Thanks so much for the advice. Once bitten...

Well you are where you are:

I assume you have used this site to find quotes. Have you made all the adjustments to the cover that you can which might reduce the premium. Increased excess is the obvious; 3rd party only maybe; adding your Mum as a named driver.

After you have done everything you can to get the premium down then you can do no more and will just have to bite the bullet. It may be better to postpone the new car for a year untill you become a good risk again in the insurer's eyes. That or buy something in a low insurance bracket.

..is what I am. We've had a very unlucky few months with our car. After having no problems wit this car for two and a half years, on two separate occasions, we've had our car badly scratched down one side when it was parked in a road/car park. Stupidly, I claimed on the insurance because no-one told me not to. And then, to add to the problem, my other named driver made contact with the car in front when it stopped abruptly at a traffic light, thus initiating another claim All this happened during our last Insurance year. Apart from the last claim (which is pending) the sums haven't been great. I wish I knew that this was going to completely distort this year's renewal. It has more than trebled, and furthermore I am just in the process of buying a new car, and the insurance company have decided they don't want to cover me any more, even though it's a newer version of the same car I'm driving. I wish my insurance broker, Swinton, had said something to me; maybe it's not their job. They've only been able to find one company to insure me, and, needless to say, it's a fortune. Much more than the cost of the damage to the vehicle. I've been driving for 27 years and - apart from the last named driver claim - have never had an accident. Any ideas, or would Swinton have tried everybody there is?