Multi-car Insurance

[Turvey]

I think it's been spoken about before but how does it work? Especially the first year? For example, we have 4 cars in our household but only 3 passed drivers. Our 17 year old learner son has inherited his sister's Fiesta. 

At the moment I have a policy with my wife as a named driver on the Focus, she has a policy on the Qashqai with me as a named driver and our daughter has her own policy with me and the Mrs able to drive her car on our own policy. All policies are renewed at different times of the year. 

With our son starting lessons and needing insurance we're thinking about a multi-car policy. 

How does it work with policies starting/finishing at different times? For example, fees are due for cancellation of insurance before the year is out. 

 

#confused.com.  

 

[Luke4efc]

We tried to do it for our 4 cars but it was more expensive than doing it individually. Not to mention the hassle of cancelling like you said.

[TomsFocus]

You don't have to cancel early, can add the other cars when their insurance runs out but still get the multicar discounts.  You then chose who can drive each car, it can be all of you or just some/one, for example, keeping the 17y/o on just one will be cheaper.

It's worth trying in your position, but it doesn't always work out cheaper.

[Jonro2009]

As above. With the added info that you will be given a price for each car at the start of the policy. For instance, and assuming the Focus and due first, they give you a price for 365 days on the Focus then they will tell you that it will cost X number of pounds to add the Qashqai on day 65 of the policy to run for 300 days and then X number of pounds to add the Fiesta on day 200 of the policy to run for 165 days which will mean they all lapse at the same time. Then you decide who drives which cars and the type of cover. I believe it’s worked out as if you take out all 4 policies out on the same day and then they work out the daily charge of the cars to be added during the policy and then charge you that way. 

There is a lot to think about when doing it with so many cars. They all have to be at the same address, and nothing can change before they are added i.e. points/claims. I’m also not sure what happens if you choose to not add one of the cars as planned when you took out the policy. I have an Admiral multicar policy and the last 2 years it has worked out  fine for us, but I have still had to haggle at renewal.

[Turvey]

Thanks all for the replies, especially Jonro's explanation on how it works in the first year. 

 

Taken a special learner policy out today for the son's car, him and Mrs Turvey as named driver! Don't know if I have the patience to be a passed driver for him just now!

 

Once the first car needs a policy renewal I'll give the multi-car quote a go. Reading into it a bit more it seems leaving the son to have his own policy when he passes might make it cheaper for everyone, but that can be checked when he passes, he's only had 3 lessons so far, so no hurry just yet. 

 

Ref haggling. Why should we have to haggle? If the company can drop the price just because you phone them, why couldn't they just give you that price to begin with? And yes, I know it's because they can 😁

 

Off on a slight tangent but it's my thread! 🤣 Our house insurance is due shortly. This year we paid Tesco £96, renewal they wanted £450!!!! On a comparison site Tesco quoted £120 but couldn't match it when I phoned to cancel my policy 🤔 does my head in!

[Jonro2009]

I agree about the haggling, if they can sell at 20% lower than the first price then why not advertise at the lower price. I have to say though, I do enjoy haggling. I’ll haggle on anything if I think I can get a better price, you’d be surprised where you can haggle. For example I bought 4 suitcases from Debenhams last month and managed to get 15% off the total bill just for asking lol, the wife normally walks away when I go to the till 😂 My theory on inflated prices isn’t that for every 1 person that haggles there are at least 20 who will pay full price, so it makes financial sense for a company to do it. 

Home insurance, as with most policies/contracts is easy to beat if you play the system a little. Some offers are for ‘new’ customers only, so put the policy in your name and then the wife’s name the following year which means she is technically a ‘new’ customer 😉. Also, one of my previous cars had tinted windows that were done after I bought the car so were  classed as a modification, this increased the policy by £50. I took the policy out without declaring them and the next day rang up and said I was getting them done, I was charged a £13 admin fee to have them covered and that was it.