Northern Ireland + Car Insurance

[Nickhere]

I will be posted to Northern Ireland in March and the car insurance company I am with will not cover me in NI, whilst all quotes I recieve are shockingly high. I remember reading on an allowances presentation that there is a way to make up for the differences in car insurance...can anyone give me any information on it?

 

[ViroBono]

You can claim the difference between the cost of insurance in NI compared to Central London. You'll be able to get more information from the Admin Office at TBK.

Some of the usual car insurers will cover NI, but many won't. You may be better going to an NI company.

Quinn Direct are good (and safe for military)
AXA are apparently OK, but refused to quote for my sports car.
The NI equivalent of confused.com is Its4me 19 out of 20 refused to quote for my car.

I now have a more conventional car, and with Quinn am paying only about £100 more than on the mainland.

Forces Financial's new panel of underwriters may be worth having, but NU is to be avoided - they seem to regularly quote ludicrous figures.

Beware of spurious charges raised by your existing insurer when you move - I am currently in dispute with Tesco Insurance (who don't cover NI), who are trying to charge me a month's instalment +£75 cancellation fee, and I have heard of other companies doing this too. The answer seems to be not to cancel, simply to send them a change of address so that they then say they can't cover you.

 

[CRmeansCeilingReached]

believe it or not, a couple of years ago NAAFI gave me the best quote by a considerable margin - largely because of the london quote.

bear in mind that your quote for central london must be identical in every way to the NI quote proper - except the post code. when you've got this, work out what you will get back from the army (NI minus london).

because the london rates vary a lot, you may find that the one most economically sound for you is not necessarily the cheapest NI quote - you have to work out how much you are going to be reimbursed before knowing which one is truly cheapest.

 

[spike7451]

Look up Abbey Insurance brokers.They do very good rates & have branches all over the Province.If you're going to Palace you're nearest branch is in Bangor.

 

[hurrahfortheRE]

I found "SURPRISINGLY" that AXA have been the cheapest for us in NI by far.

 

[paul2005]

Heres an idea - dont register your car with the NI DVLA, keep it registered in the UK and insure it at a UK address- worked for me for the 4 years I was there and saved me a packet. As long as you do regular trips to the mainland so you can get it MOT'd and Taxed who's to know?

 

[the_matelot]

Heres an idea - dont register your car with the NI DVLA, keep it registered in the UK and insure it at a UK address- worked for me for the 4 years I was there and saved me a packet. As long as you do regular trips to the mainland so you can get it MOT'd and Taxed who's to know?

That's perfectly fine until something happens to your car, the insurance company find out that for the majority of the year your car is kept in Northern Ireland and render your insurance policy void.

 

[ViroBono]

Heres an idea - dont register your car with the NI DVLA, keep it registered in the UK and insure it at a UK address- worked for me for the 4 years I was there and saved me a packet. As long as you do regular trips to the mainland so you can get it MOT'd and Taxed who's to know?

Policies are now checked whenever a claim is submitted, to ensure that the individual has business use insurance, and that the vehicle is insured in NI. Also, RMP at TBK are regularly pretending to be proper police; if you get stopped they will check that the veh is properly insured. Cars are much more likely to be stopped by PSNI than they were in the past.

 

[darkie007]

check Car Insurance for Young People - Only Young Drivers Car Insurance - Young Drivers Motor Insurance Provider. they def cover northern ireland