# Licence held for???



## Jenny19

When you are asked how long you have had your licence for, do you round up, round down, or only count the anniversaries of having a licence?
So for example, I passed my driving test in October 2008 (got the provisional licence Feb 2008) and my insurance is due at the end of May (had licence 5 yrs and 7 months), so would I round up and say I've had it 6 years or round down and say Ive only had it for 5 years?
I've always rounded up but *touch wood* never had to claim, and I'm not sure if this would invalidate my insurance. I have got 6 years no claims, and I know some websites get confused if I say 6 years no claims but 5 years licence.
Thoughts...?


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## Shiny

The question will be what licence do you have ie full/provisional and then ask how long you have held it.

In your case, it will be a full licence and you have held it 5 years. You haven't held it 6 years until Oct 2014.

To be honest i don't think it will have any substantial bearing on anything, it usually in an issue if a licence has been held for less than a year as there is normally an additional inexperienced driver excess. Always best to be safe and answer the questions correctly though.


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## oliVeR6

Why would you say you've held your licence for 6yrs? That's like saying you're a year older than you actually are just because you're 5 months off your birthday?!
You haven't held your full licence for 6yrs until you reach October 2014. Better to be safe than sorry!


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## Jenny19

I think when I went to get my second year of car insurance they couldnt quite get their heads round the fact that I had 5 months more no claims than I had licence time and they put me down as having a licence for 2 years when I had had it for a year and a half. 
Going forward I guess I will put 5 years licence and 6 years no claims!


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## TooFunny

I'm assuming you mean you have 5 months no claims from when you held your provisional licence....?

Not sure how you would gain no claims while holding a provisional licence, have you got this in writing from an insurance company or are you just telling them you have X amount when you take out a policy?


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## Shiny

You can take out an insurance policy on a provisional licence. For each year the policy is in force without any claims, you will earn a year's NCB, regardless of whether you have a full or provisional licence. :thumb:


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## Captain Pugwash

Daughter had a car before she passed her test, it was insured in her name with myself as a named driver while she was learning to drive, thus when she did pass she had 1 years NCB 

strange thing was the insurance went up after she passed ...I guess because she would no doubt be driving solo rather than with myself sitting beside her


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## rtjc

Captain Pugwash said:


> Daughter had a car before she passed her test, it was insured in her name with myself as a named driver while she was learning to drive, thus when she did pass she had 1 years NCB
> 
> strange thing was the insurance went up after she passed ...I guess because she would no doubt be driving solo rather than with myself sitting beside her


The same happened to me with my first car 14 years ago now, Was cheap when I was learning!


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## Jenny19

Yep, I got my provisional in February on my 17th birthday, got a car in May to learn on and obviously got it insured and then passed my test in October, so I've always got more no claims than I do licence holding time


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## carl robson

The same goes for me bought a car in June insured it passed nov insurance went up slightly after I passed but now cheap as chips with 6yrs protected and business use


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## Jenny19

Does it help if you drive for business on the insurance then? I use our work vans


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## STUOOBY

this is interesting. when i insure my 2 i only use the full years on a car licence to tell the insurance company. for ex

my licence example , provisional say from may 2006 to june 2007, then pass car licence in june 2007 then pass hgv class 2 in may 2009 so until now march 2014. 
these dates are examples but i do have a hgv. 
in this case id be telling the insurance company ive had my licence for 6 full years. but see when they ask you how long youve had your licence for...when you get the car provisional, isnt that a licence so would be 7 yrs licence held. or. another kettle of fish. say i was insuring a hgv for personal use. would i tell them licence held for 6 yrs. 7 yrs... or 3 years. as id be saying 3 yrs as thats how long it would be since the hgv test. but ive held a licence longer?


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## Shiny

The question is specific to the licence you hold.

Q. Type of licence? Prov uk/full uk/full eu etc
Q. How long has this licence been held?

If you were proposing to insure an HGV, the question is likely to ask what type of HGV licence you hold (eg I, II, etc) and then ask how long you have held it.


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## Samba1360

You youngsters, had a full licence now for 40 years since I was 16.


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## carl robson

Jenny19 said:


> Does it help if you drive for business on the insurance then? I use our work vans


Not much in it I only did/do if I have to move cars when I'm working on them


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## MB-BTurbo

The problem comes when they charge such different amounts. My wife has had her licence for 8 years and 11 months. Our insurance come in at £270 for 8 years or £240 for 9 years. 
She will only be driving for 1 month of the 12 on 8 years so why do we continue to pay 8 year rates for the remainder of the policy?


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## Shiny

Insurers would be constantly changing rates throughout the year, every birthday, every time of your licence anniversary; with 4 drivers that could be 8 amendments.

I'm surprised there's such a difference between 8 and 9 years licence, but you could always Sorn and lay up your car for one month and benefit from the extra £30 saving, assuming of course there isn't a rate change or the loss of a renewal discount.


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## kingswood

6yr bump - got to be a record?!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## MB-BTurbo

kingswood said:


> 6yr bump - got to be a record?!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


It was top of the google search:thumb:


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## MB-BTurbo

Shiny said:


> Insurers would be constantly changing rates throughout the year, every birthday, every time of your licence anniversary; with 4 drivers that could be 8 amendments.
> 
> I'm surprised there's such a difference between 8 and 9 years licence, but you could always Sorn and lay up your car for one month and benefit from the extra £30 saving, assuming of course there isn't a rate change or the loss of a renewal discount.


Not as surprised as I was when I saw the difference. There must be some cut off point reached. It's approximately 10% of the whole policy which makes no sense. I would love to know how insurance companies get the quotes because they seem illogical.

And no, insurers don't need to keep changing their rates. All they need to do is ask more accurate questions, i.e. years and months.

Sorning wouldn't be an option due to me needing it for work. The daft thing is my wife wouldn't even need it for the first month. The only time she would be driving it is when she's had her licence for 9 years anyway.


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## camerashy

Held a licence for 54 years so I just tick the 20 years plus box with my car insurance
Always held a clean licence but plenty of accidents lol


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## AndyN01

Doh....

And there I was going to be a smarty pants saying I passed when I was 17 and now I'm 58 so that's er..... anyone got any more fingers & toes I can use to count with....

But I've been Top Trumped :lol:

Andy.


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## Caledoniandream

40 years for all categories, bike, car, HGV, PSV, trailer, tractor and whatever not, makes no difference on your insurance.


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## baxlin

camerashy said:


> Held a licence for 54 years so I just tick the 20 years plus box with my car insurance
> Always held a clean licence but plenty of accidents lol


Ditto - just put 20+ years, mine's 57+ but one 3-point blemish years ago.

My Dad had his for 68 years with neither accident nor points, and he drove in his job.


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## Liambo-235

I always round it down until it's near when I passed. Next month it will be 14 years.

I had an accident 7 months after passing my test but always had year more years NCB than I had my licence but it was due to my policy I had for 7 years had a "accelerated NCB" incentive that gave you a year after 10 months.


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## jenks

Only count full years, no rounding up. Let's face it if you are 39 years and 10 months you don't say you are 40.
Just the 29 years for me. Never any points, never had an accident that was fault. Did get rear ended and wrote the car off a few years ago.


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## MB-BTurbo

This is different to saying how old you are. For the purposes of insurance you are declaring how many years you have been driving so that they can determine experience and therefore the level of risk. If another whole year would pass a week after taking out insurance then for 99% of the duration of the policy you are paying for a policy at a higher rate that you should do.

It’s all very well them saying it’s what the circumstances are at the time of taking out the insurance but they’re only too quick in asking you to update them if you have received points during the policy so they can increase the premium.


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## baxlin

The other question, do you include bike licence? I said above I’ve had a licence for 57 years, but the first 11 months or so were bike only (I passed my car test quicker than my bike one, by a month)


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## Shiny

baxlin said:


> The other question, do you include bike licence? I said above I've had a licence for 57 years, but the first 11 months or so were bike only (I passed my car test quicker than my bike one, by a month)


The licence should be relevant to the type of insurance proposed. So 56 for a car, 57 for bike insurance, although i'm sure it won't make any differnence.


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## baxlin

Shiny said:


> The licence should be relevant to the type of insurance proposed. So 56 for a car, 57 for bike insurance, although i'm sure it won't make any differnence.


So it's 56.5 for the 3-wheeler?

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TBH, I don't know which bit of my licence I'm using when driving it, I just know I'm covered.

Any new, young drivers now have to have a full bike licence to drive a trike, even if like mine it has conventional car controls. I suppose there are more bike/trikes than car/trikes, hence the new requirement.


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