Car insurance question

toadyfrog

I am due to renew my car insurance and i am a bit confused.

On a comparison website and it has valued my car at £395, so if an insurer quotes the excess as say compulsory £150 and voluntary £250 which is £400, if I have an accident and the car is a write off or the damage is over £395 I would actually get no money back at all.

Thanks

artbaron

It's a moot point really. You would never want to claim own-fault on a low value car, the extra you'd have to pay in premiums over the next few years would likely eclipse the short-term benefit. Even if you didn't have the excess it's highly unlikely you'd benefit from a claim in the long term.

Edit: unless you're not talking own fault, in which case you shouldn't have to pay any excess if the other insurance pays up

vaio

This comes up quite often, basically on a car worth £400 there are very few circumstances when it is going to be worth claiming for damage to your car.

The game then becomes a matter of juggling TP vs FC with various excesses to find the cheapest outcome.

I insure my dear old dads essentially valueless car for him and found fully comp with a huge excess (think it was £1000) was the cheapest. The icing on the cake was that he also gets glass cover & (I think) recovery after theft or accident.

jd82

Indeed I also had all my old cars fully comp because it was cheaper than third party but here is the rub, I have now ordered a brand new Panda and for some reason third party is much cheaper - I wonder why

It is because insurance companies know you won't bother claiming on a banger but on a brand new car they will. I am taking out fully comp on it even though it costs a lot more.