Auto Insurance Brokers: directory of firms

If a vehicle is not insured and has not been declared off the road with a SORN, the registered keeper can be fined 100 pounds, can have the vehicle wheel-clamped, impounded or destroyed, and can be taken to court for a maximum fine of 1,000 pounds. You still have to pay for insurance on top of any fine.

Every insurer offering motor cover in the UK must be a member of the Motor Insurers' Bureau and supply data to the central database of insured vehicles. Police, the DVLA and the insurance industry use it to identify uninsured vehicles at the roadside and by post.

A new policy takes a short time to appear on the database. You can check your own vehicle free on askMID, and if the record is missing, tell the insurer or broker at once rather than assuming it will correct itself. Where a policy is too new to show, an officer can call the MIB police helpline to have the insurer contacted directly.

Third party only is the legal minimum. It pays for injury and damage you cause to other people and their property, and nothing for your own vehicle. Third party fire and theft adds those two perils for your own car. Comprehensive adds accidental damage to your own vehicle, and usually windscreen cover, personal effects and a courtesy car.

Comprehensive is not automatically dearer. Insurers have long priced it against the profile of the drivers who buy each type, so quote all three rather than assuming. What varies far more is the detail: excess levels, whether the protected no claims discount actually protects the premium, driving other cars cover where it still exists, and whether a total loss settles at market value or at an agreed value.

Ghost broking is the sale of motor insurance that does not exist or has been obtained by falsifying the proposal. Typical signs are cover offered through social media or messaging apps, a price far below every quote you have been given, payment by bank transfer to a personal account, and documents that arrive as images rather than from the insurer.

The victim is left uninsured without knowing it, which means penalty points, a seized vehicle and personal liability for any claim. Before paying anyone, look the firm up on the Financial Services Register and use the contact details shown there, then check the vehicle appears on the Motor Insurance Database once cover is supposed to have started.

The Motor Insurers' Bureau handles claims from accidents caused by uninsured drivers, untraced drivers and some foreign-registered vehicles, under agreements with the government. An uninsured driver is one who is identified but had no valid policy; an untraced driver left the scene without giving genuine details, which includes hit and run.

At the scene, gather what will let a claim be made: registration numbers, photographs, the location, and the names and contact details of independent witnesses. Report the incident to the police, because a report reference is usually needed for an untraced driver claim.

Tell your own insurer even if you intend to claim elsewhere. Policies require notification of any incident, and failing to report one can cause problems at renewal or on a later claim.

Vehicle group, where it is kept, annual mileage, class of use, claims and convictions, and the profile of every named driver do most of the work. Voluntary excess, telematics and paying annually rather than monthly are the levers you control. Monthly payment is a credit agreement with interest, so compare the total payable over the year.

Since 1 January 2022 a renewal price for motor insurance must not be higher than the equivalent new business price, and the rule applies to an intermediary's part of the price as well. A broker's remaining value at renewal is in re-checking mileage, use and named drivers, and in moving a risk that has changed to an insurer that prices it better.

Driving uninsured is recorded on a driving record under code IN10, using a vehicle uninsured against third party risks, which carries six to eight penalty points and stays on the record for four years from the date of the offence. That endorsement affects premiums long after the fine is paid.

If an insurer fails, third party motor insurance is treated as compulsory insurance and protected by the FSCS at 100 per cent for failures after 8 October 2020. Cover for damage to your own vehicle is first-party general insurance and is protected at 90 per cent.