car insurance cheaper? (and screenscraper problems)

toasterman

Hi everyone,
I've just had my car insurance renewal quote come in - it's better than I was expecting.
I'm 24 (25 in 2 months) and have 3 recorded accidents in the last 5 years. I'm male, live in a city, park on the street, and it has come in at:
£496.24. Certainly better than the £900+ of last year.
I know this is partly due to me now having 1 years no claims.
I am entering my second year of having my own policy, as prior to that - it was all company cars and company policies.


The full quote is as follows:
"Insurance premium: 496.24
Insurance premium tax: 24.81
Personal accident cover: 20.95
Breakdown cover: 82.95
Hirecar cover: 28.95

Total: 653.90"

Now, I wonder if anyone can help me.
Can I get out of paying the insurance premium tax, or is that something that everyone who pays for car insurance has to pay?

Do I need to pay for personal accident cover for if someone else is "involved in an accident that wasn't their fault" caused by me? Surely this is covered anyway by the normal policy of me hitting someone elses car...?

As for breakdown cover - having looked at lowering that on MSE 5mins ago, I know I'm being robbed blind for that. It does include homestart, but even still - its very expensive.

Hire car cover I will be removing, as I'd never claim on it anyway. My boss would be ok with me not coming into work if my car completely died - and I'm too nervy with courtesy cars because of the number of recorded accidents I've had. Plus the last thing I enjoy doing is driving around like an idiot in a car with the name of a tinpot local garage all down the side of it. And 1.5 of those accidents put down as my fault, were when a courtesy car was loaned to me and vandalised by locals.


==Screenscraper problems==
I've tried Tesco value and normal, but they will only let me specify a max of two accidents. Ditto for Churchill and DirectLine, who use identical forms - and may in fact all be the same company.
I put two of my three accidents on Tesco, and the quote came out £100 more than my current renewal quote.

Confused.com won't let me fill out the forms, because my first accident was paid for by me - not claimed on my insurance. Hence I HAVE had an accident (which the insurance company was made aware of), but I HAVEN'T claimed for it.
And InsureSupermarket says if I can't find my car, to fill out some extra details. If I still can't find it, email them and tell them. I've done as such, but it didn't ask for enough details to actually update their records, so thats not very useful either.
Its a 1396cc Rover 214 si, 5dr, 1995, but NOT the 1995-1999 model. Its a 1994 style, registered in early 1995. Mine was discontinued and replaced with a curvier model in 1995. Why I can't just tell them that, I don't know.

Looks like I'll probably be going back to my current insurer so far. I'll look into breakdown cover from someone else.

jonesMUFCforever

You have to pay for the Insurance premium tax but you can ditch everything else if you want.
Personally I would be looking to pay a little extra to 'protect' my no claims.

toasterman

You can protect 1 years no claims? I thought you could only protect it once you got to 3?

Bear_family

You can only protect no claims once you have 4 years.

jonesMUFCforever

I didn't know that .Thanks.

toasterman

Thanks for that, Bear family.
Save me phoning Admiral and trying to protect it.

toasterman

I've just applied for breakdown cover from Auto Aid. Certainly a lot cheaper than my current provider - who I thought were expensive, until I checked AA/Rac/Green Flag.

Thanks for your help Bear family, and ejones.

I just got out the 40-page documentation, plus all the other leaflets, and worked out I'm not even paying for "personal accident cover" for people suing me - its for if I lose an arm or something. It has some interesting clauses too - if I lose both hands, I get nothing. I have to lose the whole arm to make a claim.

I'm also not covered for driving on the Nurburgring (specifically), and excluded from my policy on their behalf is:
"Any legal liability of whatsoever nature directly or indirectly caused to by or arising from:
Ionising radiations of contamination by radioactivity from any nuclear fuel".

I wonder who tried to claim for that, that made them have to put it in the terms and conditions.

DavidHM

If Admiral are already the most competitive, try Bell Direct and Elephant (same company, slightly different quote engine).

I switched from Elephant to Admiral last year and may well switch back depending on my renewal premium.