New driver insurance

aGenie_2

Hi, I've just passed driving test! Looking for advice.

I used confused.com to see what kind of deal I can get and it seems it's around £1500-£2000 range.

There seems to be difference in what they cover and I have no idea what I should go. Some seems to have £3000 for excess and I'm ignoring those.

According to confused.com differences are
Personal accident cover,
Breakdown cover,
Personal Effects Limit
EU cover/ greencard
Windscreen cover.

Should I try to get as much covered with more expensive insurance?
Or can I pay extra for some of those, with cheaper company giving those are options, or maybe some parts only with different company?

I'm totally confused about how insurance work and what I want covered etc.

Many thanks!

OriolaW

I'm interested in this also

forgotmyname

Basically .....

Comprehensive = you crash and its your fault they fix or payout for your car.

3rd party fire and theft.. You crash and its your fault.. Its tough luck you fix it yourself or buy another car.

Nilrem

One thing to try is different levels of excess (sometimes having a higher voluntary excess means a much lower quote).
Don't assume third party fire and theft is cheaper than comprehensive.

And try it on odd cars, you may find it much cheaper to get insurance on something like a Mondeo estate than a Corsa, or a Kia (whatever) might be cheaper than a Fiat whatever.

aGenie_2

Hi, thanks for reply. I been reading sites in general and I understand about comprehensive and 3rd party. What I don't understand is even between same comprehensive cover there seems to be difference of following:

Personal accident cover,
Breakdown cover,
Personal Effects Limit
EU cover/ greencard
Windscreen cover.

I'm not sure what's important or expect to have. I guess norm of how people this about those options.

I've decided on suzuki swift sport and oddly on confused.com quote 2 days ago is about £200 cheaper than quote today. Is it normal for price to fluxuate?

FreddieFrugal

aGenie wrote: »

Personal accident cover,
Breakdown cover,
Personal Effects Limit
EU cover/ greencard
Windscreen cover.

Personal accident/injury covers major injury i.e. loss of limb

Breakdown varies - some may just be basic national cover, others may include homestart - so if car won't start on drive or breaks down on your street. Onward travel, so they'll take your car to where you were going and get it fixed up there. Cover for having to stay in a hotel or whatnot. You may find it cheaper to get a level of cover you think is suitable from AA or similar yourself.

Personnel effects limit is how much they'll cover for items damaged or stolen from your car

EU cover, obviously cover for driving abroad - between 30 and 90 days usually

Windscreen cover - so repair of a chip - autoglass - would be about a £10 as insurance covers it, doesn't effect no claims. replacement £75 ish depending on policy. Would be much more to pay for these yourself.

aGenie wrote: »

I'm not sure what's important or expect to have. I guess norm of how people this about those options.

If it's your first year insuring you want the cheapest policy you can get just to build up no claims on - but obviously you need a reasonable level of cover incase anything does go wrong.

Personal injury - no
Breakdown cover - very much depends on the kind of driving you're going to be doing - but personally I would either include it, or look for cheaper quote from breakdown providers direct
Personnel effects limit - will you be keeping expensive things in the car? regularly carrying diamonds in the glove box? if not then standard amount will do £50 - £100
EU cover - driving abroad in first year? I wouldn't and if you had to you could ring up and add the trip on if need be, otherwise it's an unnecessary expense - unless included as standard on an otherwise cheap policy.
Windscreen cover - essential, and most include this as standard

aGenie wrote: »

Is it normal for price to fluxuate?

Yes

aGenie wrote: »

I used confused.com to see what kind of deal I can get and it seems it's around £1500-£2000 range.

That's reasonable sort of price. My first year on full licence was cheaper, about £750 - but that was with 2 years no claims. (1 year from provisional, then 1/2 year provisional and 1/2 year full - from when I passed my test)

If you're unsure about how to compare cover from different providers defaqto . com offers a comparison tool between different providers with a star rating to show the level of cover

dogshome

Suzuki Swift Sport ! ?
This is a Hot Hatch, not as Hot as some, but still Hot

I'm not demeaning your achievement getting a full Driving Licence which takes some effort these days, but for your own safety and the cost of insurance, you would be better driving with something small and boring with 1.1 litre motor for a couple of years

FreddieFrugal

dogshome wrote: »

for your own safety and the cost of insurance, you would be better driving with something small and boring with 1.1 litre motor for a couple of years

Agree. Although I disagree that the car has to be 'boring' just because it has a smaller engine. My first car was a Fiesta 1.25 and it was a lot of fun to drive.

But getting a 1.6 petrol engine as your first car in my opinion is unnecessary as not only will it cost more to insure but it costs more to tax and fuel as well.

aGenie_2

Hey IanRi, thanks for detailed reply. I get good idea of what to look for now. I had provisional for about 5 years, does that count as no claims? I thought one had to be driving with insurance to have it count as no claims?

Far as I understand Suzuki Swift Sport is similar to mini cooper despite sport in it's name. People seems to call it warm hatchback. Also for safety it's super good with 7 air bags and 5 safety rating

If you see red swift on a14 tomorrow I'll be me! (Probably all sweaty from of not being on a road much)

FreddieFrugal

aGenie wrote: »

Hey IanRi, thanks for detailed reply. I get good idea of what to look for now. I had provisional for about 5 years, does that count as no claims? I thought one had to be driving with insurance to have it count as no claims?

You don't need to have been 'driving' per se, but you do need to have held a policy in your own name to get no claims. I had a policy on the car I was practising in which was my own, because putting me on Dad's car insurance would have cost the same as we paid for car + insurance for myself. So I built up some no claims before i'd passed making insurance much cheaper. This year it was about £330 for my insurance with 3 years no claims. Passed my test Jan 2012. So it will go down quick as long as you shop around...and don't crash.

aGenie wrote: »

(Probably all sweaty from of not being on a road much)

Probably sweaty from being in a 'warm' hatch :cool:

Prothet_of_Doom

Don't assume a low insurance group = lower quote.

Try comparing an 85 BHP honda Jazz to a 50 bhp 1.0 Corsa and see which is cheaper.

Statistically young people don't crash honda Jazz's

Statistically they crash Corsa's.