ElizabethK

Does anyone know if car insurance companies in UK will accept 'no claims' from USA when trying to get the price down a tad? It's such a shame as from what I can tell by going on go compare or other sites, you need to have a no claims bonus in UK in order to get a lower premium.

It seems like we'll have to start all over again from scratch (both in our early 50's) and pay through the nose until we can prove we're not boy racers on the roads of England!

Luckyone

I'm sure someone will have some more current experience but I visited the UK for several months back in 2006 and decided it would be easier to buy a car to use, rather than rent for so long.

With this in mind I had my insurance company here in Canada draft me a letter stating how long I'd been insured with them, history of 'no claims' etc and used this once I arrived in the UK.

I checked a few places but ended up going with a local office of the National Farmers Union (NFU Mutual). They had no problem recognising my no claims history and I got a suitable discount.

It may be that it'll be easier to use your US history if you visit a broker or company in person rather than online....it worked for me.

ElizabethK

It's interesting that you bought a car over there and were able to insure it. We thought about doing so because we visit many times and car rental can work out to be quite dear but when we asked about insurance (albeit over the phone with Churchill and not in person) we were told we couldn't as we were not ordinarily resident in UK despite still owning a home there which our 2 grown up children live in.
I will certainly get some form of letter written from my ins company though in the hope it will lessen the premiums when I do buy a car.

One thing I always thought odd too, is that we were allowed to have house insurance on our home in UK while not being resident there but not for a car, yet the house was far more valuable? Made no sense to me at all

lf1

+1. I moved from Canada a few months ago and obtained my claims history, via my broker, from my insurer for both my car and house. The other document to obtain is a copy of your driving record (speeding tickets, suspensions etc) from the appropriate authority. This will confirm that you have a clean driving record or only minor infractions over a period of xx years, assuming that is the case.

I tried the online quotes, but as I don't have a UK DL I was eliminated. I ended up using NFU as I could speak to a person who understood the risk they were assessing and were able to pass the info along to the underwriter. They accepted all of my documents and the only caveat they gave me was that I must swap my Cdn DL for a UK DL within 12 mths. I have to do this by law anyway, so that wasn't a big issue.

larrabee

I think I can help here. Try http://www.cityinsurance.co.uk/
Three years ago I decided that it only made sense to buy a car in the UK as car hire was costing me a fortune but I found it almost impossible to find anyone who would insure me if I did.
I tried almost every company on those comparison websites and they all told me that as I was not resident by their standards (which incidentally are not the same as those of HMRC) they would not insure me.
I think that my search must have triggered something though as I was contacted by phone by an insurance broker. I explained my situation and he came back to me with a really good quote from City.
I had no no claims bonus in the UK. I had driven on my dad's family policy before I left for the USA but I still got credit for a full no claims bonus.
It's gone up a bit each year but to the best of my recollection I paid around 350gbp when it was last due in August 2012. This was for a Polo.

pompeyblonde

This is great advice, I also wont have a history (well my car just returned from smash repairs so it wont do me much good!) However I did have an ok record prior to leaving UK... need to make some enquiries as as you say hiring can be very expensive.