Auto insurance premiums for non-UK license holders.....any examples

Chadwyckp, have you gotten any quotes yet? Because I'm trying to insure a VW Golf that just happens to have a 2.0 litre engine and my quotes are over £1300 a year. I'm over 25, on a US license.

I don't know how to do any more shopping around... everyone is giving me almost exactly the same quote.

I can't comment on how much loading you're likely to experience with a U.S. license, as I've had a U.K. license since I was 17.  However, to give some sort of perspective, my last renewal in July was around £180 for the year.  That's on a 1987 Ford Bronco II 2.9L, TPF&T (third party liability, fire & theft cover), in a rural area which is in the lowest "risk band" for insurance, and with me as a 43-year-old driver with full no claim discount and clean driving record. 

That's something of a specialist policy (I go via Adrian Flux as well), since many of the big insurers don't want to know you on an American vehicle, but certainly I know a couple of friends and neighbors who as similarly experienced drivers running 10- to 20-year-old run-of-the-mill vehicles for the U.K. pay similar rates - Maybe up to £300 a year if the car is worth a little more.   

We finally found a policy for £970 a year, which is still outrageous. They said the premiums will go up once I get my UK license, too. 

Ignore me if I'm wrong but round about £1000 is the standard price for someone with no no-claims bonus.  The amount of no-claims you have is really the key to insurance prices in the UK - much more than licence type.

I'm don't know what your driving history is like back in the US but they've been posters here who've manage to phone and get their US record counted as UK no-claims.  I'll bet 3 or 4 years no-claims will get the price down to nearer £600 at least.

I was able to get the 5 year no claim bonus from my US driving record. The problem is that I chose the wrong car! I found a cute little Golf Cabrio with a 2.0 litre engine (which I could care less about). Before I bought it, I got a quote for £600 from Churchill, but the guy accidentally entered that I had a UK license (even though we went over the fact that I have a US license for about half an hour), so after I purchased the vehicle I was told by Churchill that, sorry, I couldn't actually be insured!

What's annoying is that it would have been less than £400 a year to insure myself on my husband's MX-5 (which actually *is* a sports car).

Hey prince.je that is a pretty good price, who did you go through?

I got the £970 from the High Performance division of Allen and Allen. I found them through an auto insurance comparing service that I can't for the life of me remember the name of (I used several). Allen and Allen beat the next lowest offer by over £400.

My only advice is to call around as much as you can, and definitely utilize those comparing services. I never used them in the States, but they're handy in a country you're not too familiar with.

My only advice is to call around as much as you can

Definitely.  Premiums can vary wildly from one place to another, especially for "unusual" situations like having a non-U.K. license or driving an imported vehicle.

One example has stuck vividly in my mind from about 18 years ago because of the huge difference in quotes I obtained.   I had several quotes around the £400 mark, which I already considered very expensive, but the highest I was quoted was just over £850!     I think I told the agent something sarcastic about only wanting an insurance policy, not shares in the company.      

In the end, I got exactly the same cover for under £110.   

I don't drive but my American husband just started and he pays about £650 a year with Tesco's Car Insurance.