Car Insurance

There are three different types of car insurance in the UK, all of which can be compared and bought via One Call Insurance; they are:

Comprehensive

Comprehensive car insurance provides the highest level of cover, but it isn’t necessarily the most expensive.

What does comprehensive car insurance cover?

• Damage to your car – Costs incurred in repairing or replacing your car and in the event of an accident.
• Fire damage to your car – Costs incurred in repairing or replacing your car in the event of it being damaged in a fire.
• Theft of your car – Costs incurred in repairing or replacing your car in the event it is damaged or can’t be recovered after it has been stolen.
• Damage to third party vehicles - Costs incurred in repairing or replacing third-party vehicles that have been damaged as a result of an accident where you are deemed to be at fault.
• Damage to third party objects, structures and property – Costs incurred in repairing and/or replacing objects, structures and property that has been damaged as a result of an accident where you are deemed to be at fault.
• Bodily injury to third party drivers and their passengers – Costs incurred in treating injuries incurred by third-parties as a result of an accident where you are deemed to be at fault.
• Bodily injury to you and your passengers – Costs incurred in treating injuries incurred by you or your passengers as a result of an accident where you are deemed to be at fault.
• Personal possessions – Costs incurred in replacing personal possessions that have been damaged or lost in an accident.
• Third-party personal possessions – Costs for the replacement of third-party owned personal possessions resulting from damage or loss caused by an accident where you are at fault.
• Driving Other Cars (DOC) Some of our comprehensive car insurance policies come with a Driving Other Cars (DOC) clause. This enables you to drive another car on the basis of Third Party Only cover. However, you may only do so if the vehicle in question is insured elsewhere and you have the owner’s permission. Age restrictions and further terms may also apply; always check your policy documents for full details.

Tip: This should be used as a guide only as cover, terms and restrictions will vary by insurer.

Third party, fire & theft

Third party, fire & theft cover sits between comprehensive and third party cover. It’s essentially just third party cover with the addition of fire damage and theft cover.

What does Third Party, Fire & Theft insurance cover?

• Fire damage to your car – As with comprehensive cover, there is provision for the costs incurred in repairing or replacing your car in the event of it being damaged in a fire.
• Theft of your car – Costs incurred in repairing or replacing your car in the event it is damaged or can’t be recovered after it has been stolen.
• Damage to third party vehicles - Costs incurred in fixing or replacing third party vehicles as a result of an accident where you are deemed to be at fault.
• Damage to third party objects, structures and property – Provision for the costs incurred in the repair and/or replacement of objects, structures and property that has suffered damage in an accident where you are deemed to be at fault.
• Bodily injury to third party drivers and their passengers – Costs incurred in the treatment of injuries suffered by third-parties in an accident where you are deemed to have been at fault.
• Third-party personal possessions – Costs incurred in replacing third-party owned personal possessions that are damaged or lost as a result of an accident where you are at fault.

Tip: This should be used as a guide only as cover, terms and restrictions will vary by insurer.

Third party

Third Party insurance is the lowest level of cover available; it meets the minimum legal requirement, but offers little to nothing else and against all apparent logic is often more expensive to buy than comprehensive cover.

What does third party car insurance cover?

• Damage to third party vehicles - Provision for costs incurred in repairing or replacing third party vehicles that have been damaged in an accident where you are deemed to have been at fault.
• Damage to third party objects, structures and property – Costs incurred in the repair and/or replacement of objects, structures and property that has suffered damage as a result of an accident where you were at fault.
• Bodily injury to third party drivers and their passengers – Cover for costs that are incurred in the treatment of injuries to third-parties as a result of an accident where you were at fault.
• Third-party personal possessions – Cover for costs associated with replacing third-party owned personal possessions that are damaged or lost as a result of an accident where you are at fault.

Tip: This should be used as a guide only as cover, terms and restrictions will vary by insurer.

One Call’s online car insurance comparison tool is designed to take you from click to quotes in just 90 seconds. To make this possible you will need the following information to hand:

• Car details – Details of the car you would like to be insured to drive. If you have it, the registration number will suffice, if you don’t, but have details of the make, model, derivative and age of the car, you can enter these instead.
• Intended use – Information relating to how you intend to use your car and for what purpose. For example, will you use the car for socialising, domestic trips, commuting, business or a combination of all? You will also need to have an idea of the number of miles that you expect to cover over the year and in order to avoid invalidating your cover, you should try to be as accurate as possible.
• Personal details – This encompasses your full name, title, DOB, marital status, number of dependants, residential address and occupation.
• No Claims Discount (NCD) – The number of years of NCD you have built up. It’s important to note that one set of NCD can only be used on one car insurance policy at a time. For example, you cannot purchase a new policy and use the same set of NCD as is used on a pre-existing policy unless you intend on cancelling the pre-existing policy.
• Driving history – Information relating to any claims or convictions within the last five years. For claims, this includes instances where you have discussed the prospect of making a claim with a previous insurer, regardless of whether or not a claim was actually made.
• Additional drivers – Details of any additional drivers that you’d like to be insured to drive your car. The information required includes, but may not be limited to their full name, title, DOB, marital status, address, occupation, details relating to any previous claims and driving history.

At One Call, we understand that our customers value their privacy. This is why we keep your contact details secure, only to be used by us, and never passed on to other companies for any marketing purposes. To view more information on how your data will be used, please visit https://www.onecallinsurance.co.uk/privacy-policy to view our privacy policy.

Car insurance is designed to offer protection against common risks involved in owning and driving a car. It primarily offers financial protection against any costs that may be incurred as a result of physical damage, theft or bodily injury.

It ensures that any not-at-fault third-parties involved in a road traffic accident can reasonably recover costs incurred as a result and that you aren’t personally left out of pocket if you are the at-fault-driver.

Furthermore, in accordance with the Road Traffic Act of 1998; it’s a legal requirement with the minimum permissible level of cover being Third Party Only. Fail to comply with the law and there is no limit to the size of the fine you could receive, you would have your car seized and be given 6 points or a driving ban.

According to the most recent data from the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the average price paid for car insurance in the UK is £412, a figure that amounts to a 5% year-on-year price reduction when compared to Q4 2017. However, the price you pay for car insurance will differ and you may therefore pay less or more than the UK average.

The specific cost to insure is determined based on a combination of factors. These include your age, marital status and occupation along with the type of car you drive, its age and value. Pre-existing claims and convictions will also have an impact on cost.

We all want cheap car insurance and despite prices seemingly reaching new heights year-on-year, there are a number of ways in which you can legally reduce the cost of car insurance while maintaining fully comprehensive cover, these are:

• Compare quotes from different insurers – Comparing car insurance quotes from a selection of insurers will give you a much better idea of whether the price you’re being offered is competitive or not. One of the quickest and easiest ways to do this is via our car insurance comparison service.
• Increase your voluntary excess – A typical car insurance policy has a compulsory and voluntary excess, both of which can range from zero to a few hundred pounds. The compulsory excess is set by the insurer and cannot be changed. The voluntary excess, however, can be increased and should subsequently reduce the amount of premium that you have to pay for cover. However, before doing this you should consider the fact that any increase in the voluntary excess will mean you have more to pay if you need make a claim.
• Build up a No Claims Discount (NCD) – NCD is accrued when you have been insured for one year without having made a claim; the same applies to every subsequent claim free year, usually up to a maximum of nine. For example, two years’ claim free driving would mean you have two years’ NCD. Some insurers will keep a tally of your NCD beyond this threshold, but most only discount up to the ninth year.
• Have a black box fitted – Black box car insurance has experienced a sharp rise in popularity over the last couple of years, but it isn’t for everyone. It involves the fitting of a telematics equipped box to your car and allows your insurer to monitor your driving style and amend or even cancel your policy based on the results.
• Choose a car that’s cheap to insure – For insurance purposes, cars are categorised from 1 to 50 and generally speaking the lower the category the lower the premium you will have to pay to insure it. According to Car Buyer, these are 5 of the UK’s cheapest cars to insure in 2020:

• Avoid car modifications – Modifying the aesthetics or performance of your car is likely to impact the cost of cover. The list of modifications that must be declared when buying car insurance is near endless. Examples include aftermarket alloy wheels, performance exhausts and spoilers.
• Add a named driver to your policy – Adding a named driver to your insurance policy can bring down the cost of cover, provided they have a number of years’ experience and an exemplary claims and convictions record. However, you should be careful as to ensure you avoid fronting. This is where a parent or guardian falsely claims to be the main driver on their dependent’s car insurance policy in order to bring down the cost of cover.

It is a requirement to promptly report all incidents even if you do not wish to claim for your own damage. If you are involved in an incident, or your vehicle is damaged, stolen or vandalised, you will need to call our Claims department on 0203 738 7300.

To ensure we can deal with your claim quickly and effectively, all claims must be reported within 24 hours of becoming aware of the incident, as it may cause difficulties if a claim is reported at a later date.

You must stop if you are involved in any incident. If you own the vehicle, you must give your name, address and insurance details to anyone who has a good reason for asking. This would include authorities and any third parties also involved

If you do not own the vehicle, you must give the owner's name and address and the registration number of the vehicle. Do not apologise or admit fault in any circumstance.

To help is speed up the process of your claim, and contact anyone else that may be involved, please collect the following information in the event of an incident with a third party:

• Full details of the other driver(s)
• Phone Number(s)/ Contact Details
• Any involved registration number(s)

You also need to make a note of injuries caused, witnesses, police officers and report references. We will then provide you with the support and information you will need to get your vehicle back on the road as quickly and safely as possible.

An unrated insurer is an insurer that does not carry an insurer financial strength rating given by international rating agencies, such as Standard and Poor’s 500 index (S&), Moody’s, Fitch Ratings and A.M. Best. An insurer financial strength rating ‘provides an assessment of the financial strength of an insurance organisation’ and its ability to pay claims to its policyholders.

Each agency has its own methodology, but ratings are usually organised on a scale based on letter grades to indicate the degree of credit risk. For example, an ‘A’ rating means that the insurers have an excellent ability to pay out claims, while a ‘C’ rating means that the insurer has a weak ability to pay out claims.

Some unrated insurers have been trading in the United Kingdom for many years, and so failure is not seen as likely, but this is not any sort of guarantee and such firms can fail given the appropriate combination of circumstances. However, just because an insurer is rated does not mean they cannot get into difficulty.

Risks of using an unrated insurer include:

• Unrated insurers may be based overseas and outside the influence of UK regulation. The home state regulation they are subject to may be less intrusive, less rigorous or a lighter touch than that of the UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) / Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
• In the event of an overseas insurer failing, claims may have to be directed to an overseas equivalent of the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), and this may bring delays in dealing with the claim.
• Unrated insurers lack independent corroboration of the quality of their current financial stability. As your Insurance Broker, we carry out monthly due diligence checks on our entire panel of insurers, Underwriting Agencies & Managing General Agents and the underlying insurance provider. We are confident in the panel we choose to do business with.

Some of the benefits of using unrated insurers include the following:

• You may only be able to source cover from an unrated insurer due to your particular circumstances
• They may offer comparably lower prices than an alternative rated insurer
• There is no legal requirement for an insurer to be rated; brokers are not obligated to restrict placing business with rated insurers only