My experience in insuring unusual cars
It always seems to me that car insurance renewal is a stressful time of year. I often find that some companies will only offer annual payment options and after I was in an accident my drop in no-claims made this time of the year even worse. As I was paying monthly when I had the accident, I had to continue paying for the vehicle’s insurance for a further 6 months even though the vehicle was written off (I walked away with no injuries and the car was not in a bad shape, but the air bags would cost more than the car’s worth to replace). In fairness, I wouldn’t have got a refund if I had paid the annual cost upfront so this puts both methods of paying on a par.
I drive a 1.3l 1979 Volkswagen Beetle and this in itself presents problems when it comes to insurance as it needs to be Classic Insurance and most large companies refuse to even offer a quote for the vehicle because of its age. My husband owns a 2.5TD Volkswagen Transporter, otherwise known as a T4, which I am a named driver on. This also presents insurance problems as it looks like a ‘builder’s van’ but is in fact intended to be converted into a campervan; this means that we have had to find a company which offer’s Camper-in-Conversion insurance. This means that we have to have it converted by the end of the year’s policy and we pay £42.79 per month for this insurance.
As Classic and Camper-in-Conversion Insurance isn’t included in the common search engines, I have to individually call companies and give our details repeatedly. 2 years ago we discovered Lancaster Insurance who can cater for our eclectic collection of vehicles.
My insurance on my Classic Beetle costs £224.34 in insurance for the year. I am a 28 year old who has been driving for 10 years, but only has 2 years no claims and my husband is also on the policy. I paid an initial one-off amount of £43.26 and for the other 9 months I pay just £20.12 each time.
I did consider paying the £187.39 upfront on the Beetle as it is a relatively small amount, but our budget at the time wouldn’t allow it and £20.12 is an equally small amount to find on a monthly basis. Lancaster use Premium Credit to deal with the payments and I found out that they charge £20 a time for late payments, per vehicle, which does sting a little but it’s my own fault and I’m definitely more careful now!
In conclusion, paying monthly has its down sides like anything else, but it’s also convenient. My husband and I couldn’t afford to keep either vehicle on the road if we had to pay upfront every year for our policies. I see myself being a happy monthly car insurance payee for many years to come.
What are other motorist' experiences of monthly car insurance?
My student days Insuring my Vauxhall Polo