NI reg car insurance

mick_vandick

Hi all
Looking to buy a 3 year old second hand car with an NI number plate. Does anyone know why my insurance is about £50 more for an NI plate car? There is an identical car with an English plate at the same place and when i switch it on the quote the price always drops

AdrianC

Definitely seems odd - perhaps they think it's on there as a cheap vanity plate, and there'll be more work in the event of a write-off to retain the plate. Or perhaps they just have actuarial stats to show that the kind of people who find cheap vanity plates cool are more likely to claim...

The good news is that it'll cost nothing to change to a normal GB (not just English) plate.
https://www.gov.uk/personalised-vehicle-registration-numbers/give-up-private-number

...or just buy the other car...

[Deleted User]

Surely it won't just be a cheap vanity plate if the car was actually registered in NI?

EssexExile

Buy the identical car.

AdrianC

Deleted_User wrote: »

Surely it won't just be a cheap vanity plate if the car was actually registered in NI?

<scratches head>

AdrianC wrote: »

perhaps they think it's on there as a cheap vanity plate

Robisere

Because it may have been used in NI? Suspicions of abused in NI?

Buy the UK mainland reg car.

mick_vandick

Thanks all. Done a bit more digging and it was ex mobility. This one has a couple more bits like park assist and mirrors that turn in plus the milage is a lot lower than the other. Same year though.
Makes no real sense, will see what else i can find out!

phill99

It's simple and it's based on risk factors. The locality registration of your car is a risk factor. On their database, it will probably show that there are an abnormally high number of claims on cars with NI plates. So it is seen as a risk factor, hence you pay more.


Get one registered in another part of the UK


(edited)

AdrianC

phill99 wrote: »

Get one registered in the UK

NI is the UK... Full name of "UK" gives a good clue: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

UK = E/S/W/NI
GB = E/S/W

Everything is registered at Swansea now, and plates don't need to be changed when a car moves from GB to NI or vice-versa. So there should be no difference between a car that's currently owned and used in <say> Oxfordshire but was new in Oxford (Ox99xxx plate), Scotland (Sx99xxx), Essex (Ex99xxx), or NI.

You probably are right about claims stats - which would probably tie to the type of owner who goes for NI plates as cheap vanity plates, rather than where the car was actually new.

phill99

AdrianC wrote: »

NI is the UK... Full name of "UK" gives a good clue: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

UK = E/S/W/NI
GB = E/S/W

Everything is registered at Swansea now, and plates don't need to be changed when a car moves from GB to NI or vice-versa. So there should be no difference between a car that's currently owned and used in <say> Oxfordshire but was new in Oxford (Ox99xxx plate), Scotland (Sx99xxx), Essex (Ex99xxx), or NI.

You probably are right about claims stats - which would probably tie to the type of owner who goes for NI plates as cheap vanity plates, rather than where the car was actually new.

Sorry, I meant one registered in a different part of the UK, not with an NI Number.

AdrianC

Umm, nobody mentioned NI numbers. My apologies for any mistaken inferences arising from my assumption the context would have delivered all necessary clarity.

For clarity, I was abbreviating thus:

UK = United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
GB = Great Britain
E = England (not Spain)
S = Scotland (not Sweden)
W = Wales
NI = Northern Ireland (not National Insurance)

All UK-registered vehicles (with GB and NI local identifiers in the registration format) are registered at the same registry - DVLA Swansea - and have been since DVLNI Coleraine was closed in July 2014.