Car insurance cancellation?

londonTiger

Whats' teh deal with car insurance? Are you fixed down for the whole year?

What if you sell your car after 6 months? Do you still have to pay insurance for it?

What about buying a second hand car for the first time.

Can you get insurance cover there and then? So when you drive the vehicle home you have cover. Or do you have to buy the vehicle, get insuranced and wait the following day to drive it home (when the insurance cover kicks in).

What if you want to get cover on the day of purchasing, say you get insured on the vehicle, BEFORE buying it, and then you buy the vehicle the next day and drive it home.

If so what happens if the sale falls though, and you paid for insurance.. Then you don't intend to drive any more, do you have to carry on paying for the insurance for the next 12 months?

londonTiger

I've checked numerous insurance companies and admiral always comes up on top, so more than likely I will go with admiral.

I'm a 27 y/o male.

So assume I'm talking about admiral on my above questions.

forgotmyname

You get cover before you drive it. Whether your are buying it or have bought it. Must be insured before you drive it.

You insure it so you can test drive it legally, Then fail to buy it you cancel the policy. Pay the cancellation fee and move on.

Cheap cover may not be that cheap when it comes to cancellation charges. As a few have found out recently.

People take out cover find someone cheaper than cancel the 1st policy thinking its not started yet so they are saving then get hit with a £50 fee. Which may or may not be a saving.

You need to ask about cancellation charges.

londonTiger

Ok thanks, that helps a lot.

I'm going to buy from a second hand dealer rather than private.

Do dealers have test drive insurance usually? I'm going to ring em tomorrow and ask obviously.

I want to test drive it, but I really don't want to get insurance for it. That's just crazy, getting insurance for a car that you don't even know if you want to buy or not.

Indout96

All dealers have cover so you can test drive the car, this is not the case with private sellers so they will usually take you out for a spin but not let you drive.
If you buy the vehicle and it needs tax then the dealer will normally arrange this for you.
You then insure the car, this only takes 5 mins and you are covered from that moment, lots of online companies let you print out your own certificate now as well.

thenudeone

If it's a low value car and you have a partner / friend / associate who has insurance with "Driving Other Cars" cover, they could drive it home for you straight away without you having to buy insurance beforehand (Which is a right faff and expensive if you decide not to go ahead with the sale). You can't use your DOC cover because you are now the owner of it. Just check that their policy doesn't require the vehicle to have its own policy in place for DOC cover to work (some do, some don't).

AlexisV

If you change your car, your insurer will transfer the policy it across to another vehicle, for an admin fee.

Obviously the price might go up anyway if the new car is more of a risk.

Minted247

Simple. You get a pro-rata refund minus an admin fee (from experience it's around £15).

londonTiger

Alright thanks



I'm looking through some of the details on the DVLA website, after I test drive and like the vehicle I will get an actualHPI report. But I was just wondering what some of these fields mean.

Date of liability
Export marker
Vehicle status
Vehicle type approval

Anyone care to share?

colino

The car (Golf?) was due to get taxed at the end of September last year;
its not been exported;
its untaxed;
its type approved and its got less than 9 seats.
But why would a 10 year old, run of the mill car be sitting around for 5+ months untaxed?

londonTiger

the vehicle is this.
http://www4.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201143424309469/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-to/2000/price-from/1000/engine-size-cars/1-4l_to_1-6l/fuel-type/petrol/model/golf/make/volkswagen/radius/10/page/2/postcode/e13bg?logcode=p

I'm not sure if it's MOT'd to 2012 or it's been MOT'd in 2012.

Looks like it could be an ex-write off or recovered vehicle.. Looked so sweet though.. SHould I bother viewing it, or pass?

btw excellent guess, how did you know it was a golf?