What is it with insurance nowadays.

[garbaldy]

Time to renew my insurance on the nav as its due soon now heres a question for you.two years ago i insured with the post office 4 years no claims for £129 with £50 cashback so that was £79 squid for the year 1 year ago the renewal came through 5 years no claims £144 so i renewed as technically it was only £15 more.so this year renewal came through and now 6 years no claims same cover but at what price i ask well to renew £248.98p what the fcuck is going on here thats a wopping £104.98 for the same cover with an extra years no claims Has anyone else noticed this years prices are a bit large

[dollywobbler]

I think someone's worked out that after a year, a high renewal will make you go elsewhere. After two years, people are too lazy to bother renewing, so they crank the rates up. Only thing to do is go elsewhere. It's what I did last time I got a laughable renewal!

[autofive]

my insurance on various Scimitars and a v6 Cortina have not changed in the last 3 years, but the 'admin' price continues to rise

[garbaldy]

I think someone's worked out that after a year, a high renewal will make you go elsewhere. After two years, people are too lazy to bother renewing, so they crank the rates up. Only thing to do is go elsewhere. It's what I did last time I got a laughable renewal!

yes your right there but ive spent some time on the comparison sites and the cheepest quote doesnt even come near last years price i have managed to get a quote for £178 but that is for 3rd party fire and theft so not even the same level off cover and still more expensive

[HillmanImp]

my insurance on various Scimitars and a v6 Cortina have not changed in the last 3 years, but the 'admin' price continues to rise

I know. It's thirty quid to change address on each policy. Total joke. Any saving I have made by moving to a better area is swallowed up. Not fair. Don't recall it ever happening in the past. Is it a new thing?Now let's see if this posts as I have done this on my phone. Get me.

[HillmanImp]

my insurance on various Scimitars and a v6 Cortina have not changed in the last 3 years, but the 'admin' price continues to rise

I know. It's thirty quid to change address on each policy. Total joke. Any saving I have made by moving to a better area is swallowed up. Not fair. Don't recall it ever happening in the past. Is it a new thing?Now let's see if this posts as I have done this on my phone. Get me.

[pbottomley]

Yea had same this year with the rot box escort, previous costs were £270 this year £855... and I have 5 years no claims :shock:Needless to say gone else where now only £265.Only reason I can think of is to make you call them, they then offer you a cheaper deal, you have one over on them, when the truth is its still more than previous year.Its a game, just like all things in this world, insurance companies are just like banks (if they are not one already) raising APRs, offering credit cards, overdrafts etc. Its about making dividend for share holders and using the "PUNTER" as an asset to extort as much money into the share holders pockets.

[Mr Lobster]

Can't say that insurance on any of my fleet has particularly gone up in the last twelve months tbh...

[Guest]

I change providers every year. Particularly when providers up their prices by £180 and then take it out of your bank account without asking or sending confirmation.That's right, Adrian Flux are tossers.

[AXrescuer]

I change providers every year. Particularly when providers up their prices by £180 and then take it out of your bank account without asking or sending confirmation.That's right, Adrian Flux are tossers.

Tis true, they are.

[garbaldy]

then take it out of your bank account without asking or sending confirmation.That's right, Adrian Flux are tossers.

not just them automatic renewal is the next big thing because if you forget to opt out then they just take your money as and when they require i hate the £20 admin charge for changeing cars, it has already cost me £140 so far this year

[fiatdaft]

i don't think car insurance is expensive, eg my saph cosworth with me and the wife on,is £308 ,and thats ith a normal insurance policy.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I got a classic policy quote including my 4 years NCB. Of course, you essentially lose that on a classic policy, so I got another quote without the NCB. Exactly the same price.All that time I spent not crashing my car... for nothing

[garbaldy]

i don't think car insurance is expensive, eg my saph cosworth with me and the wife on,is £308 ,and thats ith a normal insurance policy.

thats the same we pay for our beemer with all the bells and wistles.but my main gripe is the sudden hike off over £104 on the navs policy after haveing it insured for two years

[Guest]

My insurance has only ever gone down in price. Soz!

[garbaldy]

My insurance has only ever gone down in price. Soz!

arent you the lucky one i expected as i got older mine would keep falling but the only thing that keeps falling is my hair

[Guest]

My insurance has only ever gone down in price. Soz!

My insurance costs go down every year, but I have to switch providers or get a new policy each time to notice the difference, as most places don't seem to want repeat business.The highest my insurance has ever been was £2800, that was when I stuffed my C4 when I was 23. The year before it was £600 fully comp at 10,000 miles a year. Then Tesco changed my excess 4 times over the phone, claimed my certificate was null and void twice, fucked the repair up of the car twice and then took the courtesy car back 2 weeks before the C4 was ready again.I left the Daepoo Shatiz in the works carpark, got the Amazon out of storage and chucked the keys for their miserable little POS on the deck outside of the hire place. They whinged that it was empty when I brought it back and I politely explained that it barely had a gnat's piss worth of fuel in the tank when I was given it, dirty. The thing was so low it was MISSING getting to the petrol station.I wonder if that Matiz is still running? I redlined it every single day going to work in first and second without bothering to warm it up. When Tesco told me they'd decided to take the hire car back (despite my policy saying I'd have a courtesy car for as long the repair took) I took it up the M56 and managed to pull 72 mph in third to use up the quarter of a tank that was left in it on the way to work. It stayed in third for the majority of the trip.When I got my car back I told Tesco to fuck off, cancelled the policy and stopped the direct debits.In summary, Tesco Insurance are shit. Highway Insurance are worse. Adrian Flux are the crowing turd in the waterpipe of filth and anguish that is the UK insurance system.

[Andrew353w]

This might sound old fashioned (mainly 'coz I'm old...) but I still use an old fashioned insurance broker! I've used him since I was 25 (I'm over 50 now) and his office is in my town, just up the road from my house. He knows all about my cars, my job, where I live, how long I've been driving etc etc etc & every year he comes up with a quote that's either a gnat's pizzicato less or more than last year's.He really proved his worth a few years ago when I was working abroad; I needed to insure my daughter on a Lada; the car was with her in Barnet and I was in Algeria. He sorted out everything, even down to getting the insurers to realise I was abroad and couldn't sign the forms in person.What I might have to pay in extra charges (and I doubt if it's anything at all really) is more then made up for by the personal service, the ONE phone call explaining everything in one go, not having to repeat my life story 25 times to call centres in Utrapradesh and spreading the costs over 4 months with post-dated cheques (no bloody direct debits there!)

[dollywobbler]

There's a lot to be said for smaller companies when it comes to insuring classics. Let's face it - even the big boys don't like opening at weekends, which is annoyingly when I most often need to amend details. No loss going for the chap who's got three people working in the office then.

[chaseracer]

I use a family-run broker in Stafford for car and house insurance. I walk in, he and the staff greet me by name, the service is excellent. They are so good my sister now uses them - on my recommendation - and she lives in Norf Lahndn!NOTHING would persuade me to return to a call-centre insurer.

[Andrew353w]

One thing I forgot to add was that my Wartburg's on a classic policy, arranged through the same broker. The insurers wanted photos of the car, so I drove it down to the broker's office in Barnet & took the photos outside their office. He then emailed them off to the insurers & I sat there drinking a coffee in his office while they examined the pictures & half an hour later (& several lattes later) I had an agreed valuation....THAT'S SERVICE!!

[Alpineandy]

but the 'admin' price continues to rise

Thank the FSA for forcing the brokers/insurance companies into issuing a small novel of admin paperwork every year.For general info, over the last few years very very few insurers have made any profit at all (they've predominantely lost money) on their motor account. They usually have motor as a loss leader with the aim of making a profit on your Household, life and pensions covers.

[retrogeezer]

When I got my car back I told Tesco to fuck off

Pretty sure Tesco car insurance is done by Direct Line. I worked in one of their repair workshops once and left after a day as it was terrible, everything was rushed and bodged.I also worked in a small independent brokers (probably similar to yours chaseracer) And when the renewals came in we just ran the info through the system as a matter of course to see if the quotes could be beaten. Just the same as you would do yourself on comparethetwatadvert.com sites. As you say, we knew most of the customers by name as they had been using the company for years.

[Station]

I've only ever paid monthly on insurance.I've never known a more complex system of dogpoo to wring more money out of people.If I cancel the service, I still have to pay back a certain percentage (equalling more than is owed). If I want to switch the policy to another car, I have to pay admin fees. If I claim after an accident, I have to pay money, even though I've been paying money every month so I wouldn't have to do this. Claiming results in the lowest possible figure imaginable for your car - LESS than what you pay per year.Why is expensive, third party insurance mandatory? Let's not be naive, and say cars are not a necessity if you have to work everyday, they're not a fucking 'privilige' if you're earning money and HAVE to be in work everyday. I've probably paid 15,000 in my life and have claimed once, for a completely burnt out car and received 200 quid.

[Pillock]

Sadly, that's insurance. Make it optional and there's far too many dregs of society who would stack their £150 Fiesta into the back of a brand new 5-Series, and then do a Lord Lucan. What do you do then? Even if they had to sign a form saying they were effectively insuring themselves, if you put them in court and told them they'd have to pay £2500 to repair your car after an accident they'd plead poverty and be told to pay it back at £1.87 a week or something.I agree with your sentiments though - excess is crap, admin charges are crap, and this idea that once you'd had three months insurance you owe them 12months payments is utter, utter crap. Excess - nowhere else would you buy a service, then be charged for using it! And admin charges - £40 for some barely-interested teenager to delete a registration number and type a new one in.

[Alpineandy]

this idea that once you'd had three months insurance you owe them 12months payments is utter, utter crap. Excess - nowhere else would you buy a service, then be charged for using it! And admin charges - £40 for some barely-interested teenager to delete a registration number and type a new one in.

The Idea is that the insurance premium is earned on day one. You are just as likely to have an accident on day one as on day 365 although in reality you're probably more likely to have an accident early in the ownership of a new unfamiliar car. This has all been through the courts for justification. It only makes sense when you understand the business and the theory of insurance.The idea of the Excess was that it would stop silly little 'wear and tear' claims (which cost the insurance company to process and would be passed back you), but unfortunately everyone seems to claim for everything now and the standard of driving has dropped like a stone. The little waste ground car park behind your 60s/70s/early 80s supermarket which was crammed with 40/50 cars and no parking bays produced less parking dings than an empty tescos on at 10pm today, despite the fact that you had to reverse through a maze on wet mud back then. As a new driver in the early 80s I knew that if I reversed into the bollard in the car park in my 14 year old car, It was my pocket that would feel it but now parents buy their kids new cars which are wrecked in a year and the insurance pays for it.... I'd guess you haven't renewed your car insurance recently. The F*ck-wits at the FSA insist that you are issued a personal novel to explain your insurance to you. It may look like a 'printed by the thousand booklet' (and some of them are) but many are printed individually to match the details of your policy (not you neigbours - yours) and has to be checked by a person before being sent out to you. You get so many options now that only the very big companies can print thousands.I don't do motor or household but I am involved in the insurance industry (anyone own a multi-national steel manufacturer - I'm your man!) and the FSA insist that insurance companies/brokers treat everyone as though they had the IQ of an FSA worked (really low) no matter who they are. It all takes time and therefore costs money.The real problem (apart from the FSA) is;1) the poor standard of driving, 2) the governments/motor industrys 'safety for idiot drivers'/NCAP drive which means that a car involved in a 30mph accident is a write off3) as we all know on here, the general publics obsession with 'brands' (BMW/Merc etc) and the associated expense.One kid in his saxo can cause so much expense by running down the side of 4 cars parked on his estate, he'll never pay that much back in insurance premium. Especially if he never gets a job or never gets insurance again...If Motor insurers were making loads of profit then the present situation would be a rip-off, but they aren't. They're putting their prices up to try to stop losing money.There are idiots that say 'let the government run insurance' but just look at the DVLA to see how badly they'd run it.Others say 'bung it onthe price of petrol, but then the accident a month driver gets his insurance for the same price as the no accidents in 30 yaers guy.Regretfully this is the best system available at the moment and the only thing you can do about it is;1) shop around2) shop anyone you know that should not be driving (medical/alcohol/lack of license/insurance/mot etc.3) make sure you don't cause an accident and drive defensivly so as not to get involved in someone elses4) make sure your kids/family drive safely5) keep your fingers crossed and be lucky. Sorry about this being such a long one, but insurance can be a major benefit by keeping people in jobs (when the factory burns down and insurance pays for it to be re-built), help people put their lives back together after catastrophies etc but all most people think of is the time it f*cks-up. And in the case of motor insurance, in general it isn't a f*ck-up but there are plenty of individual F*ck-ups.

[Andrew353w]

Agree with all the above! Those of us who drive reasonably and carefully probably look upon their insurance premiums as another tax for a piece of paper (or, in this day and age, a click on a mouse!) to permit them to drive legally. I DO report any vehicle I see without road tax, to the following site: https://www.dvla.gov.uk/dvla/onlineserv ... spx?ext=dg And I don't see this as "grassing" or "sneaking" since untaxed cars are probably uninsured without an M.O.T.=uncaring and probably dangerous driver, who'd be more likely to run into or over me or my family! (Rant mode to "off" now...)

 

One other point on this thread; you only find out how good your insurance policy is when you have a crash and need their help; THEN you might just regret going with the cheapest you could buy!