Car Insurance Article Discussion

jmtalire

Hi

Im thinking of getting rid of my car, as its costing too much to run: petrol, mot, tax, breakdowns etc. Im thinking of getting off the road for a while and getting the train as its cheaper ie no tax, mot, services, breakdown costs etc, and i'll hopefully be saving around £1300 a year. Im hoping to get back on the road when ive saved up for a decent reliable car.

I was wondering how this would effect my insurance policy the next time i want to get a car (hopefully in around a year or 2). At the moment ive got around 8 years no claims bonus. My current insurer (Lloyds) said that insurance companies allow or around 2 years without driving, otherwise i lose my no claims and go back to a 'new driver' where i would lose any no claims and start over again paying huge amounts for a premium (which i think is unfair), and i dont want to lose the no claims which i have accumulated.

Have any of you, or do you know of anyone who has been off the road for a while then got back on, who have had problems with their insurance premiums? I only ask, as i am not great at decision making, and want to make sure i make the best decision.

Any advice / comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

stan5001

I had insurance for a year when I was 17, then had no car until I was 35 last year.

From what I gathered when speaking to people it varies amongst companies and two years would be the maximum. In the end I went with elephant on a ten month policy, more expensive although they promised a one year NCB.

Good luck I agree it's slightly unfair, especially if like me you'd rented a car a few times a year and kept in practice!

welshsue

Been looking around for car insurance as mine is due for renwal in May.
My current insurer has given me a quote only £50 more than last years policy BUT the compulsary excess has gone from £100 to £350!!!.
I have been searching around and most of the companies have these high excesses now which I just cannot afford. Does anyone know of any reasonable priced insurance policies where the comp excess is lower.

Unifees_2

My 17yr old teen son passed his driving test on Friday. I had been trawling various sites as I knew that any premium would be high but OMG some of them were just outrageous! When I contacted my (now old) insurance company, I have been with for over 10years, and spoke to them I just got angry at the attitude of "well its to be expected- he's a young boy"
I eventually got a qoute from Aviva which was the best by a long margin. My old insurance company has now lost not just my car insurance but by husbands.
It definately pays to shop around!

liddyloo

Hello,
Im also looking for advise from you lovely people please.
My car insurance renewal just came through and as everyone is finding out it has jumped up significantly, so i am shopping around. My problem is last year i had a policy cancelled by the insurer, not because of fraud but because i was struggling to pay on the day they wanted. I am sorting out my debts and the day they wanted paying on was a few days before i got paid so i didnt have money in the bank. I tried talking to them and changing the date but they wouldnt let me, i should add i was paying it just a few days late, but because of that they cancelled my policy. My problem now is im struggling to find anyone but my current insurers that will take me on since i had a policy cancelled. I was wondering if anyone knew of companies that do take people on in my situation?
Thank you in advance

Blue_Max

The 'pay as you drive' scheme from Coverbox is suggested at the 'Cheap Car Insurance' section of MSE.

"Coverbox. A 'pay as you drive' scheme from Coverbox has per mile charges that vary according to the time of the day or night when you drive". "For low mileage drivers these can cut costs, especially if you don’t drive at night time".

Coverbox at their website claim to be "The Drive less, Pay less Insurer".

I got a quote from Coverbox for someone who drive under 3000 miles a year and don't drive at night.
Their quote was 48% more than for a normal policy found using beatthatQuote.com

Misled by their claims, I wasted 15 minutes of time filling in the details. :mad:

Looks as if they are trying to sell their traker box gizzmo. :doh:

PS
Any suggestions for insuring a car that does under 3000 miles a year and is used for only 7 months a year?! :question:

captain-sensible_4

If anyone out there is searching for car insurance on comparison sites and anywhere near the top of the list of offers is Tesco's then try taking the quote further and you may discover a much bigger saving. I clicked on buy next to my Tesco quote and customised my requirements adding on legal cover etc. When i came to update the quote they asked me for my Tesco clubcard number (most people have one) and when i entered this my quote dropped from £380 to £307 so i quickly accepted. It does say you may be entitled to 'up to' 15 per cent off depending on the size of the premium which i presumed to be the highest ones only, so it was a nice suprise to get such a chunk off the price !! I seem to have got 20 per cent off. Well worth trying if Tesco's turns up on your comparison list as this extra discount is not accounted for in the comparisons. You do not have to commit to the quote until it gets right to the end when you make payment, so try it you never know. Hope this saves someone a little cash.:j

dseventy

My Story :

Currently insured with Swinton, last year paid £290 (9 years no claims, Business use).

Renewal came through for £380. No change in circs.

Did the usual comparison sites, cheapest I could find was £290-£310. I had resigned myself to paying this.

Noticed on the letter it said "challenge us" to beat a quote. Rang local swinton brach, could not get near it.

Rang the national swinton call centre, he matched my cheapest quote of £290. (Better than nothing and means I don't have to send off NCP proof etc). Hard a bit of hard sell on (breakdown, personal injuiry insurance, excess recovery, etc etc) but resisted.

After he takes payment he says I also qualify for £50 cashback, despite not being a new customer. (Its by redemption, a cheque palava but hey its £50) bring it down to £240!

Haggle people!

D70

challenger1979

Can anyone please give me some advice about getting insurance as im getting completely screwed at the moment and I'm being literally forced of the road. Last year my insurance for 3rd party fire and theft was £800 with legal and breakdown cover. This year my renewal quote was £1100 without legal or breakdown cover. I wasn't happy with that amount so i searched around using price comparison websites (the guide of this site) and using the biba website to directly get into contact with insurance brokers. My best quote from using the guide on this website was around £1500 from Asda that's to pay annually up front and i wasn't happy about that either. So i didn't take up either my renewal quote or the quotes from the comparison websites so as of the 18th april i am now uninsured and unable to drive my car.

Since then ive tried getting more quotes through the price comparison websites and again Asda was the cheapest at around £1500. On the of chance that it would be cheaper doing the quote on there website directly i entered my details again exactly the same as they were on the comparison website. This time though asda gave me a ridiculous quotation of in excess of £2300. Now considering my insurance premium was £800 last year that would mean i was facing an increase in my premiums of 87.5% (£1500) or 187.5% (£2300). Now i know everyone is facing an increase in premiums this year but i don't see how anyone in the insurance industry can justify my premiums going up by such a large percentage.

My deatils are as follows.

Male 32, Driving for 3.5 years, 3 years NCD, No claims on insurance ever, no criminal convictions, No illnesses, does under 4000 miles a year (can be proven with MOT), Currently a carer looking after disabled partner, Car Fiat Brava 80 sx 2000 plate.

Just a note on the car, when i bought it 2 years ago i think it was category 7 its now insurance category 15 (!!!!!! its a 1.2 and slow as hell). That doesn't matter anyway as ive been looking at quotes for Fiat pandas which are insurance category 1 and i only save a couple of hundred pound driving one of those instead of my brava. Which isnt really viable for me anyway as im a big man and i literally don't fit in the car as in 5Th gear ends up underneath my leg which is dangerous.

Please can anyone help me as the highlight of my week is literally driving to tescos to do the weekly shop and that's gone now.

dacouch

Try adding an additional driver eg parent or especially a partner as this often reduces the premium, make sure the person has a valid licence, you declare the correct information about them and they actually exist