Car Insurance Excess Query

trinity_p

Hi, Apologies if this question has been asked before but I cant seem to find an answer anywhere (even on google).

I need to insure my £200 car next week. Its our second car (my husband has a company one) so it only gets used locally a small amount (to run my son around).

The cheapest quotes I am getting are around £200 which is actually more than the car is worth(!) and my question is this...

If I were to CAUSE an accident and the other car claimed against me for repairs etc on their car but I didnt want to claim for my car (may as well just get a new car due to what its worth) do I still need to pay excess to my insurance company? I am asking the question because I seem to be getting cheaper quotes the higher I go on the excess but if I have an accident and it turns out to be my fault I dont want to be stuck with paying out £400+ on excess condisering the car is only worth £200 or less.

Can anyone advise me on this?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Trinity

vaio

Excess only applies for claims for damage to your own car and, if the accident is someone else’s fault, you get your excess back from them (eventually).

If you have a (essentially) valueless car then the best bet is often fully comp insurance but with a really high excess. On a £200 car it’s never going to be worth claiming on your policy so the excess being £100 or £1000 makes no difference to you but will reduce your premium.

On the insurance price, the bulk of the premium is to cover the damage you do to others (particularly injuries) so the value of your car has almost no effect as you can do as much damage with a £200 car as you can with a £2000 car.

money_honey

Yes as PP said, it's best to get the fully comprehensive insurance with as high an excess as you can, and don't claim on your policy if your car is damaged. I had the same as you with my old car, it was worth £400 and my excess was £500, if I had damaged it I wouldn't have bothered claiming.

trinity_p

Great, thanks very much, this is what I thought but I wanted to check in case I got caught out! I will re-search insurance quotes on really high excess.

Thanks again for your help!

Trinity