Wtf is going on with car insurance prices?

[Matty]

4 hours ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

An online  quote last week from Lancaster Insurance for a classic policy, fully comp. for my W reg, Clio 1.2, standard car,  valued at £1200, parked at home, social domestic and pleasure, no commuting, 5000 miles annually, £700 excess, zero no claims bonus as until recently it was on my traders insurance.                                           Full UK license, no medical conditions, no convictions, never made an insurance claim, £1168.38p.

Two days later a phone call from them enquiring if i wished to proceed, I declined. The salesperson said he would see if they could get me a better quote and a short time later came back with an offer £983 with an outfit called Sabre Insurance which I also declined.

Just had an online quote from Tesco for £389.92, fully comp.

 

 

 

Assuming your a good bit older than me, how the fuck can it be that dear? I'm paying approx £250 for a fiesta st, £270ish for a 3.0si Z4. Both of us on them, living in a less salubrious part of the country, both with jobs that supposedly hike premiums. That seems dear for an old clio, even if it is better than where you started.

Edit

My A40 is 120 quid a year with free breakdown and European (🤣) cover with Haggerty. And every man and his dog is a named driver on that policy.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

Zero no claims bonus apparently and also loaded to take account of my age, I'm in a high risk category,70 to 80 years old.

Edited May 21, 2023 by The Old Bloke Next Door
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[The Old Bloke Next Door]

End of April the insurance renewal quote on my W reg.  Freelander diesel went up to £574-36p, a rise of  almost £200 from the previous year. A quote from Saga, the old farts insurance specialists, came in at  £371-24p. I've always had my daily driver on separate insurance from everything else which was on a traders policy.

However the traders quote this year was £1734-29p, a rise of almost £350, so I decided to let that lapse and  insure anything else separately. The Clio which was on the traders  is my spare car, doesn't do a lot of mileage, but is always available if the Freelander is broke/etc.

It has been a nuisance putting the rest of the fleet on sorn and finding secure off road parking for them and I have missed the convenience of being able to drive most other vehicles on the traders.

Now might be a good time for me to register for ring and ride.

[Matty]

1 hour ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

Zero no claims bonus apparently and also loaded to take account of my age, I'm in a high risk category,70 to 80 years old.

Yeah, genuinely hadn't taken that into account. Suppose at 42 I'm in the sweet spot

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

Yes, make the most of it, looking at that graph, I'm into the next higher level next year.

Just done the ring and ride application, but I don't qualify.

Edited May 21, 2023 by The Old Bloke Next Door
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[NorfolkNWeigh]

Just had the renewal for Mrs N’s  E Class Cabriolet , up from £456 to £695 with Sheila’s Wheels. Did the Meerkat and Money Supermarket thing got it back down to £460 with Aviva, so all good. My question is , how do DirectLine get any customers? Just out of interest I got a quote from them , £1202 ! WTF?

Last year I took the policy out on an W210 e240 worth less than a quarter of the Cabriolet and the Meerkats memory came up with this initially , cheapest prices more than for the newer more valuable car , how does that make any sense whatsoever ?

[EyesWeldedShut]

37 minutes ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

My question is , how do DirectLine get any customers?

I've never had a cheaper quote from Direct Line - they're always mega high - I just do the tarty Martin Lewis thing every year and then fill in the Direct Line form for giggles.
My theory is that they have a big retained customer base plus there's a narrow (sucker?) target demographic that they try to grab on a low quote and said demographic is the one least likely to bail?
Saga I used the year I turned 50 to insure an MGF as a spare car and they were cheap as chips. Never again.

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

I've never had a cheaper quote from Direct Line - they're always mega high - I just do the tarty Martin Lewis thing every year and then fill in the Direct Line form for giggles.
My theory is that they have a big retained customer base plus there's a narrow (sucker?) target demographic that they try to grab on a low quote and said demographic is the one least likely to bail?
Saga I used the year I turned 50 to insure an MGF as a spare car and they were cheap as chips. Never again.

I tried to get a quote from Saga but when I said I didn’t have a Honda Jazz , they hung up!

[trigger]

I've done my insurance today, Churchill had gone up from £250 to £317 so I've been busy on the comparisons site and managed to get it back down to £251 with Dial direct, the classic car insurance was even worse this year!

[Spiny Norman]

I still think car insurance is done on a 'Think of a number, any number' basis. My Saab Aero is about £300, Saabs have always seemed cheap to insure for whatever reason.

I once got a quote for a laugh on a Lamborghini Aventador using the same info as is on my real policy and it came back at £1100 which I gather is what a teenager pays for a Corsa with a black box. I was investigating buying a 'sporty'  car off here a few weeks back and got a quote on a new policy, not using my NCB as I'd be keeping my Saab. Car wasn't old enough for classic insurance, needed commuting etc just like my main policy and with no NCB they wanted £300.

[Mrcento]

Something i've been tempted to buy for a while is still up, went and got a quote on it.

I don't have any insurance in my name right now working from home, so if i bought it and wanted to insure it in the next few days, which i'd have to do if i wanted to use it, they want £910.87

If i wanted to insure the exact same car, used an hour or 2 policy on Cuvva to get it home, parked it and had the insurance pre booked to kick in, in about 21 days? £613.63, Over £300 difference for a matter of a couple of weeks.

FUCK OFF, you complete conning cunts. There is no justification for that size of a difference.

[Metal Guru]

17 minutes ago, Spiny Norman said:

I still think car insurance is done on a 'Think of a number, any number' basis. My Saab Aero is about £300, Saabs have always seemed cheap to insure for whatever reason.

I once got a quote for a laugh on a Lamborghini Aventador using the same info as is on my real policy and it came back at £1100 which I gather is what a teenager pays for a Corsa with a black box. I was investigating buying a 'sporty'  car off here a few weeks back and got a quote on a new policy, not using my NCB as I'd be keeping my Saab. Car wasn't old enough for classic insurance, needed commuting etc just like my main policy and with no NCB they wanted £300.

I once got a quote for £34000 for my 17 year old son to drive my Impreza WRX.

[dozeydustman]

On 20/05/2023 at 21:46, JJ0063 said:

Insurance is all stats based, I’ve been asked so many times why I’m asking someone’s marital status or how long they’ve lived at their address for example

Job title has a big impact. When I became office based and not on a round any more my premium renewal went down but about £50. Apparently being a local government HGV driver puts me at high risk of being involved in an accident.

when I was doing general haulage my premium was lower also.

[sierraman]

The cost of paying the staff in the call centre from probably minimum wage will have gone up a quid or two an hour so the cost has to come from somewhere. 

[beko1987]

I've tried direct line for a laugh in the past and why the fuck would anyone bother 😂 was always silly expensive even when my quotes were high anyway due to points/age etc. 

I paid my insurance off up front for the year this year, first time I've been able to afford that in my life! £280 fully comp for the Xsara. 

The £32 a month saving* from the old dd got swallowed up near instantly by all the other bills going up 😂😭

[bunglebus]

I was insured through Direct Line once in the 90s when I'd not been driving more than a year or two. I forget to get a quote from them most of the time due to their "not on comparison sites" gimmick

[GregZX]

£140 to insure the ZX, up from £126 last year. 
 

It’s £144 a month for my taxi insurance, that went up by £10 a month because of a speeding fine I acquired so not terrible. 

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

Job title has a big impact. When I became office based and not on a round any more my premium renewal went down but about £50. Apparently being a local government HGV driver puts me at high risk of being involved in an accident.

when I was doing general haulage my premium was lower also.

People always say it’s stats based but it just doesn’t make sense sometimes. My son passed his test shortly before going to uni. By changing the registered address to his uni address saved £400, but that was going from kept off road in a quiet town , to a parked in an open car park in Glasgow city centre. Surely the risk increased considerably?

[Flat4]

25 minutes ago, GregZX said:

£140 to insure the ZX, up from £126 last year. 
 

Who's that with, if you don't mind me asking?

[JJ0063]

1 minute ago, Metal Guru said:

People always say it’s stats based but it just doesn’t make sense sometimes. My son passed his test shortly before going to uni. By changing the registered address to his uni address saved £400, but that was going from kept off road in a quiet town , to a parked in an open car park in Glasgow city centre. Surely the risk increased considerably?

There are lots of variables in that, by changing the address to a rented property even if it’s uni halls, you’re moving away from being a dependent, to independent means which statistically is lower risk 

Insurance stats are very specifically mapped out and can be pin pointed a lot more finely nowadays, so it could genuinely be that he’s in a very low rated area of Glasgow but a load of your neighbours back home have had claims so therefore at home is higher rated for the claim risk 

There’s a million and one hypothetical reasons and I could be pissing in the wind, but clearly something is better at the new place to warrant the refund! 

[artdjones]

2 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

There are lots of variables in that, by changing the address to a rented property even if it’s uni halls, you’re moving away from being a dependent, to independent means which statistically is lower risk 

Insurance stats are very specifically mapped out and can be pin pointed a lot more finely nowadays, so it could genuinely be that he’s in a very low rated area of Glasgow but a load of your neighbours back home have had claims so therefore at home is higher rated for the claim risk 

There’s a million and one hypothetical reasons and I could be pissing in the wind, but clearly something is better at the new place to warrant the refund! 

Could it be true that everything is too finely mapped out, to the extent that 4 or 5 random claims can completely change the risk profile?

[GregZX]

9 minutes ago, Flat4 said:

Who's that with, if you don't mind me asking?

Adrian Flux on a 2k a year non classic policy. 
 

They could insure a 25 year old Escort as a classic for me but not a 25 year old Citroen. Go figure. 

[JJ0063]

34 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Could it be true that everything is too finely mapped out, to the extent that 4 or 5 random claims can completely change the risk profile?

Short answer is yes

 

As a quick hypothetical scenario…

Range Rovers are the most stolen vehicle in the UK at the moment 

Let’s pick a nice area, say North Norfolk coast, away from the city, quiet area with not a lot happening however two of the neighbours have had accidents, another had a car stolen whilst it was in the local garage for its MOT. 
 

The customer calls for a quote on their 70k Range Rover, stats show the postcode has had 3 recent claims registered including a theft albeit not from home but nevertheless a claim for theft under a policy at the address. We know chances are that a RR will be stolen within 6 months looking across the whole claim stats for theft claims in the first 6 months of ownership. 

Which is higher risk, that or someone insuring it who lives in what you’d naturally expect to be a ‘rougher’ area but the client nor anyone on that street has made any claims in the last couple of years? 

That’s another point, length of ownership makes a massive difference to the attractiveness of a risk. Claims stats show that it’s way more likely a car will be stolen in the first few months of it being parked outside your house rather than the same one being parked there for 5 years and never having been touched. Same with RWD, lost control claims are much higher in that first year. 

 

[eddyramrod]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

The cost of paying the staff in the call centre from probably minimum wage will have gone up a quid or two an hour so the cost has to come from somewhere. 

What staff?  No bugger answers the phone ("Your call is important to us") and if they do, you get someone whose first language isn't English and whose accent needs Goldfinger's laser beam to cut it.

It's a fucking racket, no matter which company you go with.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Something like that must explain the situation just experienced by a client of mine. He has a few nice cars and his insurance already costs about £8,000 per year since he turned 80.  Last week he traded his W12 Speed Bentayga for a W12 Speed Flying Spur ( last V12 to be sold in the U.K., apparently)  , his insurance want an extra £1500!  The other named drivers ; his wife, daughter, son in law and me no extra charge. He’s decided not to bother , so he’s spent £265,000 on a car he can’t drive !  To be fair I don’t think he drove the last two Bentaygas, mostly drives a Golf and he can still drive his older stuff and modern Ferrari and Aston on the odd occasion.

[JakeT]

Thanks all for reminding me it’s insurance seasons for my daily.

It’s a 2005 BMW 330i touring, probably worth £3,500 in these days. One declared modification. Suspension (A Bilstein kit). Bought it in June 2019.

I do usually around 15,000 miles per year. Commuting and drive it in Europe. I’m a 27 year old male with 10 years NCB.

Last year flux quoted me £518, with NCB protection, and their ‘FlexDrive’ cover which extends driving other cars to be  fully comprehensive cover.

This year, £590. Or a ~12% increase. Like others have said, it’s just life currently. I couldn’t get close on the comparison sites, so looks like I am renewing. Could be worse.

 

My E36 is on a dedicated classic policy, I think 2,000 miles, breakdown cover, and costs around £200 per year. I last renewed in February, so fingers crossed it’s not too bad come renewal time.

[sierraman]

37 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

Short answer is yes

 

As a quick hypothetical scenario…

Range Rovers are the most stolen vehicle in the UK at the moment 

Let’s pick a nice area, say North Norfolk coast, away from the city, quiet area with not a lot happening however two of the neighbours have had accidents, another had a car stolen whilst it was in the local garage for its MOT. 
 

The customer calls for a quote on their 70k Range Rover, stats show the postcode has had 3 recent claims registered including a theft albeit not from home but nevertheless a claim for theft under a policy at the address. We know chances are that a RR will be stolen within 6 months looking across the whole claim stats for theft claims in the first 6 months of ownership. 

Which is higher risk, that or someone insuring it who lives in what you’d naturally expect to be a ‘rougher’ area but the client nor anyone on that street has made any claims in the last couple of years? 

That’s another point, length of ownership makes a massive difference to the attractiveness of a risk. Claims stats show that it’s way more likely a car will be stolen in the first few months of it being parked outside your house rather than the same one being parked there for 5 years and never having been touched. Same with RWD, lost control claims are much higher in that first year. 

 

How come Audi A3/Mercedes A class etc aren’t a million quid to insure? It’s true about the Range Rovers going missing from well to do areas, you wouldn’t go looking round Whalley Range or Moston for a Range Rover to nick 🤣

How do they catch these that are chipping their new M135i etc and driving like they’ve been given eternal life? 

[Metal Guru]

5 hours ago, artdjones said:

Could it be true that everything is too finely mapped out, to the extent that 4 or 5 random claims can completely change the risk profile?

People in Some quiet little villages sometimes get a poor deal on insurance because they have the same ( letters) postcode as the nearest big bad city.

[5speedracer]

On 5/21/2023 at 10:02 AM, Joey spud said:

My house/contents insurance last year was £302 this year LV's renewal quote is £457 and i've never claimed in thirty odd years.

I shopped around and got it with More than for £307. I understand inflation and materials/labour costs have increased but when you can move to another insurer and match last year's price then there's got to be something dodgy going on in the insurance industry.

Just for the contents, fuck me!

My house and contents including accidental damage and legal was £145 last week on renewal.

[5speedracer]

7 hours ago, JJ0063 said:

There are lots of variables in that, by changing the address to a rented property even if it’s uni halls, you’re moving away from being a dependent, to independent means which statistically is lower risk 

Insurance stats are very specifically mapped out and can be pin pointed a lot more finely nowadays, so it could genuinely be that he’s in a very low rated area of Glasgow but a load of your neighbours back home have had claims so therefore at home is higher rated for the claim risk 

There’s a million and one hypothetical reasons and I could be pissing in the wind, but clearly something is better at the new place to warrant the refund! 

Neighbours have smashed up an MG and an Audi in the last 4 months so we'll see what happens next renewal.