Car-free? Will I still need insurance?

Josephine66

Hi. Not sure I can afford to replace my old car and was considering trying a 'car-free' existence for a while.

1 - I drive a company-owned car most days of the week (business hours only) so would my car-free status affect their insurance?
2 - If I need to buy an old banger later in the year, will I be starting from scratch with no-claims discounts? If this is the case, would I need to keep an insurance policy running even though I had no car (if that's possible)?
3 - Do I need some kind of insurance to use a hire car once in a while, or is that rolled in to their daily hire charge?

It's a big old decision in a one-car household!!
Thanks

vaio

1. No, or at least very unlikely
2. NCB generally lasts 2 years
3. Yep, hire cars include insurance

KennethC

I think Vaio has summed that up nicely for you.

Aretnap

Re hire cars: All hire cars will come with a basic insurance policy which means you can drive them legally and cover the worst of the damage you might do to them, but they do often come with a very large excess (many hundreds of pounds) in the event of damage to the car. The hire company will try to get you to pay extra to waive the excess, but generally it will be a lot cheaper to buy excess insurance on the open market than to take the excess waiver from the higher company. See point 4 here, or Google "Car Hire Excess Insurance".