Minimum legal car insurance requirements

cosimx

I want to buy a car worth £700 but I have been living in the UK for under 1 year and have an International License only, not a UK one so the insurance would be something like £1500/yr.

My license can be converted into a Full UK license fairly easily, but then the insurance premiums would still be over £700/yr just for third party.

Is there any way so that I can drive this car legally with cheap insurance? Paying £700/yr insurance on a £700 car for third party does not sound right.

cowbutt

Third party cover is based mainly on your claim (and criminal conviction) history, rather than the car you drive. Presumably, as you don't have a UK license, there isn't much history on you, and so your premium is loaded accordingly.

About the only thing you can do is build up history; get a UK license, try to get someone else to pay your initial insurance premiums (company car?)

marble

Have you got any No Claims Bonus built up in another country? When I worked in insurance, we could sometimes get insurance companies to honour NCB from abroad. Obviously, you'll need a letter from an insurance company and it probably helps if it is in English. If you have this, then phone around a few places and see what they can do.

Al