Check your car insurance

[rickysmiths]

It was threatened here a few years ago but dismissed. We are not employed by our families as a taxi. We do not charge for individual journeys. We charge for a service and that is to care for their child, it may include going to school for which we may or may not use the car. As I see it the parent is not booking the use of our car for specfic trips in the way you would book a taxi.

If we agree in a contract to collect a child from home regularly or take them home or just pick up from home. Or take directly to their home from school so the child never enters your home and you make a seperate charge for these journeys then you may have a problem.

It is for this reason that I will never agree to always collect or deliver mindees or to ever just do a school run where the mindee never enters my home.

I know a minder near here who has just signed a contract to collect a child from pre-school and take them to a Day Nursery 5-6 miles away. To my mind this is not childminding this is an example of behaving like a taxi. I refused to do this when the parent came to see me and so did a number of other local childminders.

[sarah707]

I spoke to Morton Michel about the NCMA claims that we need class 3 insurance.

Class 3 is usually for people like door-to-door salesmen by the way

This is their reply which is clearly saying it is not necessary

Hi Sarah

Thank you for your email.

As you say class 3 business use is known throughout the insurance industry as commercial travelling, i.e. for sales reps etc.

The NCMA say this as they have a scheme provided by Bluefin and for some reason they market it as class 3 business use.

The motor insurance policy provided by Morton Michel is tailor made for the childcare industry and as such the wording on the certificate reflects this. Our wording says social, domestic & pleasure use and in connection with childcare activities.

Any company that sells any type of insurance has to be authorised by the FSA, our authorisation number is 308590 and you can check this on www.fsa.gov.uk.

We have been arranging insurance for childminders since 1973 and are experts in this field and have many satisfied policyholders.

I hope this clarifies matters.

Kind Regards


Becky Sawyer Cert CII

Motor & Minibus Account
Morton Michel

[TheBTeam]

I complained to NCMA and to Motorminder and the insurance ombudsman about 2 years ago after reading a motorminder advert which says that most insurance companies did not insure you when having business class 1 insurance, despite two insurances companies that we used at the time being adamant that what my husband and I had was fine.

As a result of my letter to NCMA/Motorminder they made changes to the way they market their product as they had a whole lot of childminders very scared and very worried about policies that they had that were perfectly acceptable.

I have just changed my car insurance for both cars to one company who insist that class 1 is fine, will still go back again for yet another clarification though, because you can become paranoid.

As long as you do not charge for individual journeys separately, you charge your same rate for each hour etc whether you use a car or not then you are not a taxi. Your car would have to have 10 seats (including driver) to be classed as a minibus and require additional license classes. This has been queried so many times and still it resurfaces every couple of years to scare people.

I did know of a childminder who charged parents everytime she used her car, and it was at her discretion when she used it but she billed them retrospectively for it, wonder if she has changed because this has to be taxiing? (sp )

[Pipsqueak]

I have just been shopping around for insurance for the car as my renewal came through (with Elephant) and they want £1000 - a leap of nearly £350.

AA was a fairly competitive quote compared with a few others but when I rung MotorMinder they banged on and on and on about this Class 3 and that other companies don't cover childminders properly etc. However, what grabbed me was that they will give me a 7seater courtsey car and replace the carseats - neither of which any other company will promise me. So for the first time ever I am going with MotorMinder.

I am beginning to find NCMA's 'holier than thou, you can use no other company/product etc' attitude irritating though - you can't use other types of contract, you have got to do what they say regarding breaches of contract, etc etc.

[rickysmiths]

I have just been shopping around for insurance for the car as my renewal came through (with Elephant) and they want £1000 - a leap of nearly £350.

AA was a fairly competitive quote compared with a few others but when I rung MotorMinder they banged on and on and on about this Class 3 and that other companies don't cover childminders properly etc. However, what grabbed me was that they will give me a 7seater courtsey car and replace the carseats - neither of which any other company will promise me. So for the first time ever I am going with MotorMinder.

I am beginning to find NCMA's 'holier than thou, you can use no other company/product etc' attitude irritating though - you can't use other types of contract, you have got to do what they say regarding breaches of contract, etc etc.

Out of interest did you have to pay extra for your 7 seater car replacement?
The last I heard to insure you get the larger car though Blu Fin you had to pay £45 on top of your premium. Also be careful when it gets to renewal time because I know a couple of people including me that did not get renewal documents and it caused a lot of problems.

I have spoken to NCMA at length and have also written in the last six months about what I feel is an unhealthy relationship between Blu Fin and NCMA.
I have found their heavy advertising in Who Minds boardering on offensive and scaremongeringover the last year. I know a number of changes have already been made and more are on the way. Certainly the style and number of their adverts has changed in Who Minds as a result. NCMA are beginning to take a broarder veiw and hopefully we will see other insurers advertising in Who Minds in future, who knows.

Also for a company who perports to be Childminding specialists it amazes me that childminding and the 'special' cover they offer was not mentioned in the Policy Documents my husband and I had from them.

I, apart, from a horrendous year with Blu Fin, have been with Churchill for years. They insure the children in the car as long as you don't have more in it than the car is designed to have, they replace the car seats if you are involved in an accident and I pay £20 to make sure I receive a car of the same size as mine. I could have free GreenFlag membership if I wanted, I have RAC cover on my car, free through Skoda. They are also cheaper for us than Blu Fin.

[keatingschick]

Yeah, VOSA basically told me since I had under 9 seats it didnt apply to me. And he also stated that I clearly wasnt picking children up along a sort of BUS ROUTE.
I did actually pick a child up and drop off, because the parent struggled for transport, but I never charged any different n I just went alont with what she said when she said it. N basically when I use my car its more for MY convenience than the parents, i.e. if I want us to go to the park but have to get back for my own children finishing school, obviously rather than us having to cut our outing short I use my car and can get home quicker.
It did rear its ugly head a couple of years ago and even the early years said it doesnt apply, take no notice. But this time, it was a little sneaky, the early years were saying they had made us aware, it was our responsibility what to do about it. And this gentleman basically said that they were covering themselves because now they made me aware it was ME choosing to break the law!!!
Apparently now its been sorted.........for the time being!!
Thanks for the responses x

[Emz]

I saw this article too and it is on my list to contct my insurers

I am insured by Tesco......is anyone else with Tesco?......and have you checked?

Im with tesco, they said it came automatically on mine, it states it on your cover page for insurance.

[cmlr]

AXA has a dropped down list on employment type and "childminder" is one of the choices. I also asked them to confirm in writing (by e-mail) that they will insure me to use the car for my childminding service.