Review: Elephant Car Insurance

Summary
Elephant.co.uk is a car insurance company predominately aimed at young drivers. Established in August 2000 it is Cardiff based.
See whether Elephant made it into our list of the Best Car Insurance Companies.
Or, get a quote on Elephant's website
Read on to learn about:
- Overview of cover provider by Elephant car insurance
- How much does Elephant car insurance cost?
- Multi car insurance with Elephant
- What do Elephant car insurance reviews from customers say?
- What do Elephant car insurance reviews from the experts say?
When it launched, Elephant was the first UK car insurance provider to operate solely online, although it does also employ call centres for customers to contact.
See if Elephant are on our list of the Best insurance for young drivers. Or get a quote on Elephant's website
Overview of cover provided by Elephant car insurance
In their own words, Elephant aims to offer "No nonsense, great value, straightforward car insurance".
Like most car insurance providers, Elephant offer three types of cover: Third party only, Third party, fire & theft and Comprehensive.
Third Party Only is the most basic type of cover and is the minimum legal requirement for car owners.
It covers any damage you may do to other people and their property (such as them and their car in a collision).
As well as this usual cover, Elephant’s Third Party Only policy also comes with up to 90 days European cover and flexible payment options.
Third Party, Fire & Theft gives you the third party liability cover that comes with Third Party Only, and also covers you if your vehicle if damaged or destroyed in a fire or is stolen.
Comprehensive cover offers all of the above, but also covers your own vehicle for damage caused in an accident.
Elephant’s comprehensive cover also includes a courtesy car while your car is being repaired at an approved garage, and stereo cover up to £1,250 or 15% of the value of the car, whichever is lower.
Personal injury cover is also included up to £5,000, windscreen cover and up to £300 for sports equipment.
You can also choose to upgrade your personal injury cover up to £100,000, choose from 3 different levels of breakdown cover and add keycare cover up to £2,000.
How much does Elephant car insurance cost?
Elephant claim that they offer cheaper car insurance. 10% of their customers who provided a best alternative price saved 29% between January 2020 & June 2020.
However, as with all car insurance providers, it’s difficult to make generalisations about policy costs and savings because they depend so heavily on the circumstances of the driver(s) buying, the car being insured, the area they live in and so on.
Elephant insurance is aimed at young people (hence the sports equipment and stereo covers).
Younger drivers have historically had problems getting affordable insurance quotes – sadly this hasn’t yet been resolved as broadly speaking prices from any providers are still high for drivers under 23.
Elephant says it works hard to keep its premiums as low as possible while offering high quality service.
Looking for black box insurance? Check our list of The 9 best black box insurers. Or get a quote on Elephant's website
Multi car insurance
Elephant also offer a discount on insuring more than two cars in a household.
So if you've got several cars under one roof, it could be worth checking out how much you could save.
What do Elephant car insurance reviews from customers say?
On Reviewcentre.com Elephant is rated as 2.5 stars from 451 customer reviews. 41% of users would recommend Elephant.co.uk.
On Trustpilot, Elephant has been given 1 out of 5 stars out of 107 customer reviews.
What do Elephant car insurance reviews from the experts say?
In a review by Which? that looked at 31 different car insurance providers, Elephant insurance received a customer score of 50%, a policy score of 72% and an overall score of 61%.
Which? placed Elephant.co.uk fourth from the bottom.
According to Fairer Finance, which rates companies based on factors such as transparency and complaints handling, Elephant ranked 46th out of 51 UK car insurance providers, with an overall score of 49% (made up of 41% for happiness, 29% for trust, 74% for complaint handling and 51% for transparency).
Elephant’s car insurance policies are rated 5 out of 5 stars by independent financial review service Defaqto.
A Star Rating indicates where a product or proposition sits in the market based on the quality and comprehensiveness of the features it offers.
This means that Defaqto feels that the car insurance "provides quality cover and includes a comprehensive range of features and benefits."