Robbing bastard insurers

[Eddie Honda]

Also, insurance ageism is bullshit. I'd say most people of 18/19/20 on fresh tests will drive better than a lot of over 65s, etc.

They do and they don't. The cost of a claim according the ABI, is about the same for 18-20 year-old as it is for an 85+ year-old. The only difference is that the 18-20 year-old is twice as likely to make a claim.

 

https://www.abi.org.uk/News/News-releases/2015/07/New-ABI-data-shows-why-age-is-a-factor-in-the-price-of-car-insurance.

 

(It wouldn't surprise if these figures are massaged though)

[Pillock]

Lady_pillock insures her Touran through Admiral, a legacy from when we had a multicar policy but last year it was only £380 or so so just renewed.

 

This year it's £580.

 

But because it's renewal time, it's when all the prices roll in from Confused and Meerkat, because mailing list. Cheapest is £290 - yay! With whom? BLOODY ADMIRAL.

[cms206]

I'm with Tesco at the minute; joined them when I won the Pride at SF15. Got some quotes.

 

Insure Supermarket (my preferred comparison site) - £420

Compare the Market - £1600

Insurance Company's own site - £2100.

 

All those quotes came from Tesco. The bloke on the phone said he didn't know what was going on but theyd honour the £420.

[ruffgeezer]

My insurer, Lionheart, has just been bought out by "the insurance factory" as a net result, their website went down for the entire easter period, the call centre is now MUCH slower, oh and I've had a narky letter telling me to prove I have enough space to park the cars on my policy off road.

 

They will be told to get to fuck if this nonsence continues.

[STUNO]

All of this makes me happier with the NZ way, NO compulsory insurance, so the insurance companies are lean and mean and need your business. it does actually work too. If I am hit by an uninsured car I am ok but other driver has to pay the insurance company. If I hit an uninsured one I am ok again but once again the other has to sort his own problems out. It is quite pleasant to be stopped by the police for a roadside check of two stickers on the windscreen and license (road tax and MOT), a smile, thanks and away.

[fairkens]

This is the link Fairkens

 

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/28/car-insurance-and-credit-hire-agencies

Thanks! The credit hire system is completely broken but there are a few reason why the investigation failed, will explain when I'm not so knackered

 

IPT is going up again to 10%. I suspect we will see further rises before the end of this parliament

 

For what it's worth I completely agree that if motor insurance is compulsory it should not be left to the market, government administered systems seem to work well elsewhere.

[richardmorris]

Hang on a minute. Even though I'm usually the first one to call Gideon a cunt, to say IPT was "doubled" last November is cod.The Standard Rate of IPT for tax year 2014/15 was 6%. It was then raised to 9.5% last November. I make that a 58.3% increase and quite a way off a 100% increase.Anyway, I've found mainland UK motor premiums a bit more competitive than the arse ripping that happens in Ireland. They're not just shitehawks, they're mega-shitehawks.

A rough rounding up from 5 to 10 is double. It was not announced at all in the budget.

[doobietoo]

Insured my new car today..... went on comparison sites first ...always a good idea.. then phoned my present insurer got a quote of £458 is that with my 5 years no claims mirrored I ask ...no comes the reply you had an accident 3 years ago.... so why do I pay to protect my no claims if it isn't protected I ask .... oh that's only on the one policy comes the reply..... so says I, can I take you up on your offer of a quote you gave me on gocomparesupermarket  of £290 with no no claims .....no they said as you are an existing customer.... ok then I will go with tescos then as they quoted me £275. Well sorry we could not help you sir, they said. insurance, its a joke....you just have to play the system.

[Parky]

Allianz. Price was £340 and was upped to £700 despite a clean year. Reason given was "we have had a lot of claims". Surely it's their job to pay to insure themselves (called reinsurance) to stop that kind of thing but hey ho.

 

Quick Meerkat revealed it was £500 to new customers. As an existing loyal customer we didn't get that benefit.

 

Straight off to General Accident for £240 fully comp including legal protection and NCB protection. So long Allianz, and thanks for all the Fish......

[HH-R]

It upsets me that I get spam from the comparison sites offering insurance for my Fiat Panda for £250 a year. That would be great if I still had it, £100 more to insure a 1.4! I think the age of the car affects premiums too. They seem to assume that old = neglected whereas I'd wager my old knacker gets treat with more kid gloves and preventative maintenance than a new Juke or something.

[For Fiats Sake]

General Accident -  that's a blast from the past! Were they not bought by Norwich Onions years back?

[HH-R]

Insurance companies are also their own worst enemies. When my first Panda was hit up the arse, they offered me a hire car. I said, instead of spending £ on a hire car and having to find room for 3 cars, could you just insure me on my Metro gratis (that I still had at the time). Yes, sir, I will transfer you to someone who can sort that. Was passed through to someone but previous person hadn't explained anything. I had to explain it all again. Yes we can, but it will cost you. But the previous guy (my "case manager" or something like that) said I could have it for free. Was passed to and fro 3 or 4 times before muting the phone and saying a rude word. I said just send the hire car in the end. Probably cost thousands whereas it would have cost them virtually nothing to insure the Metro for a week, but it was like talking to a brick wall.

[Eddie Honda]

A rough rounding up from 5 to 10 is double. It was not announced at all in the budget.

 

Very very very rough rounding.

 

It was announced in both speeches and not hidden away in the OOTLAR paperwork.

 

The additional 3.5% added to the 6% Standard Rate was announce in the Summer 2015 Budget which took place (8 July 2015). In his speech, Git Gid said "I am therefore today raising insurance premium tax – which applies to only one fifth of all premiums – to 9.5%, effective from this November."

 

The additional 0.5% added to the current 9.5% Standard Rate was announce in this year's Budget (16 March 2016), supposedly to go towards Flooding and it hasn't even kicked in yet (starts 1 October 2016).To quote Git Gid again "So I am going to increase the standard rate of Insurance Premium Tax by just half a percentage point – and commit all the extra money we raise to flood defence spending.  That’s a £700 million boost to our resilience and flood defences."

[Isaac Hunt]

Hate it when they chance it. I Was with a broker on the south coast for a few years on my van , then they started with the uppers. I normally managed to get them knoocked back down until about two years ago and I had to tell em to FRO.

 

They must have spent a fortune calling me at subsequent renewals cos I keep stringing em along, heh, you din't wanna know two years ago, but now you lost me, you want me back...........maybe you shouldn't have Groton all greedy back then.........stuff you

[ChristinaGXL]

My mondeo is £2400 to insure at 23. I hope to god the Taunus isn't going to be insane, really don't want to have to take the mondeo off the road.

[JayW]

"The Insurance Factory" is buying up all the little brokers.

 

This may as well be owned by pikeys, they genuinely rip you off and they're not ashamed of it either!

 

I paid the whole years premium plus a 30 quid administration fee for just THREE WEEKS cover.

 

They were totally shameless about it too!

 

Really, just avoid any company they own.

[JayW]

My insurer, Lionheart, has just been bought out by "the insurance factory" as a net result, their website went down for the entire easter period, the call centre is now MUCH slower, oh and I've had a narky letter telling me to prove I have enough space to park the cars on my policy off road.

 

They will be told to get to fuck if this nonsence continues.

If you can't prove it, they're gonna charge you £30 administration fee plus the extra premium fromthe underwriters which they'll lie about and overinflate.

 

WORST company ever.

[PhilA]

Oh psh. I pay $167 a month to insure the cars here. That's cheap for here also, with a limited mileage policy on two of them. House insurance is about $4500 a year or so. Don't even go near medical insurance...

 

Home of the brave, land of the fee.

 

 

--Phil

[Supernaut]

Oh, Adrian Flux can FRO too.

 

I had the Audi, with all its mods, insured with them for £350. Brilliant, thought I. They should give me a good price on the Omega.

 

Nope. They wanted £1200 for like-for-like cover. EH?!

 

Apparently it was 'due to the value of the car'. I'm going to go with the assumption mentioned earlier in the thread that insurance companies think older cars are neglected and more likely to get crashed, or something like that. Bollocks to them, then.

[Formula Autos]

why not go straight to Aviva ? Policies are a little dearer ok , but changes of vehicle /cover are all free of admin charges in "My Aviva" . I insured a fiat seicento , changed to a baleno 1600 , back to the Fiat , back to the baleno and then the vtec honda hrv .. all free AND no changes to premium ..

 

.On top of that the Aviva auto renewal was £175 . and the cheapest online was 250 with..... yes ,Aviva !!! So i chose the auto renewal ...

I've also chopped and changed cars on my Aviva multi-car policy online with no charge. They're not the absolute cheapest out there, but do include useful features like this so that it's easy to manage your policy.

 

I'm cautiously impressed with them so far.

 

Mind you I've not made a claim yet, and they do try and bump up the price each year at renewal. I just go onto their website, fill in the details as though I'm a new customer and get a quote. Then I ring them up and they honour this price. This has worked for the past three years - I'm on my fourth policy with them and still getting a new customer discount by doing it this way.

 

Once they tried to quibble, but I was armed with a quote from Admiral multi-car, and they realised they had to cave in or I'd be off to Admiral instead.

 

As I pointed out to them at the time 60% of something is still far better than 100% of nothing.

 

They're all out to get as much money out of us as they can. They are, after all, businesses. With a bit of know-how though (and the Autoshite hive mind is pretty good at this sort of thing) you can get towards a price you're happy with from them.

[For Fiats Sake]

Some companies give discounts to car club members - next time I'm asked I'll say I'm with the Shitters - AutoShite!

 

"Your cheaper car insurance is our concern"

 

WCPGW?

[Danblez]

I've also chopped and changed cars on my Aviva multi-car policy online with no charge. They're not the absolute cheapest out there, but do include useful features like this so that it's easy to manage your policy.

 

I'm cautiously impressed with them so far.

 

Mind you I've not made a claim yet, and they do try and bump up the price each year at renewal. I just go onto their website, fill in the details as though I'm a new customer and get a quote. Then I ring them up and they honour this price. This has worked for the past three years - I'm on my fourth policy with them and still getting a new customer discount by doing it this way.

 

Once they tried to quibble, but I was armed with a quote from Admiral multi-car, and they realised they had to cave in or I'd be off to Admiral instead.

 

As I pointed out to them at the time 60% of something is still far better than 100% of nothing.

 

They're all out to get as much money out of us as they can. They are, after all, businesses. With a bit of know-how though (and the Autoshite hive mind is pretty good at this sort of thing) you can get towards a price you're happy with from them.

When dealing with any insurance co you should always have just had a far better quote by £££ from a.n.other company made up on the spot. Never fails to get the best discount with no further hassle.

[rainagain]

This'd save us young folks a hell of a lot of money we don't have.

It won't happen as you'll have a load of chavs farting about in the fastest, cheapest cars they can find (look how cheap X300s are, for example), generally raising hell.

 

If insurance policies have to be mandatory, why isn't there a state or state-sponsored insurance company? And why is there no upper bound on policy prices?

 

Also, insurance ageism is bullshit. I'd say most people of 18/19/20 on fresh tests will drive better than a lot of over 65s, etc.

 

I hated this too, I didn't have an accident when I was younger but I was forced to pay a massive premium.

 

Can you imagine if other services used the same ageist model:

 

At the shops: "Hello sir I see you're over 70, our statistics say that those over 70 tend to be retired and enjoy talking mince with cashiers even when there's a queue, therefore we are adding a 10% 'talking mince' fee to your purchase today, we do this to all over 70's as you are all the same according to our statistics".

 

At the ATM, on screen message: "Congratulations you are now over 65, our statistics show that those over 65 take an extra five minutes to use an ATM therefore we are adding a 'putting the card in and out three times for no reason' fee of £5 every time you use the ATM". 

[colino]

We all know that modern insurance companies use complicated algorithms and have vast teams of actuaries to create instantaneous quotes in a competitive market.  That'll be the reasons that when I decided to swap over my car insurance to a (Saturday night) ebay purchase, as it turned out to be very far away, but driveable; the insurance premium cost for this cheaper, older, slower, smaller-engined, lower insurance group car was 60% more than my current daily.

Forget the expensive back-door systems, it is a call centre jockey called Martin who presses the button on his lottery number generator that he got from his Nan at Christmas who makes up the number.

[rainagain]

We all know that modern insurance companies use complicated algorithms and have vast teams of actuaries to create instantaneous quotes in a competitive market.  That'll be the reasons that when I decided to swap over my car insurance to a (Saturday night) ebay purchase, as it turned out to be very far away, but driveable; the insurance premium cost for this cheaper, older, slower, smaller-engined, lower insurance group car was 60% more than my current daily.

Forget the expensive back-door systems, it is a call centre jockey called Martin who presses the button on his lottery number generator that he got from his Nan at Christmas who makes up the number.

 

I had the same thing changing from an Astra Sport to a non-turbo 206 diesel cost me more. The bit that really annoys me though is the "you've had a non-fault accident therefore we're putting your premium up and no you can't recover this from the other party even thought it's their fault". Then people defend them saying "well a good driver can avoid an accident", really so if you're in a queue of traffic and someone rear ends you whilst updating their Facebook status, you could have done something to avoid it. 

[bub2006]

I'd love to know which folk say that. I woula,love to know how to avoid getting rear ended on a dual carriage way by a wannabe Stirling moss. I'm not a bad driver but not even fucking mystic meg seen that twat coming.

[RayMK]

1988 Hyundai Stellar: £168 (Sureterm - brokers, who farmed it out to Sabre)  Comprehensive; 12,000 miles per year.

1994 Peugeot 205 Automatic: £169 (Legal & General who also farmed it out to Sabre)  Comprehensive; 12,000 miles per year.

1961 Reliant Regal MKVI: Been quoted £100 for this year's renewal which is £20 more than last year  (Lancaster - associated with Sureterm)  Classic policy with 500 miles per year limit.

 

The first two are within a couple of Pounds of last year's cost.  Both include 10 years NCB (i.e. maximum) which were earned separately because I have always had several cars.  

 

Note:  I'm getting old but struggle to stay within 24,000 miles per year;  I don't talk to cashiers; I never bother with exchanging a billionty 5p off money saving vouchers at supermarkets; I'm quicker on ATMs than many younger people who seem to try several cards before they find an account with £10 left in it;  When younger, I had accidents (motorcycle - ran out of road; 2CV6 an even younger driver tried to overtake on my nearside when I was turning left into a garage).  Generally, when younger, my quick reactions saved me from having more accidents.  Now, it's the experience which keeps me safe.

[fairkens]

If it makes any one feel better I found out today that the FCAhave launched an investigation into ROBIN BASTID insurance companies renewal pricing.

 

I would expect changes

[Pillock]

I've just sat and listened to Mrs Pillocks side of the conversation with Admiral

 

"Yes, you've sent me a renewal for £580

Well I've found it cheaper online, for £253

It's with you. It says Admiral, £253.

Yes I know that's a bit strange."

 

Cue lots of faffing, they clearly didn't belive her so made her generate the quote number on the Confused site. "Oh yes. We can see it, but it's your maiden name so that's why it's different." (Apparently, being married more than doubles your accident risks or something)

 

So they start amending the quote, changed her name, queried absolutely everything but it's still all the same. Tried to sell her courtesy car cover when we've got two cars between us and she either works from home or gets the train. End result, £280. Still half the price but they're claiming some sort of victory as the Confused quote wasn't accurate. 

[Christine]

Ok .. We is trying to get FIL who's 90 to give up driving his 1600 gls Astra auto L reg ..cat C due to a biff a few years ago...Drives way too fast ..recent red light jump fine...doesn't appear to see potential hazzards and doesn't see himself a hazzard as h e" drives after 10am when the roads are quieter.." Trying to tell him a cab would be the same outgoing as running a car, i asked how much his insurance was ?

 

Fully comp + 2 named drivers   £265