New car from UK - insurer won't cover me permanently or temporarily

UnknownSpecies

Need some advice here. I'm looking at bringing in a car from the UK in the next fortnight. I've done various quotes online and most insurers are giving me very reasonable figures so happy days.

However my current insurer Liberty won't quote me on this car at all and will only entertain quoting me to change upon sending then proof of purchase and log book. The lucky thing here is that my policy ends on April 1st so not a big deal holding off until then.

The big problem is that they also won't temporarily cover me to allow me to bring the bloody car back. This is regardless of the type of car. The lady in customer care says they don't do this in any circumstance outside of getting a repair. So I'm stuck with them.

What are my options here? Get a new policy elsewhere and use that for this car? I'd have to sacrifice a year no claims. Is this even possible? I wouldnt mind leaving it sitting until the insurance lapses but this still leaves me with no way of bringing it back here?

I'm incredibly frustrated at this and don't really know what the best thing to do is. Any advice would be great.

bazz26

People are importing cars from the UK everyday and arrange temporary cover on the UK plate until it is registered over here. I'd say you could have been talking to someone who was misinformed. Maybe try ringing them again and speak to someone different?

If that is Liberty's offical stance then try and wait until the policy expires and move to another company.

Could you get insurance in the Uk? Or would your current insurance not cover your driving another vehicle?

UnknownSpecies

I have insurance to drive other vehicles but since I would technically be the new owner, I don't think that will cover me in this case.

I agree that it sounds wrong for such a big insurer to refuse thus with so many cars coming from the UK. I searched boards for others experience with Liberty and found nothing. Surely someone else would have complained by now. I will have to try calling them again.

Odyssey 2005

Could you look into getting it collected on a transporter and brought here. Car transporters over and back every day,I don't know the costs but I'm sure it's not prohibitive.

CiniO

UnknownSpecies wrote: »

I have insurance to drive other vehicles but since I would technically be the new owner, I don't think that will cover me in this case.

I wouldn't.
But maybe once you are buying a car, get the invoice in some family member's name (parent, sister, etc) and that way you should be able to drive it back home using "driving other cars" extension.

I agree that it sounds wrong for such a big insurer to refuse thus with so many cars coming from the UK. I searched boards for others experience with Liberty and found nothing. Surely someone else would have complained by now. I will have to try calling them again.

Do.
In my experience, most insurer helplines is full of people having no clue about the thing.
I managed once to ring Aviva 3 times in a row, talk to 3 different consultants, ask exactly same question and received 3 different answers contradicing each other.

CJhaughey

RAC do temporary insurance. I used them for my purchase as I wanted to have something that I could show the UK police if stopped.

IrishGrimReaper

I took out a policy on a UK car I bought with Liberty(7 months ago), they gave me 1 month of cover on the UK reg, but they started hounding me after two weeks.

They definitely cover UK reg for a brief period though, I believe you were talking to agent who didn't actually know.

UnknownSpecies

CiniO wrote: »

I wouldn't.
But maybe once you are buying a car, get the invoice in some family member's name (parent, sister, etc) and that way you should be able to drive it back home using "driving other cars" extension.




Do.
In my experience, most insurer helplines is full of people having no clue about the thing.
I managed once to ring Aviva 3 times in a row, talk to 3 different consultants, ask exactly same question and received 3 different answers contradicing each other.

Onto them again now. All they're doing is giving me pages from the policy document. Asked to speak to a supervisor but refused to.

Asked about the drive any vehicle part too and she said as long as the vehicle isn't in my name and as long as it's NCTd and taxed then I should be covered. That could be my only option. If I want to register it in my Dad's name, would he have to be there to sign any relevant documentation I wonder?

JohnBoy26

UnknownSpecies wrote: »

I have insurance to drive other vehicles but since I would technically be the new owner, I don't think that will cover me in this case.

I agree that it sounds wrong for such a big insurer to refuse thus with so many cars coming from the UK. I searched boards for others experience with Liberty and found nothing. Surely someone else would have complained by now. I will have to try calling them again.

I had a similar experience with liberty albeit on an irish car. I had a car bought and wanted to change over temporarily to bring it home. They wouldn't do this and said id have to change it over permanently. They have no problem changing over temporarily if your car is going for repairs.

exaisle

You can buy short-term (ie one day) insurance for about £60 if memory serves me right...

I've imported several cars and never had a problem transferring insurance once I had the chassis number (rather than the UK Reg number).

UnknownSpecies

Ok that's good to hear about the RAC short term cover. Going to look into this now.

Liberty are an absolute joke. Between this and refusing me cover on a mk5 GTI due to it being 'high performance', I will never give them my custom again.

Cows Go µ

Most companies will only do temporary changes of vehicle when your own car is being repaired. However it is very unusual for them not to do a permanent change of vehicle onto the new car, even if it is a UK car

UnknownSpecies

The excuse again is 'high performance' which in fairness is truer in this case. All the same, it's still frustrating that they won't even quote me.

bazz26

It sounds like it's the car they have a problem with rather than the process of covering a UK registered car being imported.

UnknownSpecies

I asked that question and she said temporary cover had nothing to do with the type of car. I said how farfetched it sounds that no Liberty customer can bring a car in from the UK. She just started quoting the policy document about only offering temporary cover when the car is in for a repair and said she can't comment on what on what other insurers do.

In regards to using my drive any vehicle cover, she said it must be taxed and NCTd. I wonder did she realise I meant a UK reg car as obviously that would be MOT, not NCT.

edit. Checked RAC temporary cover and it'll be £145 for 1 day. Wow. Still wopuld be cheaper and preferable to hiring a transporter at least. I don't mind paying a bit, just don't want the headache.

CiniO

UnknownSpecies wrote: »

I asked that question and she said temporary cover had nothing to do with the type of car. I said how farfetched it sounds that no Liberty customer can bring a car in from the UK. She just started quoting the policy document about only offering temporary cover when the car is in for a repair and said she can't comment on what on what other insurers do.

In regards to using my drive any vehicle cover, she said it must be taxed and NCTd. I wonder did she realise I meant a UK reg car as obviously that would be MOT, not NCT.

edit. Checked RAC temporary cover and it'll be £145 for 1 day. Wow. Still wopuld be cheaper and preferable to hiring a transporter at least. I don't mind paying a bit, just don't want the headache.

Is it temporary cover you were asking for.

Would they not provide cover if you switched vehicle permanently?


Seems insurers only reserve temporary transfer to other vehicle for cases like when you vehicle is broken/being repaiered, and you rent/borrow vehicle from someone.
Pity they don't inform about that.

F.e. I once changed cover temporarily to other vehicle for 30 days using Aviva online system.
Only after that consulant on their helpline when talking about something else informed me that I couldn't change cover temporarily to vehicle which is registered in my name.
I argued that how should I know that, as online system which I used to change it didn't tell me this, neither did policy document, schedule or cert.
She didn't know what to reply, and after talking to supervisor she agreed that this time only they are going to agree to that (because I didn't know) but for future they won't do it.

UnknownSpecies

Yeah Aviva are great like that. I was with them for 5 years before I switched to Liberty last year. Every time I bought a new car, I was able to do exactly what you described.

They just won't entertain a change to the car I am buying, which I guess is what is what baz meant too. They will only quote me with proof of purchase and logbook. Guess I'm looking at insuring it with the RAC to bring it over, then seeing what sort of quote Liberty give me. If it's poor, then wait the month until the Liberty policy expires.

edit. I actually misread your last part about how they said it was a mistake. I used to always do this online and also just assumed the same as you!

Cows Go µ

Can I ask why you only do a temporary change instead of a permanent one? When I bought my car in the UK, I just did a permanent change over (as most people do). What benefit do you see for doing a temporary change?

UnknownSpecies

I guess I was just using the wrong terminology. I would like a permanent change. I'm going to see if Aviva will allow me buy a new policy for the car on UK plates with the promise it will be on Irish plates asap..

cplwhisper

UnknownSpecies wrote: »

I guess I was just using the wrong terminology. I would like a permanent change. I'm going to see if Aviva will allow me buy a new policy for the car on UK plates with the promise it will be on Irish plates asap..

28-days is max period cover on non Irish reg #.
Temp sub is normally only for service/repair reason as for all other reasons the insurance cover can be bought-cover by other provider taking risk away from your insurer.