insurance bum rape.

[Uncle Jimmy]

A word of warning here. I used Lancaster Insurance the other day. Had to go back to them to make a minor change to the policy and was told the change (to the NCD) would cost over £250...

...so I cancelled the insurance. Cost; over £200. All this after waiting for about half an hour on the phone. Changed to insurer with local office and phone answered immediately and actually got a slightly better deal. Needless to say I shan't be using Lancaster again. A couple of years back I swapped from Footman James who had become crap.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

£200 cancellation charge is scary. How much was the original premium?

[lisbon_road]

I think they all do this now.  I'm with Igo4 insurance, £140 a year.  Cost to change over to a more or less identical car?  Ã‚£250.  Yeah right.

 

I ended up with them as I bought a car a long way from home, had arranged insurance but the 'computer system was down'.  Had to find someone else quick.

[Uncle Jimmy]

£280 ish.

[Uncle Jimmy]

The whole system is bollocks really. I've always thought the American/Australian way of insuring the actual driver is far better.

The current bunch of muppets in charge would argue it gives people jobs in our stunningly successful service industry though I suppose.

[lisbon_road]

That's interesting.  How does it work in Australia and America then?  Presumably they don't know who is driving until you get pulled over.

 

Sounds a good idea though.

[gordonbennet]

Very wary about this admin rip off scam as well from the cheapest insurers.

 

I'm with Cornhill (formerly Adelaide) who are The insurer for HGV/PSV and IAM qualified, they will beat any quote or match it and beat the terms, and they don't take the piss re admin charges.

 

SWMBO is with SAGA who again don't take the piss and did us a very fair deal when we needed temp cover whilst buying the Scoob and selling the Mitsi, more than happy with them and the renewal this year was so cheap we didn't bother doing a search, hope to stay with them too.

 

Have no idea what claiming with either would be like, hopefully won't find out.

[EssDeeWon]

Yep I had this last year with Sureterm who I believe work with Lancaster.

 

I cancelled the BMW insurance when I bought the 75, I was expecting a small credit my way but in actual fact they wanted something ridiculous like £200 !!!! WTAF.

 

After numerous phone calls I mentioned I was only cancelling because you wanted too much to insure the R75 (It was a hideous quote, twice the value of the car) anyway when I mentioned this they said that because I was kinda forced to leave they would be lenient and only charge me £14 to cancel, ok great how do I pay?? We will send you the final demand in writing then you get 14 days, ok cool.

 

Fast forward 3 months in which time I had heard nothing at all....

 

A snotty letter drops on the mat from Sureterm telling me I have 7 days to pay or the debt will be passed to a third party for debt collection. Blood boiling at this point I phoned them up and explained I was waiting 3 months to hear back from them and nothing....now suddenly a threatening letter to pass my details to a third party debt collection agency over £14 that I was prepared to pay months ago. 

 

Gave them their £14 and told them to FRO, Will not be using them again regardless of price.

 

Just google 'sureterm / Lancaster cancel policy'

[cms206]

 

 

I'm with Cornhill (formerly Adelaide) who are The insurer for HGV/PSV and IAM qualified, they will beat any quote or match it and beat the terms, and they don't take the piss re admin charges.

... as long as your car is new enough. I've been a PSV driver since January 2008 and they have refused to quote me on a number of occasions because my cars were too old; IIRC they have an upper age limit of 20 years.

[dieselnutjob]

I like the Spanish system that road tax includes 3rd party insurance.  If it's taxed then it's insured.  At least that's my understanding.

[mercrocker]

Lancaster took the piss out of me as did FJ. Adrian flux is another wanker. Luckily one of the very few benefits of attaining gifferdom is that insurers treat you a bit more fairly. I wont be fucked about any more and these pricks that did so in the past can all do one. I know that's not much help in your current predicaments but never forget. Lancaster. Footman James. Adrian Flux. Up yours.

[EssDeeWon]

 Lancaster. Footman James. Adrian Flux. Up yours.

 

Agreed. 

[mercedade]

... as long as your car is new enough. I've been a PSV driver since January 2008 and they have refused to quote me on a number of occasions because my cars were too old; IIRC they have an upper age limit of 20 years.

 

I was insured via Adelaide as part of the IAM scheme and they never had a problem with any of my old snotters (eg J plate XJ40, K plate 827). I'll be annoyed if that's now changed as my Vitesse creeps towards 20...

[twosmoke300]

I can never understand that something which is compulsory is bought from private companies . Surely tpo cover should be bought from the gov on a simple age/ car / area / convictions matrix . If you want fully comp then you can purchase this elsewhere

[Jazoli]

I like the Spanish system that road tax includes 3rd party insurance.  If it's taxed then it's insured.  At least that's my understanding.

 

No it doesn't, the car must be insured, but its normally then insured for anybody to drive (subject to age restrictions)  the suma (tax) is just that, tax or RFL.

 

Lived over there for many years, now back in sunny  England.

[HMC]

Had a bit of a ring around for insurance prices the other day on a 1990 vintage Ford im in the process of acquiring. Lancaster wanted by far the most, by a fair way. The bloke (perhaps just expressing his opinion rather than company policy) said with cheaper stuff that they don't see as proper classic they want to try and put off 'people trying to insure a 1995 punto on the cheap' I didnt say but thought well i've been an on off customer of yours for 12 years and its putting me off too! I basically went elsewhere for a lot less. Ive used them in the past for similarly aged and similar valued stuff, but they did not seem to be serious about taking my business this time (hence the silly quote)

[jonathan_dyane]

Lancaster are utter shitheels. When I bought the new Saab on Saturday I rang them up to have my classic policy put on the new car however I was informed that because the car was only 24 years old and not 25 or over they couldn't decide whether they could insure it until Monday. They were not able to arrange temporary cover. This made me very cross. To cap it all off at the end of the call the woman hit me with the immortal line 'is there anything else I can help you with sir?' I pointed out that A) she hadn't helped me with Jack Shit and asked her to suggest any way in which she might be able to help me. Stupid bint.

 

I ended up buying a whole new policy of Adrian Fucks and despite their promises Lancaster of course never rang me back on Monday so God knows what they're going to have to say to me next. Cunts.

 

Sorry...

[Inspector Morose]

Lancaster/Sureterm behave very differently when a double decker bus gets parked on their car park in St Ives, the driver gets through the door by means unknown to them (they share an entrance with another. Company) and said driver refuses to leave until he sees a real person.

 

Sorted my problem at no charge! Who'd have thought?

[JohnK]

Lancaster are knob ends.

 

Last year I had my '83 728i insured with them. I viewed and subsequently bought an '86 728i which I wanted to insure as an additional vehicle. I called them on the Saturday to be told it couldn't go ahead as they had to speak to the underwriters on Monday. I wasn't impressed as it was virtually the same vehicle.

 

I bit the bullet and bought a £30 day insure to get back from Worksop. I rang up on Monday for an update to find they had managed to insure the '86 car on the Saturday (despite not having underwriter permission or actually telling me this) and uninsured my '83 model (which had been driven and parked on a public road over the weekend).

 

I lost my shit with them big style, secured a second vehicle insured for £10 and demanded a refund of my £30 day insure. It's just expired that policy actually and I haven't renewed.

 

Despite comments on here I've found Footman James to be very amenable. Touch wood!

[explosive-cabbage]

I counter the admin charges into any decision I make about buying car insurance.

Tesco who are my current insurers were actually about £80 more expensive than my cheapest quote, but the admin charges to swap cars over was about £25 cheaper than the cheapest quote. I don't know in advance how many times I will need to swap cars but I think it works out in my favour in the end!

[Uncle Jimmy]

the woman hit me with the immortal line 'is there anything else I can help you with sir?'

 

Sounds exactly like the (ahem) 'person' I spoke to. Talked at 1,000000 mph wiv an 'enders type accent.

[PhilA]

American system works well.

 

However, my 1987 Renault, valued at $1600 costs about $960 a year to insure fully comp, on a bundle plan with miles limited to 7500.

 

Is not without that caveat.

 

Phil

[Ghosty]

I'd favour an American-style system, as it'd stop the incessant ageism of insurers vs. people under 25 and as such I'd be able to afford insurance before the end of this decade. Instead, I would have to fork out £2k a year to drive Cavcraft's finest*, where even the fucking excess payment is probably more than the car's worth.

But in places like the US and Aus, a car is somewhat more necessary to get places as everything is more spaced out: there's every possibility that seeing as that sort of system over here would enable more people to use cars, more people do because public transport is shit, and suddenly we've got hellishly bad congestion from 7am to 7pm every single day.

[Craig the Princess]

Apparently Lancaster are now owned by a subsidiary of Capita. Footman James are now owned by Towergate.

 

Neither charging huge admin fees is a surprise.

[Alan_Green]

Aviva and Direct Line do not charge admin fees for changing vehicles online. So I'm swapping from a £95 classic policy to a £188 Aviva normal policy soon. Then I can change cars every day if I like all through the winter while the classic is off the road then back to the classic in the Spring. Well worth the extra £93 and I think is the way ahead for us "enthusiasts".

[Taff]

Aviva and Direct Line do not charge admin fees for changing vehicles online. So I'm swapping from a £95 classic policy to a £188 Aviva normal policy soon. Then I can change cars every day if I like all through the winter while the classic is off the road. Well worth the extra £93 and I think is the way ahead for us "enthusiasts".

 

That's not a bad shout.

 

I got bumraped somewhat with the MGF but I needed insurance on its predecessor in a hurry and so kind of grabbed the first policy available. As a result, when it expired and I got the F, they lubed me up and saw me off for an Ã‚£80 admin fee. It happens, I won't be back. It's Sureterm, btw.

 

The Galaxie is with AF, on an agreed value and limited mileage policy. I had the windscreen covered as well (I dread to think what a screen for that would cost). It's £93 a year. Out of curiosity, what happens if you "neglect" to tell them you have moved house? The Galaxie is stored in a mates barn and is recorded as such on the insurance, so the fact that I have moved but the car hasn't shouldn't incur an admin fee.

[carlo]

I started a thread last year about Lancaster insurance and their little capers; the upshot being that due to their appalling service and rip off practices  they're in my permanent book of companies I'll never ever deal with again whilst I'm alive (along with Orange and a few others).

 

Companies like Direct Line are the way to go, I've been with them for over twenty years.  They're flexible (you can often have a deal), always amongst the cheapest, can insure cars temporarily and do different discounts for multi cars.  Plus now they don't even charge for policy changes.

 

Hopefully the likes of Lancaster will be consigned to the dustbin where they belong soon.

[fairkens]

Apparently Lancaster are now owned by a subsidiary of Capita. Footman James are now owned by Towergate.

 

Neither charging huge admin fees is a surprise.

 

Towergate having had a fairly spectacular FTP and being bought by their creditors mean this is unlikely to change for the forseeable

[alf892]

I was with Lancaster but they wanted to put the price up on a classic policy when both daily ones had gone down. Explained this to them and they came down a little.

 

On here I saw someone had mentioned Barry Grainger. They are very cheap but I'm not sure if they are connected to Flux as policy is from Chaucer which I think is owned by Flux??

 

I hate Flux............but money is money so I went with them.

 

To me they are all shithouses anyway so I go with the one who wants the least money.

[Uncle Jimmy]

It fucks me off that the pages of P.C and the like are plastered with adverts for these bottom feeders. They must be making an extraordinary amount from the owners of old chod- much of which rarely moves and likely has a very low rate of accidents. Fuckin scene tax innit?