CAR INSURANCE - what do I actually need?

[Rivercam]

My car insurance is due for renewal. I've just gone on a comparison site and done a comparison, and have cheaper quotes. However, I'm slightly nervous about changing incase I omit something important.

What do I actually need? For an 10'year old, small car, what is reasonable or expensive to pay?

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Nobody can say what a reasonable premium would be because it depends on individual risk factors, including postcode, age, driving history.
What you need as a minimum is comprehensive insurance cover with legal protection. You might want to adjust your excess depending on what you will be able to pay in event of a claim and you might want to consider windscreen cover.

That's good advice

Make sure if you go through a comparison site that it still includes the cover you need (I was reading a few years ago some insurance magazines) and it was notable that sometimes covers/excesses got dropped/increased to reduce the price, by the site, but people buying didn't notice until it was later and they needed to make a claim.

you must have at least third party cover by law - but fully comprehensive is often cheaper. If you only have third party, you'll get nothing if your car is damaged.

you should have at least third party, fire and theft - any car can catch fire, any car can be nicked.

most insurance is offered by just a few firms with hundreds of different trade names, so I would ignore the 'brand'. Play with the excess, look at change fees if you will be moving house/changing car in the year, think if you need a courtesy car.

look at the excess
look at the mileage limit
look at whether it covers you for any work mileage
look at whether it covers you for going abroad

in my case, the cheap prices are useless

What value is the car? At 10 years old it's value may not be that much, so try to be realistic with what that figure is. Also be realistic on how much you drive it, less driving miles can sometimes mean a lower premium. Look at where it is parked, in a garage? On street? Different risks.

At a minimum I would have Third Party Fire and Theft plus Legal Expenses. I would not bother with loan car or child car seats cover.

Consider going via a broker, such as Aplan, Swinton, a specialist broker for the field in which you work, or a local broker. They may be able to find policies from big insurers which the comparison companies do not list.

Given age of car, a high level of breakdown cover is something I would have, so in the event of a problem you can get recovery back to home.

I looked on Autotrader. I reckon it's value is around £1800 - £2000. I fill up every 10 days to 2 weeks, so probably do around 500 miles a month. I was going to put around 7500 for annual mileage.

(I seem to like to like the word 'Around' in this post!)