A pickle [Car insurance]

[Gray]

Right well as you all know with my current circumstances [My dad passing away none too long ago] ive been holding off on doing small things, one of which is relating to car insurance.

Now, its been 3 weeks since he passed away, and im not terribly sure if im "legal" to drive my car because of the car insurance, i have no idea whether its still active or whether or not its been voided due to his death.

Someone has told me usually you have a week or two to get the car insurance sorted in such events occuring, although im not really sure if this is the case, the paperwork has been up in the air. My mum managed to find her car insurance [She was under his insurance too] however there is a bit of difficulty as to finding my policy.

Obviously i cant ask him where it is, which is making it a bit more difficult too, the only information i have at present is that it was running up until July 2007 [I purchased the car in 2006] and its part of the Swinton Insurance team.

I filled out an online quota with them yesterday, and i almost cried at the amount they where asking for. But i dont really know if i completed it right, since the online insurance forms are all the same basically, i dont know if im filling it in correctly [and thus maybe messing up the pricing]...

Who is going to drive the car: [Insured only: Me] ?
Years held licence [2001 : 5-6years]
No accidents / convictions etc

Est. Annual Milage: I have absolutely no idea what to enter here
Value of car: I bought this for £2000?
How long have i had the car: Less than a year [July 2006]
Now the bit which confuses me
Who is the actual owner of the car: Now, im pretty certain my dads name is the one who bought it.. Im fucked if i know though
and
"registered keeper": This im not sure of either
No extra security fitted

And finally

I dont know what cover i should be aiming to get, third party/fire/theft? or fully comp? and as i have not built up my own no-claims that maybe a fucker too.

So basically:

Car is a BMW 316i, P-Reg, 1.6
Purchased £2000 in July 2006

This is going to hurt so much.. i can feel it..

But im so confused -.-

 

[Calaen]

Surely the insurance cannot be that expensive

 

[Tom]

Registered keeper will be on the V5.

Owner - if your Dad bought and paid for it, he owned it. Now hes gone, assuming everything went to your Mum, she owns it now.

Estimated mileage - do just that. If you over-estimate, phone them and correct it. Same if you under-estimate, phone them immediately. Most people will do 12,000 in a year.

As for the cost of insurance, suck it up and pay. Its only for a year or two, after that it will drop dramatically as you build your no-claims up. Make sure you get protected no-claims as well.

 

[Calaen]

I went through the Rac my first time and they actually took the date I had my provisional from rather than my full licence.

All of the companies are different, Rac tried to charge me over 2k this year for my insurance because they have still not claimed back a payment which is owed them from somone that drove into the back of me. Elephant however took the details of the accident and my insurance cost was only £700 pound. I have only been driving over 1 and a half years as well.

 

[Gray]

How would i work out annual milage? This is where i fucked up on it i think, because i put an extortionate amount in by accident, not wholly relising it until last night.

Now, for me personally, i just use the car for work and maybe small trips around the town, work is approx 6 miles away, so doing that there and back would be 12 miles, then times that by the number of approx days?

So that would be 5 days then... then times that by the number of weeks in the year? Now, to me that comes out at a small amount of under 1000 miles, which is most likely right due to the nature of the driving.

But could it be right? Hm..


/edit

Well, i did the insurance thing again with approx 1000 miles, and it brought the insurance down to £1500, that sounds a bit better to be honest

 

[Tom]

Don't you have an odometer? If you think you only do 1000 miles a year, just tell them that. Then all you have to do is if you exceed those 1000 miles, phone them up and tell them. Its really that simple.

Where are you getting your quotes btw?

 

[Gray]

I first checked Swinton, which is whom my current insurance is with at the moment

 

[Calaen]

Elephant tbh

actually Rac were really good to me aswell. I cannot really work out paying a grand for a car double the price when you have been driving over 5 years seems a bit steep.

 

[Tom]

Ok. Don't bother with confused.com or any of that nonsense. Phone around. It never fails.

Try this lot, this is who I'm with:

http://www.peart.co.uk/

They're a good company, IIRC they took my IAM membership into account when quoting, and while they're not the cheapest (by 10 or 20 quid), their service is very good.

 

[Gray]

Earlier on when i spoke to my current [Dads current] insurance it confused me a bit, since the main reason for obviously calling was to ensure that while im driving at the moment, im current "legal" [or insured] to drive my car.

I got the sense that the person i was speaking too didnt exactly know the answer to it, but she said i was fine to use my dad's current insurance policy up until July of this year [When this insurance expires] i was a bit *buh* about that, but thats what she said.

On one site i look to have been quoted approx £700, which wasnt too bad, that looks like its the amount im paying at the moment however the quote i was given by the woman on the phone of my current insurance was £1500, she said there wouldnt be much chance of getting that any lower.

I was given a choice of keeping on the current insurance until July, or cancelling off my dad's insurance and then getting a refund of approx £300 for the months remaining im undecided at the moment, maybe i'll phone around tomorrow but my first port of call is to get the car registered in my name, as its down as my dads at the moment, ive spoken to the DVLA who said to just fill in the V6 [or V5? eep] form and that'll sort it.

At the end of the call, the woman requested that i send her the insurance certificate, and i think this is where im going to get stuck, when i was looking through the paperwork which i had for my car, it had an envelope which was nicely called "Insurance Cert". Bingo i thought.

When i opened it up however, it come up under a "Bradford-Penine Insurance" which has completely thrown a spanner in the works, because thats not the name of the company. This piece of paper isnt filled in, and judging by the date of where you fill it in, it says "19_ _" meaning its out of date. Shit.

The current insurance guys said they cant do anything without this certificate though, fuck fuck -.-

 

[Tom]

You complete the appropriate section of your existing V5, takes 2 minutes. You then tear that section out and send it off to the DVLA, no payment required, a few weeks later they'll send you a new V5 and you chuck the remains of the old one away.

The insurance certificate may have a different name as they will be the underwriters of your policy. Your policy will have been brokered by the company you're dealing with now.

Oh, and they're just being lazy. They have copies of the insurance certificate right there. Its on a computer database accessible by the police with a moment's notice, so tell them to get their arses in gear and send you a replacement certificate. If they know your name and address, and have your details, they can send you a new certificate. Don't take no for an answer.

 

[Gray]

I managed to get the insurance certificate yesterday if i recall which is all good, it means im no longer really stuck on this.

I did do a brief glance again on confused.com and i did happen to find one insurance company who made it to be £300 cheaper than the rest - namely making the insurance £750 as apposed to £1000+

Before all this was transpiring i was actually in the process of thinking of getting a new car, something cheaper than the BMW, but maybe this place - Lancaster Insurance - was who i possibly needed.

No decision has been made yet, however when im doing individual quotes, the same thing keeps popping up:

Type of work. It gives the option to select an "Occupation" to which i set it to Customer Service, then i get type of business which throws me off completely. Some sites allow you to enter details in manually, but some give you a list and non of them make sense as to the business im working under. Gah.

Also, whats the difference between Fully Comp and 3rd party/fire/theft? Does it make insurance cheaper and whats the downfalls/upfalls?

 

[Vae]

Fully Comp covers damage to your car if there's an accident. 3rd party/fire/theft only covers damage to other people's cars + theft of your car + your car if it goes up in smoke.

 

[Tom]

Make sure the policy includes legal expenses cover.

 

[Gray]

Hm, it doesnt mention anything about legal stuff, apart from:

The price is £ 742.80
Or Pay by Direct Debit with a Deposit of £ 148.56 and then 10 Monthly Payments of £ 66.85

This price includes Insurance Premium Tax of £ 34.00, legal benefits at £ 16.80, administration fee of £ 12.00.
The adminstration fee and legal benefits are non-refundable upon policy cancellation.

Dont think thats it though?

Also what is "Voluntary excess"? oooh ohh

 

[leggy]

You can usually specify a sum of money greater than the compulsory excess. This is called voluntary excess and usually reduces your premium.

'legal benefits' is a bit cloudy though. Check the website for a copy of the Terms and Conditions to find out exactly what legal benefits will. It should cover court costs in the event that the dispute goes to court.