Business Use

[DM]

returning to the vehicle each day, then it’s fine

Yes - I parked it on the street outside a ski apartment for a week at Christmas. They were absolutely fine with that as long as I was able to visit it daily. But they suggested that they would probably not cover the remote campsite scenario at all. I can't risk that so goodbye Comfort. That's a shame as many aspects of their cover were very good.

 

[DM]

no courtesy car...

I took the view that there's no point to replacing a camper with a car (its not a daily use vehicle for us).

On a related point - we learned a lesson re ferry bookings and travel insurance last year. Our Cali ended up off the road when we were due to go on hols to Ireland last year because it got broken into and the glass took a week to source. We had boked an inflexible ferry ticket. We were fortunately able to reschedule and only had to pay a moderate change fee but we couldn't cancel the ferry crossing and travel insurance wouldn't pay out unless the incident happened on the way to the port. If we hadn't been able to reschedule out time-off work we would have been seriously out of pocket cos there's not much point in going on a campervan holiday without a campervan!!

 

[soulstyledevon]

I took the view that there's no point to replacing a camper with a car (its not a daily use vehicle for us).

Exact opposite for us.
The Cali is our main vehicle. Without it, we are a bit stuck as our other car only has 2 seats and we are a family of 3.

I could risk it...
However our other vehicle was driven into last year and the repair took 2.5months because the part took so long to produce and ship from Germany to the bodyshop.
Thankfully we had a loan car through our insurance.

 

[gvick]

Hi @DM I use my Cali as a daily driver for work and safeguard were happy to cover for business use so long as you were traveling to work (not traveling all over country) if you ever want to compare to Admiral they are more expensive but recognise it’s a camper-van

 

[Hantshog]

The big plus of Comfort for me was that they don't use your no claims bonus to insure the van which meant I could use my NCB on a recent purchase of a second vehicle to use as a daily drive.

 

[Velma's Dad]

My Comfort policy is due for renewal and I just had a slightly bizarre conversation with them about using the van in connection with a voluntary role.

They provide full cover for business use but it turns out that they define that as full time paid employment only. After some to-ing and fro-ing they told me on the phone they could cover for voluntary work but only on a 'commuting' basis ie travelling to and from the organisation's site.

Like a lot of people I do voluntary work, in my case with several different organisations, and I want to be able to use my Cali for that if my main car is off the road (as it is now, as it happens) without having to worry about being insured or not.

Especially in the current circumstances I'd have thought Comfort would have stepped up to provide blanket cover for anyone doing volunteering, as many of the major insurers have been doing for years. But it seems not, so be very careful before you use your van that doesn't fit either SD&P or full time paid employment.

And come on Comfort, get a grip.

[EDIT] Even more bizarrely, the Comfort policies are underwritten by Aviva, which does allow volunteering use and participated in the ABI scheme (https://www.abi.org.uk/globalassets...-driving---the-motor-insurance-commitment.pdf)

 

[Loz]

So isn't volunteering classed as Social domestic and pleasure as you not paid?

 

[ArunAlec]

I guess they have to be a bit careful as the blanket “volunteering” could include such activities as patient transport, which could open them up to all manner of claims.

 

[Jodalo]

So isn't volunteering classed as Social domestic and pleasure as you not paid?

I doubt it because it’s not social, domestic or pleasure.

 

[Velma's Dad]

So isn't volunteering classed as Social domestic and pleasure as you not paid?

No, I've been through with insurers in the past. They regard volunteering as 'work' (whether or not you get paid) and definitely not as social, domestic or pleasure.

Most charities are aware of this and advise their volunteers to ensure they are covered before using their cars in any connection to their volunteering.

 

[Velma's Dad]

I guess they have to be a bit careful as the blanket “volunteering” could include such activities as patient transport, which could open them up to all manner of claims.

Yes, the principle of insurance is to provide the minimum level of cover they can (for the maximum premium, automatically uplifted by about 15% each year unless you keep a close eye on them).

 

[MeltedGoldfish]

Without wishing to sound like I'm defending insurance companies, I do get it. If they want to offer a good level of core cover (in terms of low excess, value of contents covered etc) and still keep the policy prices competitive, then you need to strip back in other areas to balance the risk (such as the 48hr rule, or usage restrictions). It's these restrictions that keep the "specialist" (eg campervan/motorhome, classic car, performance car etc) policy prices down, and the you'll probably find the choice of restrictions based on what the majority of customers would want (eg most motorhome users will probably only use it for SDP, classic cars on limited milage with no NCD credit etc). Normal car policies tend to be a bit more generic with less restrictions, but I'd expect them to be more expensive (relatively speaking) as a result. I didn't go with Comfort because their restrictions didn't suit me (and they weren't the cheapest anyway), but the policy I do have has a fixed annual milage with a fee if I exceed it (won't be a problem this year now !). It's a bit like Ryanair...if you can live with all the restrictions (no hold baggage, no food, etc etc) then the base price is generally cheaper, but you need to check you're happy with those limitations. I guess we can't have it both ways, but I appreciate finding someone who will cover a campervan with all the benefits of a normal car policy might be difficult, irrespective of price.

All of that said, I am surprised that they wouldn't consider volunteering under Business Use, but I guess as @ArunAlec says it opens the door to patient transport etc, which brings a whole world of potential risk. Under the current national crisis though it would be good to see them show a little flex to allow people to use their vehicles for this purpose - everyone is having to make compromises and sacrifices at the moment!

 

[Velma's Dad]

Without wishing to sound like I'm defending insurance companies, I do get it. If they want to offer a good level of core cover (in terms of low excess, value of contents covered etc) and still keep the policy prices competitive, then you need to strip back in other areas to balance the risk (such as the 48hr rule, or usage restrictions). It's these restrictions that keep the "specialist" (eg campervan/motorhome, classic car, performance car etc) policy prices down, and the you'll probably find the choice of restrictions based on what the majority of customers would want (eg most motorhome users will probably only use it for SDP, classic cars on limited milage with no NCD credit etc). Normal car policies tend to be a bit more generic with less restrictions, but I'd expect them to be more expensive (relatively speaking) as a result. I didn't go with Comfort because their restrictions didn't suit me (and they weren't the cheapest anyway), but the policy I do have has a fixed annual milage with a fee if I exceed it (won't be a problem this year now !). It's a bit like Ryanair...if you can live with all the restrictions (no hold baggage, no food, etc etc) then the base price is generally cheaper, but you need to check you're happy with those limitations. I guess we can't have it both ways, but I appreciate finding someone who will cover a campervan with all the benefits of a normal car policy might be difficult, irrespective of price.

All of that said, I am surprised that they wouldn't consider volunteering under Business Use, but I guess as @ArunAlec says it opens the door to patient transport etc, which brings a whole world of potential risk. Under the current national crisis though it would be good to see them show a little flex to allow people to use their vehicles for this purpose - everyone is having to make compromises and sacrifices at the moment!

Put like that, it's hard to disagree. Not sure if Comfort would want to be put in the same category as Ryanair, but maybe that's how they should be seen!

I am making a little list of companies whose behaviour in the current crisis means I'm not going to patronise them when all this is over. But I never did shop at Sports Direct, or drink in Wetherspoons, so I'm going to find it hard to make my point!

 

[MeltedGoldfish]

I am making a little list of companies whose behaviour in the current crisis means I'm not going to patronise them when all this is over. But I never did shop at Sports Direct, or drink in Wetherspoons, so I'm going to find it hard to make my point!

Indeed! Tim Martin (Weatherspoons) has properly wound me up this week! I think Mike Ashley (Sports Direct) has redeemed himself a little bit today with what appears to be a genuine apology and offer of help to the NHS, but we are getting to see people's/companies' true colours at times like these.

Sorry...slightly-off topic there!