Wondering if Elephant car insurance is any good? Elephant is part of the Admiral Group (the largest UK car insurance company) and its impressive 4.7 star App rating is a testament to their continued focus on improving the customer experience. To save up to 50%¹, it's important to compare Elephant car insurance quotes early, which you can do by clicking the blue "Get Quotes" button below—the panel includes Elephant plus other popular brands like Admiral, Hastings, RAC, and over 100 others.

In This Review

• Elephant Car Insurance: Overall Review
• Customer Reviews and Ratings
• Cost Comparison and Discounts
• Cancellation fees, phone numbers and policy documents
• FAQs

Elephant Car Insurance Overall Review

Elephant Insurance offers a solid set of features, but be aware that customer ratings highlight some issues with no fault claims, high renewals and admin charges.

Elephant is a brand of the Admiral Group, so when you buy an Elephant policy you have the largest UK car insurance company behind your policy. Prices are meant to be on the cheaper side and policies include lots of features as standard, but beware the higher cancellation fees especially if you have a black box policy.

Comprehensive policies bought direct from Elephant are loaded with some great features, including a courtesy car (in the event your car is in for repairs after being damaged in an injured incident), windscreen repair, personal injury cover, stereo cover and cover in Europe. Those looking for motor legal protection, personal injury, breakdown, key cover or premium hire car cover (a courtesy car if yours is stolen or written off after an incident) can add these features for an additional premium. The NimbleFins car insurance experts analysed the Elephant policy documents to see how the features compare²:

How Good is Elephant Car Insurance?	A Good Policy Includes	Does Elephant Deliver?	Elephant Comprehensive Coverage
"Must Have" Features
Windscreen	Full repair or replacement		Full cover (less excess) if use Elephant's glass repair helpline
Belongings	£200+		Up to £200, personal belongings, up to £300 (any one incident) for sports equipment
Keys	£300+		Up to £500, as long as not lost/stolen from your vehicle
Protected NCD	2 times in 3 years (standard or optional extra)		If you buy the add on
Car recovery after accident	Included		Car delivered to Approved Repairer, your home or safe storage within 30 miles
Courtesy car (repairs)	Minimum 14 days		While your car is being repaired by a body shop in their network
Repairs guaranteed	12-month guarantee		Repairs by Approved Repairers guaranteed whilst you own your car; parts covered under the manufacturer's guarantee.
"Should Have" Features
New car replacement	Theft or damage at least 60% of list price; cars up to 12 months old		Theft or if cost to repair more than 59% of list price; cars up to 12 months old
Stereo and satellite nav	Market value for manufacturer fitted		If permanently fitted, manufacturer equipment covered in full; aftermarket equipment up to £1,250 or market value of your car, whichever is the lower.
Alternative transport & Hotel after accident	£250+		Not included (they will "move you and your passengers away from the accident site, if it is not safe, to the nearest local amenity")
24-hour emergency helpline	Standard		For roadside emergencies following an insured accident and glass repairs
Courtesy car (total loss or theft)	Standard or add-on extra		Up to 21 days, if you buy the Hire Car add on
Motor legal expenses	Standard or add-on extra		If you buy the add on
Breakdown cover	Standard or add-on extra		If you buy the add on (3 levels available)
"Could Have" Features
Same cover in EU	Standard or add-on extra		Up to 90 days per policy year included
Child car seat replacement after accident, theft, fire	Ideally replaced even if no visible damage		Cost of a replacement car seat of a similar model and standard, if car involved in insured accident.
Larger/premium courtesy car	Standard or add-on extra		If you buy the add on (for write off or theft)
Uninsured driver NCD protection	Standard		Included
APR on monthly instalments	Ideally under 18%		Variable
Cancellation fee	No more than £50		Cancellation fees start from £25 during first 14 days and £60 afterwards

Do all claims impact your no claims bonus with Elephant? No! Here is a list of claims that do not affect your bonus:

Elephant Car Insurance Customer Service Reviews and Ratings

To find out how customers rate Elephant car insurance, we scoured customer reviews from Trustpilot and Reviews.co.uk to see what people have to say and look for any common complaints.

Is Elephant car insurance any good? While we agree that Elephant car insurance rates well for features, their customer reviews are a mixed bag. We've read through hundreds of reviews to see what real customers have to say about their Elephant car insurance experience.

Elephant Trustpilot

Elephant Insurance has earned just 2.0 out of 5 stars at Trustpilot (steadily dropping from 3.5 a few years ago), with 2 in 5 customers rating Elephant with just 1 star indicating a bad experience. Here's a sample of some of the more common complaints:

"Impossible to cancel auto renewal. I was given a price much higher at renewal so I went to cancel it, however it is literally impossible to do so via their rubbish system."

"I had it on CCTV that someone got in their car and reversed into me. I had 2 witnesses. I gave them all I could. With COVID I can no longer get hold of the witnesses and so the other party has gone for no liability. I have protected no claims and am still trying to get the payout..."

"Managed to get my insurance £900 cheaper by going somewhere else. Don't accept this company's renewal costs."

"I changed addresses and they wanted to charge me nearly £90. £90!!!"

"They automatically renew your insurance policy and do not warn about it (although the contract states that they must warn in advance)... As a result, I decided to cancel the insurance and they returned the money to me, but they deducted the fee (20 pounds) for canceling the insurance and for 3 days of using the insurance."

"Was with elephant for 4 years with no claims, I did a comparison for an upcoming renewal and found a huge array of quotes for much less than I was currently paying, they refused to match and even quoted me a higher figure for the coming year without any reason. I've since switched."

Yes, it's true that Elephant's cancellation fees are higher than the market average. That said, negative complaints about cancellation fees and higher renewal prices are not uncommon in the car insurance industry. In fact, cancellation fees are commonplace in the car insurance market. To avoid the issue of higher renewal fees, before you accept a renewal, always compare the market to see what kind of premium other companies offer you.

We'd also like to mention that moving house can cost you a pretty penny—not only are you likely to pay an admin fee to change the address on your account, but the insurer will also reprice your insurance to reflect your new post code. Depending on how their pricing models work, you may need to stump up an extra premium (if, for instance, the insurer has had a history of higher claims in your new post code compared to your old post code).

It's not all bad news, though, as half of customers reported an 'Excellent' experience with Elephant. Here are a few positive comments from real customers who have left a review on Trustpilot:

"I was very pleased with the quote, some £200 cheaper than Admiral and I had been with them for a few years..."

"Excellent service and the best quote asked for paper documents and all arrived within 5 days would definitely recommend."

"Very good and competitive prices. Easy to use online and very understanding. Highly recommend."

"Best insurance company I have ever dealt with. I am shocked to see bad reviews. They couldn't have done more to help. My daughter was living in Spain for 6 months as part of her uni degree and they extended her European cover at no extra cost. Also gave me an unbeatable quote for my sons insurance. Staff on the phone friendly and helpful. Honestly the best experience I have had dealing with any insurance company."

"My experience with Elephant is a third party making a claim against a person who was insured by them and who had hit my car, writing it off in the process. My own insurance was TPF&T with Halifax Insurance,who initially said they would purse my claim on my behalf Actually they did nothing! just kept fobbing me off with the excuse that 'Elephant is very difficult to deal with'. After nearly 10 weeks and no progress Halifax advised that they would no longer pursue on my behalf and therefore it was up to me to deal directly with Elephant Insurance. In absolute contrast to the bad picture of Elephant that Halifax had painted for me I found them to be polite, professional and responsive. I made one phone call, and an hour later they called me back admitting liability and then made a sensible offer for my vehicle. I was most impressed with them, and would have no hesitation to buy an insurance policy from them in the future if they are competitive."

Elephant Car Insurance Quote Comparison

Elephant car insurance is designed to be a budget option, and from our analysis we can tell their prices are amongst the most competitive on offer in the market. Our recent check for a sample 30-year-old driver of a 2017 Ford Fiesta showed Elephant prices were in line with Admiral and Diamond, which is not a surprise as they are all Admiral Group brands.

These quotes are not meant to be representative of what you might pay since many factors like your age, driving experience, car and even your post code will affect your rates—but they can show you where Elephant falls in relation to other brands when it comes to price.

Quotes will vary drastically for different profiles, so you may need to pay more or less than these rates, but this information can give an idea of how an insurance provider tends to compare in terms of price, at least for our sample driver.

Elephant Car Insurance Discounts

Elephant offers some common car insurance discounts, such as lower prices for a safe driving history, no claims discounts and paying in full every year. Plus they have black box policies to help those without experience access lower premiums.

No Claims Discount

The average No Claims discount received by customers in 2021 was up to 37% with nine years of no claims bonus. The percentages below are based on the following EUI Limited brands: Admiral, Bell, Diamond and Elephant.

Cancellation Fees

Elephant has a dizzying array of cancellation or change fees and charges, and even charges if you cancel during the first 14 days, which as you can read about here is not the case from all companies in the UK car insurance market. If you anticipate cancelling your policy (e.g., if you're planning to sell your car) then you might want to keep these fees in mind. For a full list of their fees and charges click here or view the customer agreement which can be found here.

The administration fee for making a change such as adding a driver or changing your address ranges from £5.5 (change to any vehicle registration) up to £100 (LittleBox/Safe Driver hardware charge). See more here.

Important Elephant Car Insurance Phone Numbers

Customers can reach Elephant customer service 7 days a week, although with limited hours at the weekend. There's no online live chat feature, but phone customer service lines are open Mon - Fri 8am - 8pm, Sat 9am - 5pm and Sun 9:30am - 4pm.

Policy Documents

To view your documents online, log into your customer portal or access the policy documents here.

FAQs

Other Car Insurance Reviews

If you'd like to compare Elephant to other car insurance companies, see our other car insurance reviews below:

Sources

• ¹ This is When to Buy Car Insurance to Save up to 50%
• ² Elephant policy booklets