Classic multicar insurance - massive premium increase from Footman James

[John F]

I've just received my multicar policy renewal premium from Footman James, and I'm gobsmacked at the price increase.

 

Firstly, they tell me that my renewal premium would have been £468.20 this year – a small price drop over last year – but then they announce that my actual renewal premium is £667.45, about two fucking hundred quid more!

 

There was NO explanation given as to where this price increase has come from, in fact the price reduction in the 'would have been' premium clearly shows that I haven't become an increased risk to the insurer. So I called Footman James & was given some flannel about price increases by the insurance companies.

 

WTF?

 

Anyone in the industry have any idea what this shit is all about??

[adw1977]

What bullshit is that?  Your renewal "would have been" something other than it actually is - that makes no sense at all.

[Bobthebeard]

"Would have been" suggests some change to your policy, real or invented. Given insurance companies I would go for invented. Renewal innit.

[John F]

I know... I've never had a problem with FJ before, they've always been reasonable.

[flat4alfa]

i got this with RH Richardsen Hosken after Hiscox took over.

 

Moved over the lot to Footman James and saved £150ish

 

Been hearing of plenty folks leaving FJ in droves and moving to Peter Best

[hpi_matrix]

Got a quote online from FJ for an MX5 at the weekend - £200, redid the quote in the week and it shot up to £300.

 

Try Heritage or Peter Best

[mercrocker]

Footpad James did this to me a few years ago on my classic multi-car.   Fuck them.  

I immediately switched to Peter James (who I think was the J of FJ) and have been very happy with the service.   No significant increase over 3 renewals, now....

[oldcars]

I read this a few months back.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39101829

 

I guess this is the reason for the increase? If this had not happened it would have been the cheaper quote. 

[dollywobbler]

Footpad James did this to me a few years ago on my classic multi-car.   Fuck them.  

I immediately switched to Peter James (who I think was the J of FJ) and have been very happy with the service.   No significant increase over 3 renewals, now....

 

This. The OP's post is the second complaint about FJ I've heard in an hour! Alternatively, just get a quote elsewhere and I bet FJ would match it if you're happy with them.

[Spottedlaurel]

Very timely.

 

My FJ policy due for renewal on 9 May has gone up from £341.75 to £436.13 (and that’s with one car less after I took the Lexus off the policy, I haven’t approached them yet about adding the Camry).

 

I moved to FJ from RH. Sounds like I need to give Peter Best or Peter James a try before I blindly renew with FJ.

[dollywobbler]

I'm with Peter S Taylor with three moderns and one classic. I've been very happy with them. I usually end up speaking to the same person (quite frequently due to car changes...)

[Eddie Honda]

Firstly, they tell me that my renewal premium would have been £468.20 this year – a small price drop over last year

Do they actually give it the full Jim Bowen or does the letter just state last year's premium(s) paid? (As per regulator requirements)

 

Post the real letter with the details blocked out, because I think it's the latter.

 

In fairness to all the usual names - the are just the brokers - who underwrites the actual policy? Ageas?

 

(Mine was in Feb and it included last year's for comparison. Was about the same) but that was before the shitstorm. I expect to be humped next year.

[John F]

Right. I've just had some success with FJ.

 

The first person I spoke to this morning was hopeless & didn't look at my policy properly before spouting bollocks about premium increases.

 

I spoke to another person just now that did do her job correctly – apparently a named driver I added in January was causing a 30%+ loading due to points & accidents... with this driver removed, and changing from unlimited miles to 10,000 per annum, the premium was back to a more reasonable Â£509.77.

 

And then some good news - FJ can now add motorbikes to classic multicar policies, so I bunged my CBX750F onto the policy for a total additional premium of just Â£40.34, WITH use of other bikes over 20 years old 

 

I'm still not sure what the "would have been" premium was all about though.

[John F]

Eddie Honda, on 19 Apr 2017 - 3:42 PM, said:Eddie Honda, on 19 Apr 2017 - 3:42 PM, said:

Do they actually give it the full Jim Bowen or does the letter just state last year's premium(s) paid? (As per regulator requirements)

 

 

The wording is exactly as follows:

 

"The premium you paid last year at inception of your policy, plus the premium paid for any FJ+ products you may have purchased thoughout the year was £484.50. Based on the changes you have made to your policy during the year, your annual premium would have been £468.20. Both premiums included Insurance Premium Tax @ 9.5%"

 

They then quote a renewal premium of £667.45 in the next section, which is somewhat confusing. But the matter seems to have been resolved now.

[Eddie Honda]

I'm still not sure what the "would have been" premium was all about though.

It sounds like a badly drafted letter.

 

Like those ones starting "I am writing..." (Of course you fucking well are, it's a letter) [One thing my rather elderly at the time English teacher taught us all not to do in an off-syllabus lesson she did of something rather useful on letters/invites.] (Excuse the appalling phrasing there)

[Vince70]

I've just had the same with Lancaster insurance as my renewal has gone up from £119 to £186 so I went on go compare and the same policy was £127.05 through them, but I could of actually got the insurance for 122.05 with another company called premium.

 

So I phoned them up and asked them if I could cancel my renewal and just go with someone else and was told I could just have the insurance at the go compare site quote of £127.05 and I couldn't be arsed with the hassle for a fiver.

 

It looks like there's no such thing as customer loyalty when it comes to insurance.

[Eddie Honda]

The wording is exactly as follows:

 

"The premium you paid last year at inception of your policy, plus the premium paid for any FJ+ products you may have purchased thoughout the year was £484.50. Based on the changes you have made to your policy during the year, your annual premium would have been £468.20. Both premiums included Insurance Premium Tax @ 9.5%"

 

They then quote a renewal premium of £667.45 in the next section, which is very confusing. But the matter seems to have been resolved now.

Bad wording to meet regulator requirements. They have to come up with the imaginary figure for ease of comparison.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/12031135/Insurance-customers-to-be-reminded-of-last-years-premiums.html

 

If you made zero changes, there would be one figure. Due to mid-term changes there is a second notional figure, which is less than what you paid because it doesn't include some thing (s)

 

Anyway, the whole idea of the regs it to make it easier, but in this case it makes it more confusing. Brilliant.

[Anthony]

I've just had the same with Lancaster insurance as my renewal has gone up from £119 to £186 so I went on go compare and the same policy was £127.05 through them

Lancaster did a similar stunt with me this year as well trying to nigh-on double my premium whilst quoting considerably less as a new customer.

 

Out of principle I went with another company.

[Eddie Honda]

It looks like there's no such thing as customer loyalty when it comes to insurance.

Or banks, mobile phone contracts, landline, broadband, other utilities blah blah blah. Its been that way for years (some say since 1986).

 

Customer inertia. You snooze, you lose.

[Eddie Honda]

Out of principle I went with another company.

Fine until you run out of them.

 

Remember when there were loads of actual insurers? Then the market consolidated. It's also hard to do when looking further into who actually owns the company and all the trading names they use/own.

[Captain Furious]

I got a renewal on a single policy from FJ in Feb that was £120 more than last year (bearing in mind the policy was only £140-odd in the first place).  Never even rang them, just went online and got another quote with them which brought it down to £188 with the exact same details.  To bring it down the rest of the way I dropped the mileage from 3000 to 2000, which is probably still more than I will actually do, and it came down to £122

 

This year their premiums seem to be heavily linked to the number of miles, whereas in previous years they've not seemed that bothered, the first year they just 'gave me' 10,000 miles because it was the same price.  So don't cover any more than you will actually need.

[barefoot]

Plus eleventy on the mileage thing this renewal.

 

Last year an insurance company called Markerstudy was picked for me by ace* broker Carol Nash.

This year the premium had increased from £150 - £200

Went to '2gether' insurance broker who selected Markerstudy - premium £150?

I had to supply photocopies of driving licence & tell them the actual mileage.

Bizarre really as they only need to check the MOT history, it's all there.

 

Such a complete waste of time,

I've booked a full day off work to renew my ordinary multi vehicle policy in July.

[Angrydicky]

i got this with RH Richardsen Hosken after Hiscox took over.

 

Moved over the lot to Footman James and saved £150ish

 

Been hearing of plenty folks leaving FJ in droves and moving to Peter Best

I've been with RH for years and have had very little to gripe about with them. But I last renewed before Hiscox took over. Let's hope their renewal figures are sensible, or I'll be giving Peter James a call. 

[Six-cylinder]

I renewed my Hagerty 20 year old+ multi classic car policy yesterday, only £7 increase.

 

I went to take out annual travel insurance again with Saga, I still have the same faults and the quote was 45% increase on 2 years ago. I have just done a one trip for now.

[lisbon_road]

Rant.  This stuff does my head in.  We have to shop around for everything these days and the differences, not just for insurance, are huge.  Bought a water pump recently, Eurocarparts price over the counter, on the internet, on the net with discount code, with my account, or through ebay or through carpartsforless or through carpartsforless on ebay and there are loads more.

 

My mum (82) said that when she was younger, you wanted something, you just saved up, went to the shop and bought it.

 

Mind, I think even insurance needed shopping around sometimes then.

[Eddie Honda]

This year their premiums seem to be heavily linked to the number of miles, whereas in previous years they've not seemed that bothered,

Plus eleventy on the mileage thing this renewal.

Mileage thing? What mileage thing?

 

 

(The 61p difference from last year was probably to do with the 0.5% increase in IPT)

 

It's strange as usually my renewal premiums are generated by this man:

 

[alf892]

Try Barry Grainger.......no idea who they are owned by but they are very competitive. I had my renewal for my Rover yesterday and it is £80 for the year........and the Chevy is about the same. Both are on about 3000 miles though........plenty for buggering about.

[JayW]

Fine until you run out of them.

 

Remember when there were loads of actual insurers? Then the market consolidated. It's also hard to do when looking further into who actually owns the company and all the trading names they use/own.

This.

 

I am one of those that is rapidly running out. Principles innit.

 

They are ALL cowboys.

 

A funny one I spotted the other day: Cancel within the statutory 14 day cooling period, the under writer will charge for time on cover (perfectly acceptable), broker will charge ONE HUNDRED FUCKING POUNDS fee. They can even get round things that were put there to protect the consumer.

 

Annual premium? £150.

 

Hilarious.

[RayMK]

My son's multi car (2) policy with Admiral was hundreds more this year despite no changes or accidents.  He went elsewhere via a web comparison site and is now with Privilege;  two seperate policies, same cover as Admiral but still cheaper than last year's Admiral premium.  Talking to Admiral knocked  this year's figure down a bit but they could not get close to last year's + £20 or anywhere near the Privilege quote.

 

I've used Sureterm and Lancaster for years for the Stellar (7yrs) and Reliant (20yrs+).  Renewals are generally within a few Pounds of last year's and not worth the hassle of shopping around.  My Mitsubishi i was also with them (Lancaster merged/bought Sureterm so they are really the same outfit) three years ago until it had a major FTP which I decided not to have fixed and bought the Pug 205 auto.  Their quote on the 205 was high, forcing me to shop around and I ended up with Legal & General.  Currently via the brokers, both the Stellar and 205 are in fact insured by Sabre with reasonable premiums of around £190 each (Fully Comp., Max NCB, Stellar 8,000 miles p.a.; 205 18,000 miles p.a.).  The Reliant ('61 Regal MKVI) is on a classic policy with 1,000 miles p.a. limit for £102. It was £98 last year.  Maybe they think that 3 wheelers fall over too easily or are prone to catch fire or something  .

[Eddie Honda]

Maybe they think that 3 wheelers fall over too easily or are prone to catch fire or something  .

Ray, if you look closely at my above letter, there are TWO unstable and easily combustible vehicles on the renewal.