Motoring Legal Insurance - what do people do?

[aesmith]

Hi,

I was wondering what people typically do regarding the "legal" option that's commonly offered on motor insurance policy. We've had that option on our car insurance so far, but it occurred to me that with two cars and my bike it would all add up if I added that to each policy. Is it worth having at all? If so, then are there providers where we could just get legal cover, rather than having it on each vehicle's policy? (I'm assuming that the option on my car's policy wouldn't cover anything to do with any of the other vehicles, but maybe I'm wrong on that as well).

Thanks, Tony S

[tigersaw]

I get it from the RAC for £20 PA. Covers all vehicles, your house, any legal stuff really.

[aesmith]

Cheers, is that a standalone service from the RAC, or an add-on to your membership? We're AA members as it happens, but I'll check if they do anything similar.

[tigersaw]

Its a bolt on to standard RAC, which incidentally if you are a RAC member you get the motor legal bit included anyway.
Not sure if available outside membership, best you check what the AA have in your case

[TamSV]

I give a fairly typical motoring legal expenses cover to my clients free of charge. I buy it in at 0.2p per unit - to be clear, that's 2/10ths of 1 pence per client. As I think that's slightly more than it's true value, the supplier has agreed to waive the cost. If I sold it (like everyone else does) then that would be a 100% mark-up. If you think you should question the value of such a product, you'd be right.

Not all legal expenses policies are created equally though, there are some good contracts available. If I wanted to pay for such a product I would go for a decent Family Legal Expenses policy, but you may already have something like that under your Home contents policy if you have one.

The first question is what do you expect the policy to do for you and in what circumstances?

[aesmith]

The first question is what do you expect the policy to do for you and in what circumstances?
Good question, I suppose I've not thought that through. It has seemed like a relatively small amount of money for something that might come in handy, until you tot up the total over three or four vehicles.

I suppose I should be asking if anyone has ever found it useful? My inclination just now is to delete the option as each policy comes round for renewal.

Tony S

[TamSV]

Hot off the presses, the FCA's review of Motor Legal Expenses just arrived in my inbox.

http://www.fca.org.uk/your-fca/documents/thematic-reviews/tr13-1

Pretty good report if you want to make an informed decision. It gives you a bit of information on what the product does and doesn't do.

Also a bit of insight into how the private motor insurance market operates these days.

[aesmith]

Hot off the presses, the FCA's review of Motor Legal Expenses just arrived in my inbox.
Cheers, will read that.