Insurance for US Licensed Driver, now with UK License

Hi Everyone,
    I've run into a delima that I suspect many of you have run into as well and that is I have had a very decent insurance rate for my vehicle with my US License.  I just passed my tests and received my license, so being a good citizen and customer, I rang up my insurance provider, Tesco, and was told my premium is now going up another 175 as I'm now considered a new driver.  The underwriters would not budge whatsoever and were very pedantic and would not provide any credit to years of experience on the us license which I've had for nearly 20 years and with no points.

So my question to my fellow expats, has anyone else hit this wall and if so did you find an insurance firm willing to give you credit for the US license for experience?

I'm very frustrated, particularly after all the money that had to go into getting the license to be on the right side of the law in the first place. 

Thanks for any tips!


Dan

I went through an insurance broker who basically vouched for me (with documentation of a US no claims bonus of 8+ years from my US insurance company State Farm) and fought my case with the insurers.  It cost slightly more than what I would have paid if an online insurance site accepted my total years driving and not just those on my UK license but was miles cheaper than if i went through by myself.  After a year, my documents from the insurance company listed my no claims bonus as 8+ years despite it only being one year of a UK license.  At that point I started buying my insurance online via moneysupermarket.com and I now have very cheap insurance.

So while I've only had my UK license for 2 1/2 years, my insurance policy states correctly that I've got 8+ years of no claims.

Hope that helps?

Thought I would follow-up on this one, after all the haggling and ringing around, I found that Churchill doesn't punish you for the change, I have credit for my US license years of experience and full credit for no claims.  So it was a small increase in the premium, but had a few extra benefits that were better than what I had, so all in all it's sorted after some pain.

Thanks for the tips too, that was helpful, I was about to go the direction you suggested with a broker, but found these guys.  So now once I get a year or two under my belt with the UK license I hope I'll be back to normal.