yellowroom

Hi all,

Just posting my experience on the off-chance it may be of use to someone.

After my 2 years 10 months in the US, I have returned to the UK. Trying to get car insurance has been interesting due to a) my absence from the UK and b) I've been back less than a month. Comparison websites no use as some companies decline to cover either or both of those circumstances.

One of the companies I called was Direct Line - they insured the last car I had in the UK. Not only was their quote by far the cheapest, but they would honour my old no claims bonus with them. Turns out that they will hold their No Claims for existing customers for three years, provided they have not used it with another company, so just squeaking in their limit.

Confirming the experience elsewhere on this board that Aviva would have insured me at a reasonable cost (still double Direct Line though!) and honoured my US no claims history, but unfortunately I had not obtained a suitable written record of that before my departure from the US.

It feels ridiculously cheap to be going from paying US$700 per 6 months to £193 per year for a bigger, newer car - reverse sticker shock....

chris955

Its interesting how different people can have very different experiences. We were out of the country for 12 years and went through Admiral. They never even asked for proof of the no claims but on the documents it stated that proof of no claims may be asked for in the even of a claim.

Wombat7

Interesting

Cape Blue

Is it me or did the "subscribe to this thread" thing disappear? (and hence my post to ensure I subscribed)

yellowroom

On my screen it's up at the top under Thread tools.

Cape Blue

Thanks for that, I'm sure it used to be a visible button and not tucked away into a drop-down.

SUPERCAD

we had the same expirance as this. wasnt a problem

alfista1

Looking at a Ford KA today. horrible things but managed to find insurance for 270 quid for both of us with nil no claims fully comp.
Checked every single car out and this along with the fiat punto 1.1 was the cheapest.

(problem was that none of the companies accept no claims from Uruguay!) bit of bad luck

Not too bad. Just a small car for school runs for my wife for the next 3 months.
I have the big skoda to get to work and paying much more for that! Hopefully the 2nd year will be cheaper.

alfista1

be careful with that. It may well invalidate your claim if anything happens. they look for any excuse not to pay out.
I would call them and double check that.

old.sparkles

Was it a problem with your wife only being on a tourist visa at all?

Sally Redux

Oh bloody hell we've just put a deposit on a car, hope we can get insurance.

Sally Redux

They took away my arcade trophy as well

chris955

I'm not with you, what may invalidate a claim? We are on our 3rd year of insurance now and with a different company and the no claims has just carried on. The original company never asked to see it which isnt down to us.

Deley

Hi
Thought my recent experience of car insurance might be of some help??
Recently returned back to the UK after two years away and in my search for car insurance have found that the Co-op insurance would accept a 'no claims discount' which is from within the last 3 years. My no claims discount was just over two years old so great to find an insurance company that accepted three years.
Also Bradford & Bingley would accept 'no claims' discount from overseas.
This is from their website

We currently accept NCD from all countries, however the criteria is as follows:

The date of expiry of the previous Car Insurance must be shown.
The name of the policyholder must be shown.
The amount of NCD in years must be stated. This can be shown using 'from' and 'to' dates.
The claims and accidents history must be confirmed.
The letter must come from a Car Insurance company.
Foreign NCD is only acceptable, when the letter is written in English.
Customers awaiting proof from abroad must supply the proof within 28 days, as do all other customers.

If a customer is having difficulty obtaining the proof they should contact us

Thought my findings might be of some help to someone.

Cape Blue

Direct Line website says:

Sally - who did you use, did they give you any NCD for your time in the US?