Been with Direct Line for several years now. Previously insuring a VW Golf.
When my MX-5 was delivered last May there was about a month left on my policy and was pleasantly surprised there was no additional cost to change it (bar the admin fee), and even more pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t any significant rise at my subsequent renewal.
This year however it has gone up. A lot.
From about 290 to over 450!
No claims or change in circumstances.
Obviously I’m going to do some shopping around…
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Hmm, Direct Line did that to me soon after I became 65, and almost trebled the quote for our boring old Vextra. Appropriate Descriptive Words questioning their ancestry were said.
Ageists!
Ringing around elsewhere took it to lower than DL’s previous year and my insurance has remained lower than that still years later, even with big name companies on the brand new Mazda3 that eventually replaced it. On LV this year, but who knows for next?
So I never bother to ask DL any more when I do the annual trawl for both cars.
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I would have a look at comparison websites.
When I bought my NB I checked with A-Plan, my broker for many years, and was quoted north of £300. I thought that was a bit steep so I had a check around and ended up insuring it fully comp for 2500 miles of use for £160. This was with no no claims bonus as it was a second car. Subsequent premium last year was £128 and I am about to renew again for £129. This is with One Call.
After finding such a better price for the MX-5, I saved myself over £300 on my Mazda6 daily driver by ditching A-Plan and finding a much cheaper policy with all the same benefits with Aviva, again via comparethemarket.com.
It really, really pays to shop around, never be ‘loyal’ to one insurer (because, as you have found out, they have no loyalty to you), and be prepared to switch insurers every year if you want the best price.
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This is par for the course what ever one is insuring, house, car etc etc, that is why comparison sites have become so popular, doing that exercise for Madge and home right now.
Hi.
Please feel free to give us a try for insurance if you haven’t done so already.
Regards,
Dan.
Just a thought JJW. My insurance went up this year, although a new car. I have adjusted my yearly mileage and increased the excess a bit. Has come down to a reasonable price under £300.
Prices were expected to rise if you read Martin Lewis.
Good luck.
This is part of the problem.
Media machine announces that “Prices were expected to rise” - and for good measure chuck in a well known name ( Martin Lewis ) - and suddenly the Insurance industry sees a new license to hike prices way above normal levels.
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Unfortunately there’s nothing I can do on mileage, I do about 11k a year, might see what can be done with the excess though.
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Met some mx5 owners and Aviva sound better. AA ok too
Direct line did that to me too. I am now with LV for another year and with breakdown cover included it is less than £200. ( 07, 1.8 Icon,71 yrs,3points, garaged and chipped)
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Yup similar situation with DL for our renewal this year, gone up by 50%, shopping around …
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In fairness Adrian Flux gave me a good renewal price for my Mk1 this year on a classic car policy . About £120 something for the year with a guaranteed value in case it’s written off.
Before that I used Admiral for about the same price which could insure me for work use but it wasn’t a classic car policy so it had no guaranteed value - hence I swapped to Flux.
I am pleased to say that I have never had cause to claim from either policy so cannot say what either company are like in the case of a claim.
There is a reason Direct Line isn’t on price comparison websites…
Hi.
Glad we could help our with a competitive renewal quotation this year.
Regards,
Dan.
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Just had my renewal notice from LV and was shocked to find it has gone down from 154 to 143. Blimey.
Be wary of Aviva. I went to them with about 20 years’ NCD and, at the end of the insurance period, they would only certify 5 years, which was their maximum.
Thanks for all the replies and advice.
I gathered a few quotes then phoned DL.
I updated a couple of things I noticed that weren’t correct, such as being a 2 car household and now being married, which knocked a few quid off, then they found a discount from somewhere which brought it down to the ballpark of the lowest quotes I’d find elsewhere.
So weighing everything up, including good service that I did get from them when a van hit me from behind when I was at a red light 3 years ago, I decided to stick for this year.
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“then they found a discount from somewhere which brought it down to the ballpark of the lowest quotes I’d find elsewhere.”
Why should we have to do this?
The betting industry gets a bad press but when Bet365 offer me odds they just take a transparent 6-10% margin. They don’t offer 1/2 on both horses in a 2-horse race unless I ring them up and argue with them until they offer 10/11.
I also got a renewal notice from Finch (brokers). I’d been with a company they took over relatively recently (Sheen) for a very long time. (I used to be a motorcycle courier in the 1980s and Sheen were helpful finding a reasonable policy for a difficult to insure sector.) I was horrified yesterday when I received my renewal notice for my 1.8 NC, discovering the premium had risen (with no fault, no change of circumstances and a full NCB) by 90%. Surfing comparethemarket.com, briefly and angrily, it seems I can go back to something like last year’s premium. I haven’t committed to anything yet. I’m cross that older, loyal customers are exploited for commission harvesting hikes like we’re too senile to notice, or do anything about it. Sorry to be grumpy. And sorry to be thick but don’t we at the MX5ON have a tame insurer, any owner’s club discount offers?
Hi Dan,
Unfortunately your brokers are not keen on my 25 year old daughter driving our car putting the quote to an eye watering £1000+. Seriously she’s been driving for 8 years, clean license etc. what is going on.