6 months on Cover - Options

BREMBO

Afternoon everyone,

I’m looking for some advice when taking out car insurance this coming April. My intentions are too only run my insurance for 6 months as opposed to the normal 12 months. The reason for this being that I only use this car during the summer time and will have another car which will be insured for 12 months so I need to look at a few options here as to what is best.

1.) Insure my daily (12 month car) as I normally would, using all my no claims on this vehicle meaning I’m still entitled to another years no claims (touch wood) at the end as it will run for 12 months. This also means it will be on a separate policy all together.
I would then insure my 6 month car on another separate policy basing this on 0 no claims and although this will be more money I have to remember its only 6 months. My question here being can I put this payment on a credit card and pay it off at the monthly amount? upon cancelling the policy after 6 months I will get ½ of this back meaning I will put this towards paying my credit card off. So for example insurance annual premium is £800 I will put this on a credit card paying it off at the standard monthly amount. After 6 months I will cancel this meaning I should get £400 returned (I’m aware off charges to cancel) so technically this will cost me £65 (roughly) per month to insure for 6 months.

2.) My second option would be to look at insuring the two cars on a multi car policy but would need to phone and advise 1 car only gets used for 6 months and explain how well kept it is/stored and hope for a good premium from this.

Essentially I’m just trying to find the best and the cheapest option for insuring a car for 6 months whilst also insuring another car for 12 months.

Thanks for all your help

InsideInsurance

In addition to cancellation charges you have to remember that some add ons cannot be cancelled (or more accurately they can but you have to pay the full 12 months anyway) such as Legal Expenses so either buy without these or buy with and factor it into your calculation.

Remember under the new law all cars must have either insurance or be off the road with a SORN declaration. Presumably you'll be able to do this with your second car?

Speak to your existing insurer/broker for your current vehicle. Some will do a deal on a second vehicle outside of multicar policies, especially if both cars are just for you to drive (evidently you cant drive two cars at the same time)

BREMBO

Thanks for this, I didnt think about Legal Expenses.

The car will be SORN. So 6 months on the road 6 months off.

I will speak to my current insurance company but confident they wont insure my second car due to the type/engine and my age (as I have tried before)

BREMBO

Anybody have any ideas/advice on the credit card I mentioned above?

Thanks

mikey72

You don't need to take out legal expenses, courtesy car, breakdown etc. Just a minimum policy.
Depending on the car, you may be better off with a specialist insurer, but you may have to fight to get a pro rata refund, a lot try to overcharge, or make up a fictious "short term rate"

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/54/insurance.htm

forgotmyname

You wont get 50% back when you cancel though. Is the interest on the credit card less than the interest the insurers give?

The charge on my policy for paying monthly is a lot less than most others i have seen.

BREMBO

I understand I will not be getting a full 50% back but I expect it will be close to this. I'm not sure on the credit card side of things and this is why I'm asking I guess. I currently have a Tesco one which I have been using for a while now. So I was tempted to take out another so that this can be used for the insurance. But the questions I have are,

Can you pay for the annual insurance (for example £800) then make the minimum payments back on this every month. Obviously after 6 months I would cancell the insurance expecting a return and this would be put back onto my credit card?

I have never used a credit card for purchasing anything but Fuel. So is there a certain card I should go for? and will there be any charges for using a credit card for paying for my insurance?

Thanks again

forgotmyname

Any card thats got cheaper interest than a fixed loan. My quote came out £37 dealer
if i paid by installments. Thats on a quote of nearly £500. Can you beat that on card?

But i know my sister got a quote with a different company and they charged 29.9%..ouch...

Either way zero no claims will be expensive and only insuring for 6 months wont earn any extra no claims either.

BREMBO

forgotmyname wrote: »

Any card thats got cheaper interest than a fixed loan. My quote came out £37 dealer
if i paid by installments. Thats on a quote of nearly £500. Can you beat that on card?

But i know my sister got a quote with a different company and they charged 29.9%..ouch...

Either way zero no claims will be expensive and only insuring for 6 months wont earn any extra no claims either.

I think I may have not been very clear and confusing people. My query was to take out personal car insurance for say £800 my intentions would be to pay for this Annually so a one of payment of £800 as I'm aware this is usually the cheaper option. What I was querying is if I was to make this payment via a credit card then make the monthly minimum payment each month. Would this be possible?

If so I would only be using half of the money before I cancell the policy after 6 months allowing me to roughly half the premium back (£400) but treat the credit card like I would a monthly insurance policy of £66 a month (based on 6 months @ 400 as opposed to 133 per month basing this on 800 at 12 months before any APR% etc)

I'm aware about the 0 no claims issue but as per my first post I have another car which I plan on running for 12 months on an insurance policy allowing me to a years NCB (touch wood)

Thanks for your advice but I would like more!

mikey72

You can pay on a credit card. You will struggle to get half back, after the fees. It would be better to pay the card off as fast as possible, then treat the refund as a windfall when it comes. Paying the minimumis never a good idea.
A zero percent credit card would be good, but don't put anything else on it.
And save the money to pay it off.
Don't depend on the refund though, don't be surprised if you have to fight for it, so don't rely on this to pay the card off.

BREMBO

mikey72 wrote: »

You can pay on a credit card. You will struggle to get half back, after the fees. It would be better to pay the card off as fast as possible, then treat the refund as a windfall when it comes. Paying the minimumis never a good idea.
A zero percent credit card would be good, but don't put anything else on it.
And save the money to pay it off.
Don't depend on the refund though, don't be surprised if you have to fight for it, so don't rely on this to pay the card off.

Thanks for this.

So essentially a credit card with 0% on purchases for 6 or 12 months is possible as long as the payment is made within the 0% offer period. I will also not use this card for anything else.

You are right in saying about the refund looking very quickly Elephant can charge £48 plus whatever they want and Aviva is £38 which seems to a one off payment. I'm sure I have cancelled before maybe a couple years ago now and I didnt get charged anything I just told them I sold the car. Nevermind something to be aware off so thanks.

Sorry Mikey could you also explain why making the minimum payment is not a good idea?

Thanks