car insurance for foreign drivers

[Jalapenocheese]

Hello

Just wanting to know if car insurance premiums do go down when one's foreign driver's license has been converted to NZ license. We still haven't applied for a NZ driver's license (going to in the near future) and my husband was told (AA insurance) that it's the excess that goes down, not the premium. We are currently paying over $400 for each car for a full, comprehensive insurance annually.

Thanks!

Stephanie

[IanW99]

Hello

Just wanting to know if car insurance premiums do go down when one's foreign driver's license has been converted to NZ license. We still haven't applied for a NZ driver's license (going to in the near future) and my husband was told (AA insurance) that it's the excess that goes down, not the premium. We are currently paying over $400 for each car for a full, comprehensive insurance annually.

Thanks!

Stephanie

I would guess that this will be down to the insurance company.

I know with AMI that they didn't appear interested that we had converted our license to NZ ones and didn't appear to change either the excess or premium - if they did, we certainly didn't notice.

Don't really see why it would actually make any difference to the policy anyway as it is legal to drive on both licenses.

Ian

[Wooly_Cow]

I would guess that this will be down to the insurance company.

I know with AMI that they didn't appear interested that we had converted our license to NZ ones and didn't appear to change either the excess or premium - if they did, we certainly didn't notice.

Don't really see why it would actually make any difference to the policy anyway as it is legal to drive on both licenses.

Ian

....and Brits are in general far better drivers. Well at least have a more rigerous test!

[James 1077]

With our insurance (through Westpac) it is just the excess that goes down once we have had our Kiwi licences for a year (one month to go until this happens!) - the premium remained the same when we got our licences.

[bobo]

With our insurance (through Westpac) it is just the excess that goes down once we have had our Kiwi licences for a year (one month to go until this happens!) - the premium remained the same when we got our licences.

It should go up. After you have been driving like a Kiwi for a year, you have learned to change lanes with out indicating or ensuring that there is space, run red lights, forgotten how to park etc.

[frootbat]

You're right Stephanie, the excess goes down (ours halved when we'd got our NZ licences), not the premium, we're also with AA.

I did get a quote from AMI who I don't think mind what kind of licence you have excess-wise, but there was something else that put us off using them, maybe no claims, with the standard of driving here we're expecting to have an accident sooner or later!

[K&J]

I know with AMI that they didn't appear interested that we had converted our license to NZ ones and didn't appear to change either the excess or premium - if they did, we certainly didn't notice.

I'm with AMI and I asked them whether my family from overseas could use my car when they were over and they told me that the excess would be higher for them if they had an accident if they were driving on a UK licence. I assumed that this would be the case for me as a policy holder, but I don't know for sure.

[carahafner]

Forgive my ignorance but what does the term "excess" mean in insurance language? Not familiar with that here in the US.

[JandM]

It's a sum of money that the customer has to pay when making a claim. So your policy might carry the condition that you have to pay the first £100, and whatever any damage costs to fix, you'll only receive £100 less from the company.

In practice, it deters people from making small claims - e.g. they'll think, 'Oh, it's not worth going through all the paperwork just for that,' if it's within £40 or £50 of the excess amount, and so it saves the insurance company money.

[Jalapenocheese]

thanks everybody! that clears a lot of things up.