renewing car insurance

johannis

I currently insure with swift cover, i generally think its a good idea to change every year as the default setting for all insuance companies is to add £100 every year. I particularly want to leave swift as they chaged me £30 for changing address even though i moved to better insurance circumstances.
I currently have six months to go before points on my licence are invalid for insurance purposes. Is it worth my while getting my car insured for six months (premiums seem a little higher than 12 month deals) and hope to get a better deal then?
Thanks for your time.

InsideInsurance

Given premium inflation you may find it higher still in 6 months time but there are a lot of other factors to consider, eg are you already on max NCD

dunstonh

i generally think its a good idea to change every year as the default setting for all insuance companies is to add £100 every year.

It is if you focus on companies with high initial discounts which wont be there in year two.

I particularly want to leave swift as they chaged me £30 for changing address even though i moved to better insurance circumstances.

If you eliminate companies on the basis of admin fees then that will leave you limited in choice and paying more in premiums.

Is it worth my while getting my car insured for six months (premiums seem a little higher than 12 month deals) and hope to get a better deal then?

Short term rates are typically more expensive than annual rates.

johannis

i think i'm upto 6 years now, what is the maximum?

scheming_gypsy

When you got the £30 charge for the change of address, was it an admin charge or a policy increase? if it was an admin charge they only charge if you phone up; if you do it through your portal there are no admin fees.

kingstreet

johannis wrote: »

I currently have six months to go before points on my licence are invalid for insurance purposes.

Is that assuming the insurer asks about convictions in the last five years?

InsideInsurance

johannis wrote: »

i think i'm upto 6 years now, what is the maximum?

Traditionally it was 5 years but some now offer up to 9 years. That said a max 5 year NCD can be a bigger actual discount than 8 years with a company that does max 9 years.

johannis

many thanks for the replies.

Regarding the convictions, i've found that they all seem to ask now.

I did change address by phone, we had no internet set up in the new place, chalk that one up to experience i suppose.

Regarding Dunstonh's point about cheap quotes being more expensive in the long run, i tend to avoid the first few and generally go with the first company i've heard of. To be honest i've insured through Direct lineand the AA before and they all seem to operate the same way. Most insurance companies seem rely on laziness from their customers.

Spiderham

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Traditionally it was 5 years but some now offer up to 9 years. That said a max 5 year NCD can be a bigger actual discount than 8 years with a company that does max 9 years.

Some aggregators allow you to enter more. I think Confused goes to 15 and one of MoneySuperMarket or GoCompare go to 20 years. I'm guessing they do that because an insurance company has asked for it and rates that far.