Choosing Cheap Car Insurance

[Deleted User]

Can get very cheap insurance on the comparison sites but wondering really how good these companies can be.  Every year I check and every year completely new companies and always cheap.  What do you all do?  Buy the cheapest of the cheap or buy from the cheapest of the insurance companies that you've heard of?  I'm currently with SAGA and they've offered me a renewal at £380 a year which is a £ cheaper than last year.  Can get £272 with 1st Central Legal but are these companies really any good if you have an accident?  According to the 1 star reviews on Trust Pilot the glowing 5 stars are paid for reviews.  None of the companies really seem to meet my main requirements though - if I have an accident I need a guaranteed courtesy car - not one 'if available'.  
Just noticed as well that SAGA are charging a £25.00 renewal fee as well which seems cheeky.  

AdrianC

If you can't get a courtesy car, and need one... hire one, and make sure you keep the invoice. Add it to the claim.

Yes, there's some shonky insurers out there. But bear in mind most people won't ever have any interaction with their insurer unless and until they have a claim. And many of them will be unhappy at their insurer for simply not agreeing they were innocent of blame...

If you really are absolutely and demonstrably innocent of blame, then simply claim directly off the other party's insurer.

CoastingHatbox

I think it is a good question to ask, and I don't really know the answer.

My wife was rear ended a couple of years ago and had to see a physio a few times to help deal with the causes of resultant chronic back pain. We looked at doing a claim through the insurers for the phsyio, and they sent us a claim form. Although it wasn't really a claim form, it was an application for legal costs insurance to cover our insurers costs on making the claim, as our insurance company were going to persue the other company for the costs. This seemed no better to us, than using a no win/no fee claims service and considering we had always opted for a policy with legal cover, sounded like a bit of a joke. This "insurance" had a fairly low cap on the legal fees it would cover and we felt it wasn't worth the risk relative to the cost of the physio.

Marvel1

I go with the cheapest.

Grumpy_chap

Marvel1 said:

I go with the cheapest.

So do I.
This year, it proved to be a mistake.

Nobbie1967

The cheap ones usually have higher charges for changes on the policy and cancellation etc, so if you might need to make changes to your policy like address or car then worth checking the charges. I go cheap because I haven’t need to contact them in over 10 years outside of renewals.

jimjames

I tend to go for the ones just above absolute cheapest. As above sometimes there are additional features you may want. If it's an old car and you are unlikely to need to claim or make any changes then go for the cheapest one. 
Remember also some cashback sites will give money back on the premium too. Cheapest I got for a classic car was £70 for an annual policy for Porsche 944 recently

tacpot12

I also tend to go for the names I have heard of so that I'm not buying the cheapest policy. At the end of the day, when you buy insurance, the main thing you want is that the policy should pay out if you need to make a claim. I think if you buy at the cheapest end of the market, you will find that their claims process is stricter and they will either not pay, or pay less. I think it's case of you getting what you pay for. I'd rather pay a bit more in the hope that the outcome will be better. 

I will say that I am lucky and my insurance premiums are very low, so paying 20-25% extra is no hardship. For a young driver, or those with accidents in the last few years, I can see that they might need to use the cheapest firms to be able to afford insurance at all.