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According to Martin Lewis yesterday on television, the premium for third party insurance can sometimes be higher than for comprehensive. It's to do with how insurance companies view the apparent attitude of drivers towards their car. Those who think that their car isn't worth enough to insure at more than third party can be a higher risk. He recommended getting quotes for both comprehensive and third party before choosing.
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For once the self-righteous prat (Martin Lewis, not L'es) is right. That was my experience with the two cheap cars I've owned in recent years.
Last edited by: Manatee on Tue 20 Mar 12 at 08:58
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I cant pick holes in the thinking. Most of the big money lost is in personal injury claims.
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Certainly on lower value vehicles I've owned in the past (<£1500), I've found the difference between Third Party and Comprehensive to be surprisingly small, sometimes as little as £20 pa. I suppose this is reasonably logical when you think about it, as insurers will generally automatically write off vehicles of this value in the event of all but the most cosmetic damage, and then make stupidly low offers by way of recompense. The value of the insured vehicle is generally irrelevant (fire and theft aside) in terms of the risk when insuring with Third Party cover, but could have a big impact on a claim value for a fault accident with Comp cover.
I've never had a cheaper quote for Comprehensive than Third Party mind, but the reasoning sounds logical enough.
Last edited by: DP on Tue 20 Mar 12 at 09:19
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Last year my 2nd (13 yr old and low value) car was £147 Comp - £100 excess,
3rd party F&T from same insurer was £177 (IIRC)
This year Comp was £177 - never tried the 3rd party route.
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Old news.
February 21st, 2008
money-watch.co.uk/3929/how-can-fully-comprehensive-insurance-be-cheaper-than-3rd-party
August 18, 2009
www.fastcarinsurance.co.uk/news/test/
Third party car insurance more expensive than fully comprehensive
www.moneysupermarket.com/c/news/why-more-car-insurance-can-cost-less/0009690/
>> ... self-righteous prat (Martin Lewis, ... >>
Do you feel threatened by (or inferior to) him?
;)
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A lad I've been working with lately has just passed his test and bought a 52-plate Rover 25.
(Interestingly that puts him in almost exactly the same position as I was 22 years ago - When I passed in 1990 I bought a 1981 Austin Allegro!)
He found Comprehensive cover cheaper than TPFT, although it's still costing him over £200 a month for 10 months (with 12 months' NCB issued at the end of it).
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Policies that ask for annual mileage can make a difference with the premium too, depending on what figure you give them.
My sister recently asked me to get some online quotes for her, based on doing 1000 miles a year.
When I changed the annual mileage figure to 5000 instead of 1000 miles, the quotes became cheaper.
She couldn't understand this and the only explanation I could give is that as she's a low mileage driver, insurance companies class her as a higher risk because of having less driving experience.
I would imagine the same applies to high mileage drivers as being on the road more often means you're more likely to have an accident.
I tend to put 10,000 miles down, and changing it 2 or 3,000 miles either side of that figure can make a small difference in the premium with some insurers.
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This does seem to vary drastically between insurers; when I went from 10K to 30K per year, some quotes nearly doubled and some hardly changed.
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Sometimes I wish it was the former :-/
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Third party versus comprehensive - Manatee
