Review: Elephant Car Insurance
By Ronny Lavie 
In summary
Elephant was the first company to provide car insurance online, and is rated 3.5 stars out of 5 based on over 80 customer reviews on reviews.co.uk. Expert reviews of its car insurance are similarly favourable, with Defaqto rating Elephant 4 stars out of 5. However, Which? scores it 59%.
See whether Elephant made it into our list of the Top 10 Car Insurance companies in 2016.
Background to Elephant Car Insurance
Elephant.co.uk is a Cardiff based can insurance company formed in August 2000. When it launched, it was the first UK car insurance provide to operate solely online, although it does also employ call centres for customers to contact. Elephant.co.uk is a trading name of EUI Limited and is a subsidiary of the Admiral group.
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 includes a courtesy car, stereo cover up to £1,250 or 15% of the value of your car (whichever is lower), personal injury cover 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 £1,500.
How much does Elephant insurance cost?
As with all car insurance providers, it’s difficult to make generalisations about policy costs 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 – for example it is an online-only provider to keep overheads low.
What do Elephant car insurance reviews from customers say?
On reviews.co.uk, Elephant is rated as 3.5 stars from over 80 customer reviews.
On Trustpilot, Elephant has been rated as 2.1 out of 10 based on over 50 customer reviews.
Over on ciao.co.uk, Elephant is rated 62% based on more than 50 reviews, and is rated as a 3 star product.
What do Elephant car insurance reviews from the experts say?
In a review by Which? that looked at 32 different car insurance providers, Elephant insurance ranked third-last, with an overall score of 59%, formed of a customer score of 60% and a policy score of 57%.
According to Fairer Finance, which rates companies based on factors such as transparency and complaints handling, Elephant ranked 38th in a list of 48 UK car insurance providers, with an overall score of 51% (made up of 41% for happiness, 31% for trust, 75% for complaint handling and 55% for transparency).
Elephant’s car insurance policies are rated 4 Star out of 5 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 article was independently written by Bought By Many. We were not paid to write it, but we may receive commission for sales that result from you clicking on a link to one of our partners.
