Car Insurance

It's not your car they're insuring, it's the expensive one you crash into.

Play with usage values, where you park it, primary driver, etc. I always tended to get a better rate quoted online when I rang the company up and spoke to someone on the phone.

it's the shareholder value they're generating.

Ftfy.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/direct-lines-soaring-profits-and-dividend-and-the-real-reason-youre-paying-all-time-high-motor-a7870851.html

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/03/admiral-staff-bonus-profits-surge-motor-insurance

http://www.claimsmag.co.uk/2017/08/thompsons-asks-insurers-justify-increase-profits-car-insurance-premiums-continue-rise/9195

On the back of its results, Direct Line has increased its interim dividend to shareholders by a staggering 38.8 per cent. You read that right: The dividend increased by 38.8 per cent.

Ffs.

Remember that next time you ring up to haggle over the price of insurance. Or torch your car every year and claim...

Just done the usual car insurance dance, every year takes days of fiddling around different companies until finally one actually produces a reasonable number.

Also interesting point I did not realise, max no claims recognised in the UK insurance market is 9 years (or so the 6 or 7 different agents (not underwriters, no idea which one vend with which underwriter until you've actually gone the whole way)), so with my previous agent I've gone from 9 years to 11 years, however the proof of NCB only came back with 9. When challenged they highlighted it to me, then rang a further 5 or 6 who all said the same.

In the next year I'm considering getting a commercial/ fleet type policy. Currently have 3 cars (2 on road, 1 sort of project), partner has 1 and then there is always at least 1 motorbike. Would like to have more options when it comes to buying and selling random projects instead of currently trying to time it for the end of the policy of the one I'm about to swap about (as every single time I've had to change a policy, the re-adjusted value has always been staggering) and its a bit limiting.

max no claims recognised in the UK insurance market is 9 years

I'm not sure what difference it makes but when I explained to my insurers that I was fully licensed driver in Australia for years before coming to the UK and getting a UK lic. they reduced my costs. I wished I'd known it earlier because my UK lic. only has an issue date of when I handed in my Aussie one, not the start date of my Aussie one. So it made me look like a new driver to insurance companies for some time.

£200 cheaper to change policy to partner's name. Thanks for sucking at driving, blokes.

off to do some burnouts since now I can afford new tyres

Just bought a Fiat Doblo to make into a wee camper/bike wagon. Looks like the Popemobile but hey ho...

Established wisdom is to get insurance in my partner's name (plus she's a civil servant so...) and me named driver but don't know whether to register at her family address or here in the big bad city?

Also, best quotes on COmpare the Market are Hastings or Admiral... Anyone used either or should I be going Direct Line/Co-Operative/others not on aggregators?

I'm not sure how they can check who drives the vehicle the most but I think that's technically fraud if the main driver isn't the main driver. The address thing similar but possibly more likely to be an issue if something happens overnight on a city street, when you've stated it'll be stored in a locked garage in sleepyville etc. If you're actually keeping it at her family address most of the time, then obvs no problem.

Edit: My only tips for cheap insurance are try everywhere, play with 3rd party vs fully comp (sometimes a massive voluntary excess knocks the FC premium below TP) and investigate specialist insurance if it applies (classic, camper, limited mileage, etc).

It's a leisure/non-commuting only car so will be 50/50 between us on driving anyway-was more for benefiting from the cheaper insurance for the female of the species as opposed to fraudulent intent.

The address is more controversial, we're renting our home so both our licenses are registered to family addresses which aren't far away for ease of not replacing them every time we move... Will probably just insure at current place which despite being equally sleepy suburbia with driveway is 100 bucks more : /

Anyway. Good insurance recommends?

jesus. Been a few years since I've had a car. I swear it used to cost me about 30% less insured for driving a ridiculous 240hp Subaru than it is for a tractor like 2l diesel fiat.

so, missus - named driver on my policy - has just reversed into one of the cars that always blocks our drive.....

We live on an estate/cul-de-sac and we live on the corner. Cars constantly block us in/obstruct us and there have been many many letters sent to residents telling them not to park outside of designated areas (every house has two spaces - we have an extra alongside our house accessed from the front). Anyway, I'm amazed its taken this long and I've taken pics showing the they've parked directly opposite our space, not allowing an unobstructed exit and put a note on their car saying to contact for insurance details etc.

Obviously I'll go through my insurance but what chance they won't pay out for the damage given the stupid parking and frequent letters from the housing authority asking people not to park there?

Edit: It's her fault as she hot a stationary vehicle, simple. He's angry as they'll probably write his car off (worth £800) but he's just spent £500 on it. His car is absolutely fine (bar a cosmetic dent) and I won't pay any excess as that's only payable on your own claim - I won't have the minor damage on mine fixed, especially at the cost of the excess. Given my protected NCD my insurance will go up - probably by 75-100 a year for 3 years (max). He's already tried to be aggressive and threatening towards me (I've brushed it off completely) but he's basically going to have to suffer the dent and a small receipted/traced payment from me (outside the insurance), suffer the dent with bugger all back or claim on his insurance and they'll write off his perfectly drivable car and give him not much more than he's just spent on it. I'd be more sympathetic if he hadn't been threatening but hey-ho

I'm 38 and have driven since I was 17, sometimes regularly for work (3 years with a company van and regular rentals of cars and vans) but never owned a car. What is the best/cheapest way to get insured if I buy a car now, nothing fancy but big enough for bikes etc.
Are there any types of car I should avoid, thresholds in engine size? My partner can be the primary owner/insured person as I heard that there can be cheaper deals for female drivers?

It's car and home contents insurance renewal time! The price my current provider have offered for both is lower than I can find for car insurance alone anywhere else so I'm happy enough to accept the renewal price as it stands. Just wondering if anyone has any tips to get it down any lower as it's still a lot of money to spend on something that's not bikes.

Check to see if reducing the the annual estimated mileage on the renewal policy will reduce your premium. Due to lockdown ours is now ~2k miles, down from 5k in the previous policy.

Unfortunately I'm still having to commute to work by car most days so my annual mileage hasn't been significantly effected. Did you notice a significant decrease in your premium by reducing the annual estimated mileage?

If I change vehicles, and specify a day, can I drive the vehicle I've changed from to the dealer for a part-ex on the day of changeover?

there's a few options:

1. You can specify a time and make sure you get the part-ex car there before the time, and don't leave in the new car before the time.

2. Ask them to add 1 day or half day temp cover for the new car so for that period, both cars are covered.

3. You can do it the other way round so on day of collection the insurance switches to the new car and the old car is added on as temp cover for a half day or full day.

4. Get the quote sorted in advance, have everything ready to go, then on the day ring up the insurance company after handover and make the switch "live".

Your insurance company will have done this many, many times before so they can talk you through your options.

I suggest phoning them at least 2 weeks in advance, their risk model takes the date of an action into account, they see people who leave things to the last minute (<2 weeks) as more risky.

You can see this for yourself if you do quotes online, set the start date of cover to > 2 weeks and see how the quote changes compared to start date as tomorrow or even today.

The same will be the case when making an adjustment to your policy.

Is it my imagination or has insurance gone up quite a bit?

Despite another year of no claims bonus (up from 1 to 2) all my car insurance quotes seem to be 25% more at least.

Yep! All gone up this year for me too despite no changes

I ended up going with ByMiles which charges per mile. Given the fairly low number of miles that I do (and that a fair number of those miles are made up of 250 mile journeys and the daily cap is 150 miles) it should still work out a little cheaper than last year.

That's a good idea! I might look into them for next year, as I only tend to do 6k miles per year. For this year I shopped around and tried to haggle with my current insurer, but ended up having to switch to get the best price, which was only about 20 quid more than last year.