Insurance - how much, you decide

[bluevenetian]

I know insurance rates have been going up, but even thus forewarned I was a bit surprised. So anyone want to hazard a guess - from lowest to highest what my quoates for
For background the car is a 1995 w124 estate
In terms of insurance pros and cons --

I'm nearly 44, live central London , but have secure offstreet parking. Drive less than 4,000 miles a year, no driving convictions in last five years and have never made a car insurance claim in the 20 odd years I've been driving.


The major downside is that for the last 10 years I've been using classic car policies. These policies don't accrue a no claims bonus. Its never been a problem before because these policies have always been relatively cheap. However my latest quote for renewal on a classic policy has just come in at 460 pounds.

So I thought, "maybe now is the time to get back into normal insurance" and I went for a few quotes.

Unfortunately when the box comes up asks "how many years no claims" I have to tick zero

Despite talking to brokers and trying to explain about my driving background, not one will treat my driving experience as anything other than zero years no claims.

So, anyone want to hazard a min and max quote I got?

 

[tali]

My brother is similar to you in your details -cheapest he could get for his 2001 Yaris 1.3 was £462 -that's with 11yrs NCB
That's pretty ****ty -dunno how that compares with your quotes-but i would be surprised if they were worse

 

[Primo]

You will need to get a letter from your existing insurers stating the inclusive dates of your claim free driving experience. I would be really surprised if any half decent customer focused broker couldn't get you a quote allowing a maximum NCD on that basis. Don't ask for a letter until you have got the quote that you want to accept, just in case they have a particular wording that they want used.

You may need to pay over the odds in the first year simply to get your claim free experience converted to NCD, but you will be home free thereafter.

Try harder!

 

[hotrodder]

I went through this a couple of years ago when i bought my 320te, no claims had expired as i'd been using classic policies and whereas in the past it was easy to get an 'introductory bonus' when my no claims was in use on a different vehicle or the like none of the usual suspects were having any of it, not interested in proof of claim free years or anything

No claims or convictions ever, 34 years old, SE London parked on a drive i was initially getting quotes ranging from £700 ish upto several grand and several 'no quotes' due to lack of bonus

In the end a broker (2nd or third i tried) sorted me out with a '5 years introductory bonus' on an otherwise expensive policy which ended up costing around £400 but come renewal time that bonus dropped to the one year i'd 'earnt' as it was a special offer and that underwriter was one of those that dropped car policies. Policy this year with Admiral, i did several rounds of the comparison sites (price improving a little each time) before hitting the phone, ended up paying around £380ish IIRC

As said try harder, umpteen phone calls (many of them ) and you'll eventually find something acceptable

 

[AlanD]

DirectLine can be more flexible in my experience - they were willing to give my wife 5 years NCD when she had none herself (just a named driver on my car when we only had the one).

 

[del320]

Well, when I was trying to reduce my premium the other day, (see here) I initially neglected to enter my NCD. AA quoted £960 . Reinstating the NCD brought it back to a more palatable £212 - which is no more than I would expect you to pay.

Otherwise, how long is a bit of string?

 

[bluevenetian]

Top quote was just over 3,000 pounds -- AA came in at about 2,800 -- all the way down to 520 from Admiral and Elephant

So this year marks the start of me driving on "proper grown up insurance".