Car insurance

Some insurers use ‘real-time’ pricing and others will honour the price they offer for anywhere between 10 and 30 days. When you get quotes with us, we can’t guarantee you’ll get the same price if you come back later so your quote could go up. Insurers can change their prices at any time.

It usually pays to get quotes a few weeks ahead of your renewal, and lock in a good deal early.

Sometimes, but it depends on what cover you’ve got and how much experience you have driving.

Some insurers offer cover to drive other cars as part of fully comprehensive policies, but it's rarely a feature of third party or third party, fire and theft – and is often written out of policies for young or inexperienced drivers.

Check policy documents to be certain. Often, it’s only supposed to be used in emergencies, rather than everyday driving. If you’re in any doubt, just call the insurer and ask.

This is a bonus (or discount) on your car insurance for every year you've driven and not made a claim.

Find out more about no-claims discounts.

An excess is the amount of money you agreed to pay towards a claim when you took out your car insurance.

Generally, an excess is only payable for your damages and when you’re at fault. It’s usually paid upfront to get the claim process started.

The excess is split into two types; compulsory (set by the insurer) and voluntary (set by you). You don’t need to have a voluntary excess, but it usually lowers the cost of your car insurance if you do.

You’ll have to pay both the voluntary and compulsory excess if you make a claim, so make sure the total amount is affordable.

Find out more about car insurance excess

As long as you’ve made a Statutory Off-Road Notification (SORN) for your car, you don’t need to have car insurance while it’s off the road. But you can still protect your car with laid up insurance, which covers it for fire and theft while your vehicle has a SORN.

Insures will run a credit check if you choose to pay monthly for your car insurance, which can leave a mark on your credit score. You’re asking for credit, and basically taking a loan, so they do have to run affordability checks. If you pay annually (in one lump sum) a credit check will not be performed when you take out car insurance

Unfortunately, if you claim on your insurance, your premiums usually go up the next year.

If you’ve had, or caused, any accident or damage in the last five years, you need to let your insurer know, even if you didn’t make a claim and regardless of blame.

If you cancel your policy within the cooling-off period you’ll be refunded, less any time you’ve been covered for already. Some insurers will charge an admin fee for this.

When you’re charged for any cover you’ve already had, it’ll be charged pro-rata, so a fair proportion of the entire annual cost of your policy

Cancelling outside of the cooling-off period isn’t much different. Some insurers charge a cancellation fee, others don’t. Any refund you get will be based on the number of days’ cover you’ve already had.

Unless you make changes to your policy, cancel it or need replacement documents, you shouldn’t have to pay any admin fees.

If you do need to change something, like your address, car, registration, or adding a driver, most insurers will charge you an adjustment fee. Some might let you make basic changes online without charging you, while others won’t. There’s no standard flat fee, insurers can charge whatever they like.

When you’re comparing policies, look out for admin fees. They add up, so it’s worth factoring them in.

1. If another driver or person is involved, exchange details
2. Make notes about what happened and take pictures as evidence
3. Let your insurer know within 24 hours
4. You’ll need to fill in a claims form and possibly have your car assessed for damage
5. Pay your excess – your claim won’t be processed until you do

Your insurer will settle the claim if it’s clearly your fault. If the other driver is at fault or it’s not obvious who’s to blame, your insurer and the insurers of other driver involved will look at the evidence to decide who’s at fault, and settle the claim.

When both parties are to blame, or if a decision can’t be agreed, your insurers will split the claim between them.

If you weren’t at fault and the other driver’s insurer settles the claim costs your insurer will give you your excess back.

Beware, your claim might be refused if:

• You provide incorrect or misleading information
• The main driver isn’t who you said it’d be when you took out the policy (this is called fronting and it’s illegal)
• The accident was caused by your negligence or by your car being unroadworthy
• You don’t have any proof
• You file your claim too late

Find out more about making a claim on your car insurance and typical reasons claims get rejected, and how to avoid it happening.

Yes - you don’t have to claim on your insurance if you don’t want to but you still need to tell your insurer about the accident.

Make it clear that it is for information purposes only, and that you're not looking to make a claim.

Notify your insurer about the incident within a reasonable timeframe (this might be specified in your policy so check the wording). If a timeframe is not stated, get in touch with your insurer as soon as possible.