Car Insurance dilemma - advice needed please.....

Madraykin

Hello,

I recently (about a month ago) renewed my car insurance and moved to a new company that had a very good quote - even as I was going fully comp for the first time. Since then, however, my car has had a few problems, the upshot of which is I need to buy a new car. Only problem is all the cars I look at see my insurance shooting up by £150 to £200.

What is the policy here - if I change my car I assume I'm still bound to the 12 month contract with my insurance company???

Is it just a case of shopping around and finding a newer car that doesn't change my premium too much? I've found you have to be so specific. I was looking at a Renault Clio (both exactly the same model) and the 1997 R reg was £50 cheaper than the 1998 R reg.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Mads
xxxxxxx

ArsenalFC

Even if you get the exact same car as your last, insurer normally charge you a little extra like £20 for admin fee. You just transfer your policy over to the new car.

Madraykin

The £20 admin fee is additional to the figures I've been given......

I've just looked at cancelling my insurance policy with my current company, and they state that they will calculate what I owe based on 'short term cover' current rates.

Can anyone explain this and how much it's likely to be?

Mads
xxxxx

fatboyonadiet

Whenever I've changed cars, never had an admin fee (or at least not been told about it), other option is to cancel the policy and take out a new one, obviously only do this if it works out cheaper, if it does tell you company and they may lower the price. Welcome to MSE too!!!

Madraykin

Thanks for the welcome!!!

I'm looking at cancelling as an option at the moment. Another question I'd like to ask is how much of a difference it makes if I'm classed as a student or in full-time employment. I never know where to put myself. I'm 'officially' a full-time PhD student, but I work 28 hours a week to support myself. My Mother is always going on about how I should class myself as employed, but I argue that it would be fraudulent and I could end up in trouble. With 28 hours a week, could I legitimately class myself as primarily employed rather than primarily student???

fatboyonadiet

Not sure, maybe try getting a quote with and without, but you might be better saying you work full-time me thinks. Try www.confused.com and www.moneysupermarket.com for quotes, depending on how much time you have ring the cheapest 2 or 4 that come out, they will probably quote cheaper as they won't be including commission if you go direct. HTH.

Madraykin

Thanks,

I'll give them a go.

I use confused.com a lot, have just had a bit of a strange experience however as I rang my current insurer to ask for a quote for my potential new car and was quoted £580 (currently paying £371), then I did a confused.com search to try and find cheaper prices and my company quoted me £440!!!!

I'm a humanities girl! The numbers are driving me insane!!!

fatboyonadiet

Depending on who they quote maybe check some of the bigger companies that they don't search, also are you registered with a referral site? Some pay cashback, like GreasyPalm, etc. I have numbers too and I work with databases and was a scientist!

scheming_gypsy

Madraykin wrote:

Thanks,

I'll give them a go.

I use confused.com a lot, have just had a bit of a strange experience however as I rang my current insurer to ask for a quote for my potential new car and was quoted £580 (currently paying £371), then I did a confused.com search to try and find cheaper prices and my company quoted me £440!!!!

I'm a humanities girl! The numbers are driving me insane!!!

tell me about it, confused.com quoted me about £520 with Admiral (my current insurers) so i tried Elephant (part of Admiral) and they came out about £420. Elephant followed it up with a call but it turned out i'd hit 2 for 2 years no claims but cos it's 01 02 03 etc it put 20 years in and i didn't notice. So their quote was really about £500. They asked what my nearest quote was and i told them Admiral, cos they're the same company she ran the checks through on the Admiral quoting package and said they could do me a 10 month accelerator for £410, i asked if they could do it for £400 so she said she can do £391 (still with me?). So i paid for it. 2 days ago i got the policy through and the renewal form through (from Admiral) for next year and the price on the renewal form? £597.
go figure.

jjames_3

The renewal figure is rarely competitive in my experience. Chopping and changing, and taking the rpoints/quidco commission from the insurer has always been much cheaper for me. Bear in mind that the commission for new business can run to £50 on its own.

Bossyboots

Madraykin wrote:

Thanks for the welcome!!!

I'm looking at cancelling as an option at the moment. Another question I'd like to ask is how much of a difference it makes if I'm classed as a student or in full-time employment. I never know where to put myself. I'm 'officially' a full-time PhD student, but I work 28 hours a week to support myself. My Mother is always going on about how I should class myself as employed, but I argue that it would be fraudulent and I could end up in trouble. With 28 hours a week, could I legitimately class myself as primarily employed rather than primarily student???

My son starts his PHD this year and our understanding is that you are no longer considered a student.