Car Insurance Shock!

[RustyBin5]

Systemic coordinated scalping of customers. Thats not inflation it’s just using the current economic situation as a chance to fill the coffers to pay for storm damage claims. Took me a good 2 hours shopping around to find an alternative to my previous insurer but finally found one that only put my premium up by around inflation.

[TKH]

They do it because they can..

I’ve just been hit for £79 by Santander for pre paying direct for a hoilday in Spain ‘foreign transaction fee’ Spanish bank go figure, problem being who do you argue to and how far do you get ?

Seems we are well and truly hooked into the Matrix insert in back of head and drained.

As we have little if any alternative but to pay , I tried to call Esure ‘sorry we don’t do calls you need a webchat’

I think they are all working on basis we will all just suck it up and if we go elsewhere ‘meh’ for every fed up customer they lose they gain someone else’s irrate customer, zero loyalty and that’s how it is.

Your utilities go up - you use less if you can but still stay and pay as they all charge the same.
Insurance goes up - hours online if you have the time or pay and stay.
Groceries up - eat less , use less or head to the value retailers. (Tesco we now price match Aldi so you don’t have to) what a dreadful way to promote your business by telling you the competition are cheaper and we’ve been scewing you, Sainsburys just started identical campaign.
Council tax in Birmingham to go up 10% this year and 10% next year - what do they do move ? Refuse to pay ? Have a French style riot ? Nah they’ll pay and it’ll never come back down screwing the residents twice as it kill’s properly values.

But at least we’re all helping raise tax revenues with all the inflation increases.

I fear we’re living in a society where the pain threshold is known and we are being squeezed until the new bench mark is reached then let off just a touch like being on the rack.

Once that drain gets inserted into the back of your head your part of the giant charging machine.

[bwest76]

I noticed they changed the excess as well, not ony higher but higher still if you dont use the repairer they reccomend.

[noTAGlove]

I’ve just been hit for £79 by Santander for pre paying direct for a hoilday in Spain ‘foreign transaction fee’ Spanish bank go figure, problem being who do you argue to and how far do you get ? .

You can’t whinge about that. Get yourself a few free credit card that gives you spot currency rates like Halifax Clarity. Plenty of others around.

[wicheda]

Small update, after increasing from £800 to £1,500, I've searched around a bit more and found Quidco Compare pretty good. I ended up going with the AA for £1,000 with quite a few extra bits of cover, and Quidco give you £45 cashback, so moderately more acceptable.

Shameless referral but in case anyone isn't on Quidco, you and I both get £15 if you sign up here: https://www.quidco.com/raf/551723/ 

[cbh]

Small update, after increasing from £800 to £1,500, I've searched around a bit more and found Quidco Compare pretty good. I ended up going with the AA for £1,000 with quite a few extra bits of cover, and Quidco give you £45 cashback, so moderately more acceptable.

Shameless referral but in case anyone isn't on Quidco, you and I both get £15 if you sign up here: https://www.quidco.com/raf/551723/ 

Thanks for the heads-up, I'm already a member but didn't realise that they had a comparison tie-in with Moneysupermarket, it's that time of year and got a few good quotes made even better with an extra 45 quid off

[Chris_in_the_UK]

Just got my renewal before we headed off on holiday - £40 up on last year. Happy at that (Land Rover Defender 90).

[Kris]

OK, lets say all the complainers are right. Insurers are rip off merchants and only do it because they can get away with it as its a legal requirement, so let's do away with the legal need to have insurance.

There, you no longer have to have insurance. Instead if you damage someone elses property, or injure someone, its down to you to pay for it, you have no choice in that and have to pay any amount ordered, even if that means selling your house, all your possessions (including watches) everything you own to pay the "claim" as the wringed party must be compensated.

Accident management companies still exist, its a profitable business so why should they stop, same for ambulance chasing lawyers.

You've seen some of the costs being talked about in this thread of how much "simple" repairs cost. What was it ? £20K for a cracked headlight and bumper scratch? How many people have that money to hand?

What about a more serious accident where someone gets injured, is off work for a year and needs household care and assistance for that year? Now the bill is £150K +. Remember, you have no choice, the bill must be paid.

What if the worst happens? No, not killing someone, but paralysing them or giving them brain damage... now your bill is going to start at a minimum of £1.5 million, how are you going to pay that?

Oh, and you still have to pay for the damage to your own car.

That's why insurance is compulsary. Its not the insurers decision to make it so, thats down to the legislature to ensure we are all protected.

Motor Insurance is not a profitable line of business for insurers, it's a loss leader for selling policy ancillaries and for selling additonal insurance .... ever wondered why insurers ask you if you are a home owner, how many kids you have? Data they can use to offer you home insurance, life insurance, medical insurance.. just like any other business that cross sells product ...like supermarkets.

[Christian]

An update to this thread. I hadn't realised how much the weighting had changed recently to the actual vehicle model as opposed to other factors.

As I said earlier, my insurance renewal for a Ford Fiesta was coming in at around £1400. I'm greater London, clean driving licence, no recent claims and 16 years NCD. Ford Fiesta isn't brand new and value around £5000. I used the same insurer, got a quote for a Volvo I was thinking about buying, value £25,000 and the insurance quote was £600. Feels crazy that to insure a vehicle 5x the value of another cuts the premium in half! It seems like vehicle models drive the price more than other factors (including the vehicles value) nowadays. Might do a quote on a Range Rover for the fun of it....see if anyone would actually insure!

[wileeeeeey]

Neighbours car was stolen last night so I checked the cameras.

22:59 they drive down the road very slow
23:00 a solo guy walks back up and goes a few doors further down than the car stops and turns around.
23:01 he gets in the car
23:02 car lights turn on
23:03 engine runs on and he drives off

The car wasn’t even on a drive and it doesn’t look to be a relay attack.

You’ve guess it, JLR. Second JLR theft on our street in about 6 months. Cant stand insurance but I wouldn’t want to be in the business of insuring anything JLR right now. Insane.

[Passenger]

They do it because they can..

I’ve just been hit for £79 by Santander for pre paying direct for a hoilday in Spain ‘foreign transaction fee’ Spanish bank go figure, problem being who do you argue to and how far do you get ?

Seems we are well and truly hooked into the Matrix insert in back of head and drained.

As we have little if any alternative but to pay , I tried to call Esure ‘sorry we don’t do calls you need a webchat’

I think they are all working on basis we will all just suck it up and if we go elsewhere ‘meh’ for every fed up customer they lose they gain someone else’s irrate customer, zero loyalty and that’s how it is.

Your utilities go up - you use less if you can but still stay and pay as they all charge the same.
Insurance goes up - hours online if you have the time or pay and stay.
Groceries up - eat less , use less or head to the value retailers. (Tesco we now price match Aldi so you don’t have to) what a dreadful way to promote your business by telling you the competition are cheaper and we’ve been scewing you, Sainsburys just started identical campaign.
Council tax in Birmingham to go up 10% this year and 10% next year - what do they do move ? Refuse to pay ? Have a French style riot ? Nah they’ll pay and it’ll never come back down screwing the residents twice as it kill’s properly values.

But at least we’re all helping raise tax revenues with all the inflation increases.

I fear we’re living in a society where the pain threshold is known and we are being squeezed until the new bench mark is reached then let off just a touch like being on the rack.

Once that drain gets inserted into the back of your head your part of the giant charging machine.

I'm afraid you're correct TKH, the powers/owners must see us as barely sentient tax paying meat sacks to be data mined by their mates.

Have some bunting, look more Footie or Britain's got talent, is on the Telly and they've closed off the easy route to the Exits' for the ordinary people, while safeguarding their money escape routes, all in the name of greater freedom, taking something meaningless back, diabolically clever really...be like shooting 'happy' british fish who voted themselves into a barrel...

[walkerwek1958]

Motor Insurance is not a profitable line of business for insurers, it's a loss leader for selling policy ancillaries and for selling additonal insurance .... ever wondered why insurers ask you if you are a home owner, how many kids you have? Data they can use to offer you home insurance, life insurance, medical insurance.. just like any other business that cross sells product ...like supermarkets.

+1, contrary to popular myth insurance companies don't make much profit from vehicle insurance and it's always been that way, my father worked all his life in the insurance business and he used to tell me this back in the 70s when I was moaning about the high costs.

Here's a question for all those moaning: How much would YOU charge to underwrite the insurance of a typical vehicle for 12 months?.....think about !

[Saint-Just]

Is it possible to accept a higher voluntary excess, and insure this voluntary excess separately? (with another company, for example?)

[Ruggertech]

Is it possible to accept a higher voluntary excess, and insure this voluntary excess separately? (with another company, for example?)

Yes it is. I've done it, and claimed successfully after an own fault mishap. The extra policy cost twenty something pounds and they paid out a four or five hundred pounds excess.

[Saint-Just]

Yes it is. I've done it, and claimed successfully after an own fault mishap. The extra policy cost twenty something pounds and they paid out a four or five hundred pounds excess.

I thought I had read that somewhere here, thank you. Would you have a company that does it. My Google-fu was weak and answered loads of questions I didn't ask.

[Ruggertech]

I thought I had read that somewhere here, thank you. Would you have a company that does it. My Google-fu was weak and answered loads of questions I didn't ask.

No problem, it was 2020 and I'm not sure if I have any documents now Marc, I'll have a dig around later and see what I can find.
Basically I'd bought a vw campervan and my car no claims didn't count. I accepted the companies standard excess of I think £200, and added four or five hundred on top which I insured separately on their recommendation. It cut the policy cost from about £800 to about £500 so was worth paying the twenty something pounds. A few months later I scraped the rear alloy and wheel arch on a boulder in a carpark and was expecting all sorts of shenanigans but the excess insurance company paid up with no quibbles, I only had to pay the standard £200 excess. I think covid actually simplified the process for me though because everyone was working from home and so they skipped some of the documentation normally required for a claim.

[JonRA]

I thought I had read that somewhere here, thank you. Would you have a company that does it. My Google-fu was weak and answered loads of questions I didn't ask.

Is this what you are after? https://www.ala.co.uk/excess-insurance-protection

[Saint-Just]

Thank you both. Jon, that's perfect. £22.42 to cover a £500 excess, as you say it's a no brainer.

Note: if you use Ala, don't take it there and then and ask they send the quote via email through the website. You will receive it instantly, then about an hour later will received a 10% incentive reduction code.

[Ruggertech]

Thank you both. Jon, that's perfect. £22.42 to cover a £500 excess, as you say it's a no brainer.

Note: if you use Ala, don't take it there and then and ask they send the quote via email through the website. You will receive it instantly, then about an hour later will received a 10% incentive reduction code.

Quick update Marc, I'd gone through Advance as the broker, the van insurance was with AXA, but I can't find the details of who provided the excess insurance I'm sorry, it may have been Halo. Advance suggested and set up the excess insurance.

[mitch1956]

+1, contrary to popular myth insurance companies don't make much profit from vehicle insurance and it's always been that way, my father worked all his life in the insurance business and he used to tell me this back in the 70s when I was moaning about the high costs.

Here's a question for all those moaning: How much would YOU charge to underwrite the insurance of a typical vehicle for 12 months?.....think about !

you are correct when i left the industry 4 years ago now for every £100 in premiums collected we paid out £106 in claims , its a avg out business make more on pet insurance than you lose on car insurance etc etc, also the bulk of profit comes from investments not premiums .

[TKH]

you are correct when i left the industry 4 years ago now for every £100 in premiums collected we paid out £106 in claims , its a avg out business make more on pet insurance than you lose on car insurance etc etc, also the bulk of profit comes from investments not premiums .

Hi Mitch

Hear what you’re saying and don’t doubt .

I think issue is the ‘spread’ i.e I have been claim free for decades but my premium goes up 40% which is hard to stomach if it’s purely to pay for others claims ? But is that true ? I am unsure.

My last year in business 2019 my company policy quote went from £36’000 to a suggested 40k with zero claims in previous 6 years and no significant additions, common sense prevailed, but hard to fathom given zero ‘burn rate’, and the fact 6 year’s premiums were very profitable for insurer.

What we did notice owning dealerships and body shops is just how many cars are now written off that would have previously been repaired and this is seemingly a huge factor in payout levels going through the roof, i am unsure if its to do with price of Parts and Labour or the fact that if it’s written off quickly the dreaded car hire bills don’t kick in hard ?

[Christian]

^ This is what I was thinking. 16 NCD, doesn't really count for much any more. From what I understand, my choice of driving a Fiesta is the main factor of driving my insurance price up simply because it is one of the most popular models of car in the country and therefore have a high number stolen and involved in claims. If I bought a Volvo at 5x the value suddenly my premium halves. Crazy.

[Mj2k]

^ This is what I was thinking. 16 NCD, doesn't really count for much any more. From what I understand, my choice of driving a Fiesta is the main factor of driving my insurance price up simply because it is one of the most popular models of car in the country and therefore have a high number stolen and involved in claims. If I bought a Volvo at 5x the value suddenly my premium halves. Crazy.

It’s a dark art for sure.

Cayman GTS under £160 last year, over £300 this year. Smart car is the same, so very strange how it works.

Also guessing many more young folk out in fiestas & crashing them vs Volvos, which builds a profile of the car. Assume the same sort of balance in my Porsche vs Smart situation.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Longblackcoat]

It’s a dark art for sure.

Cayman GTS under £160 last year, over £300 this year. Smart car is the same, so very strange how it works.

Also guessing many more young folk out in fiestas & crashing them vs Volvos, which builds a profile of the car. Assume the same sort of balance in my Porsche vs Smart situation.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Just had the renewal through - 5 vehicles, total cost £2100. Last year £1950. Really can’t complain about that, especially as that includes individual polices for two of the younger children and we’re based in London suburbs.

[Tifa]

They do it because they can..

.

I'm not so sure.
Are you saying there's collusion between competing companies?

[Halitosis]

In my limited experience it’s the crash repair quotes that are pushing up premiums. First question I was asked was whether it was an insurance job or not: four times the price if so - for the same work.

[Mj2k]

Just had the renewal through - 5 vehicles, total cost £2100. Last year £1950. Really can’t complain about that, especially as that includes individual polices for two of the younger children and we’re based in London suburbs.

You can’t complain with that at all, nice result.

[Chicken Pox]

Mine even with using comparison sites, direct (laughingly expensive) line, AVIVA etc still went up ~45% after cashback today. I was renewing as early as possible (most quote 30 days in advance), gone from ~£300 to ~£430 with no changes I did note was a note than mine is classed a "performance car"- it's a hot hatch which 0-60 is around slower end of most EVs and worth about half/ third compared to a new one- so perhaps no surprise EVs might be more expensive just on performance before consideration of battery, total value etc.

Anyway in case it helps cheapest for me was via TopCashBack (~£70 cheaper than via QuidCo) but did include windscreen cover, courtesy car and 5star defacto in case that helps.
There is £42 cashback until end of tomorrow https://www.topcashback.co.uk/share/...-car-insurance If you use the link and buy I may get some money back, no worries if you use it or not you can find via TopCashBack landing page and under insurance and cars. Good luck!

[mitch1956]

Hi Mitch

Hear what you’re saying and don’t doubt .

I think issue is the ‘spread’ i.e I have been claim free for decades but my premium goes up 40% which is hard to stomach if it’s purely to pay for others claims ? But is that true ? I am unsure.

My last year in business 2019 my company policy quote went from £36’000 to a suggested 40k with zero claims in previous 6 years and no significant additions, common sense prevailed, but hard to fathom given zero ‘burn rate’, and the fact 6 year’s premiums were very profitable for insurer.

What we did notice owning dealerships and body shops is just how many cars are now written off that would have previously been repaired and this is seemingly a huge factor in payout levels going through the roof, i am unsure if its to do with price of Parts and Labour or the fact that if it’s written off quickly the dreaded car hire bills don’t kick in hard ?

hi, its all about risk, also what the underwriter/ company want to insure or the direction they see as a opportunity to not make a loss, not so much to make a profit, that's why you find some will run a mile from electric cars etc, a lot of premiums are auto generated and its only when you question the quote do you get a individual quote as you probably found when common sense prevailed? afraid as you prob know it can be as much as a post code on one side of the street can make a difference, insurers rarely refuse cover they just make it expensive so you go away.
you are correct the repair costs have a big significance in claims costs which reflect in premiums, parts, labour, hire car all play a part in the decision to total loss a car, including the salvage value .e.g if a car is worth 5 k repair costs are 2.5 k ( so economical)but salvage value is 3k as a cat D then its cheaper/better for the insurer to total loss it, and even more so if hire is accruing.
accident management firm also have a impact, so i always shake my head when people complain about premiums but have used a accident management company for their claim and boast about the payout! we all pay for this not just the person who was insured.

[jneds]

I was dreading the renewal quote on my Golf R and sure enough it went up from £380 last year to £630 from the same insurer.
Following a search on a comparison site it came in at £271 fully comp with business use. Probably helped by being in mid fifties and living in rural North Wales.

Cheers
Neil

[bwest76]

I just recieved my £45 from TopCashBack.

Trouble is I am not very good with computer and I also forget about things like this.

Somehow I have installed it on my computer and while looking at something else it flashed on my screen.

So its worth doing.

[Christian]

We live in an area of what seems like high driveway theft (if local facebook groups are anything to go by). I see a few houses are starting to have security bollards installed (those ones that you manually pull up from the ground). I’d been considering these with some installers saying they reduce premiums….but do insurers make any allowance for these? I never see any option to specify these, it’s usually driveway/garage/street as the options for where you keep your car overnight.

[aa388]

hi, its all about risk, also what the underwriter/ company want to insure or the direction they see as a opportunity to not make a loss, not so much to make a profit, that's why you find some will run a mile from electric cars etc, a lot of premiums are auto generated and its only when you question the quote do you get a individual quote as you probably found when common sense prevailed? afraid as you prob know it can be as much as a post code on one side of the street can make a difference, insurers rarely refuse cover they just make it expensive so you go away.
you are correct the repair costs have a big significance in claims costs which reflect in premiums, parts, labour, hire car all play a part in the decision to total loss a car, including the salvage value .e.g if a car is worth 5 k repair costs are 2.5 k ( so economical)but salvage value is 3k as a cat D then its cheaper/better for the insurer to total loss it, and even more so if hire is accruing.
accident management firm also have a impact, so i always shake my head when people complain about premiums but have used a accident management company for their claim and boast about the payout! we all pay for this not just the person who was insured.

The underwriting binder they have will dictate what they can and can’t insure and whether it’s a reasonable price, that’s why if someone does a midterm adjustment and it’s outside the scope of the binder the end user could get clobbered with the underwriter having to use a different route.


Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app

[bwest76]

In the future we will need to find out which cars the insurers consider low risk.

I would choose my car on that criteria.

[Kingstepper]

An app where you could enter your postcode, few details (age etc) plus a list of cars and get the likely insurance cost of each would be a winner.

Insurance groups are pretty meaningless, not sure why they bother with these TBH and it’s painful entering details for each car you might be interested in.

Or maybe there’s already a simple way I’ve missed?

[Mj2k]

An app where you could enter your postcode, few details (age etc) plus a list of cars and get the likely insurance cost of each would be a winner.

Insurance groups are pretty meaningless, not sure why they bother with these TBH and it’s painful entering details for each car you might be interested in.

Or maybe there’s already a simple way I’ve missed?

Agree, I’ve not seen one, but it would be great!

I have found, that more specialist cars (the sort that have owners clubs), that aren’t the obvious choice of some of societies dregs seem to get cheap insurance.

My Z4M was cheap, my Mini JCW was not, my M4 made the JCW seem cheap, S2000 in 2007 was cheap as too expensive at the time for pond dwellers, it then became daft & is now more sensible as the prices for the cars have gone daft & it’s no longer as affordable for the masses.

The Porsches still amaze me from an insurance vs speed balance. FIL has just got a new 911 Turbo and the insurance was cheaper than his 2023 911 GTS cab which makes very little sense. I know the ‘soft tops get slashed’ comments, but when did that last really happen after the 90s?

I see the MX5 is 35 years old now, you’d have thought there was a thread for it on here give the popularity!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[pugster]

from my experience dealing with car and bike insurance the only 2 criteria for cost are >

what sort of day they are having when you call them
how much do they think they can get away with

[bwest76]

The Mini Metro was the most stolen car so insurance was high for it back in the day.

Even if it was not desirable.

[JonRA]

Seven cars were stolen off driveways overnight in Hertfordshire ( https://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/24117...-spate-thefts/ )

1 Land Rover
1 Range Rover
1 Volvo XC90
2 Jags
1 BMW X5
and.... a Ford Focus (maybe a tasty one?)

Most/all were keyless entry and police are encouraging the use of Faraday pouches

My cars isn't especially desirable but I'm not looking forward to insurance renewal time in a month or so

[M1011]

Seems entirely stupid that the manufacturers don’t account for this type of theft. They can have keys deactivate based on being stationary etc, but instead we’re left exposed or having to faff about with pouches for a supposed ‘convenience’ feature.

[Mouse]

We've just got a new car (not anything fancy by any means), but still, one of the first things I did was deactivate the keyless opening. We just use the fob button to open it. It's quite cool though as it has separate 'approach' and 'depart' locking settings, so we can still have it lock automatically when walking away.

I'm presuming that these 'luxury' motors don't have an option to deactivate the system. Daft.

[funkstar]

Seven cars were stolen off driveways overnight in Hertfordshire ( https://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/24117...-spate-thefts/ )

1 Land Rover
1 Range Rover
1 Volvo XC90
2 Jags
1 BMW X5
and.... a Ford Focus (maybe a tasty one?)

Most/all were keyless entry and police are encouraging the use of Faraday pouches

My cars isn't especially desirable but I'm not looking forward to insurance renewal time in a month or so

Same in our part of Essex. Neighbours Discovery was stolen and police refused to turn up.

[Mj2k]

We've just got a new car (not anything fancy by any means), but still, one of the first things I did was deactivate the keyless opening. We just use the fob button to open it. It's quite cool though as it has separate 'approach' and 'depart' locking settings, so we can still have it lock automatically when walking away.

I'm presuming that these 'luxury' motors don't have an option to deactivate the system. Daft.

Am sure my old M4 did have the option to deactivate it, or perhaps it needed the dealer.

Am so glad we don’t have it on our current fleet as it’s just another thing to faff about with a pouch.

As for the comfort boot opening, waggling my foot usually just got my trouser leg dirty from the bumper. The only time it seemed effective in opening was when I had a lambswool mitt in my hand washing the car / rinsing with water and the damn thing popped up with annoying regularity unless the key wasn’t with me.

[dkpw]

Having read this thread, I was dreading my old Mum's renewal with Admiral. I was astonished to see that it had only risen from £575 to £640. I double checked her GoCompare account, and saw that everyone else was quoting at least £1,200. I don't know what's caused that but we instantly paid the renewal there and then.

They weren't so accommodating in my case...

[zelig]

I had my auto-renew notice come from AXA yesterday - £1,237.29 !

I switched with Compare the Market for Admiral Platinum cover for £740.

Shysters !

z
[4 years protected NCB on a 540i xDrive - & (somehow) no convictions]

[chicaneuk]

Seems entirely stupid that the manufacturers don’t account for this type of theft. They can have keys deactivate based on being stationary etc, but instead we’re left exposed or having to faff about with pouches for a supposed ‘convenience’ feature.

And the boss of JLR is asking the British Police to do more to crack down on car crime. As if they have no part to play for shit security at the expense of a negligible quality of life improvement.. as of course having to click a button and put a key in the ignition is so onerous.

It's laughable.

[bwest76]

When I bought my car last year

I chose a model with normal key start/entry,proper manual handbrake,push to change gear auto box (when in manual mode).

The model above supposedly better specified didnt have these features.

New technology dosent always mean better.

It doesent cost me any time pressing a buttton to open and close the doors.

[wallyuk]

Turned my keyless entry off.
I think most specific car forums will tell you the combination of buttons to do so.

[Pitch3110]

I was shocked last night on searching.

59yo been good, in Suffolk, Model S P100DL (760bhp) seven hundred quid fully comp including business.

Pitch

[Halitosis]

Think we got lucky with renewal last week. Audi Q3 and Mini Cooper, the latter having our 21 year old and freshly qualified 17 year old son as named drivers. Was holding my breath but came in under £900 all in. Phew.