Car insurance...I mean WTAF?

[ColouringIn]

I am in the process of trying to insure my car which is a real old one. It's from 1998 and cost me a grand total of £250 on eBay! It belonged to an elderly man and had done less than 50k from new.

I am a Carer for my son who is autistic with ADHD, as such a car is vital for me but this £250 car is the best I can afford.

The costs of insuring it are driving me mad though.

Given that the bloody car is only worth £200 according to their valuation stuff the quotes I am getting are sky high. Anything from £350 with like £100 deposit (as I obviously just have a spare £100 lying about ) to £1500 .

The third party quotes are even higher!

Cheapest I can find is esure/Sheila's Wheels which for various reasons declines me as soon as I try to buy from them..their site goes all the way through the process and then tells me that they can no longer offer me cover just as I get to the screen before paying.

I mean WTAF is going on here.....I am sick of trawling the price comparison sites to find the deposits are sky high or that my car is too lowly for them to even sniff at.

AIBU to think they are just taking the piss.?

Bastards!

It's usual to have an upfront payment though. Probably covers the start up costs of the policy.

i have 10 years ncd on a laguna 1.7 & its £580. I only do about 7,000 miles and its an old car. wish mine was cheaper :)
I do think insurance company's take the piss though. as a new driver I only paid £450 a year so its gone up with 10 years ncd

When I changed my car, Admiral quoted me over £800, Liverpool Victoria £400. Mad.

I do have "much to complain about" when the deposit will make life very hard though.

I accept I am being unreasonable about the actual policy cost....so many factors.

Why does a policy which is £350 need more than 10% up front?

Might ring a few of these companies and see if they can adjust this.....and try Dirct Line and Aviva too.

£300? sounds brilliant

DH is 27 and was learning to drive, we need a 7 seater to fit us all in and we couldn't get insurance for under £6000!! yes six thousand!!

So we can't drive :(

Iirc, Churchill let's you set it up got equal no hot instalments on direct debit without requiring a deposit upfront, try them.

£6000!!! that's so over the top

Bloody he'll. FOR EQUAL MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS!

I know, its because hes a male, and needed a 'big' car, the cheapest was 'insure the box' where they fit a box in the car to track your usage,, but we had saved £3000 for everything inc lessons, tests, theory and the car and insurance... no chance :(

I got an interest free credit card just for my car insurance. Cheaper than playing monthly.

I don't know if that is an option?

remember you aren't paying for the value of your car, you are paying for the day you might crash into a rolls royce.

OP, did you state that the car was worth £250 when getting the quote? There is a hypothesis (I haven't seen any stats) that insurers experience more claims from people with very cheap cars because they don't care as much about them as if they'd sunk several thousand into one. This may also contribute to comprehensive cover sometimes being cheaper than third party only.

If you can legitimately state the market value of the car (what it would be to replace it, rather than what you paid for it) as more like £1000-£1500 then you might find the quotes are a bit lower.

As an aside, I know it's mandatory on insurance discussions on the Internet but it's just reinforcing a complete falsehood, so please can everyone stop with this rubbish and learn the reality: "why, oh why, should I pay more in insurance premium than my car is worth?!"

"Because you are paying to cover potentially writing off that £300,000 supercar you might just hit. Or that person who you are going to permanently disable so they need 24 hour personal care for the rest of their natural life."

Largest payout in the UK:
"The cyclist was severely injured in the accident and totally lost the use of his right arm, suffers constant double vision, is registered partially blind and needs round-the-clock care.

The 39-year-old was left unable to work, drive or cycle and has been awarded £14 million, the largest compensation payout ever made in the UK.

...

The previous largest personal injury claim in the UK saw the victim awarded £11.15m after he was a passenger left paralysed by a former friend in a car accident."

Seems like a bargain now, right?

Everytime I have changed insurance companies I have had to pay 2 months installments upfront as a deposit.

Pretty sure that's the case for everyone unless paying it as a lump sum.

How will you afford road tax and petrol etc or breakdown costs?

Try the Farmers Union, they have a different outlook than other companies. And no, you don't have to be a farmer

Try the Co Op too. I have been with them for several years as they have remained the cheapest for me.

£300? Snap their hands
Off

Ignore if you know all of this, but:

Have you put in the lowest accurate annual milage?
If it's parked on the street, is it at all possible to beg a neighbour for a space on their drive/garage? I used to park mine on my neighbour's drive and it went down loads from being on the street because of the lesser risk of vandalism (apparently).

I wish I could think of others. Car insurance is a bomb, it's not fun.

Have you tried Privilege? I pay about 220 (plus I add a bit for protected no claims) and that is fully comp for a 5 year old car with no excess at all. Although that is in a low crime area, which i suppose might make a difference. Worth a try maybe?

Ooh yes, good point- mine is limited to 10,000 miles per year which also drops it down too. Def worth asking about that if you don't use it much?

OP, I renewed my car insurance recently, and rather oddly, I found that the premium decreased when I reduced the amount that I would pay as a voluntary excess. Presumably there was something wrong with their system, but it might be worth a try!

I paid £194 for the year.:)

10,000 miles is a shedload, IMO. If the car is a normal runaround there is no way you'll do that much in a year. So it is worth thinking about.

Fakebook, where did you get your £900 insurance, please? I've also only been driving a year, but the cheapest I could find was £1200!!

You can't really complain about the cost of car insurance when you have got a pretty cheap quote. It's your own finances that are the problem.
sorry for your troubles and all, but it sounds like you can't afford to run a car. If you can't find 80 quid for the insurance deposit, what will you do if you need repairs, or even a new tyre or two?

Flow4 mine was 900 too with diamond on comparethemarket. It is parked off the street though and I'm old.

The reason that they charge a deposit up front is to stop people using it for temporary insurance and then cancelling it.

Thanks YouBroke :) I'm old too, but mine's on the street... And got vandalised, though I didn't claim for it... I wonder whether that's what did it?