Yet another insurance thread

[utgjon]

...well, as the title suggests, the underlying theme of this thread is insurance.

I own, and have owned for a little over a year, an Alfa Romeo GTV. It is my pride and joy.
In November last year, I elected to store it for the winter, SORN'd it etc.

Now that the sun is peeking through the clouds, I've been thinking more and more about getting it back out on the road and having it as a second car that's used for weekends away, trips to country pubs in the summer...that sort of thing.

So today, I rang round a few insurers intending to pay a £3-400 for a 2500-mile policy. I thought that was 'fair' considering I'm only 23...but taking into account that last year i'd paid £875 for a 7500-mile policy.

Unfortunately, the average price was about £1800.
Adrian Flux (my current insurer on my other vehicle) did halve that, but it's still out of my price range.

Alas, with no way of insuring the car, I am forced to sell it as I don't want to see it rot away.

I am completely gutted.

I worked so hard to buy it (6-day weeks most weeks), and it was my 'reward' to myself for getting through a tough few years. I kept it in immaculate condition, cleaned it obsessively, and took great pride in owning it...It was my daily driver, and I used to be excited to get up in the morning and drive to work! Going to the shops was an event, and I'll not even start on the days spent exploring Northumberland's back-roads...and now it's all gone.

The reason for the ludicrous quotes?
Fraud & Personal Injury claims.
(I took the time to actually chat to one of the salespeople about why policies had gone up)

For those of you who got bored with that rather depressing tale, here's a picture:



For all you fking ambulance chasers and pathetic layabouts claiming whiplash for a 1mph tap, here's another:

[OwenK]

Sorry to hear it - it's all far too familiar isn't it.

Any chance of mirroring a NCB, or classic policy, anything like that to bring it down?

Worst comes to worst, do what I always end up doing - break it down to a day by day cost. It's say £500 more than you expected to insure it - would you be happy to pay £1.36 a day extra to keep your Alfa and drive it?

Maybe justify it to yourself by not paying to park at work or something to that effect - or skip one or two takeaways a month?

Put it this way - in my opinion, unless it's going to mean you can't put food on the table next week, then go for it. We seem to spend far too much time in our lives being depressed over not being able to afford things when in reality the money having been spent wouldn't have influenced our daily lives at all - except for the joy you'd get every day from your little car, even if you haven't driven it for a week, just seeing it on the driveway. That's if you're anything like me, that is.

Life's too short, mate.

Edited by OwenK on Thursday 21st April 19:08

[Boba Fret]

try Chris Knott (they do the AROC cover scheme) or Direct Line.

[utgjon]

OwenK said:

Sorry to hear it - it's all far too familiar isn't it.

Any chance of mirroring a NCB, or classic policy, anything like that to bring it down?

Worst comes to worst, do what I always end up doing - break it down to a day by day cost. It's say £500 more than you expected to insure it - would you be happy to pay £1.36 a day extra to keep your Alfa and drive it?

Maybe justify it to yourself by not paying to park at work or something to that effect - or skip one or two takeaways a month?

True.

No company i called (5 companies, all specialist brokers) would consider it for a classic policy either due to:

a) it's too young
b) i'm too young

And no-one will mirror my NCB until i'm 25.

...i could think of it like you've said...but in the end, i'll be paying a total (incl. running the golf) of £2400pa in car insurance. That's £200pcm without accounting for APR! With fuel at it's current rate, i simply can't afford it. maybe i couldn't afford it in the first place, i don't know?

[freakynessless]

try...

admiral multi car
temporary insurance - could work out quite expensive though
redcue the level of cover and strip it of all the extras on the alfa
if you can justify it, try reducing the cover on your daily driver
Bit extreme, but would you consider changing your daily driver to reduce your overall costs?

[utgjon]

freakynessless said:

try...

admiral multi car
temporary insurance - could work out quite expensive though
redcue the level of cover and strip it of all the extras on the alfa
if you can justify it, try reducing the cover on your daily driver
Bit extreme, but would you consider changing your daily driver to reduce your overall costs?

- took me a long time to negotiate a quote on the current DD that wasn't ludicrous (car in very dodgy area...) and i was actually finding that TPFT was even more expensive?!?!

- policy was bare bones for the alfa

- reluctant to change the DD, as it's worth next to nowt and i'd not get anything good for the cash. better the devil you know etc.

- does multi-car cover multiple addresses? the alfa is to be kept at a different (far more safe and respectable) address.

- temp insurance is a distinct possibility, but tax is the problem there. can't have a taxed vehicle with no insurance ;-)

[thenorth]

dont give up just yet, shop around heres the list i use to insure mine, normally end up battling two insurers against each other...

Admiral 0800 600 800 http://www.admiral.com/
Adrian Flux 01553 777 240 http://www.adrianflux.co.uk/
A-Plan 0845 071 123 http://www.aplan.co.uk/
AXA 0800 015 4292 http://www.axa-motor.co.uk
Bell Direct 0800 140 180 http://www.belldirect.co.uk/
Bugdet 0800 028 9044 http://www.budgetinsurance.com/
Churchill 0800 200 331 http://www.churchill.com
Cis 08457 464646 http://www.cis.co.uk/
Cornhill Direct - various numbers http://www.cornhilldirect.co.uk/
Crowthorne Insurance 01344 771626 http://www.crowthorne.co.uk
Direct Line 0845 246 8701 http://uk.directline.com/
Elephant 0870 6080668 http://www.elephant.co.uk
Endsleigh 0800 028 3571 http://www.endsleigh.co.uk
Footman 0121 651 6250 http://www.footmanjames.co.uk
Graham Sykes 0870 444 6319 http://www.graham-sykes.co.uk/
Greenlight 01277 263 030 http://www.greenlight-insurance.co.uk/
HIC - 08451 290 290
Keith Michaels 0181 642 7868 http://www.keithmichaels.co.uk
Liverpool Victoria 0800 514 514 http://www.liverpoolvictoria.co.uk
More Than 0800 072 4186 http://www.morethan.com
Motor Quote Direct 0800 48 44 33 http://www.motorquotedirect.co.uk/
Nash Warren 0121 561 4484 http://www.nashwarren.co.uk/
Norwich Union 0870 242 0800 http://www.norwichunion.com/
Peart 0870 240 2972 http://www.peart.co.uk/
Peoples Choice 0800 614 824 http://www.peopleschoice.co.uk/
Performance Direct 08704 203896 http://www.performancedirect.co.uk/
Privilege Insurance 0113 292 5555 http://www.privilege.com/
Quinn Direct 0845 850 0845 http://www.quinn-direct.com/
QuoteLine Direct 0870 444 0870 http://www.quoteline-direct.co.uk/
RAC 0845 3000 755 http://www.rac.co.uk
Sainsburys 0800 032 0000 http://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/insurance/
Tesco 0845 300 9900 http://www.tesco.com
The AA 0870 606 0483 http://www.theaa.com
Hastings Direct 0800 00 1066 http://www.hastingsdirect.com
Esure 0845 603 7873 http://www.esure.com
Halifax 0845 608 9913 http://carinsurance.halifax-online.co.uk
Eagle Star 08459 45 45 67 http://www.eaglestar.co.uk
Lloyds TSB 0800 056 3040 http://www.insurance.co.uk
Screen Trade 0800 435 207 http://www.screentrade.co.uk
Its4me 0870 0131 464 http://www.its4me.co.uk/
The Insurance Centre 0709 2511050 http://www.theinsurancecentre.co.uk
Quote-A-Car 08707 709075 http://www.quotea.co.uk/quotea/default.asp
Noel Dazely 0870 04 666 04 http://www.noeldazely.co.uk/