In May this year I was released from Prison. During this time my Car Insurance had expired, so I contacted a few companies for quotes.
I was shocked to be quoted £600 a year, when my previous insurance had been about £200.
The car I have is a W reg Hyundai Accent, worth, if I am lucky about £800, so my insurance was costing nearly as much as my car.
I obviously informed the insurers that I had an unspent conviction and was informed that was why my insurance was so high.
I did inform the companies that my conviction did not involve driving and during my 3 years of offending I had never had an accident, so my offending did not effect my driving negatively.
They stated that did not matter, I had an unspent conviction so I had to pay higher premiums. I ask them to explain how my conviction, which was not driving related, meant I had to pay £400 more, for my insurance. The people I spoke to on the phone could not answer me.
I then informed them that I now understood why most convicted people did not have insurance, if they were being discriminated against just for having an unspent conviction. When I said this to one of the companies, the reply I got was, " well you have to get the bus."

I can understand premiums going up for people where the offence involved bad driving, but where the offence does not involve driving, how can insurance companies penalise people for just having an unspent conviction. The argument could be that when you committed your offences you showed bad judgement, so that may result in bad driving. Rubbish, I drove for 3 years whilst I committed my offences and it never effected my driving. This is just a way for insurance companies to make more money from people who have made a mistake.
I am sure people who work for Insurance Companies have made mistakes and their insurance premiums have not been hiked up, because they have not been caught. Is there a law that says if you have a conviction, you have to pay higher premiums on your insurance?

Convicted people are being discriminated against for being convicts. Surely we are a group of people who in society are being treated differently, just because we have a conviction. Surely it is time we were treated as other groups in society who are treated differently because of their colour, race or gender. Surely we are a group that should be covered by the discrimination Act.
Is there a campaign already started looking at this? If not should we not start one. How can any one be charged a higher premium for insurance, just because they have a conviction.
How can anyone be refused a job, just because they have a conviction. Surely a conviction on a piece of paper, does not mean that this is the person you are. What is shows is at that time you made a mistake, it does not show the character you are. My offending occurred between the age of 45-48 years old. I was not offending every day through out that period, and when I was not offending I was a god man, contributing to Society. Surely convicted people are being discriminated against and we should be raising this in Government and the media.
As Unlock states, "there are thousands of people who have convictions, that now do not commit offences. They have a wide range of skills that would be beneficial to Society, but they are disregarded just because they have an unspent conviction.
What I did was wrong! What I am is a good man.

Thanks Minaka.

I knew life would not be easy. However, I just want to be treated fairly. Surely that is not a lot to ask.
I am sure any person only wants to be treated fairly. I have served my punishment from society, given to me by the Criminal Justice System.
I owe society nothing and it owes me nothing, but we should treat each other fairly.

I would like to thank the people who replied with advice regarding Insurance.

However no one picked up on the second point. Are Convicted people discriminated against. I believe the answer is Yes.
Employer discriminate every time they dismiss a job application, as soon as they see the unspent conviction box is ticked affirmative.
Insurance companies discriminate every time they put up some ones insurance, because they have an unspent conviction.
In a society that every time an ism is committed, throw their arms up and say how bad it is and it shouldn't happen, we should treat everyone fairly what ever they are. Yet, every day Society discriminates against convicted people.
Perhaps we should campaign for convictism - this is were a person on seeing a piece of paper or being aware that a person has a conviction, must not judge that person to be inferior to any other member of society because of their conviction. Nor must the person with the conviction be discriminated against when applying for employment or Insurance purposes, being treated the same as any other member of society would be.

The above would mean that on an application form, there would be no box for unspent conviction, as that would show that the employer or Insurance company are looking to discriminate against the applicant.

So how about a campaign to get Convicted people into the Discrimination Act, to stop the discrimination against us.

I made a mistake, but I am still a good person.

I have learnt my lesson now and will in future use companies that do not ask for unspent convictions.

The problem is sammym, no ones cares, that's why things do not change.
Or people are willing to come onto forums and moans about things, but do nothing about it, so nothing changes.

I am probably delusional, I though if we could get a campaign going to raise awareness of what ex-offenders face when they have served their punishments, it may change things. But is seems if ex-offenders don't care about how they are treated, then why should society.
Things stay the same and everyone can come onto the forum and moan about how they are treated, safe in the knowledge nothing will change.
Sorry for caring about how we as ex-offenders are treated and maybe believing, that together we could raise awareness and maybe change things. I see like everyone else, happy to moan about how we are treated, but not willing to put our heads above the parapet, and campaign for ex-offenders to be dealt with more fairly.

If you do nothing, nothing changes.

The Stig, Society does not change on it own, when challenged, then society sometimes does change.
The question society has to answer is the following

Do we as a Society forgive ex-offenders and allow them to move on with their lives after they have punished by Society, (Criminal Justice System), and rehabilitated or are we as a society happy to continue to punish ex-offenders even after they have served their punishment and rehabilitated.

What society have to remember is that at any moment they could make a mistake and become an offender, leading to them becoming ex-offenders. How would they like to be treated if they were an ex-offender?

Society needs to know the reality of the situation facing ex-offenders and then Society can make it's decision. Even if that means society is happy to continue discriminating against ex-offenders, even after they had served their punishment and have rehabilitated. At least we know where we stand and what sort of society we live in.

If you do nothing, nothing changes.

So no replies to last post.

Everybody must be happy then for the status quo to continue. Ex-offenders happy to be discriminated against, because no one seems to concerned enough to start a campaign to raise the issues and see what society says. Even if the reply is negative.

Well I shall carry on applying for jobs, knowing that employers discriminate against me because of what's on a piece of paper. God forbid they would want to speak to me and see the good person I am.
No one wants to know that ex-offenders are good people, they want to believe we are all bad forever reoffending people.

I shall put my head below the parapet now, and join everyone else.

Thanks Nice Try for your reply.

The reply , "simply because they can," doesn't mean it is right.
They only can, because no one challenges it and we allow it to happen. I am sure if they were challenged and made them to look greedy, they may change or at least some insurance companies may change. But if you do nothing, nothing changes. So if a campaign is started, and gains support, who knows what we could achieve.
I know by doing nothing, you achieve nothing.

I am a ex-offender, that means I was an offender, but now I have rehabilitated and offend no more. That is important to me.
Society has to decide on how it wants to treat ex-offenders. Do you give people a second chance and forgive or do you persecute them for the rest of their lives, or unleast until the conviction becomes unspent.
Surely the Criminal Justice System on behalf of Society gives Punishment to people who have offended. Is it then not right that once that punishment has been served, ex-offenders are allowed to reintegrate into society so we can contribute?

There are thousands of convicted people who are discriminated against regarding employment, yet all we want to do is work again to contribute to Society using the skills we have. Is that such a crime?

Your biggest mistake was telling them in the first place.

Insurers don't discriminate - they have an algorithm which puts you into a risk profile. An actuary has looked at historical data and worked out you are more risky because you have a conviction.

Personally I wouldn't have ever told them about it. But winging/complaining now isn't going to help you.

With regards to any sort of campaign. It's the most delusional thing I've ever heard. Who is going to care that a commercial company have made a commercial decision to offer someone a product at a price they feel they can make money on?

Hi, does anyone know of an insurer that will cover for mobile phones without asking about convictions. Reason I ask is all the ones I have tried ask and then decline when I disclose. Not having to volunteer the information seems pretty pointless as it seems they all ask now. I have house insurance but the excess is too much so its not worth while.

Thanks Mintaka, I have checked out the link you posted I will give them a call.