Car insurance - fully comp or fire&theft????

little_money_saver_2

Hi all,

Can anyone explain to me (in simple terms) what the difference is betwen fully comprehensive and third party fire & theft car insurance?

I'm paying £35 per month for full, but have been quoted £20 for fire & theft

Astaroth

There are basically 3 levels of insurance each covers what the lower level does but adds more to it so from lowest to highest.

Third Party Only - gives you the legal minimum, only covers the damage you cause to other peoples property

Third Party Fire & Theft - same as above but also covers damage to your vehicle resulting from either fires or thefts (or attempted theft)

Comprehensive - same as above but covers damage to your vehicle resulting from accidents or vandalism. In addition to this it will have extra bits added like cover for personal possessions in your car which are damaged in an accident or stolen from the vehicle.

mattymoo

Its worth pointing out that comprehensive cover is normally a requirement if you have finance on the vehicle.

Most people reduce the cover to TP or TPFT when the car is worth below say £750 and the premiums start to exceed the value of the vehicle.

Gorgeous_George

Hmmm... I thought Road Traffic Act was the lowest level of insurance.

Essentially, imagine you crash your car and. worst case, it's written off. Could you cope with the loss? If so, TPF&T may be fine. There'll also be an excess to pay if the accident was deemed to be your fault.

Remember, Fully Comp also carries an excess which you have to pay (although you can claim it back if the accident was not your fault). This is usually £200 or more. Fully comp usually covers broken glass with a smaller excess of about £50.

I usually go for Fully Comp but you need to assess the risk of having an accident that is your fault. You may find that TPF&T holders drive more carefully. Maybe not



GG

Astaroth

RTA is the lowest required but outside of commercial insurance it is very rare to see it anywhere - it only has limited cover for property damage (but unlimited cover on personal injury) and only on public access areas (ie roads, public car parks etc) so if you accidentally ran over the post office on your driveway you would not be covered for the claim.

You also can get insurance without TP aspects but the vehicle cannot be taken onto or left anywhere which has public access so is generally used for vehicles in long term storage.