Expensive Insurance!!

[rotor]

Hi guys,

I love the forum! Am not yet a GTI owner, but very keenly looking (you could say obsessively).

The topic of my first post is insurance costs. I've seen a few posts where people mention paying £250 for insurance, and my question is HOW?

I am from New Zealand, and have been in the UK for just under two years, and so far haven't owned a car here. I have a full UK license that I transferred from my NZ one, and the UK license shows as being 13 yrs old (i.e. how long I had my NZ license). Most UK insurance companies don't accept No Claims Discounts (NCD) from other countries, but I've found a few that do (Marks & Spencer, Churchill, Privilege, Quinn Direct are the ones I've found so far), and with a 4 year NCD (NZ insurance companies don't keep track for 9+ years like they do here), the CHEAPEST quote I've found is £1200! (I actually had Green Bee quote me £6000!!! -- very apologetically).

I live in London, so I'm sure that has an impact, but £1200?? That seems insanse, and a very far cry from the £250 some have mentioned here, so I wonder if anyone has some insight to offer -- am I missing something blatantly obvious?

Thanks for your time guys!

EDIT: I'm 38.

[Greeners]

I think the problem is it's not an exact science and has so many variables. There must be something the insurer's don't like, postcode, age etc?

Try ringing them and asking them to justify the high price. 

Welcome to the forum! 

[MancBen]

I would think that your postcode is probably screwing you over... a big city is bad for your premium. I guess you're also having to park on the road, which won't help.

Then your age, occupation and other factors. The fact that your from NZ is just another lever for the insurance companies to bend you over.

I suggest you try some of the comparison sites initially to get the best quote... then head over to some of the brokers  eg Liverpool Victoria and Adrian Flux (even tho they're wank) armed with your best quote and try an dget them to beat it.

Not sure about that 250 quid quote.... but I'm guessing the guy is old (sorry if you're reading this), Full No claims, Nil points and lives in fort in the middle of nowhereville. I also dream of getting a quote like that !

Oh...welcome to the site 

[Richn83]

That sounds a little harsh to me, im in one of the greater london bouroughs, have driveway parking, 2 years no claims and 3 points due to drop off in june, and im south of a grand for 10 months.  So you should be able to do better than that.

[NB07]

thats not a right price as said above and im about to go on a rant!!

when i bought mine living in london it was around the same price but a bit more i think it was nearer 1300. the biggest problem is the insurer, not just the area or the age of the driver or postcode. my latest renewal was half that price because ive taken off my fiance who is younger but i have all my mods included upto 350bhp, this also includes 3 points for not slamming my brakes at an amber light! (the 3 points were in the 1300 quote too tho and are to be off this year). i think you need to try a specialist insurer like adrian flux or greenlight who im now with, another crazy idea is to actually visit those old shops they used to call brokers as i know for a fact most of them undercut internet search engines like confused or gocompare by 10%. knowing that i lived in a high crime area i was willing to pay extra but suprisingly that dint affect all the brokers. problem now is most people are too lazy to visit a broker so the broker relies on existing buisness but tries their hardest to entice people by under cutting the net but people dont even give them a go. i suggest you go in to a broker a try it, you may be wasting your time but who knows there could be a huge saving to be had.

now where are the punctuation police?! 

[ILoveTuna]

Mine is £350 with swiftcover... I am an old f*cka @ 34 but worth giving them a try??

[jmspear]

I am an old git @ 46 but live in the sticks Glos (cheltenham actually so not total sticks) car is garaged, have full ncb 5 yrs + one speeding fixed penalty 3 points and one accident (didn't affect NCB) stuck porsche into armco at castle combe Ouch v expensive (alwasy declare even tho on track aspect of insurance and under protected ncb ) and I am about £450 for an ed 30 with superchips upgrade to 300 HP fully comp 250 xcess, company director as occupation.

In my experience the things that matter are:

age
location
years of ncb
occupation
type of car / group etc
garaged or not
history,

you can play around with these to some extent, e.g. occupation

[stealthwolf]

...but £1200?? That seems insanse...

Some of us have to pay double that for an unmodded GTI. I moved
from a low risk to a high risk area and my insurance quadrupled!

[Boothy]

When I moved last year my was due. We only moved about 400 meters and because the postcode changed one letter my insurance went up by £100. I ended up getting the cheapest quote from some sh*tty unheard of insurance broker and then used that to get my current insurance company to match it. I think its preferential to try keep with the same company for as long as possible and use that as a bargaining tool to get what you want.

[Poverty]

What part of london? GTI's are a thief magnet, often used as get away cars due to their ability to blend in easily, and london insurance has always been stupid high aswell.

[Russ_leeds]

im 23, have 4yrs ncb, 6 points all for speeding and i pay £1400 with adrian flux. they were the cheapest for me by a long way

[scotta]

Not sure about that 250 quid quote.... but I'm guessing the guy is old (sorry if you're reading this), Full No claims, Nil points and lives in fort in the middle of nowhereville. I also dream of getting a quote like that !

Cheeky Fecker! im 32. 

ive got 13 years NCD,no points, married, wife on the policy (this does make a big difference), low crime post code, standard car, parked on the driveway and named driver on wifes Audi.

£240 with £300 excess from Admiral. I did shop about a lot and play them off against each other to eventually get that price.

[Nasir]

You may not be going with your insurance demographic. For example quinn specialise in young people (no offense) so try somebody who specialise in older people. It would be like me going to esure. I also found that comparethemarket.com is by far the cheapest of all comparison sites for the same companies!!

[no golf clubs at all]

45, Glasgow, driveway, 6 years ncb, 3 pts, 1 no fault prang 3 years ago when a effing dear jumped out in front of me(though technically it's classified as an at fault incident  (not on gti), wife on insurance, quotes vary from £402 with flux to £1300 with someone I won't give air time to. Car only modded with milltek, skirts and rear valance.

Needles to say I'm going with Ade Flux, Greenlight were £90 dearer.

Try those horrid comparison sites. 

[Rich]

Ring them up would be the best move & explain to them verbally...

What made you leave N.Zealand? Thought that was a fantastic place to live