If I'm buying a new (2nd hand) car in Jan 24, is it better to pay monthly insurance now and get a new policy when I buy new car?

[StormWarm]

or do I get a 12 month policy and get it adjusted for the new car when I get it in Jan?
My insurance expires in a week.

It's a long time since I changed cars so can't remember what I did last time!
What do people recommend?

It makes no difference. Both will be an annual policy, you will just pay in one go or over 12 monthly payments.

Get a 12 month policy. The interest rates on the monthly ones are terrible

I was just about to say check the interest rates, I have had a couple of 0% interest policies in the past but not recently.

Yes, just get an annual policy. Whether you're talking about paying for an annual policy in monthly instalments, or getting a genuine month to month policy, it's likely to work out more expensive than a standard annual policy.

When you change your car, you'll pay a fairly trivial admin fee (this is something you should check when you buy your insurance this time - sometimes to make the policy cheaper, the admin fee for any changes is higher so don't necessarily just pick the policy that appears at the top of the comparision chart) and the policy difference for the remaining term if your new car is more expensive to insure. Or you might even get a refund if it's cheaper to insure.

Paying for your insurance monthly doesn't make it easier to switch mid-year. You still sign up for an annual policy and they give you a credit loan agreement to cover the premium in 12 instalments at a crap interest rate. The terms and conditions for making a change mid-policy aren't any better and you can't necessarily just stop paying- check the small print.

It doesn't matter

In January, you will have two options

1. Cancel the policy and get a refund on it if you haven't claimed on it if it is a yearly policy, or if it's a monthly payments, you won't pay the future payments
2. Change the existing policy to a new car for an admin fee

Whether or not, you decide to change completely to a new policy largely down to whether you have made a claim on it