Car Insurance

I'd use a comparison site based on make and model, get a quote in your hand, and see if it's less than what you'd pay (after any pro-rata-minus-fees refund you might get from cancelling your old insurance).

Then go through with the purchase once the car is registered. If needs be phone up the new insurer and ask them to put quote number XYZ123 through with the registration even if it's not showing up yet.

Another option is to pay for temporary insurance, eg:

until everything sorts itself out. Although I would check the cover - you want to be covered if somebody steals it while parked.

Theo

If available that's exactly what I do, delay the hassle for a week until you're safely back home with the car.

Be careful with temporary insurance. It's good for allowing you to drive a borrowed vehicle or allowing someone else to drive your vehicle - but it will invariably require there to be a policy already in place for that vehicle, which there wouldn't be in this case.

It varies, but the above Dayinsure do update the Motor Insurance Database so don't need another policy in place. If you're using 'drive other cars' on an existing policy then typically they do need the vehicle to be otherwise insured so it's on MID. You should check.

For a brand new car I'd want to be 100% sure it's covered for total loss. Also, if you have any kind of finance on it make sure you have GAP cover too.

Theo

The last time that I bought a new car, about four years ago, I was able to transfer the insurance onto it online, before I took delivery of it, without issue. It was on the DVLA website several days before the registration became effective, and before it was insured. There was something extra to pay but I don't remember the amount. What makes you think that the £120 for the remaining period of the policy is unreasonable? I think you are saying that the new car is less gutsy/smaller than the old one but how old is the old one? It might still be worth less than the new one. The new one will probably have more electronics in it that'll be more expensive if it needs to be replaced. Have you checked the new car's number on the DVLA website? If your only problem is that you think the £120 is too much I'd say bite the bullet and pay it, and shop around when the current policy is due for renewal. Messing around with a temporary policy, cancelling the existing, and getting a new one is not worth the effort in my view.

Never try to work out *why* insurance costs what it does ...

Last time I changed car to a newer, faster, more expensive one, I got an insurance refund, possibly because it has a pre-collision warning camera (which is actually s*it).

At the moment I've been looking at hybrids, some are an extra grand a year to insure, others are roughly the same as my petrol car, those ones tend to have multiple "safety" systems, which I expect will be even more annoying and distracting ...

Good advice and I think that's what I'll do.

I did it online but then it said £120 extra for 8 months, £180 for the year I was surprised and started the chat bot to check it.

Unfortunately I seem to have frozen their system so I'll phone tomorrow and try again.

My Vitara has one of those and it actually applied the brakes on me once because it didn't think I was braking hard enough, scared the life out of me!

It can be based on how many claims people in your circumstances make for a particular model.

eg advice for recent test-passers is not to buy a Corsa (many people aged 17 drive those and there are many crashes) but something obscure like a 90s Lexus. Not many of them are being crashed by 17 year olds so the insurance can cost less, even if the car is more powerful and in a higher insurance group.

Theo

Check the proposed policy carefully.

On new cars, they offer "replacement cost".

Say for example, you're racing home (as some chick was doing in a brand new Mustang) and you smash the car into the nearest telephone pole.

Your policy may have a rider to fully replace the car, one shows up at the door at no cost.

If you remove that rider, then the smashed car would be repaired the usual way, and usually at a lower cost to the insurer. Or, the value of the car, may be the fair market value right after you buy it (you lose the depreciation). You can weigh the odds of totaling the car in the first year, and remove that rider.

Make sure the policy is what you think it is. And it has the coverage you need. Messing with the policy is at your risk.

Paul

That's why you can get gap insurance.

The saga continues.

I 'phoned Dial Direct this morning and they said no problem we'll do a car change on the 'phone. I gave them the registration and they said it was a

I called the dealer who checked and said it wasn't yet registered and they have no idea where Dial Direct got the information.

This is beginning to look a bit hookey as Del Boy might say.

How did you give them a registration if it is not registered ?

IME, the dealer has a pre-assigned block of registration numbers and assigns them as they wish. They do that before they actually register the vehicle and tell the customer so that they can arrange stuff. It also means they can have number plates made.

Exactly that.

I've just had a car insurance renewal quote and its up by 25% compared to last year. I did make a windscreen claim last year( the fist windscreen claim in over 40 years) but this doesn't effect my 20+ year No claims Discount.

So off to the comparison sites where I can get comparable insurance and initially at a lower price than I paid last year. The headline cheaper price is from around a dozen different insurers or brokers. I did include details of my windscreen claim for the quotes

However, reading the smaller print The lowest quote was with a massive excess and didn't include "extras" Two insurers didn't offer windscreen and glass cover at all (specifically excluded). What some insurers included as standard others wanted perhaps £30 as an individual extra add-on.

I will go with one of three from the initial list of the first dozen lowest quotes but with extra payments on top of the headline quote which takes me to around 2% more than I paid last year. :)

Last year when I got the renewal quote the comparison sites could only match it for comparable insurance or provide a price cheaper by around £10 so I elected to stay with my existing insurer.

I've noticed that on several policies, some offer it as an extra, others don't offer it at all.

An example of what makes those comparison sites less than useful. As always the devil is in the detail, and comparison sites never mention the details.

Actually the meerkats site does provide the details