Car Insurance Article Discussion

klint

Isn't it annoying that every company has a different "maximum" no claims bonus - I should have 13 year NCB at my renewal but my current insurer (Privilege Insurance) only recognises up to 5 years (that's their maximum) so I will have "lost" 7 years just because I chose the wrong insurance company.

raskazz

klint wrote: »

Isn't it annoying that every company has a different "maximum" no claims bonus - I should have 13 year NCB at my renewal but my current insurer (Privilege Insurance) only recognises up to 5 years (that's their maximum) so I will have "lost" 7 years just because I chose the wrong insurance company.

Just tell Privilege to issue a letter confirming your total NCD. It should be fairly simple for them to check how many years you had at inception and how many years you have accrued to add to that amount.

No insurer will use 13 years to rate their premium anyway, the maximum is usually 5 but some insurers will take 6,7,8 or 9 as maximum.

dimmples88

sry think im posting this i wrong place but dont know where to place it.i have a 17yr old who just bought a car but can not get insuarance companyies to take payments by direct bebit because of his age does any1 know of any companies thar might let him

blush2783_2

Our car insurance is up for renewal this month and got sent a renewal notice for a mad amount of money considering I have never made a claim in all the 17 years I've been driving. I went onto moneysupermarket.com and found that the quotes on there were £300 cheaper for the same level of cover. I phoned up our current insurers and explained and questioned what on earth they were thinking and they immediately knocked off £200!!!!!Am still not going to reinsure with them as firstly its still cheaper elsewhere and secondly I am annoyed that their letter to me telling me how they have searched out the best deal for me was just total rubbish. Its fine for people with access and the knowledge how to use comparrison sites but what about the more vunerable and elderly who don't have the ability or knowhow. They are just being ripped off.

:mad:

laranottingham

has anyone tried the swiftcover car insurance money back guarantee if you find a cheaper policy? it obviousl has to be a like for like policy, but it doesn't seem that hard to find a cheaper quote. just deciding whether worth insuring with swiftcover and then claiming back money afterwards

BigE_3

Just thought I would share some experiance.

My other half bought her first car the other week and we got it insured other day. We ended up with a company called Bell Direct, which I think are part of the amdiral group.

Anyway, the car is only worth £1000 so, we put her cover as TPFT, with a set excess of £550. Now, when switching to Comp cover, the insurance was £198 LESS. So we switched to Comp ( Glass cover too - Bonus ) and whacked her police excess up to £1020. ( as for a car worth £1k, she was never going to claim for her own car. This reduces her premium by a further £150.

We then removed Legal cover, and C/C Option, dropping it another £75. ( any non fault incidents can be dealt with on a tp bases anyway )

So that's a drop of £423 from an original quote of £798 TPFT - to £375 Comp. As if that wasn't good enough. Bell also offer a DOC ( driving other cars ) extension. for £35 you can drive anyone's car, regardless of YOUR age, with the owners permission.

Which is a bonus, as I drive a 150bhp 1900cc GT TDI Volkswagen golf, so to insure her as a second driver against me not only sky rocketed the premium. It'd effect me, if she ever had a bump in my more expensive car.

So she can share the driving with me on longer trips in my car. And insure her own first run around car for £410.

Brilliant. Give them a go, if you're a young driver.

klint

BigE wrote: »

whacked her excess up to £1020. ( as for a car worth £1k, she was never going to claim for her own car.

Fine, as long as you can afford to pay £1020 if your wife damages someone else's car. To me such a large excess seems to defeat the purpose of having insurance in the first place, regardless of the value of her own car.

BigE wrote: »

As if that wasn't good enough. Bell also offer a DOC ( driving other cars ) extension. for £35 you can drive anyone's car, regardless of YOUR age, with the owners permission.

I thought most full comp policies cover driving other cars at no extra cost, at least that's my experience, maybe it's age-related.

BigE wrote: »

So she can share the driving with me on longer trips in my car.

But this cover is third-party only, isn't it?

raskazz

klint wrote: »

Fine, as long as you can afford to pay £1020 if your wife damages someone else's car. To me such a large excess seems to defeat the purpose of having insurance in the first place, regardless of the value of her own car.

The excess only applies to loss or damage of the policyholder's own car. It is incredibly rare to find policies that require an excess to be paid for liability to third-parties.

Snapelover

Can anyone tell me if it is still possible to take out a policy which allows you to claim back the cost of the excess on a car insurance policy?

These used to cost about £30 per year and were a good idea if you had a large excess on your car insurance.

I have done a search but cannot find anything.

klint

raskazz wrote: »

The excess only applies to loss or damage of the policyholder's own car. It is incredibly rare to find policies that require an excess to be paid for liability to third-parties.

Thanks, I never realised that was the case. I wrongly thought if you had an accident and you were at fault, your insurance would pay the third party the damages minus your excess, and the third party had to claim your excess directly from you. I don't know how I had come to such a conclusion. I guess it's my lack of experience with making insurance claims (in the past 20 years, I've given thousands and thousands of pounds to insurance companies and received zilch from them.)