Can only afford insurance on crap cars. Solutions on reducing? Memberships?

teabelly

The accident rate for London is many times higher than other places. It's not just whether it will be stolen it's whether some bone head will crash into you in the first place.

Have you checked out vans/pick ups as an alternative to cars?

If you talk to a specialist broker they may be able to suggest ways to reduce the premium including making sure tracker is fitted, named driver (anyone sensible that you may ever want to allow drive the vehicle) and how you specify your self employed job.

I think Adrian Flux offer a 25% discount if you do certain advanced driver training. They generally specialise in more interesting cars.

Lit_Up

Stooby2 wrote: »

Get some quotes on Ford Ka's or Nissan Micras - the car the 17 year old boy racers don't drive and don't get stolen to be broken for spares. Been looking at these for my 17 yr old daughter and they seem to be a lot cheaper on the insurance.

Got *liability only* quote of £1600(!) for a 1999 micra parked on a London street. However when I run the quote as living in Frinton, Essex, parked on a drive, then the quote diminishes by over a grand.

From this you might think "oh, well risk of car theft in London". However, did you notice that I selected liability only? So theft of the vehicle is irrelevant.

The high cost of insurance has nothing to do with my inexperience, no claims, OR the risk of car theft. They are just charging a premium for London drivers because they can.

This proves that car insurance is a con.

Bantex_2

Lit_Up wrote: »

Got *liability only* quote of £1600(!) for a 1999 micra parked on a London street. However when I run the quote as living in Frinton, Essex, parked on a drive, then the quote diminishes by over a grand.

From this you might think "oh, well risk of car theft in London". However, did you notice that I selected liability only? So theft of the vehicle is irrelevant.

The high cost of insurance has nothing to do with my inexperience, no claims, OR the risk of car theft. They are just charging a premium for London drivers because they can.

This proves that car insurance is a con.

Are you saying you want and can afford a 30 grand car, but cannot afford a couple of thousand to insure it?

dacouch

Lit_Up wrote: »

Got *liability only* quote of £1600(!) for a 1999 micra parked on a London street. However when I run the quote as living in Frinton, Essex, parked on a drive, then the quote diminishes by over a grand.

From this you might think "oh, well risk of car theft in London". However, did you notice that I selected liability only? So theft of the vehicle is irrelevant.

The high cost of insurance has nothing to do with my inexperience, no claims, OR the risk of car theft. They are just charging a premium for London drivers because they can.

This proves that car insurance is a con.

That will because the theft portion of a premium especially on a 1999 Micra is only a small part of the premium. The majority of the premium goes towards covering damage you could do to other drivers.

There's a high density of traffic in London, bad driving, lots of claims companies and wages are high so loss of earnings claims are higher.

If you throw in that only a tiny percentage of Insurers actually offer Third Party Only cover due to them not wanting this type of business / customer so you're restricting your market it explains why a liability only quote is so high

teabelly

Fully comp is always the way to go.

Lit_Up

teabelly wrote: »

The accident rate for London is many times higher than other places. It's not just whether it will be stolen it's whether some bone head will crash into you in the first place.

Have you checked out vans/pick ups as an alternative to cars?

If you talk to a specialist broker they may be able to suggest ways to reduce the premium including making sure tracker is fitted, named driver (anyone sensible that you may ever want to allow drive the vehicle) and how you specify your self employed job.

I think Adrian Flux offer a 25% discount if you do certain advanced driver training. They generally specialise in more interesting cars.

If someone crashes into me, doesn't the other person's insurance pay for it? Or is that the whole point - the insurance industry protecting their friends - a kind of price-fixing?

I think I saw a van, but it was more expensive than a basic car, presumably because it's a commercial vehicle. Also not sure if an insurer would allow me to insure a commercial vehicle on a "social and leisure" usage basis.

If I name a driver on my policy, and then make a claim, does that affect the other person's no claims bonus or premium? Because I don't want to affect my friends

lincroft1710

Lit_Up wrote: »

If someone crashes into me, doesn't the other person's insurance pay for it?

Not if it happens while you Micra is parked overnight in the street and the offending driver doesn't stop.

I think I saw a van, but it was more expensive than a basic car, presumably because it's a commercial vehicle. Also not sure if an insurer would allow me to insure a commercial vehicle on a "social and leisure" usage basis.

It's not so common nowadays, but from the 1950s to the 1980s plenty of small vans were used on a non business basis. Many family members (including myself) had vans and for many including an uncle, their first vehicle was a van

If I name a driver on my policy, and then make a claim, does that affect the other person's no claims bonus or premium? Because I don't want to affect my friends

No, as they weren't the driver

As regards Frinton, your main problem would be avoiding the mobility scooters.

Lit_Up

Bantex wrote: »

Are you saying you want and can afford a 30 grand car, but cannot afford a couple of thousand to insure it?

Do you only buy new cars?

Nodding_Donkey

Lit_Up wrote: »

I can afford a nice car befitting my age and demographic

Clearly not if you can't afford the running costs.

Geodark

Fully comp is the way to go, as others have said, but I am not sure if insurance group is the only factor in prices. I had an MGF 1.8vvc insurance group 30 which cost less to insure than a 1.6 zafira club inusrance group 13! And this wasnt using classic insurance and was both with the same insurance company! the MGF was about £100 a year less than the zaffy!