Car insurance Voluntary Excess

1940sGal · 12 July 2013 at 7:30PM

I'm getting some quotes from various sites and have a question regarding excess. I know the higher excess you pay the lower your premium but what I don't understand is how the excess is broken down.

The various sites are telling me that it breaks down as:

Voluntary £500
Compulsory £175

So, does that mean I would have to pay the £500 + £175 or that I'm only obliged to pay £175 but can opt to pay the full £500?

Quentin · 12 July 2013 at 8:26PM

It means there is a compulsory excess to pay and if you wish to take a voluntary one then you can. The figure being suggested is for illustration only and if you want a different voluntary excess then you will need to specify it.

Once set up, then you would pay the total of both excesses in a claim.

1940sGal · 12 July 2013 at 8:38PM

Quentin wrote: »

It means there is a compulsory excess to pay and if you wish to take a voluntary one then you can. The figure being suggested is for illustration only and if you want a different voluntary excess then you will need to specify it.

Once set up, then you would pay the total of both excesses in a claim.

Thank you Quentin, that's what I thought so I brought it down to something more affordable. It actually made no difference either way.