OT car insurance

[tony sayer]

Its a wonder it was that cheap;!...

[Dave]

We get that via the National Health Service, but what is being discussed is the injury compensation culture that has crossed the Atlantic Ocean to this country.

We have lots of ambulance chasing solicitors who act on a no win, no fee basis. Essentially, they are the lowest form of life on the planet. Get involved in a shunt that was not your fault, claim whiplash injuries etc. There is a huge industry with immigrants purposely casing accidents on the roads and claiming huge amounts off the other parties insurance.

Over here, you often come across signs that read something like... Warning, slippery floor. Now is that down to the floor being genuinely slippery, or is it down the the walker wearing the wrong footwear? Invariably it is the floor owner who takes the blame.

Dave

[Clive George]

I've been TPFT for many years now (car is worth peanuts, if I break it even if it was FC it wouldn't be worth a claim), and never had a problem with NCD - always been quoted at least something, and generally none of the "piss right off" quotes you can get.

[Clive George]

Well, those very nice looking shiny stone/stone effect floors are genuinely slippery when wet, even in sane footwear. The floor owner has decided to install something pretty rather than functional.

I think the second longest time off work in recent times in our department was somebody taking a flyer on one of those in an office - hurt his back quite a lot.

OTOH I do reckon those signs are overused.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I've had a few occasions when suddenly lots of people ring me up to help me with claiming for injury for my accident, which never happened. I suspect someone makes up lists and sells them, since there are obviously people willing to pay for such lists. Quite funny to see one set of scum ripping off another.

Actually, areas of the NHS have for some time looked to recover their costs from the other party's insurance in the case of not- your-fault accidents. Being the NHS, they probably spent much more on trying, than on succeeding. Wouldn't surprise me to see this increase though.

Nevertheless, you get treated regardless, and you don't pay.

[Invisible Man]

Unless there is anything special written into the policy the insurance pays the market value of the car. If a 6 month old car gets written off it should cover the finance but if the finance has nasty early repayment terms there is a small possibility it may not.

Going back to the original query. Do some homework and then ring your existing insurer. They may suddenly find an additional discount they can give you. They don't like losing customers.

[Andrew Gabriel]

That's really so you can drive it off the the forecourt with minimum hassle. They may actually sell some based on the quotation, but they aren't competitive. The risk on a brand new car for the first week is probably extremely low.

[Lobster]

Further thoughts...

Another not-so-wellkown wheeze - adding a second driver to a policy can often *reduce* the premium. When my mum received her renewal premium she rang her insurer to notify them she no longer needed a named driver on the policy (ie my dad, who had died during that year) expecting the premium to go down a bit as a result. Instead, it went *up* quite a bit; only to be reduced again by adding me as named driver instead!

All about reduced risk if there are two drivers, eg one can take over of the other's tired I suppose.

Oner thing I like about using on-line quote services is that you can so easily vary the criteria you've entered to see the effect on premium.

Also - don't forget about using cashback sites like Quidco when buying any insurance policies - eg, story of someone managing to get a fully comp policy for 96p/year:

David

[Lobster]

Might be in the sense that people may treat their new 'baby' with exceptional care; however, insurance premiums certainly get loaded if you've only very recently obtained your vehicle (new or otherwise).

When I last changed my car (and insurance policy at the same time) I remember fiddling with the 'date vehicle obtained' just out of interest

- it definitely made a difference, so presumably there must be an enhanced risk of an early claim with a new or unfamiliar vehicle.

David

[JTM]

at the entrance to the gents ? ? "Wet floor"

But I never do. :)

[JTM]

Many (most?) Authorities and Ambulance services started this in the 70's /80's.

[funkyoldcortina]

Well duh, that's because the accident put me in a higher risk bracket. That's not the same as losing your NCB.

£205 fully comp with guaranteed courtesy car, legal protection, protected NCB on a Ford Focus. Can't say I'm particularly troubled by that!

Tip for you as well, insurance brands operated by RBS Insurance (UKI partnerships) such as egg, churchill, direct line, natwest, prudential etc. will only ask for details of your last 3 years worth of claims and not 5....

[funkyoldcortina]

You really don't understand how the NCB works do you? There's a difference between the undiscounted premium (which will be affected if you have an accident, EVEN IF IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT), and the premium after NCB discount.

The premium is decided based on perceived risk and takes into account all kinds of factors including whether you've been involved in any accidents, whose fault they were, any motoring convictions, where you leave your car overnight, who needs to drive it, what excess you're willing to pay, your postcode, whether you need business use etc. etc.

The NCB comes off *after* this premium is calculated, and so of course your overall premium will go up even if you have protected NCB and you have an claim. But you will still get the same percentage of discount as the discount level was protected.

That depends on the percentage you were getting as a discount.

[Jim K]

but are their premiums inflated to offset the extra risk?

Jim K

[funkyoldcortina]

Too true. A couple of years back I paid a net of £75 for a year's worth of fully comp insurance and breakdown cover thanks to cashback.

This year there were no good cashback deals but I got my existing insurer to give me a loyalty discount knocking the original £275 renewal down to £205, which beat all but 3 of the 60-odd quotes I got through gocompare and comparethemarket. And gocompare paid me £1.50 just for getting quotes through them!

[funkyoldcortina]

I wondered that, but not in my experience (although you will get different prices from each "brand" as they target different segments).

[Theo Markettos]

Indeed, many insurers only apply up to 5 years NCD. Any more and it's counted as 5 years. Others will discount for a greater number of years, but only slightly (eg a few percent difference between 5 years and 10 years). So it doesn't make a whole lot of difference after 5 years.

The sum to do is calculate how much extra you would pay in NCD 'protection' over 5 years compared with the difference in premiums between 5 years at the current rate and a year with no NCD, a year with one year NCD, a year with two years NCD and so on up to four. Some insurers give you a 'free' NCD year after your first, so you might only need to do the sums for four years not five. Compare the two figures and factor in how likely you think it is you're going to have a claim to your assessment of the risks.

Theo