There are a few motor insurers who are only interested in motoring convictions. So, if your convictions are for non-motoring offences, you can use one of them. Unlock has a list of them here. Direct Line is one of them.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Another insure is Direct Line, they do not ask the question at all and offer good rates. All the insurers share information so its best to not enter your personal details in relation to a conviction as once one knows the industry knows. Even if you have to pay a slightly higher rate for a few years until your conviction becomes spent its worth doing so to not have to declare and so let the industry know that you have convictions.

Hi Derek 

Great to hear that the premium has been reduced. I'd just make sure that you double check the small print in the policy, especially the 'assumptions' page as this can sometimes include something along the lines of:

"This policy is issued on the basis that no driver has any unspent convictions"

You don't want to discover it if you're unlucky enough to have to make a claim.

Let us know how you get on.

Debs

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I don't have a car myself but there are situations where I might borrow my son's car.

He called his insurance company to have me put on his insurance. He was asked no qualifying questions and my name on his policy actually reduced the premium - go figure.

I always found it much cheaper to apply directly than using comparison sites. I thing the general 'Have you got any unspent convictions' tick boxes don't provide relevant information to the insurers and they class them as the 'worst of the worst' without knowing specifics.

I had an insurance policy through a broker - who put the premium up after disclosing. I challenged it (I have never made an insurance claim in all my years driving!) - the premium was dropped (I still left under principle!).

Hi All 

I'll be updating our list of motor insurers over the next couple of days as it looks as though both Direct Line and Churchill have changed their 'assumptions'. 

For example Churchill used to ask

"Have you had any motoring offences including convictions, endorsements, fixed penalties, bans or points in the last 5 years"

Their assumptions now state:

"The total number of convictions, fixed penalties or disqualifications for all drivers does not exceed 3 in the last five years".

It's unclear whether they're still only interested in motoring convictions - I'll try to get some clarity from them.

If you've already got a policy with these insurers which automatically renews, please make sure that you check your new policy to make sure you're still fully covered. 

From what I can currently make out, LV, More Than and the Co-op have made no changes.

Debs

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I use LV as well and am very happy with them. Before I went with LV a trick I used was to ring the insurer direct and ask them straight out if they needed to know about any conviction? If I didn't like the answer I put the phone down without giving them my name etc something  along the lines of "Hi I am looking for insurance for *#:~?><  but I have a criminal conviction can you offer cover? It surprisingly worked quite well and avoided any embarrassment later on. Or another version was " before we start can you offer cover to someone with****?" 
I would strongly advise not to use comparison websites as they all farm and sell your data on and you probably dont want that spread around.

Hi Banjoman

Great news about LV - we actually include them on our list of motor insurers but always good to get some first hand experience.

As you say, always best to approach car insurers directly rather than go via a comparison website.

Thanks for the update.

Debs

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Like many I presumed my car insurance would rise after my conviction.
When I had the reminder from my existing policy, I went straight onto the
comparison websites, and sure enough, of the half dozen or so who provided a quotation,
most were at least double my normal price.
Out of desperation, I decided to try LV on a direct basis. I could not understand how it came
back so reasonable, I tried again with the same result!!
Knowing there is no point of any insurance if, when you might need to make a claim, the company
finds you have not answered correctly some of the questions and cancel your insurance you are left in a difficult position.
So I called to speak directly with LV and asked the question "Do I need to declare any convictions" Is it a motoring
conviction they asked, " No it is not a motoring conviction" I replied. Then that's OK they said.
I immediately took out quotation they offered, (which was about thirty pound LESS than my original policy offered on renewal)
I have since discovered, most if not all comparison web sites include the question, "do you have any criminal convictions" obviously
you have to say yes. But there is no option to say it is not a motoring conviction. Consequently any insurance company
signed up to the comparison web sites, presume you have a motoring conviction.

Hi Yankee

Thanks for the reply

Yes I ended up going through LV as I didn't fancy having a conversation with them. After seeing the list that Debbie provided, and triple checking that there was no mention of non-motoring convictions in their policy details booklet. (the beauty of having the document in electronic format - you can just do a CTRL+F for the relevant terms rather than having to eyeball it all)

Cheers