Car insurance...

How much can I expect to pay for car insurance when I get my license? 

I don't have a car yet, so I can't really get an online quote. 

Thanks

Mine is £27/mo for an 07 reg 1.6 car, with protected 8 years no claims.

It will also depend on your age as well as the car model and previous insurance history. My current insurance is £38 per month for a 1995, 1.0 litre Nissan Micra - I am 23, female and have no claims or points on my license.

However, if my brother were to take out an insurance policy on the same car, he would have to pay around £80 per month because he is male, 21 years old, has made a claim in the past and also has collected 9 points on his license over the last 4 years (for speeding and running a red light).

Perhaps you could have a look around at some cars you would consider buying and see what kind of quotes you can get for them? It might help you get an idea of insurance costs for when you do buy a car.

Hiya

This is an unanswerable question as there's just too many variations and permutations. I've renewed my policy for an 03 BMW 530d Touring (Wagon) - I'm 34, 3 points on me licence, protected 5 years NCD at £670 for Comprehensive insurance. The American F150 Truck I and me bro share costs a reasonable £980. I was messing about with quotes and had pricing for a 2000 Porsche 911 ( a reasonable £1600) and an M5 (at £1450) a Merc SL55 AMG (£2750) and a Corvette Z06 at £2550.

Meanwhile at the other end, I think for me to insure one of the company smart cars if I had to would be a wallet friendly £220.

The 'general' things for insurance are , type of car, your age and occupation, driving record, area in which you live, overnight garaged or not/security and repair costs -

next thing to do is to phone around to get the best quote you can - try all the big names, Direct line, Norwich Union, Elephant, Admiral etc etc and do check out the local Brokers as well - sometimes they can get some excellent deals .

If you have something that's 'different' I highly recommend Adrian Flux (our F150 is insured through these guys)

Lastly, take a look through the motoring magazines to narrow down a selection of cars to buy and ensure you get a quote for all of them for insurance. The LAST thing you want is to buy a car, get it home and fall over when they tell you how much the insurance will be! - and yes, this is exactly what happened to a mate of mine in the early 90's when he HAD to have a Renault 5 GT Turbo at 18 years old!

Good luck!

DtM! West London & Slough UK!

having no UK driving history that they can tap into, would I be paying a rather high rate? If not, how do they determine how much to charge me?

Car insurance is a bit of a crap shoot to me. I just got insurance on my T-reg Vauxhall Astra and I'm paying £428 a year. That's just with having a US license and 5 years experience driving in the US. Of course I had to argue when I called to purchase the insurance as they tried to charge me £750 after previously quoting me about £400. But as soon as I get my UK license in the next 10 months my insurance will go up to around £700 since they'll have to go with how many years I've had a UK license, so it'll look like I'm a brand new drive.

If you're worried about insurance costs definitely check out which insurance group the car you're wanting is in. The lower it is the cheaper it'll be. Then if you want a car that's a higher insurance group, I advise waiting till you've got a few years of no claims in the UK.

Julia Atlanta

Yes, with no UK history of driving they will 'load' up your premium as you'll be seen as a higher risk. By how much?, they probably won't tell you. The usual factors I mentioned previously will be in play for that, and then they'll load up extra for the fact your a new UK driver.

Liberty

Something to bear in mind, I've previously looked at 'groupings' for cars and on the whole while 'generally' its true that a lower group means a lower premium - often I've found it's simply not the case. I've had quotes for cars in a lower group than another one on my shortlist and it's been substantially higher. Many other factors come into play, the cost of repairs to that car, availability of parts, it's 'stealable' factor, it's performance, depreciation rate etc etc.

I always recommend getting ACTUAL Quotes rather than just thinking 'oh its a lower insurance group so it must be lower' - so please be aware!

Hope this helps!

Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Spin the wheel and stand back.   Round and round and round she goes, how much you'll be charged, nobody knows!   

Seriously though, as Dennis said it's practically impossible to give even a ballpark figure because it is a giant crap game.  It will depend upon your age, driving history, the car, where you live, and -- to a very large degree -- the particular insurer.  This is especially so when it comes to any sort of "unusual" situation, like a driver with a foreign license, an imported car, etc.    Some places simply won't want to know you if you don't have a U.K. license or are driving anything other than a standard U.K. model, or they'll load the premium so much that you'd be mad to accept it. 

I'll second the recommendation for Adrian Flux.  I currently have a policy with them for my '87 Bronco II.  It's only a cheap old vehicle admittedly, but living out here in the sticks, over 40, U.K. license since 1983, full no claim, no penalty points/convictions, my last renewal was £166 for TPF&T.

When i bought my car here and went for insurance they quoted me £1200 since i didn't have a history of NCB.  As a result I spoke to my State Farm insurance broker in the states who wrote a letter stating that i had held a policy in the states for the last 8 years with no claims submitted.  I found a couple UK insurance companies who would take the letter and as a result I am paying £315 a year for fully comp coverage on my Astra (t reg).  I am still on my international permit so it should go down further once i have my UK license.  (If it helps, i'm a 33 year old female)

Would it help if I got a letter from my insurance company stating no "at fault" claims? We've been hit 4 times but we have never hit anyone.

Quotes vary widely/wildly from insurer to insurer.  Here's some good sites to go to which will give you an idea what you'll pay, these sites let you enter in info once and then go out and get multiple insurer quotes which saves you tons of time.

http://www.confused.com
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/motor

"Confused" asks for more info but gives a more accurate answer, "moneysupermarket" needs less info but is less accurate.