Car insurance for returning expat - advice please

i know nothing

i know nothing

i know nothing

Soldato
Joined
6 Feb 2004
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Norfolk Broads
Returning to the U.K. from Asia, will shortly be needing a car and insurance.

There was no insurance in my name where I was living. Insurance was totally different anyway, in that the car was insured as opposed to the driver. Therefore, no chance of any letter saying that I was insured or that I have X years of no claims etc. The only evidence I have that I drove whilst overseas is a driving licence from that country, which is obviously of no interest to insurers here.

I have a (valid, full, clean) U.K. driving licence and have held it for over 30 years. The last insurance policy I had here in the U.K. expired in 2004, I had the maximum NCB when I left, but I believe that means/counts for nothing now? In any event, I'm not sure I even have any paperwork relating to it, can't even remember the name of my old insurer! I mention it in case it could be useful.

I have, however, been a named driver on another family members insurance. This came about as I have been coming back to the U.K. for holidays and their insurance policy was for 2 cars, one of which I would use whilst here. I have been a named driver on that policy for 5 years. There have been no claims against that policy by either the principal insured driver or myself. Would that count for anything?

Wondering if anybody has been in a similar position or has any pointers/advice that I should consider.

Edited several months after I made the post above:- I ended up with Admiral as they took into consideration that I was a named driver for 5 years on somebody else's policy. I paid £548 fully comp for a Jaguar valued at £13k (no NCB as I mentioned above), quite pleased with that as the next best quotes were in the £650 to £850 range.
 
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i know nothing said:
Returning to the U.K. from Asia, will shortly be needing a car and insurance.

There was no insurance in my name where I was living. Insurance was totally different anyway, in that the car was insured as opposed to the driver. Therefore, no chance of any letter saying that I was insured or that I have X years of no claims etc. The only evidence I have that I drove whilst overseas is a driving licence from that country, which is obviously of no interest to insurers here.

I have a (valid, full, clean) U.K. driving licence and have held it for over 30 years. The last insurance policy I had here in the U.K. expired in 2004, I had the maximum NCB when I left, but I believe that means/counts for nothing now? In any event, I'm not sure I even have any paperwork relating to it, can't even remember the name of my old insurer! I mention it in case it could be useful.

I have, however, been a named driver on another family members insurance. This came about as I have been coming back to the U.K. for holidays and their insurance policy was for 2 cars, one of which I would use whilst here. I have been a named driver on that policy for 5 years. There have been no claims against that policy by either the principal insured driver or myself. Would that count for anything?

Wondering if anybody has been in a similar position or has any pointers/advice that I should consider.
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I believe for a named drivers policy you'd normally have to take out an insurance policy with that same company, for them to offer any sort of discount.

TBH having had your licence for 30 years, i'd be surprised if there's a great deal of difference between prices for someone with 0 years NCB, and someone with 5 years named driver discount. You may even find that that insurance company even with any sort of named driver discount may be more expensive than one without. It'll just be a case of running some quotes and seeing what you get.

If you're returning to the UK permanently, Admiral offer a NCB accelerator policy where you pay for 10 months insurance and you obtain a full years NCB. This can help build up NCB very quickly, but only providing that they're cheaper than elsewhere.
 
At your age and that old a license. Will make no real difference unless you are planning on buying something with a big engine, exotic or luxurious.

If it's just a run of the mill car. I doubt you would see any major shift.

You can get named drivers NCB but it's only certain insurers and agreed before hand not after the fact. They likely charge more for this service too.
 
Thank you for the replies. I suspect you're both right, I wasn't really expecting any "good" news as such, just felt that I should explore all options.

Not planning to get anything fancy, expensive or exotic Psycho Sonny. A run of the mill daily driver will do and I shall probably be starting a thread on that shortly to ask advice on what models that will fit my (family's) requirements...;):D Right now I've got use of a car as I mentioned earlier, so not in a big rush, just need to do something about it within the next 3 months ideally.

I shall investigate the NCB accelerator policy Semple, thanks for the heads up.
 
i know nothing said:
Thank you for the replies. I suspect you're both right, I wasn't really expecting any "good" news as such, just felt that I should explore all options.

Not planning to get anything fancy, expensive or exotic Psycho Sonny. A run of the mill daily driver will do and I shall probably be starting a thread on that shortly to ask advice on what models that will fit my (family's) requirements...;):D Right now I've got use of a car as I mentioned earlier, so not in a big rush, just need to do something about it within the next 3 months ideally.

I shall investigate the NCB accelerator policy Semple, thanks for the heads up.
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if going for NCB accelerator - I imagine their policy is more expensive to match or the same price as 12 months.

so you could get 12 months insurance for cheaper than 10 months which gives you the bonus earlier or pay the same but only get 10 months of insurance.

i very much doubt it will make a big enough of a difference to you.

however there will be certain cars you may not be allowed to be insured to drive like a convertible, etc with certain insurers. but if run of the mill car you should have no issues.

i remember when i bought the convertible my current company wouldn't insure me because of NCB had to be more than 3 years or something. so i had to go with someone else and they cancelled the policy and since it was their fault they never charged me for doing so.
 
Believe swiftcover offer named driver no claims discount
Had something similar and they gave me it~10 years I had
Not lived abroad but hadn't had policy in my Name
Though did have to email proof I had been named driver
And its at their discretion
But they had basically the cheapest quote for me anyway which was a bit of luck
 
Many settings to "legally" play around with. My first quote was around £1400, I got this down to about £450 on a site like gocompare after much playing around with settings. Took me a few days of research.

For example I surprised that comprehensive was often cheaper than tp f & t and tp and often tp f & t was cheaper than third party.

Things like adding your driver license or adding a second driver or genuinely adding a tracking device if you don't have one. Loads of options.

Also I read than if you've signed up to these sites with your real details these companies log each quote you get and adjust accordingly usually upping the price with each quote, do you could get a quote of £700 and after 10 more quotes that could end up at £850, so get your quotes anonymously at first to see prices.

There are quite a few legal tricks to vastly lower your insurance.

There's a guide on the money saving expert website.
 
jsmoke said:
Also I read than if you've signed up to these sites with your real details these companies log each quote you get and adjust accordingly usually upping the price with each quote, do you could get a quote of £700 and after 10 more quotes that could end up at £850, so get your quotes anonymously at first to see prices.
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This doesn't quite work (at least with the Admiral group). I made a thread on here a few years ago about when i was getting quotes for a policy. Unfortunately with Admiral once you've put in your details and generated a quote, there's a number of details that are fixed and cannot be changed - it's one of these where you'd have to phone up.

Anyway, i put in my exact details and requirements although deliberately spelt my surname wrong, and out popped a quote i was happy with. I phoned up to arrange for the policy, and told the person at Admiral that i'd accidently entered my surname incorrectly. When they put it in correctly, the quoted price had jumped up significantly more. When i queried this, all i got was some BS answer, and basically that you should only use your correct details for an accurate quote.
 
Semple said:
This doesn't quite work (at least with the Admiral group). I made a thread on here a few years ago about when i was getting quotes for a policy. Unfortunately with Admiral once you've put in your details and generated a quote, there's a number of details that are fixed and cannot be changed - it's one of these where you'd have to phone up.

Anyway, i put in my exact details and requirements although deliberately spelt my surname wrong, and out popped a quote i was happy with. I phoned up to arrange for the policy, and told the person at Admiral that i'd accidently entered my surname incorrectly. When they put it in correctly, the quoted price had jumped up significantly more. When i queried this, all i got was some BS answer, and basically that you should only use your correct details for an accurate quote.[/QUOTE

Swiftcover is online~though is a phone number in case get stuck
You can go back and forth altering details for example excess or other stuff~and the quote adjusts accordingly
I did all that to see and once I was happy and went to checkout /pay it accepts the alterations and the hopefully lower quote once you are happy with any amendments was accepted no issue
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Came across this thread trying to find an issuer after no insurance for 3.5 years. Wanted to share with you that Adrian Flux (https://www.adrianflux.co.uk) were able to help me with a policy and underwriter that would recognise my previous 9 years NCB as a discount for the year and after the year policy would give evidence of 10 years NCB. Hope this saves someone else's NCB :)
 
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