Temporary insurance whilst selling car

kateandpete

Not sure if this is a "how long is a piece of string" question...

We have paid a deposit on a used car and need to pay the balance within 2 weeks. We are now in the position of trying to sell our car so we can hopefully just transfer the insurance and pick up the new one.

In the event ours does not sell in time I have been in touch with the insurer (LV) who say that they would be able to temporarily cover the old car for up to a month on the same policy once we have changed it to the new one to give us longer to sell. HOWEVER they are not able to tell me how much this would cost until we have actually changed the policy.

This presents me with a problem as the likely cost of this insurance will dictate how much we should be prepared to negotiate on price to get a quick sale. If it's not too much then I'm happy to sit tight and take up to 6 weeks to sell. If it is a lot then we really need to shift the car quickly, especially now that it's not an option to park the car (off road) taxed and just insure on short term if people want to come and look. SORNing it it just not practical in the circumstances. Sigh.

Any advice appreciated - does anyone have any idea how much this is likely to be? I have 9 years no claims and my annual premium was around 500 for fully comp.

fivetide

The correct proceedure is:

- Drop trousers

- Apply Lurpak to backside

- Bend over

- Call insurance company

The price of temporarty insurance has rocketed recently as a lot of poeple are stuck liek you (I was one of them) and being the industry it is a chance to profit has been taken.

I ended up putting mine with eCar for a few weeks as much cheaper than the actual insurer. Can the present insurer do you a straight swap on the new one too? Worth asking, mine were rubbish (Endsleigh) so I canceleld the policy, much cheaper.

I'd google temporary insurance, or visit eCar, Dayinsure etc and see what prices come back. Shouldn't be more thna those quotes. If it is, go with the online stuff and remember it at renewal time.

5t.

kateandpete

Yes it feels like that doesn't it? I've just done a quote with daysure which gave £90ish for 10days. I've been told that it'll be an extra £50 to transfer my insurance to the new car for the remainder of the policy (4 months) which seems fair enough to me, especailly as it's a higher insurance group.

Find it crazy that they cannopt even quote me for temporary cover though as it makes it so hard to plan. Previously i'd have just used daysure on a day by day basis when psople wanted to look at the car, but that's not even possible now. Like selling a used car isn't stressful enough!

cheers

JQ.

It cost me £15 for 30 days insurance for the car I was selling after I had transfered the insurance to the new car I had bought. That was about 8 weeks ago. Both cars were heavily modified cars I use on trackdays, so my insurance costs are generally quite high. So unless you're driving a Bugatti Veyron I'd have thought it should be around that level.

However, I would phone them back and ask to speak to a manager. On the assumption you have had a full quote for the new car, I see absolutley no reason why they can't tell you what the cost of the 30 day cover will be. I knew exactly how much mine cost before I did the swap.

pmw5

Hi,

I was in this position back in June. I'd bought my new car but hadn't yet sold my old.

Admiral transferred my new car to my existing policy, and then put my 'old' car under temporary cover. They charged me in the region of about £70 for a month, which was cheaper than doing it weekly. They also said if I sold it I could get a refund for any unused full weeks in the month.

I was pleasantly surprised.

kateandpete

Wow. That's a lot less than i would have guessed and that'd be fine for me to take my time a little over selling. Another impossible question, but how long is a reasonable time to expect a private sale to take?

JQ.

It's all about the quality of your advert, the quality of your car and the price that you set. I sold mine within 24hrs of advertising it, because I made sure it was in great condition, did a really detailed advert and priced it aggressively at day 1. I see lots of cars for sale for months where they keep dropping the price every couple of weeks because they priced ot too high in the first place - it actually puts people off because they think there is something wrong with the car which is putting buyers off. They then generally sell for less than if they'd just priced them correctly in the first place.

kateandpete

Hmm - could be worrying. The car is in fabulous condition for its age and miles (I know, i would say that!!) but we've had it advertised already for a week at a slightly aspirational price on the off chance we struck lucky and got a great offer. Have dropped the price as now we've actually signed on the dotted line for another car (not to mention handed over the deposit) it benefits us to sell asap. Hope that isn't going to put people off.

Plenty of pics in the ad and an honest description of the car. Will sit tight and see what happens now.

Thanks

fivetide

Where is it advertised? Have you tried a few of the free online ones? You'll need to filter out the scams though!

5t.

kateandpete

We're now on ebay classified, autotrader (online only) and gumtree.

fivetide

Try pistonheads too (you can do a free ad on there but limited pics). If it is interesting it might go at the lower price.

Sold one bike and one car through them and it has cost me nowt

5t.