Is Advance Insurance any good—and can they save you money? Let’s take a look at what Advance Insurance has to offer and read what real customers have to say.

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In This Review

• Advance Insurance: Overall Review
• Customer Reviews and Ratings
• Cost Comparison and Discounts
• Cancellation Fees, Phone Numbers and Policy Documents
• FAQs

Advance Insurance Car Insurance Overall Review

With branches in Chippenham, Westbury, Swindon and Trowbridge, Advance Insurance is more than just a local broker. They have been in operation since 1929, and work with over 100 insurance schemes to find customers a competitive price in the sprawling UK insurance marketplace. But are they any good? Let's take a look at the company and their offerings.

Advance Insurance can help with a wide range of products, and while they specialise in motorhome insurance they also offer the following products for both personal and commercial clients:

Advance Insurance customer reviews are mixed, with positive reviews on Trustpilot and negative reviews on Yell as you can see below. We can't say much about their features as policy documents are not available on their website for us to review since Advance Insurance is a broker—policies vary depending on which insurer underwrites your policy.

Especially for those who like a local company, it's certainly worth getting a quote from Advance Insurance. You can get a quote from Advance Insurance by calling or going to their website or, if you want to compare their prices to the market, then go to our car insurance comparison partner QuoteZone—their panel includes Advance Insurance.

Strictly speaking, Advance Insurance "cancellation fees" are lower than average cancellation fees in the UK, but since they're a broker you'll end paying additional charges to cancel such as a cancellation to the underwriter of your policy as well; plus new policy arrangement fees start from £100 for personal lines and £75 for renewals (higher for commercial)—and these are not refunded if you cancel.

Advance Insurance customer service is open 6 days a week (they're closed Sunday). We should also note that they should not be confused with "Advanced" Insurance Brokers, which are a different company.

Advance Insurance Customer Service Reviews and Ratings

Advance Insurance online customer reviews are mixed, and there aren't very many reviews, so it's hard to draw a firm conclusion of the typical customer experience. We read through the reviews left at Trustpilot (where reviews are positive) and Yell (where reviews are negative) to see if we could learn anything. Here's what we found:

Advance Insurance Trustpilot

Advance Insurance Agencies Limited has earned an excellent 4.7 stars out of 5 at Trustpilot; 7% of customers have rated the company as "Bad". These ratings are better than average in the car insurance market. And 86% of these are "Excellent" 5-star ratings. Here is a sample of a few Advance Insurance car insurance customer reviews from Trustpilot that you might find helpful:

Sample of positive customer reviews of Advance Insurance on Trustpilot:

"As arranging car insurance goes, these guys make it quick and easy and consistently present competitive prices from trusted insurers."

"Friendly lady, sorted out my insurance needs taking £50 off an existing quote. Rang 6 minutes before the place closed thinking I'd have to sort another day but it got sorted and i didnt feel rushed. Well pleased."

"... She was very clear and helpful as It was my first time sorting house insurance, she put me at ease..."

"... Excellent follow up when my insurance was due renewal. Polite reminders sent to renew which was essential due to my work commitments and recent bereavement. Felt there was a guiding hand which was much appreciated."

"... Too many emails for signatures and declarations post taking out insurance. Not upfront about the inconveniences that follow or the full steps involved prior. This is the second year I have insured with them so should have all my details already."

"It's just cost me £90 to cancel a 3 week old policy..."

"The cheapest quote was from Advance Insurance at £349.18 for the cover I had requested. However, I had to call this company as they did not offer an online service. On calling them they said the details had not all come through to them and they said he would have to check and call me back... the original insurer could no longer do the business price but that he could place the business with Liverpool Victoria for £471.88!! This was an increase of £122.70 or 35% more than their original quote and was unacceptable. I think it is extremely wrong to give such a misleading and inaccurate quote and then not honour it. I felt conned and that Advance have managed to get themselves to the top of the quote list under false pretences."

We should note that while the average UK car insurance cancellation fee is £55 in the industry, cancellation fees can be higher when you are dealing with a broker as they might add their own admin fees on top of the cancellation fees charged by the underwriter.

Positive reviews highlight the helpfulness of some of the call staff, for example:

"I did a fair bit of research on campervan insurance brokers and a guy called Colin Sutton kept being mentioned as being really good/helpful, so I thought I would try him. Due to living in London, parking on the street and my job I probably wasn't the most appealing to insurers so I am so glad that I managed to get hold of Colin, totally blown away by his knowledge and helpfulness and very glad I spoke to him before buying a van to convert. He mentioned things that I was unaware of and has found me a quote that I am very happy with. Definitely worth giving him a call."

Advance Insurance Yell

Only 9 customers have left reviews at Yell for Advance Insurance, and they're all negative (1 star). It's certainly worth reading through these customer experiences as they are real complaints, but keep in mind the very small sample size (9 reviews) is not statistically significant. Anyway, here are a few that we found useful:

"I renewed a Motorhome policy with Advance Insurance and paid an extra £108 for RAC Euro Rescue Breakdown cover. I cancelled the insurance after 1 month. Although I received back some of the insurance premium, I was told that I was not entitled to ANY refund of the breakdown cover. If I had taken it out with the RAC directly I understand I would have been entitled to a pro-rata amount back of £92.63. It's important that people are aware of this before taking out RAC cover with insurance."

"Spoke to very nice lady who confirmed ... policy would be cancelled, but there would be no refund, even though there was still over 9 months left on policy. The reason given was admin costs."

"Decided to check this year just to see and was shocked to see i could get the same cover, with all the same excesses etc for over £200 less by using one of the comparison websites."

We should point out that it's common in the industry for there to be no refund on add-on options like breakdown cover if you cancel a policy partway into the policy year—this issue is not exclusive to Advance Insurance.

Advance Insurance Car Insurance Quote Comparison

As a broker, Advance Insurance will survey their panel of insurers to find you the best quote that they can. Since their panel doesn't include every insurer, you may be able to find a cheaper quote elsewhere.

Prices for car insurance can vary significantly from day to day and company to company, and depend on factors like your age, driving experience, postcode, car, etc. If you want to compare Advance Insurance to other brands, try our car insurance partner QuoteZone—who can supply quotes from Advance Insurance and over 100 other insurance brands.

Advance Insurance Car Insurance Deals

An easy way to get a cheaper car insurance quote is to buy your policy around three weeks in advance—that's typically the best time to buy a car insurance policy. After this time, rates usually climb.

Paying upfront is another way to save money, since insurers usually charge you (like a loan) if you want to spread out the costs and pay monthly. Rates will vary but you could save tens to hundreds a year, depending on your premium. Advance Insurance uses Creation Consumer Finance Ltd for Personal Lines Insurance and Close Brothers Premium Finance for Commercial Lines Insurance to finance clients who want to pay monthly.

Another tip to get a lower premium is reassessing where you park your car at night. If you have access to a garage there's a lower chance of theft. For other tips, see our research on how to get a car insurance discount.

It's always a good idea to compare the market also, especially when it comes time for renewal, to make sure you'll getting a good deal. Advance Insurance is part of the comparison panel provided by our car insurance partner QuoteZone, a comparison website that works with over 100 brands in the UK car insurance market. Using QuoteZone, you should be able to get a quote from Advance Insurance as well as competitors to compare prices and see which companies offer the best deals in your post code and for your car.

Advance Insurance Cancellation Fees

As a broker that deals with a panel of insurers, Advance Insurance policyholders will pay an arrangement fee for a new policy or renewal. In addition, mid-term changes or cancellations lead to admin/cancellation fees paid to both the Advance Insurance and the underwriter.

Advance Insurance Cancellation Policy

Advance Insurance admin and cancellation fees are quite complicated and not clear to us. It's best to check your documents to understand how you might be affected. Broadly speaking, keep in mind that to cancel you pay both fees (to Advance and the underwriter) and premium for the time you had cover. There is no refund if a claim is reported, no refund on Road Rescue & Keep Motoring policies and no refund on commissions/new business or renewals setup fees, etc. Here is a list of fees from their terms of business, but they only list two types of fees—we're sure they charge other fees but they are not disclosed here:

Advance Insurance Car Insurance Contact Numbers

Advance Insurance branches are open Monday through Friday from 9am to 5:30pm and Saturday from 9am to 12:30pm.

FAQs

Policy Documents

As Advance Insurance is a broker, the insurance they arrange for you can be from a number of different insurers. Your policy documents will be sent to you shortly after you sign up for cover.

Other Car Insurance Reviews

If you'd like to compare Advance Insurance to other car insurance companies, see some of our list of car insurance reviews. Some popular car insurance company reviews are listed below: