UK car insurance- full irish license vs UK provisional

Yarisa

I just moved to the UK with a re-registered UK car, and was wondering if it would be wiser to insure my car using my full irish licence (x3 years) vs a provisional UK licence which i've had since 2005. It appears cheaper with the provisional but i'm wondering if I'd face any problems if I insure it with a UK provisional, giving the fact that I'd be driving alone 'unsupervised'?

Many thanks.

Yarisa

alias no.9

Yarisa wrote: »

I just moved to the UK with a re-registered UK car, and was wondering if it would be wiser to insure my car using my full irish licence (x3 years) vs a provisional UK licence which i've had since 2005. It appears cheaper with the provisional but i'm wondering if I'd face any problems if I insure it with a UK provisional, giving the fact that I'd be driving alone 'unsupervised'?

Many thanks.

Yarisa

What's the quote with a Full UK License? Why not just exchange your Full Irish for a Full UK License?

Marcusm

You can't hold 2 EU full licences so I'd be surprised if your UK provisional was valid. Equally, I'd be very surprised if a full Irish licence resulted in a significantly higher insurance quote than a UK provisional. Unlike what often happens in Ireland, first time insurance for a new licenceholder can be higher than for a provisional on the basis of driving unaccompanied.

As Alias No 9 suggests, exchange for a UK licence. The comparison sites generally distinguish between UK and EU but I suspect looking to individual companies might get equivalent treatment for Irish licences. Certainly, knowing lots of Irish licence holders here, it's not a general problem.

slimjimmc

It seems fairly normal in the UK that if you break the terms of your provisional licence the you have broken the terms of your policy and you are considered not insured which could be a major problem if a claim is lodged or the cops get you first.

I presume you know you can only hold one EU full driving licence so you won't be able to have both a UK one and the Irish one.

Marcusm wrote: »

You can't hold 2 EU full licences so I'd be surprised if your UK provisional was valid.

In Ireland the Learner Permit application form asks if you previously held a Irish licence or learner, it does not ask if you have/had one from another EU country. In addition the full licence application form only asks if you have a full EU licence, no mention of provisional/learner status. This suggests it's ok to have a full EU licence and a local learner licence so I presume it's the same EU wide.

Yarisa

I actually didn't think about that- swapping licences...duh!!!..lol. The only issue is that it would take 3 weeks before I get my full UK licence, which means I won't be able to drive till then. But then again, if I change it, would it affect how long i've had the 'full uk licence' like would it be <1yr vs 3yrs.

From the advice above, I believe its best I just leave the UK provisional license alone, so as not to get into trouble.

The only other variable which seems to affect the pricing is length of residency in the UK, which is used to determine how conversant one is with UK roads. In fairness, I did my A-levels in the UK and had driving lessons there at the time, which was about 10 years ago, although I passed my driving test in Ireland when I came back here for uni.
I've only been back here consistently for 1 year, so I'm guessing the fact that I drove here 10 years ago doesn't count

slimjimmc

Yarisa wrote: »

I actually didn't think about that- swapping licences...duh!!!..lol. The only issue is that it would take 3 weeks before I get my full UK licence, which means I won't be able to drive till then. But then again, if I change it, would it affect how long i've had the 'full uk licence' like would it be <1yr vs 3yrs.

From the advice above, I believe its best I just leave the UK provisional license alone, so as not to get into trouble.

The only other variable which seems to affect the pricing is length of residency in the UK, which is used to determine how conversant one is with UK roads. In fairness, I did my A-levels in the UK and had driving lessons there at the time, which was about 10 years ago, although I passed my driving test in Ireland when I came back here for uni.
I've only been back here consistently for 1 year, so I'm guessing the fact that I drove here 10 years ago doesn't count

You'd probably be better going to broker that dealing with online quotes, they'd be better at answering those questions. Of course there's no guarantee that swapping your Irish licence would give you cheaper insurance, as you've noticed they'll factor in how long you've been UK resident and held your EU licence.

djimi

Marcusm wrote: »

You can't hold 2 EU full licences so I'd be surprised if your UK provisional was valid.

A learners permit/provision isnt a license and isnt valid outside the country that it was issued in, so Im not sure that it would be an issue to hold a full license and a provisional from another country?

Marcusm

djimi wrote: »

A learners permit/provision isnt a license and isnt valid outside the country that it was issued in, so Im not sure that it would be an issue to hold a full license and a provisional from another country?

I imagine there would not be an explicit prohibition but it is hard to see what purpose it would have as the holder could not convert it, via a test, into a full licence.

OP; length if residence might also have an impact on perceived credit quality - this is a gator in insurance quotes even when paid upfront. I believe a converted licence should show the initial dAte of grant by class of vehicle taking account of the foreign licence.

ARGINITE

I swapped my Irish license for a UK one, Admiral count my years driving with an Irish license as if I was driving with a UK one. So I lost nothing.

Best thing to do would be get insured with the Irish license then exchange it for the UK one and change the details with the insurance company, the insurance company should then refund the difference.

Lemming

ARGINITE wrote: »

I swapped my Irish license for a UK one, Admiral count my years driving with an Irish license as if I was driving with a UK one. So I lost nothing.

^^^ this, although it should be noted that the DVLA counts your Irish history; it's not down to the benevolence (HA!) of UK insurers to decide if they want to do that. Either your license was issued on such and such a date, or it wasn't, EU or UK license type be damned. Your original date of issue (elsewhere) will be noted on your license and it is treated as a continuation.

But even before I swapped my license; I was told that there was very little (if any) change in premium between my holding a full UK vs. full EU license by several insurers when seeking renewal quotes.

What you may actually find is a bigger hinderance to not getting slaughtered for options in shopping around is your years of residence in the UK. Entire umbrella groups will not go near you until you have 5+ years because everybody knows that when you cross that magic number you're automagically an amazingly safe driver ... What will happen is that you generally get quotes that will be the best of a bad bunch for a few years before they start to improve - quite dramatically I might add (unless you're either a really crap or very unlucky driver).

wonski

First of all if the OP insured his car on his provisional license the cops would know that. The car would be taken away on a spot if caught driving it on his own.

Yarisa

Hey all,

Thanks for all the advice. I got a good enough deal in the end.
I was fortunate enough to get my car insured as a student, as im technically still doing my master's degree plus the insurance company give a discount to UK graduates too. I was also able to apply my no claims bonus discount from Ireland, as the company recognised those from ROI and UK only (happy days!!!).
Like Arginite suggested, I decided to use my Irish licence for now and will exchange it for a UK one later on and pay any difference if need be.

Thanks once again.

fmcg_scribe

As several other contributors to this thread have already pointed out, there's value in exchanging your full Irish licence for a full UK one - the date you passed the test in Ireland will appear on the UK licence, so you won't lose out when quoting for insurance purposes the numbers of years that that you have held a full driving licence.

I moved to the UK 8 years ago and I too brought my car over from Ireland and re-registered. Insurance costs were rough were for the first couple of years because you are treated by UK insurers as being "overseas" - you might as well have travelled over from, say, India. Your driving history and insurance history in Ireland don't hold any sway with UK insurers. In particular, you will have to wait 4 years to be offered NCB protection by UK insurers whereas in Ireland you get NCB too quickly (perhaps). That said, I'm not sure that NCB protection in the UK is worth the money.

Ultimately, as in Ireland, UK motor insurance is individual to you - your car, your age, your address, your line of work, your annual mileage, your driving history, your insurance (claim) history, whether you will use the car for business purposes, whether you have points or endorsements on your licence, and so on. Some of those things are difficult to mitigate. That said, if you can keep your nose clean with points and endorsements, you will start to see your premiums tumble by year 3.

Things like windscreen claims during the previous 5 years do not usually affect quotes for UK car insurance but the following quirks have been noted in the recent years:
- Often, third party fire and theft can often cost as much as comprehensive. There are different theories about this.
- Where the car is parked at night can affect price. Some UK insurers can charge more if a car is usually parked on a driveway as opposed to a residents car park.

Keep using the UK price comparison sites for renewals. It's worth using several of them and compare results because different insurers quote for some price comparison sites and not others.

Yarisa

fmcg_scribe wrote: »

As several other contributors to this thread have already pointed out, there's value in exchanging your full Irish licence for a full UK one - the date you passed the test in Ireland will appear on the UK licence, so you won't lose out when quoting for insurance purposes the numbers of years that that you have held a full driving licence.

I moved to the UK 8 years ago and I too brought my car over from Ireland and re-registered. Insurance costs were rough were for the first couple of years because you are treated by UK insurers as being "overseas" - you might as well have travelled over from, say, India. Your driving history and insurance history in Ireland don't hold any sway with UK insurers. In particular, you will have to wait 4 years to be offered NCB protection by UK insurers whereas in Ireland you get NCB too quickly (perhaps). That said, I'm not sure that NCB protection in the UK is worth the money.

Ultimately, as in Ireland, UK motor insurance is individual to you - your car, your age, your address, your line of work, your annual mileage, your driving history, your insurance (claim) history, whether you will use the car for business purposes, whether you have points or endorsements on your licence, and so on. Some of those things are difficult to mitigate. That said, if you can keep your nose clean with points and endorsements, you will start to see your premiums tumble by year 3.

Things like windscreen claims during the previous 5 years do not usually affect quotes for UK car insurance but the following quirks have been noted in the recent years:
- Often, third party fire and theft can often cost as much as comprehensive. There are different theories about this.
- Where the car is parked at night can affect price. Some UK insurers can charge more if a car is usually parked on a driveway as opposed to a residents car park.

Keep using the UK price comparison sites for renewals. It's worth using several of them and compare results because different insurers quote for some price comparison sites and not others.

Wow!!! That's pretty detailed. Thanks so much. Will defo be swapping my licence in the nearest future

Lemming

fmcg_scribe wrote: »

I moved to the UK 8 years ago and I too brought my car over from Ireland and re-registered. Insurance costs were rough were for the first couple of years because you are treated by UK insurers as being "overseas" - you might as well have travelled over from, say, India. Your driving history and insurance history in Ireland don't hold any sway with UK insurers. In particular, you will have to wait 4 years to be offered NCB protection by UK insurers whereas in Ireland you get NCB too quickly (perhaps). That said, I'm not sure that NCB protection in the UK is worth the money.

Whilst I don't doubt your experiences; the bit about UK insurers ignoring your driving history & insurance from Ireland is patently false. If you can prove your NCB abroad, some insurers will accept it. What you will find very difficult to have UK insurers accept is any history as a named driver (i.e. you were a learner on a parent's car, etc.). One of the questions that every UK insurer (or website) will ask is "when was your license issued" to establish how long you have been driving. Given that the DVLA consider a swap as a continuation of issue, the issue date is your original date of issue.

Things like windscreen claims during the previous 5 years do not usually affect quotes for UK car insurance but the following quirks have been noted in the recent years:
- Often, third party fire and theft can often cost as much as comprehensive. There are different theories about this.
- Where the car is parked at night can affect price. Some UK insurers can charge more if a car is usually parked on a driveway as opposed to a residents car park.

The "where is your car parked" question is defacto these days when looking for insurance in my experiences, sometimes extending so far as asking where it is parked if you use it for commuting as well.

Keep using the UK price comparison sites for renewals. It's worth using several of them and compare results because different insurers quote for some price comparison sites and not others.

+1 on this. The only thing I would add is use the website defaqto to check against the prices being offered to see just what kind of rating/reputation/services-offered you're buying into. Some of the brands (e.g. "sheilas wheels" and its' male equivalent I can't remember the name of) may be obscenely cheap, but have appalling customer service.

fmcg_scribe

Lemming wrote: »

Whilst I don't doubt your experiences; the bit about UK insurers ignoring your driving history & insurance from Ireland is patently false. If you can prove your NCB abroad, some insurers will accept it. What you will find very difficult to have UK insurers accept is any history as a named driver (i.e. you were a learner on a parent's car, etc.). One of the questions that every UK insurer (or website) will ask is "when was your license issued" to establish how long you have been driving. Given that the DVLA consider a swap as a continuation of issue, the issue date is your original date of issue.

Based on my experience (but I accept that some things could have changed in the last 8 years), UK car insurers might take an interest only in things like whether you accumulated points or endorsements in another jurisdiction. NCB accmulated abroad would not sway them, irrespective of how you accumulated it. Logically, this follows on from the point that UK drivers have to have a minimum of 4 years accident-free driving before they can ask for NCB protection. (If you can provide names of UK insurers that recognise in some way NCB accumulated outside the UK, please do so.) Your point about "when was your licence issued" being used to assess your driving experience is correct. That said, three points about that: (a) the country that issued the licence can matter, hence the value of switching to a UK licence, (b) whether your licence is full or provisional, and (c) whether you were born in the UK or how long you lived in the UK. (c) is a question asked by UK price comparison sites and UK insurers and it can influence price of car insurance when you first arrive in the UK - it should matter less as times goes on and you build up UK NCB history.

Some of these issues overlap with problems dealing with UK banks when you arrive from "overseas" in the UK. Things like address history matter a lot with most UK retail banks - that and not being on the electoral register will kill your credit score with many of them. And God help if you there's anything fishy about the post code you provide for your correspondence address for a bank account application. You could provide a letter from your bank in Ireland praising you as creditworthy customer but that won't influence any UK banks. Tip: HSBC is probably the most welcoming UK bank for overseas people.

mistress_gi

I would like to add here to give clements international a try.
I am a foreigner living in Ireland and I just got 3rd party insurance from them at 420 euros a year for a 2.0 imported toyota celica, I then added AA cover for 150 bucks a year, so total 570 for the year is not bad at all!
If you are Irish living in the UK you could give them a go.
They don't really care what kind of car you drive, they will take into account your claims history and the value of your car.
You can only get fully comp when the car is worth more than $5k.
They are a broker based in the US (they also have a headquarters in London) and use AIG has their insurer.
So far I found them very reasonable to deal with. I hope I don't have to find out how they deal with claims

danjobaZ

fmcg_scribe wrote: »

As several other contributors to this thread have already pointed out, there's value in exchanging your full Irish licence for a full UK one - the date you passed the test in Ireland will appear on the UK licence, so you won't lose out when quoting for insurance purposes the numbers of years that that you have held a full driving licence.

I moved to the UK 8 years ago and I too brought my car over from Ireland and re-registered. Insurance costs were rough were for the first couple of years because you are treated by UK insurers as being "overseas" - you might as well have travelled over from, say, India. Your driving history and insurance history in Ireland don't hold any sway with UK insurers. In particular, you will have to wait 4 years to be offered NCB protection by UK insurers whereas in Ireland you get NCB too quickly (perhaps). That said, I'm not sure that NCB protection in the UK is worth the money.

Ultimately, as in Ireland, UK motor insurance is individual to you - your car, your age, your address, your line of work, your annual mileage, your driving history, your insurance (claim) history, whether you will use the car for business purposes, whether you have points or endorsements on your licence, and so on. Some of those things are difficult to mitigate. That said, if you can keep your nose clean with points and endorsements, you will start to see your premiums tumble by year 3.

Things like windscreen claims during the previous 5 years do not usually affect quotes for UK car insurance but the following quirks have been noted in the recent years:
- Often, third party fire and theft can often cost as much as comprehensive. There are different theories about this.
- Where the car is parked at night can affect price. Some UK insurers can charge more if a car is usually parked on a driveway as opposed to a residents car park.

Keep using the UK price comparison sites for renewals. It's worth using several of them and compare results because different insurers quote for some price comparison sites and not others.

If I have a Irish provisional license can I apply for a UK license and if so will my points be carried on or will it be a clean license also to state im am from the uk thinking of moving back from Ireland