UKC

I currently have a car that I replaced with a van and wanted to put some short term insurance on it to bring it back onto the road for test drives etc.

Specialist insurance for two weeks is around £200 (or what I have been quoted anyway) and I can get insurance for a year for a similar price.

So, does anyone know the cheapest way to get short term insurance?

Secondly, if I insured it for a year, the company has a £26 admin fee for cancellation within the first two weeks which would bring the total cost to about £40 for that time following the rest of the premium refund.

Is this something that's okay to do? If I don't sell it then I guess I will need it insured anyway in which case the year-long quote is better value again.

Any advice on the legal side would be welcome.

Thanks,
James

In reply to James Malloch:

Last time I bought a new car and had one to sell, when I was changing insurance onto new car I asked insurer about short term cover for old one for the same purpose. They simply ran cover on both vehicles at a cost that was about double my normal rate on the old car per fortnight... They were happy to do it in one or two week increments. I suspect they might have asked questions/pulled out if things dragged on but as I sold within a few days I never had to extend what I originally agreed with them.

Seemed normal to them. I thought it would be an issue but it was far easier and cheaper than either short term cover or new policy without any NCD that you then need to cancel.

Time has passed so you may have missed opportunity but speak to them - its clearly a common scenario. My wife and I have 2 cars and a policy each, the insurer obviously felt that the risk wasn't high as we couldn't drive all 3 at once and mileage would remain similar....

In reply to Ferret:

I called my current insurer and they won't cover it unfortunately and would charge a £75 cancellation fee if I went for their annual policy. I should have just sold it straight away....

In reply to James Malloch:

Your second option is the way I would handle this. If you comply with their terms and conditions, it will be legal.

In reply to James Malloch:

If it's just for a test drive to sell it, day car insurance might be cheapest. It's been a while since I used it but I seem to remember it costing about £12 for a day's cover. It's instant so you could literally buy it just before the potential buyer went for a spin.

In reply to James Malloch:
I think I used LV when I had a hire car I needed to insure for a couple of months.
That was a normal premium but no charge to cancel early.