UK Car Insurance Renewal. Who are you insured with and any advice? - General

As said in the title. Yes I know these threads come by fairly regularly but in the UK car insurance for under 25's is this much of a hassle. Anyway, my Insurance is up for renewal and I could do with some recommendations. There are hundreds of pounds, a thousand dollars to be saved. Post your insurance company plus any recommendations? (Americans need not apply) Cheers!

[QUOTE=Dip;34786218]As said in the title. Yes I know these threads come by fairly regularly but in the UK car insurance for under 25's is this much of a hassle. Anyway, my Insurance is up for renewal and I could do with some recommendations. There are hundreds of pounds, a thousand dollars to be saved. Post your insurance company plus any recommendations? (Americans need not apply) Cheers![/QUOTE] I'm not British but I know a car club can get you good deals on insurance. Your easiest bet is to call as many places as you can though, and get quotes. Insuring under your Parent's Name will save a lot of money, if your parents are willing to do that for you. Don't worry, I saw this on Top Gear. :smug:

Like Tukimoshi join a car club they always have around 10% off some insurers if you say you are a member! I wouldn't recommend this to everyone but I also set my voluntary excess to as high is it could go (£1250) because it lowers your cost massively and as my car is rare and as such parts are rare and extremely expensive so If I ever crash I wont get the value for the car from the insurers and repairs will be too much for them so they will just write it off anyway. I would say insuring under your parents is a BAD idea, they have cottoned on to it recently and are cracking down on it as it is illegal, also you don't get to build up your own no-claims or anything.

[QUOTE=Tukimoshi;34789015]I'm not British but I know a car club can get you good deals on insurance. Your easiest bet is to call as many places as you can though, and get quotes. Insuring under your Parent's Name will save a lot of money, if your parents are willing to do that for you. Don't worry, I saw this on Top Gear. :smug:[/QUOTE] I've been calling everywhere with slight luck. Also, what they did is indeed illegal and over here not only do you end up with your car not being repaired by insurance, but you also get prosicuted as if you'd never bothered with insurance in the first place. Surprisingly, on my first year adding my mother as a Secondary driver took £1000 off. I'm afraid to say, Top Gear's advice was shite and has been of no help to anyone. Ever. But then again, Top Gear were never [I]strictly[/I] a show on consumer advice. Haha [editline]20th February 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Milky;34789473]Like Tukimoshi join a car club they always have around 10% off some insurers if you say you are a member! I wouldn't recommend this to everyone but I also set my voluntary excess to as high is it could go (£1250) because it lowers your cost massively and as my car is rare and as such parts are rare and extremely expensive so If I ever crash I wont get the value for the car from the insurers and repairs will be too much for them so they will just write it off anyway. I would say insuring under your parents is a BAD idea, they have cottoned on to it recently and are cracking down on it as it is illegal, also you don't get to build up your own no-claims or anything.[/QUOTE] That's quite a clever one really, however I doubt it'll work on my reasonably common car. A Hyundai Getz. Of such, would there even be a 'Hyundai Getz Car Club'? Haha. Yeah don't think I'm front my insurance. But adding my mother as a Secondary driver first time round did take a grand off the insurance!

The most effective way to reduce your policy is lie through your teeth and hope you don't get caught. Although if you don't fancy being charged for fraud I may know a few tricks. You mentioned Hyundai don't have a members club eligable for discount on insurance but Adrian Flux offer up to 15% off for Pistonheads members, it's free to sign up. [url]www.pistonheads.com[/url] Trial and error is a good way to get prices down, play around with every possibility. Try listing your car as parked on the road as opposed to garaged or on a driveway, it has known to be cheaper than the latter on occasions. Your job title can also up the premiums, don't lie about your job title but scroll through the list and see what others also describe your job. My job as a technical anylist is about £50 a year more expensive than if I list it as a systems engineer... Have a play around and see what you can do. Phone up at the end of the month. Insurance salesmen and money grabbing bastards, it's a medical fact. Towards the end of the month they will all be racing to maximise the commission and meet sales targets so will be willing to come down on price in order to make the sale. The price they quote is never the price you pay, if you haggle with them you can easily reduce it. Say you've had a better offer elsewhere but was hoping to insure with 'insert company here' due to their 'good reputation' then say thanks anyway. They always bite and offer a better price. Multi-car policies can be a good money saver if you can convice family to switch to the same company. Their policies don't need to be due at the same time as yours for it to work, I've known people to save a shit load by doing this. I think Aviva offer it. Play around with levels of cover, third party isn't always the cheapest, don't be afraid to get quotes for fully comp. Make sure you know ALL of the charges, insurance companies like to sell you a load of shit you don't need. Make sure you check the APR if you're paying monthly too, I've seen rates of £30% which on a policy of over £1000 really starts adding up. Always pay in full anyually if you can, sometimes it's even cheaper to get a bank loan over the year with lower interest if you have to pay monthly. Plus it's good for your credit rating down the line. You were right to add others to your policy, this spreads the risk on the car between you and experienced drivers, sometimes if you are a named driver and 'have access to another vehicle' this can bring the price down too. As far as the insurance company is concerned the less you drive the car they're insuring the better which leads me on to mileage. Try to figure out the price breaks, if you do less than 7500 miles per year it can be a big difference between listing less than 8000 miles... Each company has their own brackets. Lastly, try insurance brokers. Some of them have really good rates with certain companies and will be able to help you out. You won't find them on comparison sites... Have a look in your local Yellow Pages and give them a ring. A few car insurance companies you might not have tried are: Chris Knott Sky Insurance Hasting Direct Performance Direct Quinn Direct Zurich Connect That's all I can think of right now but if I think of anything else I'll update this post. Good luck.

I was with Directline for a good few years, untill I made some minor modifcitions to my car, thought it best to inform them of it because I know how screwy they can be to avoid paying out, only to find Directline will not insure any car that modifications unless you are over 25. Now Directline are owned by the RBS so all the insurance companies under the RBS blanket company have the same underwriting. Churchill, Privilege, NIG,Tesco Insurance, Natwest, Nationwide. Any of these you are likely to find the same underwriting and similar premiums. I did move to Admiral insurance as not only to they insure any car provided modifications are declared but they also offered to cover the mods I had made and the premium I am paying is exactly the same as what I was paying with Directline My job comes with quite alot of dealing with insurance companies and customers. And what thing that has become very apprent about certain companies, Aviva and LV are not the most efficent if you have to make a claim, they have a habit to poor communication which leads to errors and claims taking twice as long as normal. But it depends what your looking for from them?

[QUOTE=sam.clarke;34791220]The most effective way to reduce your policy is lie through your teeth and hope you don't get caught. Although if you don't fancy being charged for fraud I may know a few tricks. You mentioned Hyundai don't have a members club eligable for discount on insurance but Adrian Flux offer up to 15% off for Pistonheads members, it's free to sign up. [url]www.pistonheads.com[/url] Trial and error is a good way to get prices down, play around with every possibility. Try listing your car as parked on the road as opposed to garaged or on a driveway, it has known to be cheaper than the latter on occasions. Your job title can also up the premiums, don't lie about your job title but scroll through the list and see what others also describe your job. My job as a technical anylist is about £50 a year more expensive than if I list it as a systems engineer... Have a play around and see what you can do. Phone up at the end of the month. Insurance salesmen and money grabbing bastards, it's a medical fact. Towards the end of the month they will all be racing to maximise the commission and meet sales targets so will be willing to come down on price in order to make the sale. The price they quote is never the price you pay, if you haggle with them you can easily reduce it. Say you've had a better offer elsewhere but was hoping to insure with 'insert company here' due to their 'good reputation' then say thanks anyway. They always bite and offer a better price. Multi-car policies can be a good money saver if you can convice family to switch to the same company. Their policies don't need to be due at the same time as yours for it to work, I've known people to save a shit load by doing this. I think Aviva offer it. Play around with levels of cover, third party isn't always the cheapest, don't be afraid to get quotes for fully comp. Make sure you know ALL of the charges, insurance companies like to sell you a load of shit you don't need. Make sure you check the APR if you're paying monthly too, I've seen rates of £30% which on a policy of over £1000 really starts adding up. Always pay in full anyually if you can, sometimes it's even cheaper to get a bank loan over the year with lower interest if you have to pay monthly. Plus it's good for your credit rating down the line. You were right to add others to your policy, this spreads the risk on the car between you and experienced drivers, sometimes if you are a named driver and 'have access to another vehicle' this can bring the price down too. As far as the insurance company is concerned the less you drive the car they're insuring the better which leads me on to mileage. Try to figure out the price breaks, if you do less than 7500 miles per year it can be a big difference between listing less than 8000 miles... Each company has their own brackets. Lastly, try insurance brokers. Some of them have really good rates with certain companies and will be able to help you out. You won't find them on comparison sites... Have a look in your local Yellow Pages and give them a ring. A few car insurance companies you might not have tried are: Chris Knott Sky Insurance Hasting Direct Performance Direct Quinn Direct Zurich Connect That's all I can think of right now but if I think of anything else I'll update this post. Good luck.[/QUOTE] Cheers for all that! Great help so far. Yeah, we've saved thousands last year on our insurance with multicar. Our being me and my mother. We gonna have to investigate the multicar further. About the cover, so far I've found fully comp. more expensive. £6 more expensive!!! Haha I'm gonna look into all of those and will post back. Also see about pistonheads! Thanks! [editline]21st February 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Angus513;34792219]I was with Directline for a good few years, untill I made some minor modifcitions to my car, thought it best to inform them of it because I know how screwy they can be to avoid paying out, only to find Directline will not insure any car that modifications unless you are over 25. Now Directline are owned by the RBS so all the insurance companies under the RBS blanket company have the same underwriting. Churchill, Privilege, NIG,Tesco Insurance, Natwest, Nationwide. Any of these you are likely to find the same underwriting and similar premiums. I did move to Admiral insurance as not only to they insure any car provided modifications are declared but they also offered to cover the mods I had made and the premium I am paying is exactly the same as what I was paying with Directline My job comes with quite alot of dealing with insurance companies and customers. And what thing that has become very apprent about certain companies, Aviva and LV are not the most efficent if you have to make a claim, they have a habit to poor communication which leads to errors and claims taking twice as long as normal. But it depends what your looking for from them?[/QUOTE] Cheers for that. Valuable info. I'm with Admiral now, very cheap on multicar! Their renewal price is £500 cheaper this year! 18, 19 in a few days. Gaining 1 NCB (soon)...hopefully! Direct Line however, as a family we refuse to go with them. My uncle was involved in a hit and run (outside my house) and direct line refused to take the mangled van away until we made a claim. The crash was never his fault!

I know the price between 3rd party and fully comp is unlikely to much more expensive with any insurance company as the majority of the costs to insurance companies these days is not getting the cars repaired, the major cost is personal injury claims and solicitors fees which can easily double, treble, quadruple (or what the one for 5 and 6 are) the cost of a claim these days. And insurance companies would risk liability for that with either cover plan so no point trying to save a few quid with 3rd party

Sky Insurance - £1263 (Third Party) The current front runners LV at £1221 (Fully Comp) I'll try some more tomorrow.

Not sure how old you are but you could look into classic insurance? Most companies require you to be 21 but policies can be a lot cheaper than average cars. To class as a classic it needs be be 15+ years old, usually. Some companies will overlook the age limit if you give them a ring. I'm sure you could pick up an NA Toyota MR2 2.0 that fits the criteria and have an interesting car still insured for less than the Hyundia and being a 90s Toyota it will be utterly reliable.

[QUOTE=sam.clarke;34815840]Not sure how old you are but you could look into classic insurance? Most companies require you to be 21 but policies can be a lot cheaper than average cars. To class as a classic it needs be be 15+ years old, usually. Some companies will overlook the age limit if you give them a ring. I'm sure you could pick up an NA Toyota MR2 2.0 that fits the criteria and have an interesting car still insured for less than the Hyundia and being a 90s Toyota it will be utterly reliable.[/QUOTE] Yeah, they're dirt cheap. We have a Golf on classic insurance, but the mileage ranges are severally restrictive! Plus I'm only 18 (19 at time of renewal). Plus I'm not allowed to sell the car, mothers wishes, and (I know its sad to say) but they're not exactly safe so there's no way my parents would let me have one. Thanks anyway :) [editline]22nd February 2012[/editline] Sky Insurance - £1263 (Third Party) Performance Direct - £2835 / £1820 (Fully Comp. / Third Party) Quinn Insurance - £5045 (Third Party) (I re-checked this to ensure no mistakes) Zurich - Won't... So far LV are the front runner. £1221 Fully Comp.

I had the same situation with my folks... They weren't happy about me buying my car. There wasn't much they could do when I turned up at home in it. We didnt speak for a couple of days but now my dad loves my car. If it's your cash do as you want with it, you're an adult.

Admiral are cheaper if you park on the road overnight too, for some reason

[QUOTE=sam.clarke;34822417]I had the same situation with my folks... They weren't happy about me buying my car. There wasn't much they could do when I turned up at home in it. We didnt speak for a couple of days but now my dad loves my car. If it's your cash do as you want with it, you're an adult.[/QUOTE] Yeahh, I'd love to buy another car but I really cannot sell it. It has a lot of memories and the family are attached to it. My Mum was in tears when she gave me that car! She only gave it me because she trusted that car, never done her wrong and the first new car we ever bought (me and my brother used to have to take our shoes off to get in it at up to 13 years old!), she has a lot of faith in that car with me, haha. Basically my cars got more sentimental value than cash. So I'm not to sell it. She still prefers my car to her new car (despite that never going wrong).

admiral are cheapest for me 24 years old,2 years NCB, safest postcode, all mods declared, 700 quid fully comp on a 95 celica gt-four.

[QUOTE=joe588;35019134]admiral are cheapest for me 24 years old,2 years NCB, [b]safest postcode[/b], all mods declared, 700 quid fully comp on a 95 celica gt-four.[/QUOTE] Lucky bastard. Fuck all ever happens on my estate, nice houses, it's full of old farts. No break-ins, the odd car vandalism but not that often. It's the shit hole estate down the road that puts our postcode in one of the lower brackets.

Still working it. The date is looming. Thought I'd try adding on my younger brother (18 soon, so I put him down as 18). Just provisional, held for less than a month. The premium to my insurance? Just £362!! Ridiculous!

unrelated note: I saw all of you UK citizien post about horrible insurance fee so I tried my own experiment. I am a 19yo canadian male, how hard could it be to get insured on my supra turbo in your country. things I learned: 1. Even with a international driving liscence, none want to insure me 2. My car being a "import" is impossible to insure (somehow) 3. I can't get insured on the UK version of my car because it does not meet the emission regulation of the country at that time (why would they sell it there in the first place then? my car pass the CA regulation in US...) 4. I then tried to get insured on my DD (2002 corolla manual): Due to the high vehicule performance, we can't insure you at this point. so yeah, y'all screwed. I can feel the pain about driving a car while being young. Oh and yeah, I had my liscence since I was 16, but in the UK turns out you can't have your liscence under 18 (according to the insurance compagny)

No, you can gain a full licence at 17 in this country. But it takes like 8-12 months to learn to drive. Plus at 17 you can expect a £2000 premium over being 18. Making a 17 year olds payout around £4000 for some shitbox.

Vina Car Insurace. Everyone here has to be based off ICBC here but to drive my tiny 92 GEO Tracker with liability only costs me $190 per month.

[QUOTE=MIPS;35066912]Vina Car Insurace. Everyone here has to be based off ICBC here but to drive my tiny 92 GEO Tracker with liability only costs me $190 per month.[/QUOTE] Not entirely relevant here in the UK I'm afraid. But thanks!

[QUOTE=joe588;35019134]admiral are cheapest for me 24 years old,2 years NCB, safest postcode, all mods declared, 700 quid fully comp on a 95 celica gt-four.[/QUOTE] admiral are really competitive. i'm actually with ford for my insurance - underwritten by RSA and that's only worked out cheapest because they made a mistake in the original quote then honoured the price. previously though, admiral was the cheapest for me - and they would have been if it wasn't for the slight error ford made.

Mega gutted about insurance this year. My car is 1 year short of being a classic. Preludes 1 year older than mine fall in the category and instead of paying £1000 per year I've been quoted just over £300 on a '97 5th Gen Prelude. Gonna ring round this year and see if I can pull any strings as it'll only be a few months off by the time I come to renew the policy.

You should. Although, the only issue with classic car insurance is that the mileage is very limited. [I]Also[/I] I got my insurance sorted. I was with Admiral (multicar) last year at £1800 TPFT. A very good deal. They offered me a renewal price of £1300. Shopped around, worked a bit of magic and now I'm on RAC they've just started doing insurance... and were a little messy with it. They gave me my quote, got back to them and they took the quote back, refusing to cover me. All RAC quotes went down for an hour or so. Shopped around a little more, rang up again and they offered me the original quote. £1216 fully comp. Pretty chuffed!