Insurance quotes

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Sat 29 Aug 2020 14:31
Insurance quotes - galileo

Today I received and email inviting me to get a car insurance quote from a well-known company.

Having just taken out a policy with this same company at the end of June, out of curiosity I filled in all the details and submiitted the enquiry.

For exactly the same car, drivers, cover etc for which they charged £497 8 weeks ago the quote was £359, a difference of £138 or 28% less.

Looking at the small print, if I cancel my existing policy, the 2 months cover I have had and £40 cancellation fee will mean I make no saving by doing so.

I shall provide feedback to this company when I have calmed down a bit.

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Sat 29 Aug 2020 15:04
Insurance quotes - _

I wrote a thread about changing my Policy when I bought the KIA Sportage back in march.

LV wanted a premium rise and an admin fee too.

They previously did not charge admin fees as we have several policies with them.

So cancelled, bought new policy starting from delivery date, no admin fee as taking out new policy. Got £45 cashback vis quidco/Gocompare (yrs I have received it) and Policy was same as previous year so net for 1 yr was about £134 ish.

They'll try everything on to make money and I do everything to save. Just done the same with Pet insurance with the Dog.

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Sat 29 Aug 2020 15:18
Insurance quotes - SLO76
Always shop around when it’s time to renew and always tell them to remove the auto renewal. My fully comp cover for a 2010 Toyota Avensis Estate with myself at 43yrs old and darling wife at 36 is £208 a year with no voluntary excess (actually makes no difference to cost I’ve found) and a hire car if required. Every year the auto renewal was going up by at least 10% so I’ve removed it as they’ll send a reminder anyway and it saves waiting on hold to cancel or ask them to price match every year.
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Sat 29 Aug 2020 15:44
Insurance quotes - Andrew-T

Today I received and email inviting me to get a car insurance quote from a well-known company. Having just taken out a policy with this same company at the end of June, out of curiosity I filled in all the details and submiitted the enquiry. For exactly the same car, drivers, cover etc for which they charged £497 8 weeks ago the quote was £359, a difference of £138 or 28% less.

I don't find this surprising. When SWMBO's annual renewal arrives I usually look at c0nfused.c0m and find something similar. When she relates the facts to them over the phone a satisfactory outcome is usually reached.

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Sat 29 Aug 2020 16:25
Insurance quotes - concrete

Mine has just pooped into the Inbox. Renewal for September. Last year I paid £340 so I will shop around again this year. Been with LV about 4 times in ten years. They keep playing silly beggars instead of just staying a reasonable level and keeping my custom. Skewed thinking to my mind. Usual search engines to do comparisons and hopefully a saving or no increase.

Cheers Concrete

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Sat 29 Aug 2020 16:40
Insurance quotes - gordonbennet

Don't forget Direct Line (and one or two others) are not on the usual comparison sites, they have their own quotesite and have beaten the others* on price for me.

* there are one or two companies i will not insure with, usually one of them will be at around the lowest quote but have a bad reputation for admin etc charges.

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Sat 29 Aug 2020 16:46
Insurance quotes - daveyjp

Aviva are the same, no comparison presence, but just as Directline have Churchill for comparison sites, Aviva have GA.

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Mon 31 Aug 2020 19:31
Insurance quotes - Deryck

I have been with my insurer for quite a few years now and have always been the best on price. This year I had to call to update my credit card details as it has expired a few months earlier. After a few questions to check the policy they managed to reduce the price by £30 just because I use a pool car at work

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Tue 1 Sep 2020 12:40
Insurance quotes - Engineer Andy

Insurance companies are renowned for their heavily favouring new customers and using mugs, ahem, I mean existing customers (especially long-term ones) premiums to fund those discounts.

Threatening to leave is like the boy who cried 'wolf!' - it only works so many times before your bluff is called. Always have a back up plan to move to another decent provider.

Edited by Engineer Andy on 01/09/2020 at 12:42

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Tue 1 Sep 2020 12:44
Insurance quotes - Gibbo_Wirral

I was amazed at the differences between comparison sites.

All the "big three" came up with Esure as cheapest renewal for me. Same policy, same level of cover by all three.

Except the Meerkat price was £80 dearer than the other two, who were only a few pounds different.

Same when my missus renewed her car, and same with household insurance. No doubt all their fancy adverts, Coronation Street sponsorship and the recent pop concert they funded came at our expense.

Edited by Gibbo_Wirral on 01/09/2020 at 12:45

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Tue 1 Sep 2020 12:58
Insurance quotes - Andrew-T

I was amazed at the differences between comparison sites.

All the "big three" came up with Esure as cheapest renewal for me. Same policy, same level of cover by all three.

I thought Esure stayed competitive by only taking on customers who had not recently claimed. What do they do when you claim ?

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Tue 1 Sep 2020 13:26
Insurance quotes - Galad

I’ve never found comparison sites to be cheaper than Direct Line for both our cars. Usually at least £80 less and with voluntary excess and business mileage included.

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Tue 1 Sep 2020 14:24
Insurance quotes - Andrew-T

I was with DL last year but switched to a classic policy (20% cheaper) with Kinetic Highway which is attached to LV. Brokered by Adrian Flux. No complaints about DL, which I have been with off and on - they seem competitive and efficient.

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Tue 1 Sep 2020 14:31
Insurance quotes - Cris_on_the_gas

Ring them up and tell them your changing your car to a Ferrari and you will be parking on the street.

When they refuse to quote then ask for pro rata refund based on time on risk then buy the new policy with them later that day.

Beat them at their own game

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Tue 1 Sep 2020 15:49
Insurance quotes - concrete

An update.

I searched two of the usual suspects websites and for the same cover as last year I saved £60 or 17 pints. Pretty good I thought. I must admit I had had enough after a while and took the best value quote with a reputable insurer. Maybe could have saved more with approaches directly to some companies but I was rapidly losing the will to live. I suppose they rely on sheer laziness to receive over inflated payments. Anyway from £347 to £287 is not bad and all done for another year.

Cheers Concrete

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Tue 1 Sep 2020 17:43
Insurance quotes - galileo

I emailed the insurer asking for a credible explanation for the difference in premiums.

They responded asking for my existing policy details etc, and afte a couple of days their response was : premiums can change between June and August (down by 28%?).

They offered to let me cancel the existing policy with no cancellation fee (but no mention of waiving pro rate charge for cover provided to date so no real advantage to me.

I shall remember this next renewal time and take my business elsewhere.

Edited by galileo on 01/09/2020 at 17:44

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Tue 1 Sep 2020 17:54
Insurance quotes - FP

"I’ve never found comparison sites to be cheaper than Direct Line for both our cars. Usually at least £80 less and with voluntary excess and business mileage included."

Whereas when I was shopping around earlier this year precisely the opposite happened - DL was dearer by some margin than the comparison sites.

It just shows there's no pattern and you have to do your homework.

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Tue 1 Sep 2020 19:17
Insurance quotes - Theophilus

I was also insured with DL for several years (back in the last millennium!) but switched due to their pricey additional charge (£27 per trip as I recall) to take the car to Europe.

In my experience most other insurers haven't charged a supplement and as I (pre-Covid) usually travelled to France 3 or 4 times each year it rapidly made DL premiums look uncompetitive.

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Tue 1 Sep 2020 21:13
Insurance quotes - RT

I was also insured with DL for several years (back in the last millennium!) but switched due to their pricey additional charge (£27 per trip as I recall) to take the car to Europe.

In my experience most other insurers haven't charged a supplement and as I (pre-Covid) usually travelled to France 3 or 4 times each year it rapidly made DL premiums look uncompetitive.

In my experience, it's always cheaper to use a policy that includes the extras you want as standard rather than a nominally cheaper policy that charges extra - I certainly used to find that when I wanted business cover and I know others that found the same with foreign use.

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Wed 2 Sep 2020 15:40
Insurance quotes - Bilboman

I've generally been lucky so far in Spain. When I was made redundant I found that my 16 years of company car usage counted for nothing so I started with a clean slate. New Toyota Auris 1.2T fully comp just after I'd turned 50 was €300 in first year then I got caught by the automatic renewal and it was €330 for year 2. I ditched Qualitas despite their last minute haggling and have been very happy with Genesis at €229, €239 and now €247.
My first two years' cover included 100% cost of new for old replacement, which is now book value only, and I've had a €200 excess throughout. One big snag with insurance policies in Spain is that they always run from year to year with no early cancellation option unless you sell the house or car. And minimum one month's notice to cancel, with no exceptions.
Some big differences from the "competitive" UK car insurance market is free roadside recovery, cover for any driver and automatic "green card" cover from Lapland to the Med - all standard on car insurance policies in Spain. It finally dawned on me this year that my car insurer might be a good bet for home insurance, and sure enough I've saved over €100 by switching.

Edited by Bilboman on 02/09/2020 at 15:42

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