. Get a quote then, phone up the insurer.

I sent a full A4 page to my insurers of the mods I had done along with proof of NCB etc.

Any time I make modifications I call up the insurer to declare it, and then follow it up with a letter. I try to do 2-3 mods at one go so as to not keep phoning up for each individual mod.

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I took out the policy with Adrian Flux when I bought the car, before I did anything I declared sensors and camera as a reference that I will install them later, they added them on, I also contacted them recently and told them about the EGR, DRL and LED updates to the bulbs in advance, no cost difference at all. Only if I wanted to modify the engine with remap or tuning box would I have to pay, and that would be a premium increase of £130

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Just came to renewal time for mine and the women at Swinton asked do you have any modifications to your car and i said do you class factory options as modifications as mine comes with rear parking sensors and tinted rear windows.

She said if it left the factory with those and was registered with them ,then they are not modifications only if you add some extra yourself.

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yeah, you have to be careful, if it left the factory with it, its fine, however, if the factory dispatch your car without either of these, Ford realise they stuffed it up and the dealer fits it for you, then its a modification!

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Jeebowhite.

how would you know this ??,If its on ETIS then it wouldn`t be classed as a modification am i right ?

Both of mine are mentioned on ETIS.

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its not so much whats on ETIS but on the national computer. If Ford screw up and dispatch the car to you without these and the dealer fits it to recover from it, the spec has already been sent in to the national computer, so its then an addition.

Its something that other members of this forum have been tripped up on sadly, one had his policy cancelled for this exact reason.

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Yeah ended up going with Adrian Flux, declared all my mods and got a pretty decent quote! One company I rang up and told them all of my mods (none performance upgrades) and got refused!

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More often than not they do refuse, AF and its underwriters are good because they look as mods as respect for your car, whereas everyone else immediately pictures you in a hoody with baseball batts drinking cider on the street corner...j

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  • 1 month later...

Just be careful if you need to cancel an Adrian flux policy. 14 days into a renewed policy my last car died and was sold. They charged me £125 to cancel!

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Yeah ended up going with Adrian Flux, declared all my mods and got a pretty decent quote! One company I rang up and told them all of my mods (none performance upgrades) and got refused!

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC mobile app

That's exactly the reason why it's a bad idea to go with a company and THEN declare mods... they can cancel on you and all of a sudden you have to declare that to any other companies!

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Can someone tell me how scuff plates and painting brake calipers are classed as modifications.OK I understand adding performance parts etc affecting the insurance but not the above.Before long you will not be allowed to polish your car as a nice well kept car is more attractive for a thief.When i picked my new car up it wasnt as shiny as it is now,is this classed as a non factory mod. :lol:

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Can someone tell me how scuff plates and painting brake calipers are classed as modifications.OK I understand adding performance parts etc affecting the insurance but not the above.Before long you will not be allowed to polish your car as a nice well kept car is more attractive for a thief.When i picked my new car up it wasnt as shiny as it is now,is this classed as a non factory mod. :lol:

Agreed - its all getting a bit silly

If you dont just consider your car as simply a method of getting from a to b and you care enough about your car to personalize it you are more liable to take pride in your car/ look after if and take more of an interest in your driving skill - why be penalised?

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Agreed - its all getting a bit silly

If you dont just consider your car as simply a method of getting from a to b and you care enough about your car to personalize it you are more liable to take pride in your car/ look after if and take more of an interest in your driving skill - why be penalised?

Agree but simple answer is £££ They know that you WANT to do it, so you'll pay for the ability to do it..

Plus the other thing is, if you spend £2,000 on a £5000 car, you'd like £7000 back if it gets written off.. But still, it's stupid.

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Agree but simple answer is £££ They know that you WANT to do it, so you'll pay for the ability to do it..

Plus the other thing is, if you spend £2,000 on a £5000 car, you'd like £7000 back if it gets written off.. But still, it's stupid.

They'd still only offer you £2.50 if its written off. Its all a con, you have to have it, but they have no intension of actually paying out if they can help it. Next it will be your air frshener isnt standard, or that extra fly on the windscreen invalidates the agreement

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They'd still only offer you £2.50 if its written off. Its all a con, you have to have it, but they have no intension of actually paying out if they can help it. Next it will be your air frshener isnt standard, or that extra fly on the windscreen invalidates the agreement

Well yeh that's true, but I suppose if you get a sound system that's worth a fair bit of money and it gets pinched then you'll get the money back...well with depreciation :lol:

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Some insurers will use any excuse to avoid payment, others are more lenient. The thing is you don't want to give them that excuse in the first place.

My advice is forget comparison websites. They are only looking for straight cases where they can pigeon hole you. They cannot always cater for the unusual as they have to simplify their webpages.

So spend some time talking to human beings at companies that specialise with modifications. It might be a pain but at least you will know it's been done properly.

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Some insurers will use any excuse to avoid payment, others are more lenient. The thing is you don't want to give them that excuse in the first place.

My advice is forget comparison websites. They are only looking for straight cases where they can pigeon hole you. They cannot always cater for the unusual as they have to simplify their webpages.

So spend some time talking to human beings at companies that specialise with modifications. It might be a pain but at least you will know it's been done properly.

I tend to go straight to the source, but I use comparison sites as a starting point in order to find out who is going to be sensible about the matter and who is likely to give me a quote of £10,000 (which 1 company actually did!!!!)

EDIT: That's 10k for my 1.6 tdci estate with 9 years ncb, no points or endorsements and I added (purely for interest only) that my focus had had an engine management tune for a 10-20% bhp improvement...

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When you see a quote of £10,000 it's not really a quote but a way of saying no thank you.

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Adrian Flux are happy for you to do minor modifications (such as paint) with no prejudice. People like AF appreciate that owners who take pride in their car and modify it, care enough about it to take more care of it, and trust you to be self aware and sensible about what you do and how you treat your car.

I installed EGR blanking, reverse sensors and camera, LED lights and asked about painting the wheels. They were happy to just make a note of it and not worry about the details, with no charge at all for letting them know. The only one that would affect my premium is adding a tuning box, as this would improve the performance. For the pleasure, I was offered a £250 increase in premium if I wanted to proceed.

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Adrian Flux are happy for you to do minor modifications (such as paint) with no prejudice. People like AF appreciate that owners who take pride in their car and modify it, care enough about it to take more care of it, and trust you to be self aware and sensible about what you do and how you treat your car.

I installed EGR blanking, reverse sensors and camera, LED lights and asked about painting the wheels. They were happy to just make a note of it and not worry about the details, with no charge at all for letting them know. The only one that would affect my premium is adding a tuning box, as this would improve the performance. For the pleasure, I was offered a £250 increase in premium if I wanted to proceed.

How did you let them know? Just give them a ring or did you e-mail them? I'm planning in doing a couple more mods to mine that's all lol

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC mobile app

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Ever since I started my modifications back in May last year, I always wrote to my insurer with a list of mods, then followed it up a couple days later with phone call. At least there is a paper trail on my file of mods I've done, and a recording should there ever be any issue. Always send your letters signed for recorded.

My insurers are fine with you modifying at no extra cost. Anything however that affects performance or BHP, then you need to discuss with them.

Just fired this one off to my insurers today for example. Some mods I haven't done yet, but at least they saves me doing them one at a time:

Dear Sir/Madam

Please find enclosed a list of updated modifications to my vehicle. None of the modifications affect the performance or BHP of

the vehicle, and are purely for safety/cosmetic purposes:

  • Front & Rear facing dash cameras
  • LED Strips in driver and passenger footwells
  • Front Brake Calipers painted Red
  • Rear Brake Drums painted Black
  • Genuine Ford S emblem badges on Front & Rear of vehicle
  • Rubber Floor mats
  • Genuine Ford Mudflaps
  • Exterior plastic trims painted gloss black

Yours sincerely

Blah blah blah

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