I've just spent the last hour or so looking at various brokers' websites online.
I am male, 24, living in zone 2 SW London, with a 1989 Renault 19 TXE, driving 10,000 miles per year SD&P only. I have one year's NCB, a 7 year old licence and no claims or convictions.
The lowest quote was from Zenitih, through Budget Insurnace Services, at £630.94. Highest was from Axa, at over £1500 - yet they'd insure me for half that through my RAC membership.
It looks like I'm going to go for the Zenith policy. However, I have a problem with claiming my NCD because my insurers, after 11 months, still haven't issued me with a full policy. Nor have I yet had a renewal notice from them. I've been driving by getting 30-day cover notes from the broker who sold me the policy. How can I force them to acknowledge that I bought a policy from them nearly a year ago and have been driving claim free since?
With service like that, I'm not keen to renew the policy but I do need the discount!
Mark RLBS, especially, I'd like your help on this one. Also if anyone can think of an obvious source for even cheaper insurance, I'd appreciate it.
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Sounds a bit odd to me - have you ever had any sort of correspondence from the ins co.?
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No, nothing at all except the cover notes. There may have been a request for a copy of my driving licence, but that could also have come from the broker.
I won't name the broker, other than to say that they are large, well known and very much still in business. They also speicalise in young drivers and performance cars and have a website that is heavily advertised.
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David,
Busy, but I have seen your note. You don't really have an issue, but I'll drop back and explain it better this evening.
Mark.
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Thanks Mark. I'm just pushing this back to the top... sorry, but it's worrying me and I don't want to commit to a new year's premium without being able to get this resolved.
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Presumably the cover ntoes have a sequence number on them. There is usually a space for a reference number to be added as well.
Is there anything there and has it changed over the past months ?
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CDL 7.29/XXX/HW - This XXX number changes all the time, is always sometimes around the 500 mark. It is next to my client number, which is always the same.
Cover note no. - 1234/XXXX where 1234 is (not the actual) broker's account number on the top right hand side of the page. This starts at around 8000 and increases by about 1000 a month, I assume giving an indication of how many policies the broker has sold with that insurer.
Finally, there is the policy number. It was blank on the first two, then dtc for about 8 months, then 100273103 on the final two (with 5 days to go after the end of this cover note to the end of my policy).
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Always *somewhere* around the 500 mark, sorry.
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The lowest quote was from Zenitih, through Budget Insurnace Services, at £630.94. Highest was from Axa, at over £1500 - yet they\'d insure me for half that through my RAC membership.
There are a couple of reasons why insurance would be cheaper through a membership scheme. One is the fairly obvious one of trying to attract business and tehrefore offering attractive rates.
The other is that individual rating is a distribution of the entire risk profile that an insurer has. If they were rating the whole of the RAC scheme separately from their normal policies, it is quite likely that a different risk profile exists. This can result in cheaper, in some cases substantially so, rates and premiums.
However, I have a problem with claiming my NCD because my insurers, after 11 months, still haven\'t issued me with a full policy. Nor have I yet had a renewal notice from them.
Sadly not as unusual as it should be. At a rough guess they probably messed up the original quote in some way and have spent a significant period of time arguing with the insurer. This may be the premium, but it may also be related to some other condition - length of licence, clean licence or some such. This might also explain why they have been back to you for further details more than once.
>>Finally, there is the policy number. It was blank on the first
>>two, then dtc for about 8 months, then 100273103 on the final
>>two (with 5 days to go after the end of this cover note to the
>>end of my policy).
If it is not a Lloyd\'s syndicate, then telephone them direct and ask them;
1) Renewal date
2) NCD at renewal
3) Renewal premium
4) whereabouts of policy document and renewal documents
Depending on the insurer they will be increasingly reluctant to answer the questions as you move from 1) to 4). However, even acknowledgement of 1) means that you will know whether or not the policy has been in force for the appropriate amount of time. If it has, at renewal you will have the bonus.
If its a Lloyd\'s syndicate then you cannot ring them direct.
At this point ring your existing broker. You have to make a call as to whether or not they will answer 1) to 4) although there is no reason why they should not.
If you feel they will, then fine.
If you feel that they will not then you need a different approach. I would suggest that Police and/or Employer and/or Customs and Excise might have insisted on viewing your entire policy document, policy schedule and insurance certificate.
This would normally motivate them to get their finger out.
Assuming that the renewal date is fine, you\'re only issue will be extracting the proof of NCD from them.
I cannot remember from your note whether or not this would be your first year\'s bonus ? If so, then the situation may have been complicated by giving you an inappropriate introductory discount which might make the renewal notice look strange.
If it was not your first year of bonus then the issue may have been proof of bonus from the previous insurer. The risk being that they failed to get it and it has been replaced with the rather more insubstantial introductory discount.
First thing;
Deal with questions 1) - 4) above and then let me know how you get on.
It is quite possible that something is wrong, but I suspect that we are simply dealing with the inefficiency of someone - probably a syndicate - or a mistake in the initial quote by the broker.
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I rang my existing broker, as it is insured through a syndicate. They told me that it was still a little to early, but the syndicate is working on a new premium that should be sent out around two weeks before the renewal date, which means I should have a letter around 1 April. It looks like the renewal date tallies with my expectations therefore. Given their inefficiency so far, I'm not confident that it will be sent out, but until they do, all I can do is trust them.
The insurance on my current car is my first, so my NCD will be for one year. I also spoke to the insurers I do want to go with - Zenith through Budget - and they told me that they would insure me on the basis of 1 year's NCD, proof to be supplied within 28 days of the policy start date. At that point, my insurance would be cancelled, but if I explained the situation in advance of the 28 day deadline, I could simply pay the difference based on no NCD. If I then managed to extract a notice out of my existing insurers, they'd refund any overpayment I'd made.
As a result, I've gone ahead and insured, but third party only as I worked out that I'd be barely any better off (if at all) if I took the insurance and then had to make a theft or fire claim. I was actually very impressed with the service - much more friendly and knowledgeable than the surly, uninterested and closed-minded attitude of my current broker's phone staff. Of course, that was sales, not customer services, so maybe it's a bit early to judge.
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The start date of the new policy is in line with the renewal/expiry date of the other policy, I assume ?
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Based on what my insurer has told me.
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