Doddle Insurance specialises in providing cover for those with previous claims, convictions or cancelled policies for drivers from the age of 19 to 79, as well as van, courier and taxi cover. They'll also provide a quote for every single single postcode in the UK, which not all car insurance brands can say. But does Doddle offer good value for money? Let’s take a look at what Doddle Insurance has to offer and what real customers have to say.

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In This Review

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

Doddle Car Insurance Overall Review

Is Doddle car insurance any good? Rave customer reviews are certainly comforting and emphasize value for money and helpful customer service staff when you're buying a policy. We can't speak to the claims experience as customers haven't left reviews about this. Perhaps this means no one has had a serious-enough issue with the claims process to inspire them to go online and write a negative review?

Motorists in the UK frequently complain about renewal quotes skyrocketing. With this in mind, we like that Doddle has a "Fair Price Promise" which guarantees all existing Doddle customers will always get the same or better prices than that of a new customer. Finally, some customer appreciation!

In terms of features, Doddle comprehensive private car insurance includes all of the "must-have" features. For example, they include windscreen repair or replacement, cover for belongings, new car replacement and child seat replacement up to the same value in the event of a covered claim. They also include an uninsured driver promise, which means (subject to conditions, as with everything) that you don't have to pay the excess and you won't lose your no claims bonus if you make a claim for an accident that wasn't your fault and the responsible driver is not insured.

Policyholders get up to 30 days of the same level of cover when driving in the EU—but if you are planning a longer trip you can contact Doddle and increase the duration of EU cover for an added premium. Just make sure you arrange this extension before you leave home.

However, there are some limitations to point out. For example, as far as we can tell there is no option to buy breakdown cover from Doddle—to get around this you could, for instance, buy breakdown cover separately from AA or the RAC. And while a courtesy car is available, subject to availability, if your car is being repaired after an insured accident, a courtesy car is not provided if your car is stolen or written off—and they can delay providing the courtesy car for repairs if there's a delay in getting parts.

Also, the Doddle cancellation fees are a bit high compared with average cancellation fees in the UK, and they calculate the premium owed on a scale instead of a pro-rata basis which can lead to a higher cost of cancellation.

Doddle Cover customer service is open 6 days a week (closed Sunday).

Features

Here is a high-level summary of features on a standard Doddle comprehensive private car insurance policy according to this specimen policy wording from June 2023. Remember, these features are always subject to conditions, exclusions and endorsements so you should check the policy documents and your policy schedule to see which sections apply yourself before you buy in case they differ from this sample document. Doddle also sells third party, fire and theft and third party only policies, and cover for vans, taxis and couriers, which will have a different set of features.

How Good is Doddle Car Insurance?	A Good Policy Includes	Does Doddle Deliver?	Doddle Comprehensive Coverage
"Must Have" Features
Windscreen	Full repair or replacement		Included if you use an approved repairer
Belongings	£200+		Up to £200
Keys	£300+		Replacement of keys and locks if your car keys are lost or stolen, up to £500
Protected NCD	2 times in 3 years (standard or optional extra)		If you buy the add on
Car recovery after accident	Included		Included
Courtesy car (repairs)	Minimum 14 days		Included
Repairs guaranteed (if use approved repairer)	12-month guarantee		3 years
"Should Have" Features
New car replacement	Theft or damage at least 60% of list price; cars up to 12 months old; first owner		If the cost of repair is valued at more than 60% of the cost of buying an identical new car at the time of the loss or damage
Stereo and satellite nav	Market value for manufactur fitted		Unlimited for original manufacturer-fitted equipment, otherwise £500 for permanently-fitted equipment
Alternative transport & Hotel after accident	£250+		Up to £100 per person for alternative travel expenses and emergency overnight accommodation, max £500
24-hour emergency helpline	Standard		24 hour claims lines
Courtesy car (total loss or theft)	Standard or add-on extra		Not available
Motor legal expenses	Standard or add-on extra		Legal expenses up to the value of £100,000 in the event of a non-fault accident
Breakdown cover	Standard or add-on extra		Not available
"Could Have" Features
Same cover in EU	Standard or add-on extra		Up to 30 days (can extend for an additional premium before you leave home)
Child car seat replacement after accident, theft, fire	Ideally replaced even if no visible damage		Replaced to a similar standard
Larger/premium courtesy car	Standard or add-on extra		Not available
No fault NCD protection	Standard		Not available
Uninsured driver NCD protection	Standard		Included
Cancellation fee	No more than £50		Cancellation fees of £60 during cooling off period and £60 afterwards, plus insurer fees, policy arrangement fees

Doddle Car Insurance Customer Service Reviews and Ratings

There aren't an abundance of customer reviews for Doddle car insurance online, but the review we found for customer service are glowing. What's behind the ratings? We scoured through online reviews to learn a bit more about the good and bad experiences of Doddle Insurance customers.

Doddle Insurance Trustpilot

A remarkable 89% of customers have given Doddle an "Excellent" 5-star rating on Trustpilot and only 5% of customers have rated Doddle with just 1 star. Most of the reviews have to do with the process of taking out car insurance—for that, Doddle consistently gets comments about the ease of taking out a policy, the friendliness of customer service and the best, competitive quotes. Here is a representative sample of Doddle car insurance customer reviews from Trustpilot:

"I have a claim and a cancelled policy on my record but I got a great quote. Rang up and sorted the cover for my car easily! Very helpful either everything! Would recommend!"

"Renewal car insurance. Great service for car insurance renewal, lowered my quote quite substanitally."

"Knowledgeable operative. Quick and easy process fully explained."

"Very helpful and understanding and would definitely recommend you to family and friends."

"Broker like personal service yet direct prices. A must for all struggling with high price insurance policies, both commercial and domestic. Great team tops the whole experience."

"Very cheap insurance."

"Absolute best insurance for young drivers who don’t want black box!"

There don't seem to be any online customer reviews related to the claims experience with Doddle.

Doddle Car Insurance Quote Comparison

We did a quick check of customer comments on various review sites to see what policyholders say about Doddle prices. Overall, we noticed that customers consistently remarked on the value for money Doddle offers, including for younger drivers who don't want a black box.

Prices for car insurance can really be all over the map, depending on the factors of your application such as your age, how long you’ve been driving, your postcode, your car and even when you buy your policy. If you want to compare Doddle Insurance to other brands, try our car insurance partner QuoteZone.

Doddle Car Insurance Deals

It’s well worth paying annually upfront instead of monthly if you can to save money on a Doddle car insurance policy. Paying monthly is essentially like taking out a loan, a service for which you'll pay interest charges. The interest rate is not specified on the Doddle site for us to comment upon, but it's common for the APR to be even higher than you might find on a credit card.

If you're able to park your car in a safer location, such as a garage or even a private driveway, you are likely to save money on your car insurance versus leaving it on the street overnight. 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. You can get a quote from Doddle Insurance from our car insurance partner QuoteZone, a comparison website that works with over 100 brands in the UK car insurance market.

Doddle Cancellation Fees

On the surface, Doddle cancellation fees are very close to average car insurance cancellation fees in the UK. Be aware that the cost to cancel after the cooling off period is higher than you might find with competing brands, for a few reasons. First, you might also get a charge for an admin fee from the insurer. Second, you'll still pay the policy arrangement fee. And third, while it's standard practice to make the policyholder pay for time they were covered, Doddle charges this on a scale basis not a pro-rata basis.

Note the words "pro rata" and "scale" above. If you cancel DURING the cooling off period you're responsible for a "pro rata" amount of the premium, which is essentially a proportionate amount. So if you have cover for 10 days you should theoretically owe 10/365 of the premium. That's standard practice in the car insurance market.

However, AFTER the cooling off period the premium due at cancellation is calculated using a scale (not a pro rata basis), which basically means a higher charge to the customer. This scale is also applied to optional additional products during the cooling off period. For example, if you cancel halfway (50% of the time) into your policy you'd be responsible for 65% of the premium. Here is the scale:

And of course, if you've made a claim you'll need to pay the entire premium/full outstanding balance, as usual.

Doddle Car Insurance Contact Numbers

Doddle customer service is open from 9am to 7pm during the week and 9am to 1pm on Saturday. They're closed on Sunday. You also have the option to reach them using live chat—we tested it out and it took 15 minutes to get a reply, then another 10 minutes to get a further response. In the end, they told us to call to ask our question, so we're not sure how useful the chat service is.

FAQs

Policy Documents

To learn more, check out the Doddle car insurance policy wording from their website.

Other Car Insurance Reviews

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