Motoring Discussion > insurance query! Tax / Insurance / Warranties
Thread Author: devonite Replies: 18

 insurance query! - devonite
Next week I'm going to look at a car a good few miles away from here, if I do decide to buy it what do I do about Insurance to get it home? Do I: A)have to arrange insurance before I go to see it on the off chance I do buy it, or B) Decide to buy it then phone around to try and get some insurance to get it home? or is there a C)?

Thanks!
 insurance query! - car4play
On my insurance policy certificate it says :
"The policyholder, who may also drive, with the permission of the owner, any other separately insured private motor car not belonging to or on hire to him / her".

Basically I can drive another car with 3rd party insurance - BUT ONLY if the other car is already insured. Now I don't know if you buy a car if for that moment you take it home you are still under the other owner's insurance policy until you fill in your V5. I am sure other's here know more about these things.

When I asked my own insurance company about this they said to let them know in advance and then ring them to arrange cover, but I agree that this sucks if you are viewing a car on a Sunday afternoon when you are unlikely to get through to them.
 insurance query! - sherlock47
The easy way for all eventualities

www.aviva.co.uk/short-term-car-insurance/

but read the exclusions, and peel off the go faster stripes.

 insurance query! - Falkirk Bairn
I had 5 days "drive away insurance" when I bought my current car 4 yrs ago.
Phoned up the insurer /broker - answered their questions & they faxed the dealer with a cover note.

They then quoted me for 12 months cover @ £300+ - I currently pay £180 fully comp - so they did not get my business. The EXCESS on the free policy was high £500+ IIRC.
 insurance query! - CGNorwich
Once you have bought a car you are NOT covered by the DOC extension of your policy or the vendors's policy.

Simply ring your Insurer and add the car to your insurance BEFORE you drive it home. If they do not have a 24 hour help line ( mine does) wait until the next day

 insurance query! - henry k
>> Next week I'm going to look at a car a good few miles away from here,
>> if I do decide to buy it what do I do about Insurance to get it home?
>> ... or is there a C)?
>>
When I went to view my current car, I liked it and wanted to test drive it.
Rather than take any risks with insurance, I bought, online, a one day policy so I could test drive it without any worries. The downside was IIRC, three years ago it cost about £20.
I later sorted out the insurance before I collected it.
 insurance query! - Runfer D'Hills
I want to think you have to tax them in your name too these days before you drive it home. Might have that wrong.
 insurance query! - devonite
>>I want to think you have to tax them in your name too these days before you drive it home. Might have that wrong.

Hope you have! ;-) was thinking of taxing it when I sent the v5 to Swansea for change of ownership!

Another option is I will have to try and persuade 2 friends to come with me! - one to drive back the car we went down in, and one to drive back the purchase! - what a P.I.T.A that will be! ;-
 insurance query! - mikeyb
>> I want to think you have to tax them in your name too these days
>> before you drive it home. Might have that wrong.
>>

I believe that to be the case since the change to tax not being sold with the car.

When I bought the Lexus last year they did the tax in the morning before I picked up the car - not sure if that easy for anyone to do, or they had some system to do it
 insurance query! - devonite
Thanks for the replies, I haven't had a car for 10 years so have no existing insurance, looks like A) at the moment then ! - ring around and find if anyone can do me a "spur of the moment" cover note! ;-)
 insurance query! - Cliff Pope
I rang my current insurer the day before and set up a provisional quote, and also temporary additional cover for half a day so that I could get the other car home. Then having inspected the car and bought it, I rang the insurer with the quotation number and activated it.

You can in theory tax the new car online immediately, eg at the seller's premises. That didn't work for me, so I just drove to the nearest post office.
In practice you don't have to tax it instantly because the previous tax isn't cancelled until DVLA get the notification from the seller.
The system can surprisingly cope with two lots of tax cover at the same time - you can buy tax on a car even though it is still registered to someone else.
 insurance query! - Bobby
If you know the date you are going to see the car, then get a quote based on it now. Just did this exact exercise for my son's first car and there was £100 difference in quotes between wanting cover to start immediately and in a week's time.

So we did the quote through one of the compare sites, received the email with the quote and reference etc.

Went and viewed car and bought it. Clicked through on quote and started the insurance, went online to dvla website and taxed the car, and then drove it home.
 insurance query! - Old Navy
When I bought my car my insurance policy was half way through. I rang them and they said the difference for the new car was literally pennies but there would be a £25 admin charge to swap cars. There would be a key to key swap of cover on the designated day. I checked the ASKMID database and the new car was showing as insured and the old one not insured before I went to pick up the car so I had both insurance certificates with me.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 20 Sep 16 at 07:57
 insurance query! - Cliff Pope
>> I checked the ASKMID database and the new
>> car was showing as insured and the old one not insured before I went to
>> pick up the car so I had both insurance certificates with me.
>>

But you'd want an overlap so that you could drive the old one home as well, unless you were trading it in at the same time?
 insurance query! - Old Navy
Key to key insurance changeover means only one car is insured at a time and the insurance transfers at the key exchange. If you want both cars insured at the same time different arrangements must be made.
 insurance query! - Cliff Pope
>> Key to key insurance changeover means only one car is insured at a time and
>> the insurance transfers at the key exchange. If you want both cars insured at the
>> same time different arrangements must be made.
>>

Not with mine - Privilege. I explained what I wanted to do, and they simply extended the insurance on the old car by a day so that they overlapped.
 insurance query! - Old Navy
I didn't need that so I didn't ask, I am sure that there are a variety of arrangements that can be made. I told the insurance company what I wanted to do and they said OK and issued a certificate for the new car..
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 20 Sep 16 at 15:51
 insurance query! - devonite
I've 'phoned a couple of Co's, seems all I have to do is 'phone them on the day I go to view a car and arrange temp cover provisionally, then if I do buy the car, ring them and they will activate it, one Co' said that if I go on and insure it with them they will not charge for the day I drive it home. Sounds fair to me.
 insurance query! - Slidingpillar
When I bought the vintage car, insurance was all set up, but only started when I rang the broker to say 'I've bought it'.

Luckily I was trailing it away, as it was in the depths of Wales and I had to do about 15 miles before I got cell phone service.
Latest Forum Posts