Car Insurance - Need help please

[leonarde36]

Hi, I have a question (which turn into more) ... I searched and read more about what fees should be paid to how and in what way ... for running a car in the UK, all well and good until the third party insurance ...

My misfortune is that i only have one year since i had the license, (Romanian license) (which i'll change with the full-uk license) and i have only 19 years old.

I gave a lot of search on sites to find out how much is the insurance for me ... I woke up with amounts of 14k to 25k pounds . I find it incredible .... know there are expensive insurance (expect to 1000 pounds or so) but not 20k ...

BTW ... i;m not yet in the UK, pulling hard to move around there in the spring (2011)
I know car prices, know what I want, actually I bought a car from Leicester, England four months ago ...and drove it all the way up in Constanta , Romania(lucky i was not too well informed as i'm not actually allowed to drive abroad with less than one year experience, uninsured car, etc.).

would be happy if i will find out some hints and tips about how to reduce this aberrant prices, to go somewhere to 1,000 pounds (give an example of car BMW 520i Automatic year 1999, 2.0 engine)

I would find useful to know what are your experience with insurers (which is the cheapest, which are tips, etc.)

i will have someoane who come with me in UK (40years old , 18 years experience in driving), but in the same situation ( immigrant). I tried to bring that person as main driver and me as second driver , but .... nothing, all prices over 10k pounds

i hope to find useful info here, thanks a lot

PS: Do not recommend me to leave cars , because is my only passion and not give up on it: D

PS2: i think some of you have "kids" ( 18y , 1y experience) ... how much is the insurance for them ? dont belive they would pay 10 grands...

[Fun Bus]

Lack of driving experience in your own country let alone the UK will make you very high risk to insurers. You'd probably see the quotes come down in price if you got a more basic, smaller engined car. A 2.0 BMW won't help things.

[leonarde36]

i understand , i didn't know that the engine size affect so much the price .
i will try with 316i e36 to see if it will be reduced .
but after 1 year or 2 of driving in UK , i could drive a 328i with a reasonable insurance price?

thank you so much for replay
and wait some others

[Fun Bus]

Personally I would get something with a smaller engine size than a 316. A 328 will still be quite dear to insure after a couple of years experience.

[leonarde36]

( , fu*k , i dont find a bmw smaller than 1.6

Any 18years old car driver here on the forum ? please let a message

[Fun Bus]

Well, if it has to be a BMW then no, it won't / can't be less than a 1.6.

[sparks_E39]

Don't get a 520, it's quicker to walk, and wait till your 21 before getting a Beemer.

[dontfollowme]

Where will you be living in the UK? This will make a big difference to your insurance premium (price).

[leonarde36]

sparks_E39 said:

Don't get a 520, it's quicker to walk, and wait till your 21 before getting a Beemer.

now i have a e39 528i SE manual , purchased from Leicester ( pulls like a train ) , but is not in a good general condition , it was bought to be sold as parts in Ro .
i drove a 520i automatic and its ok for long trips 37 mpg , and i love the comfort that e39 provides .
BTW , my love is a e36 328i ( for my budget) but i was scared because of the insurance price . you dont see that i cant buy even a 520

you want to say that when i will have 21 the insurance prices will drop substantially ?

[leonarde36]

dontfollowme said:

Where will you be living in the UK? This will make a big difference to your insurance premium (price).

now i'm in the stage of planning all the move to uk , i have more to study about the uk system , and i dont know when i will rent a house... i want in the south side of england...somewhere

[sparks_E39]

Z

leonarde36 said:

sparks_E39 said:

Don't get a 520, it's quicker to walk, and wait till your 21 before getting a Beemer.

now i have a e39 528i SE manual , purchased from Leicester ( pulls like a train ) , but is not in a good general condition , it was bought to be sold as parts in Ro .
i drove a 520i automatic and its ok for long trips 37 mpg , and i love the comfort that e39 provides .
BTW , my love is a e36 328i ( for my budget) but i was scared because of the insurance price . you dont see that i cant buy even a 520

you want to say that when i will have 21 the insurance prices will drop substantially ?

The 520,523 and 528 all do the same mpg. When I turned 21 I paid about £700 to insure my 528, now its around £600. When I was 20 I was getting quotes for £2000 or more.

[leonarde36]

thanks , i know that they do almost the same mpg ... but will see what i will find to buy there. i dont want to give up with BMW ....

[leonarde36]

can you tell me some tips of what is better to say regarding the question they answer me? ( like what are the best jobs , what is the best annual millage etc , for low prices) and if in general , the insurance company verify these questions to see if im telling the truth .

i think they cant find out where i keep my car for nights or days or since when i'm an UK resident , or if my car is modified ,how much miles i make / year and so on.

[leonarde36]

bump !

[Silver993tt]

leonarde36 said:

can you tell me some tips of what is better to say regarding the question they answer me? ( like what are the best jobs , what is the best annual millage etc , for low prices) and if in general , the insurance company verify these questions to see if im telling the truth .

i think they cant find out where i keep my car for nights or days or since when i'm an UK resident , or if my car is modified ,how much miles i make / year and so on.

If you don't tell the truth and have an accident, they will check your original application. If you have lied about anything, they will refuse to pay for the accident. If someone is hurt in the accident, you will be paying a lot of money yourself, maybe for the rest of your life.

Why don't you just tell the truth whn applying for insurance?

Edited by Silver993tt on Friday 24th September 14:54

[christer]

Leo

Some of whatI am about to say is not based on personal experience so may be slightly anecdotal:

There are a lot of people here in the UK from Eastern Europe and Baltics. Quite a few of those drive their own cars over here on Latvian/Bulgarian/Romanian plates. It is permitted to do so for a limited time of course, but then the car should either go back to country of origin or re-register here. I have seen several foreign plated cars in my area regularly for a long period of time which means that it is very likely they have no insurance. If one of those cars crashes into me, I will have my insurance company sue the owner (if he has no valid insurance) but he does not have any money, has no permanent address here and disappears back to his/her country and I am left with a big bill and higher insurance costs going forward. I am not saying that all foreigners have invalid insurance, but it does happen - my neighbour knows 2 people who have been in that situation.

This is not meant to be an insulting generalism - but your question about whether insurance companies can check and verify what you have stated on your application etc. says to me that you have potentially the appalling attitude to honesty and fairness that we in Western Europe put a fair bit of value on. It may be a cultural difference - i.e. in Romania everyone screws each other over to survive because life is hard. I am not going to judge per se - but I think you can understand that if foreigners come here and have an accident and then fk off back to their country without paying any bills, or lie on their insurance papers then it is going to cause exactly what you are complaining about now.....that is to say that the only reason why a 19 year old Romanian kid will need to pay 8 times the premium that a UK kid will need to pay is because the Romanian kids predecessors (those that came before) have fked things up for you by doing what you may look to do.

If that isn't irony......beautiful.....

I am Scandinavian myself so am also technically a foreigner although I have been here for 30 years. I don't know many Scandinavians who go to someone else's country and cause (potentially) crap like this. Well, not since around 925AD

p.s. I like your passion for cars

Edited by christer on Friday 24th September 15:45

Edited by christer on Friday 24th September 15:46

Edited by christer on Friday 24th September 15:47

[sparks_E39]

I'd you can't afford to run it, don't. Hard luck. Wait for a few years, get some no claims on a crap car first, then you can have a look at bigger things. Be honest with your insurance company.

[leonarde36]

you are right , i will try to start with a smaller car for the beginning although i will miss the bimmers ... ( in uk i saw the greatest and well maintained old bimmers ever , and for cheap money )

i'm not that kind of Romanian you can imagine (and here are a lot of good people in Ro), this is why i decide to start a new life in a more civilized country.

i 'll just go to a insurer company and spoke with them there to find out the real prices ...

can you recommend me some some cheap insurers ? btw

Edited by leonarde36 on Monday 27th September 16:20

Edited by leonarde36 on Monday 27th September 16:22

[007singh]

I would get a full uk licence sorted, then if you can, do the Pass Plus course, which I think then gives upto 10% saving on insurance (but dont take my word for it, just what I have heard).

Once you get that, get a small car - like a 1.1 or 1.3 Fiesta, and get insurance from someone who does a bonus building scheme, where you buy 10 months of insurance and earn 1 years of no claims. That will help slightly to reduce costs going forwards.

As for cheap car insurance, check out deals on comparethemarket.com or confused.com

Also, increasing your excess will have some impact on the premium, but dont forget that you will need to pay the excess in any fault claims that you may make.

[leonarde36]

good idea with the pass plus , have you any idea how much is the pass plus training ?