Car Insurance

[Stephen]

Like David I had my car insurance renewal through the other day with a substantial increase on last years premium

No claims, accident’s, conviction and all that stuff just a £143 premium increase.

Contacted them to try and get a better deal. Even with the measly discount it came nowhere near to last year’s premium.

Needles to say I won’t be renewing with them the robbing ba*tards, especially as I found another company that is charging nearer to what I paid last year for the same cover.

Rant over

[Mervyn and Trish]

Mine is up a chunk this year too, despite the broker I use shopping around for me and switching company.

[allatc]

Mine is also up but lower than any other quotes on Go.compare and such.
Oddly, my wife no longer drives but removing her as a named driver resulted in a £60 increase on the renewal so I have kept her on.

[Stephen]

The wheels of insurance companies move in mysterious ways.

One of the questions always asked on a quote which I can never understand is, are you married. How does that have any relevance.

[Onelife]

Like David I had my car insurance renewal through the other day with a substantial increase on last years premium

No claims, accident’s, conviction and all that stuff just a £143 premium increase.

Contacted them to try and get a better deal. Even with the measly discount it came nowhere near to last year’s premium.

Needles to say I won’t be renewing with them the robbing ba*tards, especially as I found another company that is charging nearer to what I paid last year for the same cover.

Rant over

We’re paying for those who drive around with no insurance…which reminds me

Which insurance company did you go through?

[Stephen]

Flintstone rock company.

They’re a solid firm to deal with.

[Ray B]

Onelife is correct , uninsured drivers and the cost of materials and labour on accident repairs. We all pay, nothing now for loyalty as in the past.

[Onelife]

Flintstone rock company.

They’re a solid firm to deal with.

Thanks Stephen, I’ll look them up.

Btw…when contacting them do you ask to speak to Wilma?

[Ranchi]

Also electric vehicles are expensive to repair (& many have long wait times for parts, I believe.)
Practice may have changed but a few years ago my niece’s electric car was shunted in the rear at traffic lights. It wasn’t a particularly bad shunt but the fire brigade came and basically broke the connections to isolate the battery. Presumably this was to minimise the risk of battery fires. It took a good few weeks to get the parts to reconnect the battery. So the insurance had to pay for the hire car for a longer period.

[Onelife]

Hi Ranchi, I’m not suggesting this is the case but I think the hike in insurance premiums could be attributed to car repair services hiking their prices knowing they can charge top notch prices for parts and labour…. it’s a vicious circle that can only get worse if not regulated more vigorously.

[Ranchi]

Hi Onelife, I’m sure that’s the case. When we bought our last car (new) there was a letter in with it under official manufacturer’s heading encouraging us to phone a certain number in the case of an accident to ensure that the work was done at one of the company’s garages using manufacturer’s parts. A financial inducement was included. I noted on recent insurance applications there is a premium to pay if in the event of a claim you specify the garage you want to carry out repairs rather than use the insurer’s preferred garage. Coincidentally the premium and the financial inducement just about cancelled each other out.
About 15 yrs ago a car of ours was involved in a bump (it was only a few months old) whilst being moved from one compound to another by CPS. CPS contacted me whilst we were on our cruise and explained there had been an accident and offered to get the car repaired before our cruise returned. I explained that as the car was only a few weeks old that I wanted it repaired by the manufacturer’s garage. They agreed straight away - they behaved well throughout. On return to Soton I was met by a representative of CPS and he took me to our car to show me the damage. My first response was ‘Oh, I told you not to get it repaired’. In fact it hadn’t been repaired but damage was so light that I I had to look closely to see it.
We drove home & the repair was effected I was shocked to see the invoice that was presented to the insurers (it was over 5% of the new car price)

[Stephen]

I partly blame the insurer's. I wonder how many insurance companies send out an assessor to view the damage these days. Very few I suspect, relying on the garage to give an honest (haha) report.

[david63]

A few years ago I had some damage to my car that necessitated an insurance claim. Part of the damage was the bonnet had a small chip in it. Instead of getting Chips Away to fix it for £25 they decided to replace, and respray, the entire bonnet at a cost of several hundred pounds.

[Onelife]

Hi Ranchi, we had a similar situation with our daughter’s car…. the car was bought for 6K and was only one year into its new ownership when our daughter hit a kerb, this resulted in the wheel being bent inwards, the insurance market value for the car was £3,999 the estimate for repair came in at £3,200 which was agreed by the insurer….I wouldn’t mind betting that had the car been valued at £2,999 the repair cost would have had similar reduction in repair cost.

Its a bit like when you register your dog at the vets...the first thing they ask you is...are you insured? when you say yes, you can see ££££ signs flashing in front of their eyes.

[Ray B]

Stephen, my garage takes photos and videos of damage and send them with thier report to the insurance company.

[CaroleF]

My car insurance quote from LV went up by 45% so needless to say I moved. When I got a much more reasonable quote I contacted LV and asked about them meeting the new price I'd received, weren't interested, didn't offer any reduction at all.

I've just had my house renewal also from LV which was showing a £400 increase. I'd recently had a letter from my bank offering house insurance, presumably they knew it was coming up, so I went online to see what their quote would be. I got as far as filling in the details but when I said my house was Grade II listed and was built before 1860 they weren't interested. I got a quote, like for like which was £100 less than I paid last year, from Admiral so that's what I've changed to.

Carole