If you’re considering purchasing a van for the first time, or you just want to upgrade your current van and get a new one, it’s worth knowing the difference between van insurance groups.
While you may be familiar with types of insurance such as regular car insurance, for example, van insurance works somewhat differently, so it’s a good idea to get your head around how van insurance works before purchasing a van.
In our guide below to van insurance groups explained, we’ll take you through everything you need to know about van insurance groups, including what they mean, how they’re ranked and how many different van insurance groups there are.
Van insurance groups are used to determine how much you’ll pay for your van insurance. Vans come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, with both small vans, large vans and everything in between. Therefore, putting your van into an insurance group helps to determine how much you’ll pay for your van insurance premium, whether you choose to pay annually or monthly.
It’s also worth noting that no two drivers are the same, so while the van insurance groups are important to work out how much you’ll pay for your insurance, it’s also down to you as a driver as well.
Before 2016, there were only 20 van insurance groups, with 1 being the cheapest and 20 being the most expensive.
In 2016 however, the Association of British Insurers introduced a new van insurance grouping system when they moved to a 30-group system, but to avoid confusion of the previous grouping system, the new groups were labelled 21-50. Vans in group 21 were the same as vans in group 1 before the change, so the lower the insurance group number, the cheaper it is to insure the van.
If you’re looking into buying a van that straddles the change of the grouping system in 2016, it’s important to double-check exactly which group your van will be in to avoid confusion.
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The Association of British Insurers (ABI) uses Thatcham van insurance groups to determine the van groupings based upon their research.
To establish the different van insurance groups, they take into account several different factors such as the size of the van and how secure it is.
Take a look at some of the other factors that help establish van insurance groups:
Of course, while the van insurance groups are probably the most common and accurate way to determine how much you’ll pay for your van insurance, there are also several other factors that insurance providers will take into account.
We’ve put together a list of some of the most popular types of vans and their different makes and models. Each van has a different van insurance group rating based on the above factors such as its weight, the size of its engine and how expensive it is to repair.
Citroen vans, for example, such as a Nemo are grouped between 1-4 which means that it’s a pretty cheap van to insurance. Whereas an LDV Convoy van has a grouping of 16-18 under the old van grouping when they were ranked from 1-20 before 2016.