Insure car only for parts of year?

onthego

Thanks for the replies.
I have deleted a lot of personal info as things have moved on now.

ThinkingOutLoud_2

So the law requires you car to be taxed and insured UNLESS your complete a SORN declaring it off the road and NOT to be driven.

While you could repeatedly do this and as you will see, if you search short term car insurance , get policies. for brief periods.

BUT The question is whether you would really save money ( certainly won't save time).

Try out the costs for this and compare to putting your car off the road - but insured in the cheapest policy you can find - maybe where low mileage and being garages are rewarded.

onthego

Thanks for the replies.
I have deleted a lot of personal info as things have moved on now.

ThinkingOutLoud_2

OK - good luck.

You will need this - https://www.gov.uk/make-a-sorn

Also don't forget if you are not insuring the car at all while off road ... if it is stolen, damaged or catches fire...you have no cover.

twhitehousescat

onthego wrote: »

Thanks. It's looking cheaper to get 4 month-long blocks than 12 months, plus there's the tax saving too, and no risk of me burning unnecessary petrol having fun. But it would be even better if I could find someone that would let me suspend my policy, basically to spread my 12 months worth of insurance over 2 years.

who is the insurance company that insures n 4 mth blocks ? , many 1000s of motorhome and bikers would like to know?

ThinkingOutLoud_2

twhitehousescat wrote: »

who is the insurance company that insures n 4 mth blocks ? , many 1000s of motorhome and bikers would like to know?

Here is one example.
http://www.bobatoo.co.uk/car-insurance/products/temporary-car-insurance/

BUT remember you have to SORN and won't have cover for the vehicle / bike during the off road periods.

The OP has decided that will work for him, but obviously carries risks. I guess a motor home or bike may be worth more; so again you may have more to lose if the worst happened.

Some of the temporary insurers seem to have limits on the number of policies per year or in the max duration; so you may need to hunt around.

Morph4610

onthego. There is a new insurer cuvva that tries to cater for low mileage users. They charge what they call a basic subscription (monthly I think) then on a per mile basis. Might be worth checking out. Google them

Aretnap

ThinkingOutLoud wrote: »

Also don't forget if you are not insuring the car at all while off road ... if it is stolen, damaged or catches fire...you have no cover.

If this is a worry you might want to consider a fire and theft only policy for the times when it's garaged - Google "laid up car insurance". It's usually considerably cheaper than a "normal" car insurance policy because it doesn't cover anything to do with road accidents. For the same reason it doesn't count as car insurance for the purposes of the Road Traffic Act - so the car still has to be kept off-road and SORNed if it's only covered by such a policy.

Of course this is only really necessary if the car has significant value - if it's an easily replaced old banger you're probably better off just taking the small risk of it being stolen or catching fire.

Added - another option is to look for a 12 month policy with a low cancellation fee - then just cancel it after 5 months. This will involve checking the small print of a few policies to find out the cancellation terms - the cheapest overall probably won't be the one with the lowest headline rates, as many "cheaper" insurers get the headline rate down by adding high fees to make a change or cancel. Also, if you do go down this route try not to have any accidents, because you won't generally get any refund at all on your premium if you cancel after making a claim.

Nasqueron

Is it financially viable to have the car insured at home (or even SORN and offroad) and use either a hire car or one of those PAYG type car hire companies

Norman_Castle

Presumably you need a smart phone and an app to use this https://cuvva.com/ . Would be interested to hear how this compared to other insurers for lower mileage drivers.

For this to match my current insurance I could only drive for 3 hours per week.

mattk_180

When you say it's cheaper to get a 4 month temporary insurance, are you taking into account any refunds you would receive back after cancelling the annual policy (less cancellation fees)?


In my experience temporary policies always end up being more expensive when you compare them against annual premiums (12x 1 month policies vs. 1 x 12 month policies), so I'd be surprised if you have considered the above and found it to still be cheaper.