not sure the word “preferred” appears anywhere in relation to the Club’s insurance schemes does it?
No, but the Soft Top Hard Top magazine lists three companies (AF, FJ and Lancaster) under the heading of “Club contacts” and sub heading “Club Insurance Schemes”, which implies they are actually part of the club, or preferred companies.
Hi John, I went with Footman James.
They were about £60 more expensive but offered an agreed valuation as soon as the policy started.
By the time I’d have got the engineers report done that Adrian Flux wanted before looking into valuing the car at the same amount they did last year, it would have been more expensive than Footman James. Even then they may not agree with the engineers findings.
So I told them to flux off.
they are “Club insurance schemes” whereby Club members get a benefit from the scheme with said insurers through their premiums, plus there’s other Club support. If there’s an implication they are part of the Club that’s clearly wrong, and there is nothing to infer they a preferred either as I see it.
But thanks for raising it, perhaps we need to make some sort of clarification. The arrangements we have with the three insurers is pretty standard across the car Club world. I’ll add it to my “to do” list…
Martin, without meaning to be rude, have you actually read all of this thread (there are previous ones on a similar theme)? Please explain what benefit from the scheme with their premiums club members might expect to receive - I certainly didn’t get one!
My experience is that after my first year with them, AF demanded 23% more at renewal time. When I first took out the insurance they knew I wasn’t an MX5OC member and I had no NCD on the policy to be taken into account (due to other vehicles, not because of any claims). I’ve only ever made one claim on a motor policy (£200 for a stolen stereo about 15 years ago) and I’ve been insuring motorbikes and cars since the early 1970s.
I rang them to query this, explaining I had become a club member and hoping they could offer something more competitive. Nothing was offered, a very firm NO! I rang another company on a red phone and was immediately offered like for like cover for 55% of the AF renewal quote.
What we really need is an explanation of what advantages we get with a ‘Club Insurance Scheme’.
Here’s the things I would have expected.
1, Membership of the OC would suggest a certain degree of attachment to the car where the owner would look after it better than the average punter. This would be reflected in a lower premium.
- Additional benefits on the policy that non-members would not receive for the same premium.
One or both of these would be nice but here’s what seems to be happening.
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OC membership makes no difference to the premium which to make matters worse is way higher than other companies.
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Nobody seems to be aware of any benefits.
No it doesn’t! Nobody anywhere has said that AF is the “Preferred choice”, however their attitude at times implied that they thought they were.
Well… I’ve had excellent service from them.
The renewal came through on my 10AE- the first renewal I’ve had from an insurer where the price went down… from £160 to just over £100.
I also asked them to quote on my young son’s modified Audi S1 and got the best deal I could find. £755… but that‘s the price you pay for being young nowadays. ??
Hi all just decided to to insure my mk3 with Lancaster got discount being a member of mx5 owners club took out the legal option covering any legal costs time of work hospitals etc also got windscre cover , loss of keys , breakdown cover in fully comp wife as second driver basically covering any situation my quote was £270 would have been less but I do around 8k a year even as a second car i am 51year old with having company cars for so long was always on wife insurance so I have not built up no claims etc even thou drive 7 days a week but for my first insurance quote I think it is pretty good hapoy for now ???
Apologies, this thread dropped off my radar. As a Club there are very strict rules about what we can and can’t do and say with respect to insurers as we are not authorised as such so it’s hard to comment and we certainly can’t comment on individual cases.
But along with pretty much every other car Club out there we have these arrangements with a few insurers as it is supposed to be of benefit to the members in terms of premiums and benefits to the Clubs as a whole through some small commissions. If you are a member of the MX-5 Owners Club and you make one of our insurance partners aware of that so far as I know it will factor in the calculation of your premium to your benefit, that’s about as far as you can go so I believe. Club members are I think seen as a better risk as we all care about our cars.
However of course there are a hundred and one other things that also influence that premium, which vary from person to person, insurer to insurer, location to location and car to car. You are never comparing like with like when taking all factors and risk into account it seems to me, however hard you try, and anyone who’s tried using the online insurance brokers will know the huge cost variation from the lowest price to the highest price from the many quotes you get fed. From experience I also know that you may well be astounded by the lowest price until you start looking at some of the terms, the extras not included, the high level of excess on the lowest quotes etc. Change those and the price soon bumps up and the bargain soon evaporates.
I know the insures we use all offer differing packages to members, and by reputation some take a very sensible view on modifications, (which a lot of the major insurers will hammer you for) while others may offer great add ons such as a recovery service, which are cheaper than the major provides like the AA, and RAC, especially for older cars. One of our schemes used to offer travel insurance and european rescue all inclusive, which was probably worth hundreds on is own, and for several years I paid a little bit higher premium then the cheapest online just for that to cover continental tours, as it was at the time a real bargain. (that scheme changed now sadly)
None of the schemes can guarantee to beat every quote of course, far from it, so you very much pay your money and take you pick. But I guess we have a choice, we offer a few insurance schemes in the certain knowledge there is a benefit to member and Club, however hard it is to identify that, or we don’t bother in which case we lose out.
And is it not the case for everyone who has a tail of woe about an insurer someone else thinks they’re great. In fact is not life generally like that!
No single insurer is going to be competitive for everybody.
What gets annoying sometimes is customer service levels. With most things these days, customer service be good as long as you stay on the automated conveyor belt - in other words, until something goes wrong or you need a person for something non-routine. Insurers are no exception.
Some people’s expectations are also unrealistic. When you get a classic policy through a broker for £78 a year, as I did on my Mk2, it’s almost inevitable that you will get an admin charge if you want to change your address or cancel your policy.
I’ve edited your post down but hopefully not taken anything out of context.
The suggestion is that informing the insurance companies of your club membership will factor into calculation of the premium but there is evidence that AF have said it makes no difference.
As for strict rules of what the club can and can’t say I’m assuming you mean that the club can only suggest that we may get a better quote and can’t say being a club member will get you cheaper premiums or additional benefits. If that’s the case then I would suggest that the club home page needs looking at. Just click on the ‘Home’ link at the top of this page and you will find this text.
Members gain a wide range of ownership benefits, discounts and great rates from the Club’s insurance partners.
AF are notably absent from this thread.
Often, it’s not what people or organisations say rather than what they do not say that speaks volumes…or leads to keyboard bashing speculation.
In that sense, AF are not doing themselves any favours.
Of course, there are dozens of alternatives.
5 owners are quite capable of doing their homework and voting with their feet.
Agree with you 100% Scottishfiver.
What I have a problem with is that the wording on the club home page is enticing people to pay their money to join the club using the words ‘Members gain’ and ‘great rates’. Until they join they won’t know what those rates are.
If the rates are the same for members as non-members then ‘members gain’ doesn’t add up. If the rates can be beaten dramatically by talking to the meerkats or red telephone then the ‘great rates’ quote is a problem.
My personal opinion is that most members of this club join for the camaraderie. The home page doesn’t even mention that. That’s what we should be selling on the home page rather than enticing people in with promises more in keeping with an election manifesto that sound great but will never happen.
absolutely that, it should be the biggest selling point, perhaps we’re more enlightened on here but a lot only value things in pounds and pence. Great camaraderie is a hard sell, even if its is a significant benefit, or to some the only benefit. I’ve probably now personally sold hundreds of membership direct to people, face to face, at shows over the last 10 years, (mostly at the NEC Classic) and I can’t even now tell you what the real hook is, perhaps its mt infectious enthusiasm!
So agree we need to look at this, all the points taken on board, but I think the same applies to all the noted insurers, how do we demonstrate a tangible benefit and how often does it apply to an individual member? Can we and does it? Needs looking at.
Hello everyone,
Further to the various posts we felt that the issue of insurers providing a discount could do with clarification. Rest assured the owners club discount is a real tangible discount and in many cases will save people the cost of their annual membership fee and sometimes more.
As a previous poster correctly pointed out club members’ are generally a more attractive insurance risk given their propensity to look after their vehicle, have experience of handling their vehicle and as such our insurers’ claims statistics reflect this. The largest single discount provided by our panel of 40+ underwriters is 15% although we offer the member a bespoke policy tailored to their requirements.
There are certain circumstances where the discount cannot be applied and that is in the rare circumstance that your premium is at the insurers ‘minimum premium’ - i.e all the other risk factors add up to a quotation that is so favourable that it is at the lowest amount an insurer will cover the vehicle. So there won’t be a further discount as the insurer will be writing the business sub it’s lowest premium. However in all but a handful of these cases there is a discount and we can see the positive effect it has in reducing members’ premiums.
We do understand that there is potential to find a more competitive quotation - that’s the advantage of a competitive market but as also mentioned we do provide a commission to the club which enables them to use in whichever way they see fit. In many cases this is a large return on very low, club-discounted premiums which is part of the goodwill of such an arrangement.
We hope that this does just explain our side of the coin and would be happy to answer any other questions.
Thanks.
Dan
Thanks Martin & Dan
Dan, your response does clarify the situation. Your bespoke policies will almost certainly be better than going for the lowest bidder. Like most people I do appreciate that cheapest isn’t always best. Good explanation as to why club membership may not result in lower quotes in all cases.
Martin, thanks for taking my comments on board. Although Dan obviously only speaks for AF I’m sure his comments would be echoed by the other companies associated with the club and will be very useful to whoever has the task of looking at the home page.
Dan, then maybe you could explain why my first year’s renewal for my MX-5 showed a cost increase of 23%.
I was expecting at least parity or even a slight decrease, if anything because during that first year I had earned a year’s NCD and also joined this club, neither of which I had when I first took out my policy with your company.
My BMW renewal quote also increased by 23% that same year - I’d had that car insured with you for some years and it had maximum NCD. When I rang your company to query this the answer was “Insurance costs have increased a lot this year”. My answer was “Yes, obviously, that’s what I’m asking you about”.
I’m no new driver - I passed my driving test in 1976 and in forty years of insuring vehicles I’d never seen an increase like those.
I renewed elsewhere at a cost of 55% of your company’s renewal quote.