Car Insurance dilemma - advice needed please.....

[Madraykin]

Hello,

I recently (about a month ago) renewed my car insurance and moved to a new company that had a very good quote - even as I was going fully comp for the first time. Since then, however, my car has had a few problems, the upshot of which is I need to buy a new car. Only problem is all the cars I look at see my insurance shooting up by £150 to £200.

What is the policy here - if I change my car I assume I'm still bound to the 12 month contract with my insurance company???

Is it just a case of shopping around and finding a newer car that doesn't change my premium too much? I've found you have to be so specific. I was looking at a Renault Clio (both exactly the same model) and the 1997 R reg was £50 cheaper than the 1998 R reg.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Mads
xxxxxxx

[ArsenalFC]

Even if you get the exact same car as your last, insurer normally charge you a little extra like £20 for admin fee. You just transfer your policy over to the new car.

[Madraykin]

The £20 admin fee is additional to the figures I've been given......

I've just looked at cancelling my insurance policy with my current company, and they state that they will calculate what I owe based on 'short term cover' current rates.

Can anyone explain this and how much it's likely to be?

Mads
xxxxx

[fatboyonadiet]

Whenever I've changed cars, never had an admin fee (or at least not been told about it), other option is to cancel the policy and take out a new one, obviously only do this if it works out cheaper, if it does tell you company and they may lower the price. Welcome to MSE too!!!

[Madraykin]

Thanks for the welcome!!!

I'm looking at cancelling as an option at the moment. Another question I'd like to ask is how much of a difference it makes if I'm classed as a student or in full-time employment. I never know where to put myself. I'm 'officially' a full-time PhD student, but I work 28 hours a week to support myself. My Mother is always going on about how I should class myself as employed, but I argue that it would be fraudulent and I could end up in trouble. With 28 hours a week, could I legitimately class myself as primarily employed rather than primarily student???

[fatboyonadiet]

Not sure, maybe try getting a quote with and without, but you might be better saying you work full-time me thinks. Try www.confused.com (http://www.confused.com) and www.moneysupermarket.com (http://www.moneysupermarket.com) for quotes, depending on how much time you have ring the cheapest 2 or 4 that come out, they will probably quote cheaper as they won't be including commission if you go direct. HTH.

[Madraykin]

Thanks,

I'll give them a go.

I use confused.com a lot, have just had a bit of a strange experience however as I rang my current insurer to ask for a quote for my potential new car and was quoted £580 (currently paying £371), then I did a confused.com search to try and find cheaper prices and my company quoted me £440!!!!

I'm a humanities girl! The numbers are driving me insane!!!

[fatboyonadiet]

Depending on who they quote maybe check some of the bigger companies that they don't search, also are you registered with a referral site? Some pay cashback, like GreasyPalm, etc. I have numbers too and I work with databases and was a scientist!

[scheming_gypsy]

Thanks,

I'll give them a go.

I use confused.com a lot, have just had a bit of a strange experience however as I rang my current insurer to ask for a quote for my potential new car and was quoted £580 (currently paying £371), then I did a confused.com search to try and find cheaper prices and my company quoted me £440!!!!

I'm a humanities girl! The numbers are driving me insane!!!

tell me about it, confused.com quoted me about £520 with Admiral (my current insurers) so i tried Elephant (part of Admiral) and they came out about £420. Elephant followed it up with a call but it turned out i'd hit 2 for 2 years no claims but cos it's 01 02 03 etc it put 20 years in and i didn't notice. So their quote was really about £500. They asked what my nearest quote was and i told them Admiral, cos they're the same company she ran the checks through on the Admiral quoting package and said they could do me a 10 month accelerator for £410, i asked if they could do it for £400 so she said she can do £391 (still with me?). So i paid for it. 2 days ago i got the policy through and the renewal form through (from Admiral) for next year and the price on the renewal form? £597.
go figure.

[jjames]

The renewal figure is rarely competitive in my experience. Chopping and changing, and taking the rpoints/quidco commission from the insurer has always been much cheaper for me. Bear in mind that the commission for new business can run to £50 on its own.

[Bossyboots]

Thanks for the welcome!!!

I'm looking at cancelling as an option at the moment. Another question I'd like to ask is how much of a difference it makes if I'm classed as a student or in full-time employment. I never know where to put myself. I'm 'officially' a full-time PhD student, but I work 28 hours a week to support myself. My Mother is always going on about how I should class myself as employed, but I argue that it would be fraudulent and I could end up in trouble. With 28 hours a week, could I legitimately class myself as primarily employed rather than primarily student???

My son starts his PHD this year and our understanding is that you are no longer considered a student.