Car Insurance quote now double last year!

[Jonathan M]

What on earth is going on?  Last year my premium went up 40%, but I stayed with the existing outfit as all alternative quotes were no lower - and I understood the industry-wide hike to be an 'adjustment' after Covid and other economic runctions.  Now the renewal  has come in, a quote increase of 98%!  I thought there was a recent regulation stopping insurance companies from ripping off loyal customers?

 

I've so far found another insurer who've quoted a more 'modest' 25% increase.

[EvilC57]

The largest increase I had recently was for buildings & contents insurance. They wanted to put it up by a factor of around 2.5x over what I paid last year. Needless to say, I moved! So much for customer loyalty discounts these days.

[payneib]

When I bought my new car in November, I switched the insurance across, being so close to an extra years NCD. 

 

They just gave me a renewal quote of over £600, and I bought for less than £400. 

 

Always shop around, always get more than one quote, insurance companies are legalised racketeering and will rip you off at the earliest available opportunity. 

[john davidson 1]

Likewise ,doubled in two years and a phone  to the call centre got short shrift, a recorded message  before I spoke to to the human said it was useless trying for a reduction.   So i told them to cancel and eventually found Allianz  was a hundred pounds less but without cover for driving someone  else's car, which i never used anyway. Wonder what next year holds? 

[Eric Robson]

Just wait till you get to my age, no claims no convictions, low annual mileage, last year it went from £950 to £1200 shopping around one  insurance company wouldn't take one new customers that did come within there parameters,avoiding saying age discrimination. I think the storms we've had this year, watching cars being washed away and written off must have a lot to do with it

[Engine Doctor]

The insurers never ever mention the good times and the millions of motorist who never make a claim and bump up thier profits yea4 on year. The whole insurance industry is a tottal mess, supposedly regulated but suprise suprise regulated heavily in their favour.

[Learner]

Repairs are extortionate now.

My mates transit had light damage after being slid into on the ice last year.

Both Rear doors, lights, bumper, parking sensors and paint, had to wait 4 months for a door. He couldn't lock the doors so had to have a hire van. cost without van hire £11k!

Edited December 15, 2024 by Learner

[Jonathan M]

It is astonishing just what a nightmare everything has become over the last few years.  Aside from the best deal obviously, my very next priority when choosing a utility company or service provider is whether there is a human decision-maker I can speak to on the phone, preferably someone in the UK

 

So I've decided to go with NFU for my car.  They insure my home and used to insure my old small business, and in addition to being the most competitive (I checked out others, including Tesco) I have a direct landline to a named person in my local town I can call!

 

So only a 25% uplift on last year's insurance, rather than 98% from the current provider.  Just hope they don't try to extract the proverbial in 12 months time!

[Eric Robson]

3 minutes ago, Jonathan M said:

It is astonishing just what a nightmare everything has become over the last few years.  Aside from the best deal obviously, my very next priority when choosing a utility company or service provider is whether there is a human decision-maker I can speak to on the phone, preferably someone in the UK

 

So I've decided to go with NFU for my car.  They insure my home and used to insure my old small business, and in addition to being the most competitive (I checked out others, including Tesco) I have a direct landline to a named person in my local town I can call!

 

So only a 25% uplift on last year's insurance, rather than 98% from the current provider.  Just hope they don't try to extract the proverbial in 12 months time!

NFU was the one that told me they weren't taking new  customers when asked my date of birth . I had my house insurance through them for the previous 5 years, no longer.I now have my house insurance at a 3rd of the price they quoted 

[Cuban8]

Try Googling your insurance providers recent profit figures - tried mine and they are doing very nicely indeed, thank you very much. Several others just the same.... £1.3 billion in the case of one very well known name that advertises all the time on TV.

I don't expect a rise much above the inflation figure when I get my renewal next year, so a few percentage points at most. Rip off Britain still alive and kicking.

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

The french have put a clause on repairs, the garage have by law to offer second hand parts to repair your car.

 

 Don't whine too much, look at what the Spanish are expecting after the floods.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

I was helping a neighbour deal with her claim last year and she was offered a repair with second hand parts by one of the big name popular insurers. 

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

The second hand parts has started a new mode for the thieves, they are now dismantling cars in car parks to sell the parts on !

2400 in the Marseille area this year !

[Stuart Z]

Had a quote on a Sportage at over £900.00.  Surprisingly I continued with existing at £420.00.  

[Ron Gray]

My house insurance actually went down when I renewed it a month ago, car insurance up by about 5% but then I’m nowhere near as old as Eric (is anyone?). 

[leccyflyer]

My last year's insurance was £269. When the renewal notice arrived the quote for continuing was over £450, so I just phoned them to cancel and they reduced the renewal to £289 - a modest increase. Insurance companies are the biggest chancers to walk the planet, with the possible exception of the RAC.

[Eric Robson]

16 minutes ago, leccyflyer said:

My last year's insurance was £269. When the renewal notice arrived the quote for continuing was over £450, so I just phoned them to cancel and they reduced the renewal to £289 - a modest increase. Insurance companies are the biggest chancers to walk the planet, with the possible exception of the RAC.

And CAA

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Re. variable quotes - it was once explained to me that the business model is to take on a spread of risks i.e percentages of low, medium and high risk customers. If, say, in one period, the low risk quota has been filled, a company will quote an artificially high price to a driver with a good record in order to discourage that business.  This explains why you might get another quote from the same company a few days later at a realistic premium, if the company happens to have started a new tranche of business. 
 

Why not just tell the unwanted customer to go away?  One question asked for all quotes is “have you ever been refused insurance cover” and this method avoids prejudicing a customer’s record.

[Nigel R]

17 hours ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said:

I was helping a neighbour deal with her claim last year and she was offered a repair with second hand parts by one of the big name popular insurers. 

 

I thought this was either coming into law or already in force, that a refurb part had to be offered? It's been a legal thing in the states for years... I watched a programme a year or two back about the very large UK breakers that run advanced logistic/warehouse setups to supply low mileage OEM parts from salvage, the programme was talking about reasons behind it (i.e. lowering cost on insurance repairs).

 

That aside, I also had an renewal quote (around three weeks ago?) of double last years premium.

 

I checked one of the online comparison sites, found quotes 20% lower than last years premium, gave that number to current insurer, who "surprisingly" found that they could more than halve their quote and match what I found when I "compared the market".

 

Chancers, the lot of them.

[Nigel R]

1 minute ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said:

Why not just tell the unwanted customer to go away?

 

As you state, some low, some high, some medium risk. Potentially they make more profit on the higher risk customers, I guess. One way to guarantee the same profit from the low risk customers, is to give them a high risk quote. If the customer chooses to pay it, more fool them, buyer beware, etc.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Yes - a win/win situation for them. 

[Jonathan M]

On 16/12/2024 at 09:19, Stuart Z said:

Had a quote on a Sportage at over £900.00.  Surprisingly I continued with existing at £420.00.  

 

Stuart, who was that with out of interest?  PM me if you prefer.

[FiddleSticks]

My insurance has been all over the place these last few years. I've always been with direct line and typically most insurers will hike your premium after a claim. With DL, each time mine has very oddly gone down - and they have my claims history.

 

I've had two claims within the last 5 years. Each year after those claims they dropped it. To say I was surprised is an understatement especially as one of the claims was paid out at over £5k. Anyway they told me that i'd lose NCD because the two claims were within a year of each other. It turned out they were one year and a day apart and so they never took any from me. Switched to a van, so they put me on a van policy. Van went off the road in July and so i had to resort to my old car which has been odd the road 12 years but then in temporary use every now and then after i fixed it up (yes, you read that right, it sat around for 12 years rotting.. nobody believed i'd ever get it on the road again but sure enough, I did). Getting quotes was a pain, they wanted to know claims, values, NCD... Called DL, they said they HAD deducted NCD from me and I only had 3 years. Then another department said that was wrong.. they put it in writing that I had 9+ years and were sticking to it. The former dept told me that was definitely wrong but they'd honour it as it had been put in writing..

 

Oh yes and then there was the car that had been off the road for years. Now.. i couldn't insure that full time so i insured it as a temp vehicle on my partners policy (also with DL). They let you do that for up to 90 days per year. One time they wanted £120 for 2 weeks cover. That didn't seem right so I pointed out that previously 2 weeks had cost me £35. She called me back 20mins later saying it was a system glitch and that if i wanted to proceed, it would be a refund of £22. I mean, come on lads and ladies, who's going to refuse free car insurance and being paid for it? So for those two weeks, I was riding round legally insured for free and the car my missus hated had suddenly earned her £22. I never did understand that and the agent on the phone was at a loss to explain it too. Then a few months later I had another glitch with them. Can't remember what it was but I put in a formal complaint and they acknowledged that they had got it wrong. Result? £150 compensation. I literally don't think I paid a penny to insure the car this year at all.

 

But then as my van was still off the road as those 90 days ran out, I had to look at insuring it full time. £2.8k they wanted! 0 years NCD (you can't split it over multiple vehicles) and it's a big engine'd car from yesteryear. Had to shop around, Admiral came in at around £700 if i paid for the year in advance. Thats £2.1k less than direct line wanted and I've been with those sharks 18 years! Yes, £2100 cheaper.

 

My honest advice is shop about. NFU for instance have a local office in my town and I went to see them in person. They took details, said they'd call me back and never did so they clearly didn't want my business. Admiral are desperate to get my van on their multi vehicle cover but want over £2k for the van - but direct line cover it for around 6-700 a year. I've never liked shopping about and avoided it like the plague but given that switching to admiral saw me save so much and staying with direct line for the van has seen me save so much.. well, all i can recommend is to hunt about. 

 

Still can't believe DL insured the car for free and then paid us for the privilege. Christ knows how that lot stay in business.

[Cliff Bastow]

If like me you are old enough to use saga you can pay a small premium the first year which guarantees your premiums do not go up for three years and it’s a reasonable price .Provided you don’t have any accident of course.

Edited December 25, 2024 by Cliff Bastow
Spelling

[Kim Taylor]

10 hours ago, FiddleSticks said:

 

Still can't believe DL insured the car for free and then paid us for the privilege. Christ knows how that lot stay in business.

Direct Line being absorbed by Aviva reported this very week, with thousands of jobs in peril over both companies. DL have been losing money for years and trying to compensate by ramping up premiums. 

Shopping around each year is tedious, but it seems to be the only way to keep your premiums down. Brand loyalty doesn't pay anymore (or has it ever??)

Kim