Insurance Information & Advice

[MrSloanes]

Well I used to work for compare the market's owners BGL group and here's some insurance info.

Excess: the higher excess does normally decrease your premium if your a younger driver, and if your car is valued at less than 1.5k it will more than likely be written off even with a minor bump so may be worth a higher excess.

Occupation: civil servant and doctors are the lowest risk occupations by a mile. Things like "Stripper, exotic dancer, sportsman etc are the highest risk for obvious reasons.

Mileage: 5000 miles is by far the lowest risk mileage and anything more/less will increase the premium. Again insurers dont expect you to give 100% exact mileage and do have some leeway however saying 5k and doing 15k will result in insurer not paying out. Dont be fooled to thinking they cant findout because they will ask for copies of MOT certs from past 2 years.

Daytime parking: work car park is the lowest risk.

Use: private and commuting is the lowest risk as car will be driven at a similar time each day and parked while your at work.

Modifications: unfortunately there is no way of reducing price increases because of mods.

NCD Protection: protected NCD allows the driver the have 2 FAULT claims in any 3 year period, this DOES NOT mean the premium wont go up the following year because it most certainly will.

Claims: Malicious Damage claims are by far the worst to have on your insurance file, so if someone does slash your tyres or paint stripper the car TRY your hardest to get fixed yourself without going through insurance as it will rocket the following year.

Access to other car: If you do have access to another car this will slightly reduce your premium as it shows them you are more comfortable in a car than someone who has only ever driven 1 car.

Convictions: as you can imagine a IN10 (no insurance) is the worst conviction other than a DR10 (Drink Driving) obviously death by drink driving etc is worse but this isnt common. CU80 (Mobile Phone) is also a horrible one to have on your licence, again all companies share a database where information is shared and you will be caught if you dont declare these if you have previously declared them with another insurer.

Use Part 2: I know a few friends who do this so basically if you earn a bit of cash on the side delivering pizza;'s etc you WILL need business class 3.

Business Class explination

Class 1: Yourself and partner to drive the car to different sites in connection with your job.

Class 2: Same as above but yourself and any other named driver

Class 3: Same as both above but for selling goods.

Any other questions, PM me and I'll see if I an help. Hope this thread helps some people.

Edited November 14, 2011 by MrSloanes

[treblet]

Thanks for changing this, also interesting to know about the business insurance classes.

[MrSloanes]

No probs, some more information related to actual jobs...

CLASS 1: So, if you work as a carer (going to peoples houses out and about) you would need business class 1, because your main site of the job is the office, and your "in connection with your job" part is the clients you need to go and care for. (This also enables your husband or wife to also use the car for the above use but for their own job as well. BUT does NOT allow other named drivers, JUST married couples)

CLASS 2: A carer who has a shared car with a work mate, both drivers are not "husband and wife" they then need business class 2 because they BOTH need to use the car for business use and are not married.

CLASS 3: A mobile PC repairman, because techically your selling services (repairing peoples pc's at their home) you need business class 3, the same applies for Delivery people who exchange cash for goods or services.

Because i worked on customer services as well as sales, beleive it or not, police do call to check what use people have when they pull over peope who are travelling between different sites etc so if you do this, make sure you have business use.

NCD TRANSFER: Husband and wife can transfer NCD from 1 to another, once transferred they can not be transferred back though. To do this, when providing proof of NCD a letter will need to accompany the NCD proof just saying you want to transfer "however many years" to the driver.

Edited November 11, 2011 by MrSloanes

[puggled]

I was a support worker (read carer) and my company insisted I had business Class 2 and I cannot see why from the above

[MrSloanes]

Nope, you just needed class 1 unless you were sharing driving duties with anyone but even if you were they would need to be on your insurance.

[Defcon5]

however saying 5k and doing 15k will result in insurer not paying out. Dont be fooled to thinking they cant findout because they will ask for copies of MOT certs from past 2 years.

How can they possibly prove it was the policy holder who did that mileage? I could drive my friends car for 18k miles using my DOC if I so wished, whilst he simply goes to the shops and back every day

Parking: as long as your property has a garage, regardless of whether you use it or not put down its parked in a garage over night as the claims people know that not many people use it every night and do NOT expect it to be parked in the garage every night. so even if something happens it won't affect your claim..

Suprisingly, it is cheaper for mine to be parked on the road, than either on the drive or in a garage

[MrSloanes]

Answering your mileage question, DOC extension is not for regular use, it's for the odd occasion, the question people are asked is "what is the estimated annual mileage of the car" not "what's the estimated annual mileage you will do in the car" so if you know a friend or whoever is going to put 10k on the mileage then it's something you need to take into consideration.

And your second part, sometimes this was the case, very rare and only normally in very low risk post codes. Lucky bugger btw lol, I say mine is at roadside and mine flies up by £100 lol

[MrSloanes]

And obviously the name "main policy holder" refers to who pays the premium not the "regular driver" whoever drives the car the most regarless of being the car owner etc HAS to be the "regular driver" on the insurance policy. Which means the premium is calculated by that persons history etx.

[Defcon5]

Ahh, I see, thanks.

And your second part, sometimes this was the case, very rare and only normally in very low risk post codes. Lucky bugger btw lol, I say mine is at roadside and mine flies up by £100 lol

From what I can gather from google, my postcode is E*, which is the second to worst isnt it?

[MrSloanes]

Na mate it doesn't work like that, it goes from hundreds of local databases, so things like, neighbours having convictions not related to driving, riots, car thefts, car damage, crashes, and more, so for instance, I was paying £430 per year at my mam's house, I moved to my own house with my misus (basically 3 streets away) and it went up by £50. I used to have people ringing to change address and were moving into the next street and it sometimes went up/down by over £100! Also a poor woman changed address moving from Birmingham to London to be closer to a hospice her husband was in and hers went up by £650 and thats no lie! It's unbelievable how much difference it can make.

[Sky Insurance]

EDIT.

A lot of what you have written is open to interpretation, again which could lead to problems when claiming, eg job occupation, you put down what you are, not a generic low risk occupation which you do not do (not saying you are advising this).

Ollie

Sky Insurance

Edited November 15, 2011 by Sky Insurance

[MrSloanes]

I haven't said I advise this, just saying what the lowest risk was. And yeah tbf I thought I had edited that other part out about the parking. I'll remove it but remove the quote as well please as others will see it.

[patroddy]

okay im looking at help on how to get the best insurance.

Im an apprentice in technical aerospace

ill be driving 60 miles a day to and from work on the motorway plus social

we have a garage but car most probs will not be kept in there as my dad usses it

and ive been told i live in a D Area Insurance

my mum and dad will help me eg go on the insurance

whats the best way

[Sky Insurance]

whats the best way

Shop around as much as possible and be truthful when answering the insurers' questions.