Insurance rant

[GMCTyphoon]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum/place but I wanted to get a little off my chest and maybe get some guidance.

After several years in HM Forces and a stint in the corporate world, I am now back at university studying medicine. I'm not a scrotebag student by any stretch and live with my girlfriend in a nice neighbourhood in Clapham.

For many years now, my hobby, passion and obsession has been the restoration of my 1992 GMC Typhoon. (Signature)

I would like to be able to insure it for a month or two at a time each year to enjoy it in the summer. Being a student with limited money and a medical student so even less time, I don't plan to use it often. I don't need a car because the London transport network is adequate for my needs.

It's kept in my parents' garage in the South West and I don't want to bring it to London for reasons of theft but mostly out of a desire to keep it safe and reduce my running costs.

As soon as I mention I live in London, all the companies give me a full London quote and none of the classic companies will touch me because I am supposed to have a second vehicle. The major companies have never heard of the car so I seem to have a limited number of options.

It's really getting my goat - I only want to drive it for maybe 1000 miles a year in the SW but it seems I need to pretend it's in London or go out and buy another banger.

My latest plan is to try and get my Dad to take the title off my hands and then have me put on as a named driver. I'm not sure if that will work as I imagine they'll require me to be named on both his policies.

Has anyone heard of any companies that might be able to help me out?

The whole debacle leaves me

Thanks for reading and any advice you can offer.

[djfaulkner]

Could be wrong - but I think your Dad can have two insurance policies for different cars.
Just not two policies for the same car.


Have you looked into temporary insurance cover?

[GMCTyphoon]

None of the temporary policies seem to cater for my specific car. They all have those little drop down menus and "GMC isn't on there.

If I am mistaken then please correct me!

I'm not sure what you mean about multiple policies on the same car.

[Riley Blue]

Transfer title to your Dad, he insures it with you as a named driver. Job done, no?

[GMCTyphoon]

Yes, that wil probably work assuming they don't require me to be on multiple policies and thus extra for each policy I am on which defeats the point. That is my latest plan (see original post).

It also means I won't have any NCB until I can afford to run the policy myself which is galling as I had a blemish free record for about 9 years and then it has been wiped as I haven't driven for two years.

I thought that there were companies that were bespoke - then again, I suppose that's why they have high prices.

[bigandclever]

GMCTyphoon said:

None of the temporary policies seem to cater for my specific car. They all have those little drop down menus and "GMC isn't on there.

Have you picked up the phone and spoken to some brokers?

To be honest, it all sounds a bit 'perfect storm' insurance-wise - student, no NCB, London postcode, car not stored at address, import... I can't imagine any policy is going to be cheap.

[BobTurner]

Try this lot: http://www.classiclineinsurance.co.uk/american-car...

They were also able to insure my cars while I lived in London and my cars didn't, without giving the policy a London weighting.

[GMCTyphoon]

A perfect storm indeed. I wish my NCB could be protected. I was driving in the US for a year... would that count towards my NCB still? I was with GEICO. Hmmm...

Thanks for the pointer - classicline said £599. I imagine without the NCB that is probably as low as I'll get it

[saaby93]

GMCTyphoon said:

A perfect storm indeed. I wish my NCB could be protected. I was driving in the US for a year... would that count towards my NCB still? I was with GEICO. Hmmm...

Thanks for the pointer - classicline said £599. I imagine without the NCB that is probably as low as I'll get it

Sounds good
Is that a classic policy that accrues NCD?
Not a lot of people realise they lose their NCD if they dont keep it going on something.

[long time lurker]

Try and phone some insurers, the websites won't have every car model listed (especially for odd ball motors?)

[S2Mike]

Its also something I had not considered that Classic Car policies often dont allow you to accrue NCD, the price is what you pay and thats it!

[KevinA3DSG32]

Riley Blue said:

Transfer title to your Dad, he insures it with you as a named driver. Job done, no?

Hmm, could be construed as fronting. You would have to make it clear who the main driver is as well.

[aw51 121565]

Ring Lancaster Insurance - I have two '80s classics on the road, and the one I'm not using lives on my mother in law's drive. Admittedly it's only a third of a mile away, but the postcode is different (though the risk is the same, ie grim because it's a Bolton postcode) and they seem quite happy with this arrangement.

Actually, no - ring any other classic car insurer; if I'm honest, Lancaster have dropped a few customer service/getting the basic facts right/sending important letters out to the wrong people bks in their time, but not in connection with a claim thankfully...

You won't ever get to this sort of level of detail around your quote by getting online quotes, but talking to a real human makes these things highly possible if not definitely 'do-able' (just make sure they have got every last fact noted correctly before you end the call ).

[paulrussell]

OP do you relise that everytime you uninsure the car, you'll have to SORN it?

[GMCTyphoon]

Thanks for all the input guys!

As far as SORN goes, one day I would love to have it not be SORNed It is SORNed at the moment and has been since 2007 when I decided to try and fix all the things wrong with it.

Now it is ready, I can't get it on the road!!