I have just bought a 'K' Reg (93) Golf with 62,000 miles on the clock, 1.4, 4 speed for £1995 from an independant dealer specialising in VW's.
As I am 20 (21 in just over 6 weeks), my step father suggested that I fo fot TPFT, as it would work out cheaper. I got quotes over the net for Comp. and TPFT, ranging from £2000 to £1114 for Comp. And £1500 to £890 for TPFT.
I then tried www.elephant.co.uk and for a quote for.....£711.9 Comp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It just goes to show the loading some insurance companies put on young drivers.
My advice, try www.elephant.co.uk, the money they saved on the tacky advert sure shows on the quotes!!!!
(Sorry if I sound like a elephant.co.uk employee, which I'm not. I thought I would spread the work).
The other two lowest quotes I recieved were from CIS, for £1114 and Tesco at £1250.
Cheers
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I would add a note of caution here for anyone tempted to buy insurance purely because it is the cheapest.
I am not referring to elephant.co.uk here, but I bought two car insurance policies online in July based mainly on price. The service was the worst I have ever known, from any company, and believe me that is saying something.
In the end frustration prevailed, and just last night I cancelled the policies and took out new ones with another company.
Cheapest really isn't always the best way to go.
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Quite true HF. Cheapest isn't always the best.
However, I am currently with elephant.co.uk and I must say that their service is excellent. I chose them simply because of price (VR6 and Passat Tdi both covered for £800) I am 28 years old and other insurance companies wouldn't touch me with a bargepole.
I recently got rear ended "oo er" and within a day of getting the repair quotes over to elephant, it was booked in and fixed.
Excellent service.
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I too am with Elephant, and went with them down to price - they were up to 50% cheaper than some of the prices that the AA and other 'cheap' companies quoted me!! Being 24 I'm still in that expensive bracket so I don't know if this is why I am treated really well whenever I have to call them.
I know that a friend who was with them had no problems after having an accident and they sorted everything out quickly and efficiently. Hopefully I'll never need to find out how quickly they can deal with me!! :)
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We have 3 cars in our household insured with Elephant and the cover they offer is as good as anyone else. I think that they are the internet branch (or should that be trunk) of Admiral. Running the service via the internet keeps staff costs very low so they can keep premiums low.
The best internet insurance ever was Ironsure. They charged monthly premiums and you took a chance that the premium could incease month on month. It never did and I was paying probably a third less over the year. Sadly the parent company, Iron Trades Mutual, were taken over and pulled out of motor insurance completely.
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Brokers always add a 'premium' onto their prices.
For the cheapest insuance, go to the insurance companies that actually underwrite the whole thing.
Recently, whilst being quoted by 2 insurance companies for difficult cover (needed whole of Europe including former Yugoslavia !), they both told me at the end of the whole conversation that there cover was underwritten by AXA - I rang up AXA Direct, and got the same cover for 25% less !!
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Sometimes brokers can be cheaper - for instance when a broker's client base suits an insurer, the premiums will be lower than for any random direct caller. In my case, AXA direct wanted £1500 whereas the RAC through AXA wanted only £750 - got cover cheaper than that but the principle sill stands. It just depends on who you are really...
With Elephant, be careful that the quote they give you isn't only for 10 months, not 12, and with a very high excess. It's still the best deal but £700 for ten months is more like £980 for the year. Depending where you are, you may also find that Admiral's other arm (they also own Elephant), Bell Direct, may come out very cheap for you.
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The quote I was given was for the 10 month bonus accelerator. This works out as around 850 for the whole year. The 12 month figure I was quoted was for about 790.
My excess is 400, 250 of which is voluntary.
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Don't forget that you may have to stay with Elephant to get the full benefit of the 'accelerated bonus'!
It's similar to those adverts that give you your first year's premium back after 5 claim-free years - what they don't make so obvious is that you have to stay with the same insurer for 5 years and take their premium whether it is good or bad.
The only way to get the 'best' deal (not nececcarily cheapest) is to phone around and do as many quotes that you have time to.
My renewal was 20% more than last year's premium (and that was the best I could find then) so I started ringing around again, I found an insurer that offered a lower excess, more days European cover, breakdown cover and had reduced my premium by 50% - and that's with a £3000 fault claim.
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"I then tried www.elephant.co.uk and for a quote for.....£711.9 Comp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
It would be cheaper just to use your computer to make your own insurance certificate! Elephant are terrible, I was with them last year, and have a folder of letters to and from them. The experience is akin to having bought your insurance from a bloke in a pub.
Their admin is useless, changes to the policy such as car changes are not made on their system. and if you need to make a claim, even if its a third party at fault, you may as well pee up a rope.
I took legal action and after a year got £900 compensation.
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I found a brilliant site the other day:
www.insuresupermarket.com/
here you only enter your details once, and the site goes away to all the big name cpmpanies like AXA, churchill,
AA etc. Saved over £100 on my Polo's cover!! (This was 25% cheaper!)
Warning: because the site goes away to all the other websites, it does take a while to come back with all the quotes. Well worth it for my saving anyway!
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Thanks Epic, your info was invaluable.
I used your link and my insurance went down from £302 to £173 with directline with my 4 years no claim protected (Norwich Union had no protection!) Which is about 1/2 what the cars worth...honestly I resent paying the same premium as the value of my car when full of petrol!
Elephant by the way wanted the same as my renewal with Norwich Union. Also best I could get on www.confused.com was £270.
Cheers
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