Car insurance without UK driving history

TrixA

Aretnap wrote: »

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.

Yes, your final paragraph is correct. In NZ there is a system of no fault accident compensation, so car insurance just covers property damage, yours or a third party's. I hadn't quite twigged that car insurance here has to cover personal injury as well. I'm still not convinced it justifies a ten-fold difference in premiums. The other difference is that car insurance isn't compulsory in NZ, so everyone's premiums don't have to rise to cover the risk of insuring teenagers.

pinkteapot

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/motorinsurance/11466521/Drivers-pay-93-extra-for-car-insurance-due-to-whiplash-claims.html

Seethe at all the awful no-win no-fee lawyers you see advertised. Whiplash claims alone are adding £93 to your price.

Unfortunately, it's simply a fact that car insurance is very expensive in the UK, and it's a legal requirement so you have to get it if you want to drive.

It will get better once you have a few years NCD. Even better if you can move to a better-rated (insurance-wise) area but that's a bit extreme as a cost-saving measure.

InsideInsurance

pinkteapot wrote: »

Seethe at all the awful no-win no-fee lawyers you see advertised. Whiplash claims alone are adding £93 to your price.

No, it adds £93 to an average premium which the article states is £372. The OP is having quotes of £800 so whiplash is adding £200 to theirs.... the fact it is exactly 25% of the premium does seem a tad suspicious to me though

TrixA

I just wanted to update on this in case anyone else is ever in the same situation. We tried the usual price comparison websites, several companies directly and a couple of brokers and the only company that we could find that would recognise my 20 years NZ driving experience as being equivalent to British was Aviva. All the other companies wanted to treat me as someone who had just passed the licence test. We are still paying a lot more than we would like but hopefully that will start to come down once we have a few years NCB.