UK: Charged more if foreign born

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/feb/26/car-insurance-country-of-birth

This is particularly annoying to me as I'm currently in the market for a car and insurance and have noted that I'll be paying through the nose.

Oh do NOT get me started on this!   

My husband and I spent hours last night on GoCompare and on the phone with various agencies after our current insurance company all of a suddent informed us that they made a mistake when he added me to his policy and it JUST occured to them that I am American and am now not insurable on his car OR the car I am just about to buy!!  UGH! We eventually found a company who offers a reasonable rate for American drivers, but I am absolutely fuming that I am being treated like a teenager who cant be trusted with a nice car (and will be treated this way even after passing I pass my test!!)   

(If Zoyabean is reading this, they are feeding me the same line they fed you recently.. what a crock).  

You gotta love how they say they don't charge based on national origin--it's just based on the country you were born in    This steams me.

So frustrating. Been looking at cars and got a quote from gocompare and they want to charge me, at the very least, £1200 a year!

I've had my license for over a year but no car, so I basically have no insurance history. How discouraging.

We eventually found a company who offers a reasonable rate for American drivers,

Do share!

Hopefully I am allowed to say here...  Its Quinn Direct - they are an Irish company but offer UK insurance as well.  The reason the rate was reasonable is only because they would honour my US no-claims bonus as long as I sent them a letter from my US insurance company.

That's actually pretty good news!  I've never had any sort of insurance claim, and it's good to know there's at least one company willing to take that into account.  I'll definitely have to remember that.

My husband has had Admiral car insurance for yonks.  When I was first toying with the idea of driving here - back in 2004/05 or so, they just added me with my provisional licence onto his policy, no problem.  But I didn't end up doing anything with that, so he took me back off the insurance again - was no sense paying for something I wasn't using.  Then when I took up lessons again last year, they just added me on again (I was a British citizen by then so not sure if that made any difference or not).  I don't think the bill went up by very much actually - the only surprise was that when he notified them that I had my full licence (after passing the test), the rate went up, now down!  I figured it would be the other way around.  Weird.  I think our rates are reasonable, but he's got no claims for a long time, and I'm 40+ years old - not sure if that makes a difference.

The reason the premium increased when you were fully licensed is because as a provisional driver you always have someone with you ( = safer), but when you are newly licensed, you are viewed as a new driver driving alone for the first time.   (another frustrating quirk of the system)

My husband has had Admiral car insurance for yonks.  I think our rates are reasonable, but he's got no claims for a long time, and I'm 40+ years old - not sure if that makes a difference.

When I got my licence we switched to Admiral because it was way cheaper than the insurance company he was with. We think their rates are so reasonable we haven't thought about switching since then. I'm 40+ years old too but, like you, don't know if that made a difference.

My husband and I are looking into getting a car and licence. My husband is disabled so he cant physically drive with ease (he tried). I am booked to take my test on the 14th of April so we are now looking at cars. We have two choices one buy a car and pay for insurance (third person) and all the goodies or two get on Motability where if we give them about £200 a month we get a new car, insureance (comprehensive), RAC, and other repairs. At first we thought £200 was way to much then I looked at insureance. I stupidly thought driving in the US would count so I did a comparison site and got a min payment of £900. After reading this i tried again marking that I am a new driver and not a UK citizen my payment we to £2000 at the least! Its Amazing how much you have to pay if your under 25, not a UK citizen, and have a new licence.

BTW we are just going to use Motability so much easier.

ooo yeah, car insurance. One of the Top Five most difficult, confusing, time-consuming and expensive parts of moving to the UK (and there's no shortage of those). Without any no-claims bonus, you apparently pay 5 times more. If you don't have a full UK licence (I had a NZ licence which is just a straight 'swap' with a UK licence), then many insurers won't even cover you.

This is before you get into any of the other, more usual, car insurance issues. They 'ignored' my claims about not having a full UK licence and my policy was for a UK licence. If I'd had a crash, I would have not been covered at all. It cost me lots just to cancel the contract.

I'm now with Aviva. It seems reasonable - but after spending many many hours on this, and finding insurer after insurer who wouldn't even take me on - I just wanted whatever I could get. I pay about 8-900 pounds a year,

Looks like another reason I am so looking forward to my bus pass. 

This probably won't make you feel any better - but if it's any consolation it works the other way too - at least it did when we lived in the US (Maryland) mid 90's. Both myself and my wife (both British) took the state "driving test", but all insurers treated us as though we were 16 olds with first time driving experience despite an 18 yr+ UK driving history.

This probably won't make you feel any better - but if it's any consolation it works the other way too - at least it did when we lived in the US (Maryland) mid 90's. Both myself and my wife (both British) took the state "driving test", but all insurers treated us as though we were 16 olds with first time driving experience despite an 18 yr+ UK driving history.

You're missing the point here.  I understand being treated like I just got a license if I just got a UK license (even though it annoys me).  This is talking about charging us more just for being born somewhere else REGARDLESS of how long we've been insured and driving in the UK.  I can have had a UK license for years and years and be a UK citizen, but I will still get charged more just because of the land of my birth.

The one I'd like to see fought is the fact that this probably applies to my UKC husband too.  He was born in Seychelles--not from there, but his father was in the diplomatic service, so he was born abroad.  I've never thought about it, but I'll be he's charged higher rates without realizing it even as a life-long citizen because they assume he's foreign.