Reducing car insurance - car valuation & licence issues

robfromdublin

I'm disappointed with my renewal quote which has gone up despite now having a year's no claims. The reason I believe this has happened is that my girlfriend moved here 6 months ago and went on my insurance after exchanging her Australian licence for a UK one. Therefore, I'm obliged to say that she received her UK licence 6 months ago, making her appear to be a new driver. In reality, she has been driving without incident for years. Is there a way around this when fishing for competitive quotes?

Failing this I'm considering switching from comprehensive to 3rd party. The car in question is an R reg Mondeo. It's in very good condition and has low mileage for its age so I paid a premium for that when I bought it from a dealer last year. However, I fear if it is written off in an accident tomorrow I won't get very much for it because old Mondeo's don't have much value if you look at industry valuations as a whole. My question is, how do the insurance company determine the value of a car in the event of a write-off. If you have recently paid for it, is the price paid taken into account? Or do they just take an average value and work from there?

If they take an average value it might be worth my while just going with 3rd party and taking the risk, as with the excess I may not get much back in the result of a crash anyway, and the loss of my no claims may not be worth it. If I'm likely to get what I paid for it minus a year's depreciation, however, then it'll be worth sticking with comprehensive cover.

What are people's thoughts? And thanks for reading through the waffle if you got this far!

R

Evilm

Third party is usually much more expensive than comprehensive these days since most insurers don't like providing it.

Try phoning the insurers that are coming up as the cheapest and explaining the license problem - perhaps they will be happy to consider her as having a license for longer than the 6 months shes had a UK one.

lisyloo

EvilM - why are you replying to posts from 2009?
I assume this is a genuine mistake on your part, but please check the dates as you are bumping it for everyone - cheers.

Quentin

lisyloo wrote: »

EvilM - why are you replying to posts from 2009?
I assume this is a genuine mistake on your part, but please check the dates as you are bumping it for everyone - cheers.

If you are in a scolding mood, then isn't the one who needs it umairahmed52 not evilm (who just tried to help!)?

robfromdublin

lisyloo wrote: »

EvilM - why are you replying to posts from 2009?
I assume this is a genuine mistake on your part, but please check the dates as you are bumping it for everyone - cheers.

That's my join date you are looking at. I posted my query yesterday.
I have reported the spam post.

Thanks Evilm, as it turns out, I inspected my GF's licence last night and they actually put the date of issue of her Aussie licence on, so I can safely put her years of driving on the forms now. I can still get slightly cheaper quotes for 3rd party, and I may not go down the comprehensive route as even if I did claim I'm not sure that any money received would make up for the loss of no claims AND having a claim loading on future renewals. Need to find out more info on how companies calculate their premia in the UK so will spend an evening plugging details into comparison sites one of these rainy days

Quentin

If you are not going to make a claim off the policy for any damage/loss to your own car, then have a look at taking comp. insurance with a massive excess (which you would never pay) - eg swiftcover allow you to take £1000 excess irrespective of the value of the car. This sometimes works out cheaper than TPFT, and you do get the windscreen cover included.

robfromdublin

Good tip.

But would that mean that you have to pay that excess in the event that you are at fault and someone claims on your insurance? Good point on the windscreen cover though. Reminds me I have to get a chip sorted before renewal!

Quentin

robfromdublin wrote: »

But would that mean that you have to pay that excess in the event that you are at fault and someone claims on your insurance? Good point on the windscreen cover though. Reminds me I have to get a chip sorted before renewal!

No - you don't pay your excess for third party claims against you.

(If you get a chip repaired via your insurance, it is a claim and has to be declared to other insurers when filling out applications.)

darich

lisyloo wrote: »

EvilM - why are you replying to posts from 2009?
I assume this is a genuine mistake on your part, but please check the dates as you are bumping it for everyone - cheers.

Looks to me like the post was 26th July 2010. The OP joined in Aug 09.
Try to keep up Lisyloo

Quentin

Maybe evilm has signed up and paid her by paypal for humiliation/domination/scolding?

lisyloo

Try to keep up Lisyloo

Ha ha :rotfl:
Apologies everybody, I looked at the wrong date (the one where the person signed up rather than the post date).

Quentin - I wsn't scolding.
I was trying to be helpful.
I realise some things sometime don't come across right in black and white, but I was actually trying to help as if there was a problem (potentially caused by the site) then it can cause inconvenience to thousands of people and I was trying to avoid that.

Obviously my mistake and glad some people can take it in a light hearted fashion :T