Car insurance

Just relating this in case it is of interest to anyone else dealing with the vexed and costly question of car insurance. I have insured various vehicles over the past ten years with Clements / Italsure / AIG and the policies have become increasingly expensive. They also insist on comprehensive coverage for vehicles over a certain value, which annoyed me as I consider the type of coverage is my decision, not theirs. Anyway, this year I decided that around €1200 for a car worth €8500 for a driver with a long history of no claims was just too much. I learned that Clements is legally obliged to supply an Italian Attesttato di Rischio, which Italian insurers will accept. They do not provide the certificate willingly or quickly and it took me a long time to obtain it. The CU class they provide is not very good and the Italian insurers downgrade it further, but it is a starting point and each year without claims will improve my status from now on. Some Italian companies still quoted around €950 but I ended up with Tua Assicurazioni for €750 (third party only). I have also used them for house insurance for several properties and their price is very competitive and they include earthquake cover. I have no vested interest in Tua, I'm just passing this on because they seem more modern and customer-focused than other Italian insurers.

Bartholomew wrote:Just relating this in case it is of interest to anyone else dealing with the vexed and costly question of car insurance. I have insured various vehicles over the past ten years with Clements / Italsure / AIG and the policies have become increasingly expensive. They also insist on comprehensive coverage for vehicles over a certain value, which annoyed me as I consider the type of coverage is my decision, not theirs. Anyway, this year I decided that around €1200 for a car worth €8500 for a driver with a long history of no claims was just too much. I learned that Clements is legally obliged to supply an Italian Attesttato di Rischio, which Italian insurers will accept. They do not provide the certificate willingly or quickly and it took me a long time to obtain it. The CU class they provide is not very good and the Italian insurers downgrade it further, but it is a starting point and each year without claims will improve my status from now on. Some Italian companies still quoted around €950 but I ended up with Tua Assicurazioni for €750 (third party only). I have also used them for house insurance for several properties and their price is very competitive and they include earthquake cover. I have no vested interest in Tua, I'm just passing this on because they seem more modern and customer-focused than other Italian insurers.

Valuable information from what I can see. We have looked a number of times for an Italian alternative to Clements, but always had to compare using the lowest class and they turned out to be very high quotes indeed. A few years no claims would have lowered these quotes by quite a bit. I assume it is this lot that you are with Tua LINK  ?

Italian companies (and definitely Direct Line) will often accept UK no claims bonus so long as it is less than 6 months old and expresses the discount in years and not percentage.

Thanks for the info Bart, I have often wondered about the ins and outs of getting a CU no. from Clements, I will ask them for it when they send me my renewal notice.

Steve - yes, the link is correct.