Car insurance without UK driving history

TrixA

My partner and I relocated to the UK a few years ago - he is British and I'm a New Zealander.

We haven't needed a car up to now as we live in London but we're now looking to buy one - we've been looking at small secondhand cars in the £3000-£5000 range. I've been totally shocked by the car insurance quotes we've been getting, the lowest is around £800 and the highest over £2000! This is from using the aggregator sites plus contacting some companies directly.

Between us we have over 50 years of driving experience and neither of us can remember the last time we made a claim. I think the main reason we've been getting such high quotes is that we've been living abroad and have no UK claims bonus. Also, although I've exchanged my NZ driving licence for a full UK licence, the system treats me as a foreign and/or new driver - one of the insurance companies explained that their system does not distinguish between different countries of origin. The other issue that might be affecting the quote seems to be that we live in East London and the car would be parked on the street.

Any thoughts on how to get a more palatable quote?

Quentin

Your £800 quote with nil NCD looks a good price.

Snatch it up!

You can see what a local broker (not swinton) can do to get your experience recognised.

InsideInsurance

A few insurers ask how long have you held A license rather than THIS license so could help with the length of license but you're still going to be hindered by only being resident in the UK for a few years, having no NCD which can represent a 70% discount and living in East London.

On the NCD front assuming you are claim free then many insurers will be giving an introductory discount automatically - a few who like brokers here will say to call them to see if they can negotiate such a discount but in my experience with several direct insurers they do so automatically.

All in all its not a bad price considering your situation

TrixA

Quentin wrote: »

Your £800 quote with nil NCD looks a good price.

Snatch it up!

.

While it may be the cheapest we'll find I could never bring myself to describe £800 to insure a £3000 car for one year as a 'good price'. In New Zealand I used to pay the equivalent of about £90 in very comparable circumstances. The insurance companies here must be making an absolute killing.

TrixA

InsideInsurance wrote: »

A few insurers ask how long have you held A license rather than THIS license so could help with the length of license but you're still going to be hindered by only being resident in the UK for a few years, having no NCD which can represent a 70% discount and living in East London.

On the NCD front assuming you are claim free then many insurers will be giving an introductory discount automatically - a few who like brokers here will say to call them to see if they can negotiate such a discount but in my experience with several direct insurers they do so automatically.

All in all its not a bad price considering your situation

Sorry to ask a stupid question, but how does one go about finding a broker?

Quentin

Google insurance brokers in ( insert your locale) or get recommended down the pub

InsideInsurance

TrixA wrote: »

While it may be the cheapest we'll find I could never bring myself to describe £800 to insure a £3000 car for one year as a 'good price'. In New Zealand I used to pay the equivalent of about £90 in very comparable circumstances. The insurance companies here must be making an absolute killing.

If memory serves me right though in NZ third party bodily injury isnt covered by your personal motor insurance but by the Accident Compensation Corporation and so you arent comparing apples and apples.

I was just looking at the large loss movement report yesterday and my current client has dozens of cases where injury alone is accounting for over £10m on each one.

As to making large profits, most Motor insurers in the UK will barely be breaking even before you consider investment income. Motor however does give you a customer base into which you can sell the more profitable lines of business.

OnanTheBarbarian

InsideInsurance wrote: »

As to making large profits, most Motor insurers in the UK will barely be breaking even before you consider investment income. Motor however does give you a customer base into which you can sell the more profitable lines of business.

The insurers are doing alright, profits are doing rather spectacular for some, cough Direct Line, cough Admiral to mention just a few.

The insurance industry however is like a stuck record of gloom and scaremongering about how bad their lot in life is and how fraud is epidemic and whiplash beyond control, yet being at the epicenter of the storm they keep warning everybody about. Trouble is, it must all be true as some lazy journalists copied & pasted the press release from the insurer or ABI and then the burnt tops read it and believe it.

I do doft my cap to them though, their tactics are working and premium increases that people are coming to expect will earn the insurers even greater profits. There are very few insurers with a COR above 100% now.

InsideInsurance

Yup, COR is down to 98.5% now, so a massive 1.5% profit margin which is exceptionally thin compared to most other companies plus many are pointing to fairly significant capital releases (and more to follow with SII) that is helping reduce it.

2 years earlier it was 104.5% so an underwriting loss (and it was worse the year before). As a cyclical market that goes between thin profits and notable losses you cant really point at the few points in the market where conditions are favourable and start saying how much profit they all make.

OnanTheBarbarian

InsideInsurance wrote: »

As a cyclical market that goes between thin profits and notable losses you cant really point at the few points in the market where conditions are favourable and start saying how much profit they all make.

Yes I can

Aretnap

TrixA wrote: »

While it may be the cheapest we'll find I could never bring myself to describe £800 to insure a £3000 car for one year as a 'good price'. In New Zealand I used to pay the equivalent of about £90 in very comparable circumstances. The insurance companies here must be making an absolute killing.

Car insurance in the UK is a completely different beast to insurance in New Zealand. In the UK insurance has to cover liabilities to third parties, including hefty payments for personal injuries, and it's these that make up the bulk of the cost. The insurer isn't charging you £800 because they're worried about having to replace a £3000 car - they're charging £800 because they're worried about having to pay out £23 million should you cause an accident which leaves someone paralysed.

In New Zealand, AIUI, there is no third party element to car insurance, and insurance only covers damage to the car itself, so obviously it's much cheaper. Compensation to victims of road accidents is funded by a separate levy on fuel which has n equivalent in the UK (well we do have a tax on petrol, but there's no pretence that it's anything other than a tax).

Added - Actually on Googling I see it's not quite true to say that there's no third party cover on car insurance in NZ. There is, but it only covers damage to property that you might cause - not injuries that you might cause. Injuries are by far the more expensive type of claim. The £23 million insurance claim I linked to above could not happen in NZ.