UKC

Hi Everyone,

Just got into England from New Zealand and wanting to buy a van to travel around in

Been looking at insurance, I know its expensive.... but keen for some recommendations as to the best/cheapest when on a foreign driver licence.....

any help/advice would be hugely appreciated!

In reply to NZClimber:

Have you built up a No Claims Bonus in NZ? If so, I suggest that you get a letter confirming how many years from your existing insurers to wave at UK companies. 6 years NCD could get you a discount of up to 60% if the UK companies accept it. Certainly worth investigating.

Quotes are varying all the time - try some of the on line price comparison sites.

http://www.gocompare.com/ps/car/car-insurance/comparison.aspx?PST=1&Med...

Good luck.

In reply to Trangia:

sadly (in a way) back home I had a company vehicle for the past 3-4 years so no personal insurance records

looked at a price comparison site and the best offer was over 3000 pounds for 3rd party..... which seems a bit over the top for a 900 pound van

In reply to NZClimber:

It's not really anything to do with what your vehicle is worth when you're 3rd party. They're more thinking about the the cost and likelihood of the car you smash into.

In reply to NZClimber:

Get quotes for fully comprehensive as well.
Used to be that tpft was cheaper but not always the case these days.

In reply to NZClimber:

Has it got to be a van? A big estate car or a people carrier type would cost hundreds not thousands

In reply to NZClimber:
Putting someone else on the insurance as an additional driver used to reduce premiums if you have low risk mates. Not sure it still applies but worth asking.

In reply to NZClimber:

£3k is a lot, you must have ticked too many bad boxes. The 3k will be a years insurance, pay by the month as getting a refund after say six months can be a nightmare..

Try an insurance broker, it won't cost anything unless you buy a policy, and they can advise on getting the annual premium down.

Depends on how long you are travelling, but it may be worth passing a UK driving test or hiring a van ( negotiate for a long term hire ).

HTH

In reply to NZClimber:
Van insurance can be expensive because they tend to be driven by nutters who have more than an average number of crashes. There are quite a lot of cars that are essentially vans with rear seats but could well be cheaper to insure eg. small van size, Citroen Berlingo/Peugeot Partner, medium van size, Ford Galaxy/Seat Alhambra/VW Sharan.

Insurance can also depend a lot on your address, if you're not actually living here in your own house do you know anyone who lives in a nice safe area who's address you could use as your nominal UK base (for insurance purposes)?

Alternatively at £900 to buy + £3000 to insure couldn't you just hire a van if you're not here for too long?

In reply to NZClimber:

It may be too late now, what with being over here etc, but some insurance companies will accept a letter of some form from an employer (or from their insurers) stating your equivalent No Claims... i.e. 'Person X was a member of a Company scheme with access to a vehicle between X and Y dates, with no insurable incidents'.

Common situation coming off a company scheme and needing to start insuring for yourself again....

In reply to NZClimber:

Get a van that is registered as a 'motorhome', they're much cheaper to insure. Alternatively, get a normal van, and check out brokers who specialise in self build campervan insurance. They will give you 3 to 6 months grace for conversion time, and it's still cheaper than normal van insurance. If at the end of your 3/6 mth period it hasn't ben converted, no probs, just sell it and move on.

In reply to NZClimber:

A lot of insurers will assume that because you drive a van it must be a work vehicle and therefore will try to sell you a commercial policy - it is beyond comprehension to them that anyone would choose to drive a van for normal domestic/family use over a car.

Getting it insured on a domestic policy will probably reduce premiums considerably, which so long as you don't use it as a work van will be absolutely fine. Depending on your job title (eg electrician) they may assume that you are a lying and will be using it for business use, so refuse to offer a domestic policy - so a little creativity with your job title suggesting that it's more office based may make you more likely to get cover, but again some insurers won't touch vans.

We use comparison sites.

In reply to NZClimber:

This company has given me really good prices, the excess can be high though . http://www.octagoninsurance.com/van-insurance/ they don't always show up on comparisons sites . Worth getting a quote from .

In reply to NZClimber:

Another vehicle to consider is a Land Rover, either a old Series or a 90 or 110. I have had several in the past and they are surprisingly cheap to insure because repair costs are inexpensive - bit like a meccano set, you can just bolt bits on, the odd dent is irrelevant. They are not renowned for high performance, so don't appeal to the "boy racer" market, but are robust and ideal for camping/climbing - particularly in the Highlands in winter.

I used to insure with the NFU (National Farmers Union) who were very competitive.

In reply to Trangia:
Old defenders can be expensive to buy, but will quickly sell for the same or more. As you say, usually driven by people who don't claim if they ding a bumper so premiums are lower.

Have a think about the size of the excess, a massive excess can cut premiums down and if you create a massive massive claim then paying a grand towards it is still pretty cheap .

In reply to NZClimber:

Always ask for a quote for fully comprehensive first. If you ask for 3rd party fire & theft first, then ask for fully comp they bump the price of the fully comp up.
Have a look on comparison sites then go to the website of the cheapest and get a quote direct from them. It'll take £50-100 off the comparison site quote.
Finally, ring a few insurance companies up and ask them to better the last quote you had.

In reply to NZClimber:

Thanks for all the advice guys, I will get onto it on monday! hopefully something decent comes together