Admiral multicar renewal rediculousness

[Philyc]

So just redone our insurance. The wife as main on the golf estate with me as named. Then me on the fiesta with her as named. Admiral were 980 last year. Renewal quote of 1160! Nothing has changed on the policy!

 

I remember the year before last th is the reason we left admiral as renewal was ridiculous. After a year away the auote from them was by far the best so we went back, only to be treated to this again.

 

Now have the same insurance as before for both of us, then managed to get a 50 quid discount on RAC breakdown (personal) with uk recovery etc for both of us. So All for just over 900 quid.

 

Anyone have any idea or experience with admiral hiking prices up after the first year? Just find it very strange

[skoda_norman]

Funnily enough, my renewal has come through with similar price hikes. I think the policy last year was £600 or so and for renewal they want £1200! And again, they did the same the time before our policy came up for renewal. 

 

I'm trying to get a proper broker to offer me cover but so far haven't had any success. (2006 MX-5 with business use, 2000 Saab 9-5 & 1997 Skoda Felicia). 

 

Poor showing from Admiral, because they are otherwise a good insurer from my experience. 

[Alan_Green]

It's 2017. Brand loyalty is punished not rewarded. You have to keep moving around.  Applies equally to phone, gas, elec, internet, jobs, whatever...  The statics subsidise the movers.

[vulgalour]

This is what Admiral do.  More insurers are doing the same.  It really does pay to shop around these days and it's an absolute chore.

[Philyc]

I always do with everything. It is a shame as admiral ive always found very helpful and easy to deal with.

 

I was more suprised about getting the RAC down from 129 to 83 quid if im honest

[vulgalour]

Likewise, they're really decent as far as customer service goes but the premium hike is silly at renewal even if nothing has changed, it's always much more than even the standard annual hike in price that seems to be the norm now.

[Steviemillar]

I had been with Admiral for five years until the renewal came in last month. The prices quoted were double for both cars on the multi-car policy, no changes to personal details or cars.

 

Now with LV for less than I paid for last year's policy, excess is less too (£500 with Admiral) but everything else is the same as the Admral Terms & Conditions

[doobietoo]

Go onto compare the meercat or equivalent get a quote then ring them up and say you would prefer to stay with them as you like the service, product, good name etc  and ask if they will beat it.... usually works for me but not always... done this with Saga for 3 years now and they always get within £10 of my new quote...

[RayMK]

I had been with Admiral for five years until the renewal came in last month. The prices quoted were double for both cars on the multi-car policy, no changes to personal details or cars.

 

Now with LV for less than I paid for last year's policy, excess is less too (£500 with Admiral) but everything else is the same as the Admral Terms & Conditions

 

Ditto for my son's recent renewal.  He has also gone elsewhere and on separate policies rather than a multi - still £hundreds cheaper than Admiral. 

[Horatio]

Interestingly Admiral, Bell, Diamond, Elephant & Confused.com are all owned by the same company EUI limited..

[Formula Autos]

I've got a multicar policy and each year I play off Aviva and Admiral against each other. The only way of getting a cheaper price is to make them think you're taking your money elsewhere.

 

Strangely the way I got my cheapest quote last time was to tap my details into Aviva's website as if I was a new customer. This was cheaper than allowing both companies to run my existing details through their systems. Aviva weren't too happy when I told them I'd got a cheaper quote, and it turned out to be from them. They kept babbling on about it only being available to new customers. My response was that I might be a new customer in 12 months, having given this years' money to Admiral. Aviva quickly did a reverse ferret on that statement and I got it for the new customers' rate.

 

It's annoying, but you have to haggle with them. They all rely on customer inertia to get many pounds out of people.

[SiC]

We've got 2 policies with directline. Last year's renewal, I had one on auto-renewal and the other not. The one that didn't have auto-renewal had an excellent renewal quote come through - much better than I could find elsewhere. Where as the one with auto-renewal was going to charge so much more. When I phoned up to cancel (as I found cheaper elsewhere), they came back with a very competitive quote.

 

I know it costs companies a lot of money to acquire customers, so it makes sense that if they think they'll loose you then offering a competitive quote is cheaper to keep your business. Possibly why I've been with Directline for the last 4 years or so. I guess as they directly know your claim history (I.e. not and know for sure it's not possibly a lie), that bit of extra information allows their computers to quote more aggressively to keep business.

[Guest Breadvan72]

As others have observed above, this is standard inertia selling - once an insurer thinks that you are unlikely to move (because of the perceived but actually minimal hassle of doing so) the insurer will hike the prices.  As suggested above, either move to another insurer, or get quotes from elsewhere and use them as bargaining levers to haggle Admiral's price down.

[Guest Breadvan72]

My current fave mainstream insurers are Geoffrey Insurance.  They answer the phone fast, are staffed by humans who have sensible judgment rather than by computer says no types, don't want to read you endless regulatory and data protection scripts, and offer sensible prices.  For classics, I use Classicline.

[Captain Furious]

Been with admiral for about 15 years, get the same mysteriously increased renewal every year which is always reduced after a quick phone call to ask them if this is the best price they can do.

 

It's ghastly but you have to speak to a human to get the best quotes

[richardthestag]

If you renew with Admiral for the next two years you get to have a go on the lass with the Tricorn hat in the tv adverts

[Captain Furious]

Would renew at full price.

[xtriple]

Insurance companies are the spawn of the devil! Fact!

 

I was with Churchill for donkeys years (about 10) and while they were rarely the cheapest, they were always competitive and good to deal with. Then one year the renewal came trough at about triple the years before ad the sub-human arse I spoke to was rude and wouldn't even try to better it, I left and have never gone back.

 

I just renewed the MX5s with the same company as they were the cheapest by a mile and a (non too) quick phone call got it reduced even further.

[barefoot]

Ta for this, quite timely heads up.

I took out a multi with Admiral last year and have not really been totally happy.

Plans are afoot to get quotes from Admiral, Direct Line, Aviva and LV for all four vehicles individually and then add them one by one to theoretical multicar policies witheach, asking how the discount is calculated at each stage. It's going to take me a morning, but it is anyway, I might as well be thorough and piss the insurance fuckers off as well.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Insurance companies are the spawn of the devil! Fact!

 

I was with Churchill for donkeys years (about 10) and while they were rarely the cheapest, they were always competitive and good to deal with. Then one year the renewal came trough at about triple the years before ad the sub-human arse I spoke to was rude and wouldn't even try to better it, I left and have never gone back.

 

I just renewed the MX5s with the same company as they were the cheapest by a mile and a (non too) quick phone call got it reduced even further.

Occasionally and unfortunately you get the office gargoyle instead of a trained operative. I've had it happen with Lancaster and A plan. Might be better in those instances to just phone back when nice Scottish lass comes back from the loo.

[noseypoke]

I got my renewal with Admiral on my MIni, Up from last year from £200 to £295!!

They (Admiral) sent me the documents(with 20 years NCD) 14 days before deadline,so I shopped around,Got f/comp through the CO-OP,F/com for £200 (there was even a discount for having the car parked outside IN THE STREET!!  So I went ahead with the CO-OP.

Got on the blower to Admiral,When I told them "I'm not renewing" they offered me £41 discount down to £254.
I told them No, I'll be in touch next year. All very amicable.

Two days later I had a nice letter off Admiral,Looking forward to me rejoining them next March (2018).

I don't think I've ever been with the same insurer twice running, since way back when I had 2x E93A Ford Pops (30/- TPFT) that was back in 1960s.

Now where'd I put that TIME MACHIME?

[trigger]

I've had the renewal come threw for the Focus, thats gone up from £385 to £402 since last year.

[richardthestag]

I shop around every year.

 

Brand Loyalty at our humble level these days is non existant

[JayW]

My current fave mainstream insurers are Geoffrey Insurance. They answer the phone fast, are staffed by humans who have sensible judgment rather than by computer says no types, don't want to read you endless regulatory and data protection scripts, and offer sensible prices. For classics, I use Classicline.

Wow, I think it's only you then!

 

Geoffrey used to be "Chaucer" - a very good insurer in all respects. But they were bought out by "The insurance factory" and the name changed along with their customer service, terms and trading attitude.

 

I remained insured with them whilst this all changed but when it came to renew it was a different beast entirely! Talk about bad attitude!

 

Having had problems with another trading name of "the insurance factory" I now boycott the lot of them - and there's a HELL of a lot of them!!! They've bought shedloads of the old brokers. Beware!

[Eddie Honda]

and there's a HELL of a lot of them!!! They've bought shedloads of the old brokers. Beware!

Sleekit bastards!

 

https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/blog/2007/08/who-owns-your-insurer.html

 

https://www.markerstudy.com/policyholders/about-us/part-of-the-markerstudy-group-of-companies

[Captain Furious]

Problem with multicar is that its essentially just two policies that happen to start and finish on the same day, that's it.  Everything else, premium, documentation, no-claims etc is separate, there is supposedly a 'discount' but it doesn't amount to much.  I often get the renewal from Admiral and think "OMG that's outrageous i'll be leaving them this year fo sho!" only to find they're still the cheapest when I go on compare the meerkat et all to get other quotes (They still reduce it when I ring them though)

 

It would take a significant saving to make me leave them tbh, I've been with them most of my driving life, their quotes are always among, if not the cheapest, I like dealing with them as a company, I've been through claims with them and found them extremely helpful...there is more at stake than just saving £20.  (no I don't work for them)

 

The main reasons insurance premiums are going up continue to be uninsured drivers, bogus personal injury claims/cash4crash bellends etc. 

[Anthony]

there is supposedly a 'discount' but it doesn't amount to much

I think I worked it out to be around 15% when I went with them a couple of years ago comparing the original non-Multicar quotes compared to what I ended up paying.

[barefoot]

When it's renewal time this year, I'll be asking how much the discount is/how it's calculated etc.

[DodgeRover]

Let's all just move to NZ it's so much easier there

[Felly Magic]

Insurance for the Mondongo went up by £50 when we moved from quiet* Martlesham to Felixstowe, barely 11 miles away.#nothappy

 

*There was a murder 200 yds from my old gaff in Martlesham, so not exactly crime free