Wtf is going on with car insurance prices?

[carlo]

I've been with Direct Line for decades, they were always pretty competitive around renewal time but perhaps more importantly were easy to get hold of, negotiate a slightly better rate come renewal, and be amenable to short term insurance options.

The only reason I'm still with them now is price; my renewal this year was only £20 or so dearer than previous, so tried a couple of other companies and they quoted over double.

Direct Line's service has gone completely down the toilet, I think their call centre is in South Africa or somewhere, they have very little understanding of virtually any question you ask them.  Call wait times are almost exactly 45 minutes (very suspicious, perhaps they're hoping you'll give up) each call.  I find it easier just to renew online, couldn't be arsed with all the hassle.

 

[Matty]

17 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

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

Did you go monthly installments on that or just pay it all upfront?

[Mrcento]

Anyone else noticed how insane as well the excesses have suddenly become?, Even a year or so back, wasn't especially difficult or additionally expensive to have a policy with no, or at least a low excess, you could add a voluntary one (I normally go £250) to bring down the cost a little and still have it at least sort of sensible.

The compulsory excess for a lot of policies now is between £500 and £1000

You can almost understand why so many people are willing to break the law and chance it without. Not only is it already far too expensive for so many people, with clear cons thrown in to milk what they can, where they can, but they're now also throwing in excesses so large that anyone with a lower valued car would be as well not having it on a personal, financial level, it offers zero protection to them and really only has any value on a third party side. For them, they're still going to end up out of pocket massively and a written off car if a bird so much as shits on it with a touch too much acidity and never seeing any of what value it has back.

[Metal Guru]

55 minutes ago, Mrcento said:

Anyone else noticed how insane as well the excesses have suddenly become?, Even a year or so back, wasn't especially difficult or additionally expensive to have a policy with no, or at least a low excess, you could add a voluntary one (I normally go £250) to bring down the cost a little and still have it at least sort of sensible.

The compulsory excess for a lot of policies now is between £500 and £1000

You can almost understand why so many people are willing to break the law and chance it without. Not only is it already far too expensive for so many people, with clear cons thrown in to milk what they can, where they can, but they're now also throwing in excesses so large that anyone with a lower valued car would be as well not having it on a personal, financial level, it offers zero protection to them and really only has any value on a third party side. For them, they're still going to end up out of pocket massively and a written off car if a bird so much as shits on it with a touch too much acidity and never seeing any of what value it has back.

I pay £5 a year extra on my breakdown cover and it covers £500 excess if I have a claim. 

[neil1971]

On 5/21/2023 at 1:25 PM, Metal Guru said:

My wife’s car is with Direct Line and renewal notice was about £50 more than last year (£250 ish). Asked a meerkat and he said £196 best ( of companies I’d heard of). So I phone DL see if they’ll match it and the say how’s £185 sound? Wow, I’d have renewed at about £225 (CBA  to change if it’s less than £30).

They won’t budge on house insurance though.

They wouldn't budge at all for me, had meerkat quotes starting from £213 against DL renewal of £275. Because all the meerkat quotes were £250 voluntary excess and my voluntary with DL is £350, they kept on about it not being a like for like quote, even though the cheapest quote was £250 voluntary and £200 compulsory compared to £350 + £100 with DL so both £450 in total. Even explaining that upping the meerkat excess to £350 would bring that quote down if anything, didn't help. 

I've told them I'm not renewing but wonder if it's worth having another go and hoping to get someone more sensible.

My annual call to Green Flag for the breakdown cover was much less hassle, renewal is always dearer than the same cover offered online to a new customer but they will always match it with no quibble, so managed to chip £11 off, unlikely to change my life!

[barefoot]

I remember when Direct Line was launched - circa 1985. At the time I worked for the Prudential and my rate book for house insurance used to quote something like £1 per £1,000 buildings subject to a £20K minimum & £1.50 per £1.000 contents with another minimum premium. DL stormed in with a quarter of a million pounds worth of buildings cover & unlimited contents for £30. We were dumbfounded. 

Incidentally, my first ever motor insurance, for a '78 Chevette in 84 came in at a heavily loaded £156 because of an accident I'd had. All my mates were paying 60 or 70 pounds. Then I needed to add repping cover which cost me an additional £80. The thing is, my insurance has always* cost me about £150 ever since.  I think that the camper cost £180 earlier this year, and the other three cars which are all on one policy cost about £350 the lot. 

*Apart from 1994 when I bought my 944 and was charged an eye watering £660!

[Flat4]

15 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

I pay £5 a year extra on my breakdown cover and it covers £500 excess if I have a claim. 

Which company is that?

I've noticed that with excesses too. Even Chris Knott, who I normally go to last once I've done all my quotes coz they beat most of them, were struggling to beat a £200 excess offered by Swinton. LV seem to be a minimum of £250 across the board. When I was sorting out insurance for the Outback, the cheapest policies were between £300-450. Paid the extra to have Aviva bring it down to £150.

[artdjones]

On 5/23/2023 at 6:13 PM, carlo said:

Direct Line's service has gone completely down the toilet, I think their call centre is in South Africa

It can be difficult with foreign call centres because the operatives don't understand the way of life in Europe, which isn't surprising. I'd make a terrible call centre operator for someone in India because I don't live there.

I had a lot of calls to India last year about my broadband. One of the guys on the other end obviously didn't understand the phrase " I can see the phone wire lying on the drive". After about 4 calls I managed to meet a nice lady who sorted it all out.

[Metal Guru]

10 hours ago, Flat4 said:

Which company is that?

I've noticed that with excesses too. Even Chris Knott, who I normally go to last once I've done all my quotes coz they beat most of them, were struggling to beat a £200 excess offered by Swinton. LV seem to be a minimum of £250 across the board. When I was sorting out insurance for the Outback, the cheapest policies were between £300-450. Paid the extra to have Aviva bring it down to £150.

It is Emergency  Assist Ltd, got it through Groupon. You have to pay it up front and claim it back.

[straightSix]

Just swapped my address on my motorbike insurance, bike kept elsewhere so not even at my address and I don't drive it around here. Price to you sir? Extra £150 fuck sake 

[EyesWeldedShut]

Admiral explain their recent 20% hike https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66521490

And the ABI tell us how the price of shite has risen in the same article:

 

[beko1987]

I must have renewed mine just before it all went to shite. Talking to my stepdad thus week he's getting quotes of over £700 a year to insure their Zoe... 65+ years old, decades of ncb (they took his years of company car ownership into account apparently) and every quote is still wildly expensive! 

Not looking forward to next Feb if so, this has been the firs tyea run my life my yearly price was sub £300 and I could pay it all off up front 😢

[New POD]

I don't think it's every insurance company.  I had quite a few policies with direct line. 2 cars and a house. In all cases the renewal was 25% higher. And when I got quotes elsewhere they were 25% lower than last year at direct line. This week I have to.renew 2 house policies. One with Aviva and one with Direct Line. Direct line up from 370 to 464, but via quidco Hastings are charging 186 plus 28 quid cash back.

No point in them.attempting to.price match.

Now admittedly I removed a few things I don't need as I have them with aviva such as contents away from the house. And I don't need that twice, but under 250 would have been fine. 

The Aviva one is 260 and whilst I can get it cheaper, it's not that much cheaper. It's gone up 4 quid. 

[sierraman]

Won’t this just increase the amount of uninsured drivers? Anyone with any sense would accept they’ve been priced out of it but there’s always the entitled demographic that will just decide to not insure. 

[juular]

Churchill renewal came through on the 205.  Went down £20 from last year, and are still cheaper than any of the comparison sites (£195 fully comp, 3000 miles a year, both of us insured on it). For the first time ever, I'm letting a renewal run. Fair play to them.

I've found them generally easy to deal with as I can change most things online and they haven't charged me. They'll also cover 3 months temporary use of other cars for very little, just stick them onto the policy online.  Good when you have for example a winter beater or a summer fun car, or if you've just bought something and need to drive it home.

In contrast I went to insure the C70 earlier this week and got really fucked off with the stupidity of it all. Some of the options massively increase the quote for absolutely no reason at all.  If I make Mrs the 'legal owner' of the car instead of me (the registered keeper) the quote drops by £50.  As far as I know there's no way to prove or disprove the legal owner of a car, which is obviously different from the registered keeper. Also, starting cover the same day  was £70 more expensive than starting it a couple of days after. 

Oh yeah, and sticking in a modification for an engine tune lowered it by £20.

The daftest thing is that the 205, a 59bhp shopping trolley worth fuck all that runs on chip fat is still £50 more expensive to insure than a 250bhp T5 Volvo with modifications.

Think of a number.

[juular]

Heard a great quote today. 

"If something makes absolutely no sense, someone is getting very rich off of it".

[uk_senator]

I`d say we`re starting to see the payback for several years of rocketing theft. down here, there's half a million quids worth of Range Rovers, Lexus`, Mitsi`s, Hyundai`s etc getting nicked within a few miles of me every week, add to that 5 years of catalyst thefts, steering wheel theft, & now relentless tool theft from vans.. Its all starting to bite the rest of us. 

[sierraman]

3 minutes ago, uk_senator said:

I`d say we`re starting to see the payback for several years of rocketing theft. down here, there's half a million quids worth of Range Rovers, Lexus`, Mitsi`s, Hyundai`s etc getting nicked within a few miles of me every week, add to that 5 years of catalyst thefts, steering wheel theft, & now relentless tool theft from vans.. Its all starting to bite the rest of us. 

Isn’t the answer just to charge excessive premiums for high risk vehicles such as Range Rovers instead of penalising everyone?

[Rust Collector]

Just now, sierraman said:

Isn’t the answer just to charge excessive premiums for high risk vehicles such as Range Rovers instead of penalising everyone?

I think they do, on some of the green oval groups I've been seeing posts where people have been complaining that they can't afford/get insurance on later Discos and similar.

[Soundwave]

Weirdly, my MX5 insurance just renewed and is around £50 less than it was last year. And that's with the 3 naughtiness points I got on my license last year declared. 

Seems backwards, but I'm guessing it's part of an algorithm which is making someone wealthy. No such thing as a free lunch, and all that.

[uk_senator]

3 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Isn’t the answer just to charge excessive premiums for high risk vehicles such as Range Rovers instead of penalising everyone?

Partly, yeah, but it also puts the whole areas insurance up as it becomes high risk.

[sierraman]

Just now, Rust Collector said:

I think they do, on some of the green oval groups I've been seeing posts where people have been complaining that they can't afford/get insurance on later Discos and similar.

I would say if someone can afford £450-500 a month on financing such a vehicle they could afford £2-3000 a year insurance. 
 

What is the penalty these days for no insurance? I’d imagine it’s something piffling like £200, up the fine to cover the costs, make it £5,000. 

[JJ0063]

5 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Isn’t the answer just to charge excessive premiums for high risk vehicles such as Range Rovers instead of penalising everyone?

They do, I have conversations daily now with customers of brand new 150k RR Sports either having to pay 8-14k insurance or cancel their order.

You know things are bad when Land Rover won’t insure Land Rovers: 

https://www.landroverinsurance.com/Verex/servletcontroller?MODE=XX&PRODUCT=InsuranceQuote&PRESENTATION_TYPE=InsuranceQuoteOnline&brand=LD

[uk_senator]

5 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

They do, I have conversations daily now with customers of brand new 150k RR Sports either having to pay 8-14k insurance or cancel their order.

You know things are bad when Land Rover won’t insure Land Rovers: 

https://www.landroverinsurance.com/Verex/servletcontroller?MODE=XX&PRODUCT=InsuranceQuote&PRESENTATION_TYPE=InsuranceQuoteOnline&brand=LD

Given the amount & values of these commonly stolen cars, & the ease in which they`re being nicked, I`m amazed insurers aren't insisting on the mandatory fitting of thatcham immobilisers & trackers.

[sierraman]

15 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

They do, I have conversations daily now with customers of brand new 150k RR Sports either having to pay 8-14k insurance or cancel their order.

You know things are bad when Land Rover won’t insure Land Rovers: 

https://www.landroverinsurance.com/Verex/servletcontroller?MODE=XX&PRODUCT=InsuranceQuote&PRESENTATION_TYPE=InsuranceQuoteOnline&brand=LD

That suggests it’s incredibly high risk if it’s going to require a premium like that. But if you can afford a £150,000 car then £10k should be a drop in the ocean... 

[JJ0063]

9 minutes ago, uk_senator said:

Given the amount & values of these commonly stolen cars, & the ease in which they`re being nicked, I`m amazed insurers aren't insisting on the mandatory fitting of thatcham immobilisers & trackers.

Oh they are, if someone asks me for a quote for anything worth 40k upwards one of my first questions is has it got a tracker. Without one these days you’re in the shit, the net has hugely tightened and insurers won’t take the risk.

 

Just now, sierraman said:

That suggests it’s incredibly high risk if it’s going to require a premium like that. But if you can afford a £150,000 car then £10k should be a drop in the ocean... 

Oh they are without a doubt one of the highest risk vehicles in the country nowadays. So many insurers have withdrawn completely from insuring them and others have massively increased premiums. 
 

I totally agree re the fact if you’re spending that sort of money on one then a big premium should be expected too however I think what people are probably doing is justifying a monthly payment likely as much as their mortgage if not more on a car then realising they can’t afford £1100 a month to insure it

It’s on another level compared to 10 years ago. 

It’s quite often the case I get a call from someone who’s had a car on order for 6 months and left it until 3 days before they collect it to get a quote, they then realise shits hit the fan when their insurance is the rate it is these days. 
 

I read an article from Admiral this morning, how mad is this; 

“In June, a report found that 2022 was the UK motor insurance market's worst performing year in a decade and that for every £1 motor insurers received in premiums, they paid out £1.10 in claims and costs.” 

[juular]

2 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

“In June, a report found that 2022 was the UK motor insurance market's worst performing year in a decade and that for every £1 motor insurers received in premiums, they paid out £1.10 in claims and costs.” 

Saw that, and was then wondering how this quote from the same article made sense?

The British insurer said profits had risen 4% to almost £234m despite losing 380,000 customers over the last year.

[JJ0063]

Just now, juular said:

Saw that, and was then wondering how this quote from the same article made sense?

The British insurer said profits had risen 4% to almost £234m despite losing 380,000 customers over the last year.

Yeah that’s weird!

[cort1977]

On 5/23/2023 at 11:47 PM, Mrcento said:

 anyone with a lower valued car would be as well not having it on a personal, financial level, it offers zero protection to them and really only has any value on a third party side. For them, they're still going to end up out of pocket massively and a written off car if a bird so much as shits on it with a touch too much acidity and never seeing any of what value it has back.

That's it exactly.  I have insurance on my various shite obviously but would be unlikely to claim for anything save for a total loss.  By the time you have fucked around with the hassle, stress and time wasted dealing with the insurance thieves you might as well spend a few hundred fixing it yourself.  They're wise to it though, third party only is the same price these days so they get their pound of flesh anyway.

In NZ the government suports a 3rd party scheme at reasonable cost as part of the registration.  So an old car can still be run economically.  Won't happen here obviously with a large market accustomed to fat profits and able to pay lobbyists generously.  Fucking meerkats, i'd love to boot the hole of whoever came up with that one.

[cort1977]

12 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

 

I read an article from Admiral this morning, how mad is this; 

“In June, a report found that 2022 was the UK motor insurance market's worst performing year in a decade and that for every £1 motor insurers received in premiums, they paid out £1.10 in claims and costs.” 

My heart fucking bleeds.

Seriously, one bad year doesn't erase the many, many good years of rinsing the UK public massively.

If it's so unprofitable, why are there so many companies competing in the insurance space with such generous marketing budgets?

UK car insurance has even generated it's own myths and legends, 'you're not insured without an MOT' etc, usually spouted by some adenoidal wanker who wouldn't know a risk if it sat on his face and wriggled.

Can you tell I'm not a fan of insurance companies?