How to decide re 3rd party v comp and amount of voluntary excess on car insurance?

kuepper

My car is probably in its last year or 2 and likely only worth about £650. I only do about 2000 miles pa. Is there much point in keeping comprehensive policy and in either case what amount of excess should I bother with ?

molerat

Check the price offered for the different scenarios.  TP is often more expensive than FC, the value of your car is only a very small part of a possible claim, and as you increase the excess beyond a certain point the premium does not decrease and may actually increase.

MovingForwards

TP and TPO are no longer the budget policies they used to be.

I have comp on all my runabouts and have the lowest compulsory excess possible, £100 usually. I run them til they are scrapped and o my scrap them when no long viable to keep going.

anniecave

kuepper said:

My car is probably in its last year or 2 and likely only worth about £650. I only do about 2000 miles pa. Is there much point in keeping comprehensive policy and in either case what amount of excess should I bother with ?

Be aware also that some insurers have a "policy ends" clause in the event of a total loss accident payout. 

So hypothetically your car might be worth £650, your excess maybe £150 so you'd only get back £400 if you did claim, but if there's a total loss policy ends clause, this would also mean your policy would immediately end and you'd have to buy a brand new policy for your next car (whether it's on day 1 of your policy, or day 365 of your policy). 

jimbo6977

Under a comp policy, the slightest tap and your car will be written off, and you might not like that.
I would go for TPFT - as stated above TPO is not offered by many mainstream insurers so tends to be more expensive than TPFT.