Buying insurance online

[Christ]

Hi all, the AA has just given me a great quote online... If I go ahead and buy it now through their website and they then change it (I know they will TBH its too good to be true) will I get to cancel it free or will they demand a severance fee? Or can I argue that thats the price I was quoted so thats all I want to pay? I flipping hate insurance renewal time! :p

[craig green]

If the quote is bought at that price then I fail to see how they can withdraw the offer & make you pay another price, however if they go back on something, you will have been covered in the meantime which they will then want to have been paid for. This is known as 'time on risk' & you may get shafted.

Adrian Flux tried to charge me over £200 for time on risk, for a premium on a 1200 Spi. Bearing in mind I was 27yrs old & paying approx £220 for the year!!

[Christ]

Shiot. That sounds like just the sort of thing a sneaky insurance company would do. I will maybe just ring them up and see what they say.

[Jack]

Most policies have a 14-or-so day "cooling off" period where you can cancel the policy at no cost. Check their T&Cs. Also, it should say about whether or not they can charge additional premiums there too.

Assuming all the details are correct, why would they change it?

[Christ]

Well I phoned up and they were very helpful. They quoted me £260 online, fully comprehensive. First time I have ever had fully comp, as it was half the price they wanted for 3rd party! He pointed out I hadn't chosen legal aid, so that was an extra £20 notes. Still cheaper than the cheapest provider on confused.com, and compare the meerkat.

I was expecting them to change it because whenever I have phoned the company at the top of the comparison list in the past they always come away with something like 'oh, I dont know where the computer got that figure from...bla bla bla'

One thing i noticed is the compulsory excess is £350, is that normal? seems high to me.

[Jon_nova1]

I think compulsory starts from £200 and can go anywhere upto 1K, if your insuring a low value car, your maybe better going for tpft as they could easily write the car off

[craig green]

350 excess isnt extortionate & tbh, unless your Nova is a big-money show car, why would you bother to make a claim? Liklihood is your premium would treble next time you take out a premium & the best option after an accident is to get it home & rebuild it or break it. If it got stolen you would be lucky to get back anywhere near what it owes you.*

*Assuming you dont take out agreed value.

[Ben]

i always nominate highest excess possible for reason craig has said above,

and fully comp usually is cheaper than 3rdpft due to the fact they think you care about your car more so more likely to look after it.

[rednova]

dont forget thats volountary excess - I was shocked as that goes on top of the standard excess