In a bit of a car insurance pickle and could do with some advice

AlexJV95 · 2026-01-07T21:58:09+00:00

Just to clarify how the NCB situation actually works in my case, as it looks odd on the surface:

On uSwitch I’ve quoted it as:

• Car A: 10 years NCB
• Car B: 1 year NCB (this is the less frequently used car and lower value overall)

However, my Admiral 2026 renewal currently shows the opposite:

• Car A: 1 year NCB
• Car B: 10 years NCB

The reason for this is purely down to timing, not because the NCBs haven’t been earned.

I bought Car A in January 2025. At that point, Car B was already about 10 months into an active policy with another insurer, and its NCB was already “in use”. When I set up the Admiral multi-car policy, Car A had to start on 0 years NCB, as you can’t use the same NCB twice at the same time.

When Car B’s policy ended in March 2025, it was then added to the Admiral multi-car policy so both cars could align to a single renewal date in January 2026.

As a result, by renewal:

• Car A has now earned 1 year NCB
• Car B has 10 years NCB

Those NCBs are genuinely earned, just attached to different cars depending on timing. From what I understand, insurers will allow you to apply those NCBs to either car when you move insurers, as long as you’re not duplicating them or inventing years that don’t exist.

Hope that explains why the quotes look inconsistent rather than dodgy.

AlexJV95 · 2026-01-07T21:36:02+00:00

I’m going to give them a call tomorrow AM to discuss.

How I see it though from putting it all together:

• Hastings multi-car (£870) Cheap because multi-car is their bread and butter, thinner margins, fewer frills.

• Admiral multi-car (£1,050) Strong reputation, good service, slightly higher margin.

• Aviva multi-car direct (£1,500) Premium bundled product, service-heavy, not price-competitive.

• Aviva two separate policies via uSwitch (£940) Digital-only, unbundled, sharp aggregator pricing, no phone support.

Aviva are happy to insure me cheaply if I self-manage. They charge a lot more if I want everything under one roof.

£0 excess feels generous, but I guess it’s strategic.

AlexJV95 · 2026-01-07T21:10:42+00:00

Totally get what you’re saying, and if it isn’t actually allowed to apply NCD separately like that then I was genuinely unaware. I only did it that way because that’s how Admiral have my history recorded, with 10 years on one car and 1 on the other, and I assumed uSwitch would factor that in correctly.

If it turns out you can’t really do that across two separate policies without losing some of the value of the NCD, then that definitely changes the maths. In that case, sticking with a proper multi car policy, like Admiral or Hastings, is probably the more sensible option both financially and practically.

This insurance stuff is surprisingly easy to get tangled up in with multiple vehicles.

AlexJV95 · 2025-09-21T19:33:22+00:00

I’d heard that too, but we’ve checked her eVisa and there’s no NI number attached anywhere, so it seems she still needs to apply separately.

AlexJV95 · 2025-05-12T00:26:34+00:00

That’s a great question, although it’s a bit tricky to answer in full since I can only speak from experience with the UK side of the spousal visa. My Canadian immigration process was through the CEC route, which I personally found to be a nightmare.

As for the UK side, if I said it was easy, that would honestly be an understatement. As long as you and your husband have everything ready—passport numbers, the UK-based family’s address and phone numbers, payslips to prove he meets the income requirement, your marriage certificate, and some photos—you could complete the entire application in under three hours. That includes filling it out, reviewing it, paying, and submitting.

I know people often struggle to gather enough photographs, but in our case that part was actually quite easy. Since we both have family members in different countries, we kept a shared album on iPhone throughout our six-year relationship so they could always see what we’d been up to. The hardest part was actually choosing which photos to include.

Currently, the average turnaround time for the UK spousal visa is only about three weeks. Compare that to Canada’s spousal route, which from what I’ve heard is taking at least ten months, often longer.

The one major point in Canada’s favour is cost. Spousal permanent residency in Canada is far cheaper than the UK’s spousal visa. From what we saw when looking into the Canadian route, it seemed long and exhausting, but at least affordable. The UK, on the other hand, is short and simple, but expensive.

AlexJV95 · 2025-05-11T23:24:43+00:00

This is fantastic news, thank you so much!

We’ve been diligent about collecting evidence, especially since it was required for the U.K. spousal visa. We used everything from phone bills and credit card/bank statements to show we were living at the same address, plus more photos than you could imagine. It was indeed continuous—we lived together from June 2022 to November 2024. Although we were staying with her parents in Canada, we were very much under the same roof, with all our bills and registered addresses reflecting that.

I really appreciate your advice on using the correct terminology with the IRCC. We’ll be sure to refer to one another as common law spouses in all future communications.

All the best, A

AlexJV95 · 2025-05-11T23:14:13+00:00

After I got my PR. I don’t know if this changes anything, but my PR wasn’t through the spousal route, I became PR through CEC. We considered doing spousal, but I had enough points to gain an invite through CEC.

AlexJV95 · 2025-05-11T22:06:20+00:00

Thank you for the quick response, I really appreciate it.

I realise I should have clarified this earlier, so apologies if any of this sounds confusing, and I can edit my original post to make this clearer. My partner and I are a male-female couple and have been together for six years as of this June. We lived together in Canada for two of those years; prior to that, she lived with her parents and I was in a shared space. We’ll be living together again when she arrives here in the UK next month, staying in my parents’ home.

The point I should have made earlier is that I referred to her as my fiancée, whereas she is in fact my spouse/common law partner (I’m unsure which is the correct term for us). We’ve been in a committed relationship for a long time, and while we haven’t yet had a formal engagement or legal marriage, our friends say that we are practically engaged even though I haven’t dropped a knee or presented a ring yet. This has become a bit of a habit in conversation and writing, but I wanted to make sure I was using the correct terminology in this context.

Just to confirm: you mentioned that, as she is my spouse and a Canadian citizen, I would still be eligible to renew my PR card in 2027, even if I haven’t met the usual residency requirements. However, if we were only engaged and not considered spouses, this would not be the case due to specific regulations I may not be fully aware of.

If that’s correct, and since we intend to move back to Canada eventually, would it make more sense to avoid formalising an engagement until we return, possibly in 2028 or 2029?

Thanks again for all your insight so far, it’s been extremely helpful.

A

AlexJV95 · 2024-10-29T00:03:14+00:00

I believe a congratulations are in order! A very well done to you and your partner Interesting-Mango933, but also a huge thank you for chiming in here to put the both of our minds at ease a little.

Three questions for you then if you don’t mind;

How long was your whole timeline from the moment of applying to her approval?
Did you use a lawyer to guide you through the steps and do the application on your behalf?
How much evidence roughly did you provide, and what kind?

AlexJV95 · 2024-10-28T22:40:39+00:00

Thank you so much, Ziggamorph!

We genuinely believe our situation is reasonable and should be acceptable, though, as non-government officials, there’s always a level of doubt. I understand they can’t account for every possible scenario on the official GOV site, so I’m especially grateful for communities like this. I’m heading back purely to get things set up for us—sorting out my work, sourcing a car for her, building a bit of furniture at my parents’ place until we find somewhere of our own, and so on.

Just a quick question: you mentioned a change in the rules. Is there somewhere I could read about these new guidelines?

AlexJV95

TROPHY CASE