Get a new car insurance quote with Confused.com
- Save up to £260* on your car insurance.
- Take advantage of special offers and limited deals.
- Get a cheap car insurance quote in seconds.
Voided and cancelled car insurance
Having your insurance cancelled or voided can lead to serious problems. Find out how to avoid it and what you should do if happens.
What is voided car insurance?
Voided car insurance is any policy that has been ruled invalid by the insurer. There are a number of reasons this may happen, but the most common is that the customer fails to pay their premium, or has submitted false or incorrect information to the insurer.
If an insurance provider voids a car insurance policy, it essentially boils down to that policy never having existed and no protection ever being in place. This, in turn, means that any claim being made will not be successful.
Ultimately, you’ll want to avoid having your car insurance voided or cancelled at all costs. But to do that, you’ll want to understand how this could happen in the first place.
What’s the difference between voided and cancelled car insurance?
If you want to avoid having your car insurance voided or cancelled, it’s important to understand the difference between the two.
As explained above, voided car insurance will mean that an insurance provider has reason to completely invalidate your car insurance, leaving you unprotected.
Cancelled car insurance means that a policy, although valid for part of the policy duration, has for some reason been terminated before the policy is due to end.
Why was my car insurance cancelled or voided?
There could be several reasons why an insurance provider might cancel or void a car insurance policy but these reasons tend to fall into one of three categories:
Non-payment
If you fail to pay for your insurance premiums on time or you miss payments altogether, your insurance company is likely to contact you to remind you about outstanding premium payments. It might also start discussions about putting in place an alternative arrangement for making the missed payments.
Although your insurance provider can cancel your policy at any time, it will have to give you sufficient warning before doing so.
Fraud
Each insurance company will have its own set of guidelines around what it classes as fraud but most will generally include the following:
- Driving without a full and valid driver’s licence
- The policyholder of the car insurance not being the main driver in order to lower premiums, known as “fronting”
- False information about what the car is used for
- False information about where the car is kept overnight
- False no claims discount certificates passed on to insurers for discounts
- Faking a car being stolen
- Faking an accident
Non-disclosure
If your insurance provider finds out about information that you failed to share when taking out the car insurance policy, it could decide to cancel or void your policy. This non-disclosure of information can relate to previously cancelled insurance policies, historic claims, driving convictions or even medical conditions that could affect your ability to drive safely.
An insurance provider will usually view each non-disclosure case separately and base its decision on how serious the issue is. For example, if the non-disclosure was an innocent mistake of information being missed off the car insurance application form, the provider may be more forgiving.
If on the other hand, information was specifically kept from an insurance provider, the respective company may decide to cancel your protection altogether.
Common ways your car insurance could be voided
Avoid an insurance company invalidating your car insurance for one of these reasons:
- Failing to report accidents, whether they are little scrapes or big bumps
- Underestimating the number of miles you travel
- Failing to disclose what you actually use your car for
- Using your car for races, competitions or rallies
- Fail to pay for your insurance premium
- Changing your car during the policy term to one that your insurer is unable to offer cover for
- Failing to disclose previous claims, penalty points or convictions
- Allowing your car to be driven by someone unnamed on your policy
- Driving your car without a full and valid driver’s licence
- Failing to maintain your car
To avoid any of the above being used against you and your insurance policy, be as honest as you can and check the terms and conditions carefully to ensure your cover is valid at all times.
What happens if your insurance is voided or cancelled?
If your insurance provider informs you that your car insurance policy has been voided or cancelled, it’s important that you don’t bury your head in the sand. Instead, it will be better if you contact your insurer immediately to find out why your policy has been cancelled. That way, you may be able to rectify the issue quickly.
Once your policy is cancelled and you have been given an explanation as to why this decision was reached, you will need to look for alternative car insurance immediately as your car will have no valid cover in place.
If you are not happy with your insurer’s decision for cancelling or voiding your policy, you may be able to make an appeal but the quicker you act, the more likely you are to find a solution.
Frequently asked questions
*Savings of £260 based on independent online research by Consumer Intelligence (November’ 19). 51% of car insurance customers could save £260.25.
The offers compared on this page are chosen from a range of products we can track; we don't cover every product on the market...yet. Unless we've indicated otherwise, products are shown in no particular order or ranking. The terms "best", "top", "cheap" (and variations), aren't product ratings, although we always explain what's great about a product when we highlight it; this is subject to our terms of use. When making a big financial decision, it's wise to consider getting independent financial advice, and always consider your own financial circumstances when comparing products so you get what's right for you.
Ask an Expert