Cheapest car insurance warning

[waynne]

Do you always go with the cheapest insurance quote?

Have you stopped to think that the cheap premiums are obtained at the expense of lower pay outs and cheap or lower quality repairs?

Do we all buy insurance in the hope that we will never need to use it? Or do we buy insurance in case we need it?

Where do you draw the line. Imagine you get the following quotes for Comprehensive cover, protected no claims bonus and assume windscreen cover and all other benefits are equal unless stated.

£400 - no windscreen cover and £400 excess (aka deductable - US)
£500 - £200 excess and 9000 mile a year limit
£600 - £150 excess
£650 - £100 excess
£700 - £50 excess and breakdown cover
£900 - Nil excess, breakdown, legal cover, european breakdown and homestart cover.

All other quotes from all other insurers range from £900 to £1500 and your premium last year came to £800!

Which one do you go for and why?

[MasterAuron]

Last year teh cheapest for me still had windscreen cover and breakdown cover included (Elephant). The insurer I'm going with this year is the cheapest I could find yet again and has windscreen cover but I'm forgoing breakdown cover.

I always choose the cheapest and go with a big excess tbh. I'd rather get any repairs done off the insurance because it saves money in the long so that big excess doesn't matter because I'll never pay it. The exception being if the car is stolen or written off, and even then a £400 excess isn't going to matter on a £10k car!

[lutonmatt]

on my yank motor it is cheap with everything all thrown in

but on my 4x4 that i am going to insure tonight i am only cheap cos its a off motor that will be used off road so wont be the best looking car once i have finished plus is only worth 300 quid

[pgarner]

look or the cheapest that suits my needs.

dont need the breakdown as i'm on the wifes - covers any car ether of us are in.
would prefer the protected NCB as dont want to have to make a claim and go back to 4 figure premiums again.
dont bother with euro cover
windscreen covers nice but not esential
legal protections a must
courtesy cars not necessary as if im at fault then ill have to manage where as if 3rd party is at fault then i will claim a car is needed off their insurance

[dpsubaru]

£500 - £200 excess and 9000 mile a year limit.

Would go for this, no worries about excess but want windscreen cover just because with a bonded windscreen its a bugger to replace by yourself. (older cars with push out windscreens much better and then wouldnt care about this).
9000mile limit no probs as the car is only driven for any distance 4 weeks a year.

when i normally discuss with the insurance its normally done on the internet or over the phone, i dont even bother paying much attention to the excess. just try to have the headline rate as low as possible. dont need courtesy cars, breakdown etc.... (if i do by breakdown cover then always get this separate direct from AA or RAC but only if am going long distances and far away from home).

[waynne]

It sounds like most of us buy insurance bcause we hope we won't need it rather than in case we do.

[pgarner]

pretty much