Dan, I already spoke to someone from your company who gave the same answer as yourself, which was that costs have increased over the last year. I was fully aware that the cost had risen, which is why I queried it (as I had done not long before for my other car insured with AF), but by 24% in one year?
I have obviously gone to one of your competitors and I obtained comparable cover at a cost of 55% of your company’s quote.
I first insured a kit car with AF in the early 1990s and got a good deal but I’m afraid you are now priced beyond what I think is reasonable.
I rang around on Friday for ‘Classic Cover’ only to be told that as a modern classic, my 5 would cost me as much to insure as my regular, everyday car, which I retorted by saying that in their advertisment, they covered all cars including post millenium classics such as 5’s and MGF’s! eventually, they agreed and with some confering (yeh right) with the manager, brouhgt it down from £490, to £217! I was not happy with theis quote as it’s still way above what I am paying for another modern classic but it is a step in the right direction. It does prove if you are prepared to both face them down or walk away, they [insurers] can be bent towards helping you!
It’s just the way of the Insurance World really, as you well know.
In my case, you were not alone…Swinton came in at even more than AF’s £1,820.00 by around 80 quid.
To use the same criteria and land it for £670.00, (actually I loaded it more & added myself as a named driver) using GoCompare was a bit of a puzzle insofar Hastings were around one third of a few of “you”. That’s one hell of a difference.
The public are very clued these days…gone are the pre-internet days of the 80’s when people funnelled into local brokers and simply did what they were pretty much told.
I can see a day in the not too distant future where “super-brokers” price themselves out the market (dinosaur syndrome as we have seen with so many other business models) unless they have a root and branch restructure of their methods which, for some reason, makes them feel justified to charge what they think can get away with.
Throw enough at the fan, some will stick.
Such massive price differentials cannot do the industry any good, and are country miles from what consumers are willing to pay…unless Grade A Gullibles!
In the arena of greatly increasing motoring costs, every cent counts never mind, in my case. over £1,200.00 pounds.
The need to generate profits is understood by most, but, there is a limit.
No loyalty from insurers. We had three cars all with Saga and were given an extra discount ( Land Rover Disco 3, Hyundai Getz, MX5 mk2 ) The Hyundai is now with Halifax, the Disco is now with Hastings Direct and the MX5 is due in March. What’s the betting that the premium will go up. Saga will have lost three deals because of their greed. It is not as if the additional premiums were small, around £50 to £70 each time. I won’t give my existing insurer the opportunity to match a better quote. My feeling is that if they can’t be competitive with their renewal, then they don’t deserve the business.
I always go to the Meerkats for my renewal quote and have always got a good deal e.g. Disco fully comp £234.00 with most of the bells and whistles! So come March it will be off to the Meerkats for a quote for the MX5. Currently below £200.00 fully comp.
The most annoying aspect of this is the loss of no claims bonus because it is time barred - who can possibly justify that particularly where claim free with company insurance or a classic policy.
I was on a classic policy for 2 years and had a big fight on to get my no claims reinstated when I went back to standard insurance to preserve the no claims.
No claims is no claims - if you have not claimed you should not have to jump through hoops to preserve a hard earned and well deserved no claims bonus!!!
Be aware than even the compare sites prices can be beaten, so don’t accept that will be their flat bottom price when it punches out the numbers.
There was an article on a TV programme pre/during Christmas that warned they are not all they are cracked up to be, compare sites that is.
Yes they have to make a buck or two in the process but do speak to the comapny direct once you have a reasonable quote from them, I did.
This time around I had a ceiling of £400 to insure two cars, infact I set that amount the year before too. Came up trumps with an even better deal of £387 and home insurance thrown for an extra £67 when due.
I just know I’ll be hitting the compare sites then the phone again come renwal time again, it’s forced annual event now.
Well said ScottishFiver. Perhaps the insurance companies when questioned will amend their quotes so low as to not actually be economical to them in the hope that you will not be bothered by a hike at renewal. They will also try to claw back income from the “Grade A Gullibles”.
They are a constant source of amusement/annoyance to me. When questioned as to an increase in premium one insurance company told me the premium can change from hour to hour and the insurance premium quotation may reduce considerably on a different day! Sheeeesh, what a load of bull! When I had a claim on my wife’s car where she is the main driver and I am the named second driver, not only did they increase my part of the premium (even though both of us had a protected NCD), but they also increased her premium as if somehow she was also somehow responsible! I don’t trust insurance companies as far as I could throw them.
These wild variations in premiums just either make a mockery of their practices and business models or they just use underhand practices to maximize income from their customers. How can it be right when you can have such premium variations for the exactly the same products. The saving grace is, that as somebody has pointed out, it is possible to use comparison sites to get a reasonable deal relatively easily. It is about time insurance companies wised up to this and started treating their existing customers in a fair and decent manner including Adrian Flux who always seems to come up with the “I will take another look at it” once their practice has been made public on this forum.
It seems gone are the days when loyalty and a history of no claims were repaid with reduced premiums. Actually, I think insurance is one area where competition has not worked in the consumers favour. With so many insurers and insurance products they ought to be tripping over each other trying to get your business and yet, as many posters here have said, premiums just keep getting bigger regardless of whether you are a reckless juvenile speeding tosspot or a sedate pensioner who only does a few hundred miles a year and never goes above the speed limit. Basically, we’re all treated like mugs. It’s not helped by the fact that car insurance is mandatory. Nothing wrong with that of course, but I do think insurers milk it to their advantage. They act much like a cartel IMO. The increases each year are always blamed on administration costs, increased claims across the board and higher insurance tax but again, as someone else pointed out, that doesn’t explain the wildly different premiums on offer.
I insure all our cars with a certain company promoted by a red telephone with wheels. In fact, we have our home insurance with them too. We allegedly get discounts for having multiple policies which is nice and at least seems to recognise and reward loyalty, but whilst I don’t think these discounts are significant, the premiums are always cheaper than any of the comparison websites and the ‘specialist’ brokers (AF, PB, Lancaster etc), usually by at least 30-40% comparing like for like policy benefits. And that’s before I have a moan at them about the increase in premium from the previous year. I just bought a new daily driver and was going to take out a new policy and cancel the one on the old car. When I phoned up to do this they said they would simply swap the cars over. In doing so I got a £16 refund on the remaining policy period. Result! Of course, it will be interesting to see what the renewal price is although the original quote I had for a new policy was still vastly cheaper than anyone else (less than half the price of the AA).
My father was an insurance salesman for 40 years and even he can’t make head nor tail of how premiums are calculated these days. He despairs as much as I do.
To end my rant, I think No Claims Bonus should be attached the person and not the car. It annoys me that NCB can only be applied to one vehicle. Whilst any car can be stolen or vandalised when you’re not around, only one person can drive one car at any given time so as long as your the named driver on a policy what should it matter?
I totally agree - the public are being seen off by many car insurance companies. It’s got to the bizarre stage where we even have to insure our insurance policy (i.e. paying extra to protect our no claims discount).
I also insure my MX-5 using the folks on the red phone. I just got my first renewal for this coming year from them. The price has gone up slightly, but nowhere near as much as the 24% increase that one of the club’s “preferred” insurance companies quoted me for both of my cars previously insured with them.
Having done my research they provided the most favourable quote I could find.
Well I still can’t believe when we added our daughter to the wife’s car insurance it rocketed as you’d expect for a learner at 17…but just over a year later, adding our second daughter to learn when she became 17 generated a signifcant refund!!!
It seems there is less risk with two learner drivers than one!
Insurance should be easy, tell them what you got, they give you a price. They seem to want to complicate matters adding this and that and twiddling around with excess for this and that, personal accident cover, breakdown cover, key cover etc etc.
All I do now is make my car legal to drive on the road, insure it. That means I do away with all these add-ons. I’ve also been reading up about the value of taking protected NCB, seems that can be contentious with some conpanies too but I’ll read up more on that one.
It’s getting to that time of year for us too ( renewal of insurance ) on both cars. 2.0tdi Audi A4 avant with esure, we’ve been with them for several years, this time looks like saving a few hundred by swapping to co-op? Fully Comp, me and Mrs B driving, business use, breakdown cover etc in what I’m told is a “bad” postcode area circa £600. Esure were almost £1k! Mx5, always been with Flux for many years, battled last year over premium hike, got a bit off, Lancaster were cheaper then but stayed with Flux. Quoted by Lancaster this time with a SP30 6k miles fully comp, both of us but no business use, circa £220. Not had renewal from Flux yet, not due until beginning of March IIRC so will see what happens. Esure loaded the policy by £140 for the sp30. on the Audi. Loyalty, I don’t think it counts for anything these days. As others have said, it’s a mandatory requirement but I’m not convinced service levels are directly related to premiums, so for me, the cheapest will win out this year as I feel we’re all having our trousers pulled down regardless! Not had a claim in almost thirty years, both of us lost many years NCB due to the 2 year thing, etc, what is there to like about insurance? I certainly don’t drive around feeling smug, safe and secure because I’m insured? It’s me behind the wheel, not the insurance company!
Further to my post, Saga’s renewal was around £70 more this year. So went to the ‘Meerkat’ comparison website and now my MX5 is with Lancaster for £108 fully comp. However there are limltations, like low annual mileage and highish excess. They are treating my MX as a classic even though it is only 20 years old (82,000 miles). Also got a little discount by being a member of this club! Very helpful lady at Lancaster who did her best to give me a good deal. Well pleased.