Can I Change My Policy During the Period of Insurance?

If you have a Motor Trade insurance policy with Think and you need to make changes to your policy details at any point during your period of cover, then “Yes”, you can. In fact, if anything changes in your business that may affect your insurance cover, then we need to be notified as soon as possible to ensure you don’t end up without cover, should you need to make a claim.

Here are examples of some of the things that you can change mid-term on your Motor Trade insurance policy:

Address – if you move house, then you definitely need to contact us to let us know so we can update your policy. One of the reasons we need to know is that we may not be able to provide cover for some locations. As such it is a good idea to check your insurance broker is still able to offer cover on a new location before you decide to move, to make sure you have all the information and aren’t left stranded without cover. This would also be the case for any change or addition of a business premises.

Level of Cover – if you decide you want to increase or decrease the level of cover on the policy mid-term as a result of changes in your business, then you can contact us to do so. For example, you may have originally taken out Third Party, Fire & Theft cover because you were starting a new business and didn’t have the income to justify a more expensive, higher level of cover, but then after six months, your business might have taken off and is generating a lot more income and as a result you want to increase your cover level to Comprehensive – this can be done. 

Adding a Spouse or Business Partner – You can add additional drivers to your policy including your spouse or business partners mid-term. Whether they are a new spouse or business partner, or you have just decided you want to get them added on, it doesn’t matter, you can at any point in your cover. Please be aware though that there may be restrictions added to the policy depending upon the additional driver’s circumstances, and in some cases, they may not be able to be covered at all, for example if they have certain driving or criminal convictions. Likewise, bear in mind that age may play a factor in whether they can be covered, and what exactly they can be covered for. You can also remove a spouse or business partner should you need to!  

Employee(s) – if you want people that work for you added to, or removed from your Motor Trade insurance policy, you can do this at any point. This could be because they are new employees to your business, or it could be where you have existing employees but you want them to undertake different tasks requiring them to be added to the policy. There may be some restrictions added depending upon each additional driver's driving and criminal conviction history, as well as their age too.

Recovery Truck – if you purchase a recovery truck and want to add it to your policy, you can do this mid-term, whenever you require, however this may incur an additional premium.

Demo Cover – if you’re a motor trader and decide that you want to allow customers to be able to test drive your vehicles then you will need to add Demonstration cover to your policy, which can be added at any point during the duration of cover.  

Premises – if you change your business premises, or you go from working out of your home, and instead move in to a designated business premises, then this can be changed on your policy mid-term. However, as with your home address, there are some locations that we are not able to offer cover for, and so please make sure you check with your insurance broker before making a change, to determine how this could affect your insurance policy. 

Additional Business Use (ABU) – if working in the motor trade is not your only profession and you have a second job outside of the trade, then you can decide to add Additional Business Use to your Motor Trade insurance policy. This additional job would need to be a part-time occupation. In some circumstances, such as if you are a part-time builder and have a commercial vehicle on a separate insurance policy which has lapsed, you can add the vehicle on to your Motor Trade policy instead of setting up a completely separate policy again.

Company Status – if you change the status of your business, say from a Sole Trader to a Limited Company, then this can (and needs to) be added to your policy mid-term to ensure your cover is correct for your new status.

Trading Name – if you change the trading name of your business at any time, then this is also something we need to know and something that you can change on your policy at any point.

Stock of Vehicles – if you decide to keep vehicles at a business premises address then you can add Stock of Vehicles cover to your policy to ensure they are all correctly covered at the different location(s).

Carriage of Vehicles – if you decide to adapt what your business does, or change the services to include picking up or dropping off of vehicles to customers, on the back of a truck or recovery vehicle, then you can also add Carriage of Vehicles cover to your policy mid-term.

Tool Cover – if you work with a lot of expensive tools or equipment, then you might find if something were to happen to them or they were stolen, then you wouldn’t be able to work, and therefore you may decide it’s better to get them covered on your insurance policy just to make sure. This can all be done at any point in your policy.

Public Liability and Employers’ Liability – if you decide that you need to add one of the various Liability insurance covers in place, including Public Liability to protect members of the public that you come in to contact with for the purposes of business, or Employers’ Liability if your business decides to employ any additional staff, then these can be added mid-term. Don’t forget, if you have any employees in your business, even if it’s just one part-time person working for you, then you legally need to have Employer’s Liability cover in place to protect both you and your employees.

If you decide to add some of the additional cover types, such as Carriage of Vehicles, Tool Cover, Stock of Vehicles and Liability, and these products are offered by the insurer of your main Motor Trade policy, then these could be added to your existing policy and adopt the same renewal date. If the additional covers are with a completely different insurer, then they would be completely separate insurance policies and would have their own renewal date.

Don’t forget, you can take things off your policy as well as add them. 

Some of the changes you make may not affect the price of your cover, but some of them will. Please make sure you are comfortable with the effect these additions may have on your policy before going ahead with them. We will advise you of any additional costs to be incurred. While some changes may not result in your premium increasing, they may incur a policy administration charge from us and/or your insurer, in order to update your records.

You must always check with your broker when anything changes in your business, to make sure everything is still able to be covered on your policy, and you aren’t operating either without insurance at all, or without the right level / type of cover.

If you want to make changes but they are not covered/offered by your existing insurance company, it is sometimes possible to find you cover with an alternative provider.

If you’re making changes to your business or want to update the cover provided on your Motor Trade insurance policy then please give us a call on 0800 221 8077 to make sure that everything can be covered correctly, and that all of your details are up-to-date. Failure to do this could result in you being left out of pocket if the worst should happen and you’ve not informed us of something.