Voluntary Excess

Nikumba

Nikumba

Nikumba

Soldato
Joined
4 Dec 2002
Posts
4,067
Location
Bourne, Lincs
Just doing the car insurance renewal as Kiwk Fit are taking the mick with their renewal price.

So looking at a few quotes and at the Voluntary Excess the difference between £0 and £250 voluntary excess is £2.

Is it better to have a low voluntary excess or a higher one?

Thanks

Kimbie
 
- Higher excess will reduce your premium.
- Lower excess will increase your premium.

Should you crash and it's your fault you need to pay the excess, so you either take the cheaper premium and hope you don't crash, or pay more money for the premium and should you crash pay less excess.

Only you can decide which is best.
 
Low one, because it's how much you'll be paying on top of the compulsory excess (unless you're lucky enough not to have to pay a compulsory one)

Higher excess is rarely worth it, as like you say, the difference in premium is usually too small to justify it
 
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A lot of people have stupidly high excess because they think they wont ever crash, but nobody intends to crash, it just happens.

You'd be better of with a low one, if it doesn't affect the total much.
 
My rule of thumb with insurance (home as well as car) is to put excess as low as possible and then work your way up to see how it impacts the premium. In my experiences of late a zero excess hasn't massively influenced the premium although a few years ago it made more of a difference. I guess for high-risk (young & inexperienced) folks it may be more of a factor though.

Of course when running comparisons between insurers you need to look at total excess (compulsory + voluntary) as the former can vary quite a bit. You may get reeled in by a cheap-looking quote for zero voluntary excess but if they've whacked a £400 compulsary excess on there you may potentially get a better deal from somewhere else with say £100+£100.
 
Plus excess is payable on all claims fault or non fault (with most companies, some may allow you to waive it but its case by case).

Only difference being with the non fault cases your uninsured loss recovery company will reclaim your excess and forwarded it back to you
 
Firestar_3x said:
- Higher excess will reduce your premium.
- Lower excess will increase your premium.
Click to expand...

Not always, on last renewal I played around with my excess and found that lowering it also lowered the premium. Not too sure why, but wasn't complaining!
 
Nikumba said:
Is it better to have a low voluntary excess or a higher one?
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Neither is necessarily better.

What really matters is the total (compulsory + voluntary) excess.

In general you want a low voluntary excess, for the reasons already stated. But there's no point having a low voluntary excess if the policy comes with a stupidly high compulsory excess.
 
SGWills said:
Plus excess is payable on all claims fault or non fault (with most companies, some may allow you to waive it but its case by case).

Only difference being with the non fault cases your uninsured loss recovery company will reclaim your excess and forwarded it back to you
Click to expand...

In a non-fault claim you should claim directly off the insurance of the responsible party - your voluntary excess with your own insurer is irrelevant in this.
 
I set mine stupidly high as my car is not worth a lot. In fact my no claims is worth several times more than my car if I take into account my increased premiums rebuilding it or having a claim against it. It is banger money however.
 
A lot of people now are giving themselves silly high excess but getting excess cover (a smallish fee per year) so it brings their premiums down a chunk, i guess as long as the premiums are lower than the cost of the excess cover then you're laughing

(unless there's a 10 page T&C)
 
Tom_ed1987 said:
In a non-fault claim you should claim directly off the insurance of the responsible party - your voluntary excess with your own insurer is irrelevant in this.
Click to expand...

depends, dealing direct with the third party insurance company means if something goes wrong your own insurance wont get involved.

so thats your own choice, pro's and con's to both
 
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