Insurance hit parade

[gary350]

Not sure if anyone has seen this, it was in a national newspaper yesterday, its a poll of 30,000 drivers on how they judge their insurance companies on value, quality of call centre staff, helpfulness and communication. It was for Auto Express.

One thnk puzzles me is that Norwich Union came last yet they underwrite for Saga who finished 2nd.

gary

 

[fuzzer]

It also puzzles me as there are several companies in the list who i know for a face go to the same callcentre yet come in drastically different places.


If i ever needed it , this confirms that polls are very very rough guides.

 

[BenzComander]

Just had a renewal quote from Admiral, £374 for the W210. Shopped around and are now with Elephant for £240!!!

Admiral could get their quote down to £290 after we called them and told them we were moving. So if they could offer it at £290, why was the renewal £374??

Car insurance is a complete joke, as I have said before, it is in effect a monopoly, and the insurance companies just share out the market on an annual basis.

 

[Gucci]

I once had a quote from Eagle Star for "just" £1,250. I said, "errr, massively over priced". She replied "oh right...shall I send you the paperwork anyway?". Yes..over my still flinching dead body.

 

[timskemp]

Price isn't everything - I'm with Volvo owners insurance (they'll insure anything) - best customer service and a mid-range quote, but useful things like decent courtesy cars, free transfers to courtesy cars, free short term additional drivers, zero glass excess etc.

I agree with Benzcommander - it's a shared monopoly!

 

[jpskiller]

Im with budget not had a problem, insurance quote's ranged from 700 to 2000 for same car, I cant understand how there can be such a difference

 

[High-Lo]

Just had a renewal quote from Admiral, £374 for the W210. Shopped around and are now with Elephant for £240!!!

Admiral could get their quote down to £290 after we called them and told them we were moving. So if they could offer it at £290, why was the renewal £374??

I had a similar situation last month but I have just left Elephant. Elephant's renewal was coming up at £475 for my E320. I managed to get a quote from Morethan for £290 so I called Elephant to see if they could better the quote and they managed to get it down to £390 and asked me if that was any good for me. I kindly explained that I appreciated their discounted offer but they were still £100 under. I'm now with Morethan.

I asked myself the same question though. How could Elephant bring their price down from £475 to £390 as a result of a 3 minute phone call

I've found confused.com quite useful to compare prices.

 

[marcos]

When I got my W211 E320 CDI I was getting silly quotes from people to insure it when the renewal came up.
In the end I went with Tesco's which were about £400 cheaper than Norwich Union. The very next day I got a stone through the windscreen and so rang Tesco's to get my car up to the dealership for a new windscreen. It was at this point that I realised why the Tesco quote was cheaper.
They told me it would be done by some company I had never heard of and the glass would not be the same as the original, if I wanted the same as original I would have to pay £350 additional.
Needless to say I cancelled my policy with them, it took a further 8 months to get my money back off them, and insured the car with Norwich Union with whom I have never had a problem with.
You get what you pay for

 

[timskemp]

Coincidentally, rang Volvo about mine today, windscreen cracked by stone. Told straight away - Autoglass if I want them to settle direct or main dealer and they will reimburse. Autoglass using OE glass anyway so they're doing it tomorrow, zero excess.

Last "at fault" accident was in my S60, within 2 hrs I was in an S40, within 5 days my car was back from the main dealer with a new nose section and radiators.

Previous "none fault" accident took longer to repair but car was done again by main dealer bodyshop with new parts, despite repair being close to value of car. Again was in a replacement volvo in under 2 hrs.

I think you sometimes get what you pay for.

 

[grober]

Not sure if anyone has seen this, it was in a national newspaper yesterday, its a poll of 30,000 drivers on how they judge their insurance companies on value, quality of call centre staff, helpfulness and communication. It was for Auto Express.

One thnk puzzles me is that Norwich Union came last yet they underwrite for Saga who finished 2nd.

gary

I thought Saga was underwritten by Liverpool Victoria as was Frizzels but they may change from year to year .
They may even all use the same call centres but each insurance company may have different contractual agreements with the centre vis a vis level of staffing, claim management policy etc.

 

[splang]

A lesson to us all:
Phone your insurance company at renewal time even if you are not thinking of changing: Ask for a keener price.

I have been with Admiral for only a year. I have 8yrs no claims.
Protected + legal + full cover etc was quoted as £568 for next year. I phoned and said " Privilege would do it for £525 can you match that?" (this was true but I failed to mention that P required a tracker, +500 more excess)
They said, ok , let us see if we can apply a loyalty discount for you..How would £506 be? "Yes, thanks very much - I will stay with you" "Bye!"
total call time 3mins
saving £62
Nice.

 

[kikkthecat]

I'm a great believer in buying quality rather than buying cheap. Unfortunately when it comes to car insurance you only find out what the quality is like once you really need it, usually after an accident.

For the the last 15 years I've only ever needed an insurance certificate to obtain a tax disc so have taken to buying the cheapest available which next time will be Swiftcover.

No call centre problems there then.

 

[masqueraid]

I am concerned that increasingly car insurance is looked on as just something we need to drive and so should be as cheap as possible and as a result as consumers we drive the market to cut more and more corners to protect their margins. Eventually we end up with what we deserve!

I'm no different though, every year the renewal notices get pushed thorugh the online quote sites. Last year my AA renewal ended up in the bin after I managed to save nearly £200 on an identical policy (and reduce my excess) with the ... er ... AA!

 

[television]

Having one group 17 and one 20 I did shop around, Saga were double anyone else. Interesting that NU quoted me £700 for the group 20 SL yet MB do it through NU at £325

 

[Dec]

It also puzzles me as there are several companies in the list who i know for a face go to the same callcentre yet come in drastically different places.

Most of the companies on gary350 list above are not real insurance companies, I only recognize about 7 of them as proper insurance companies, the rest are brokers/middlemen like Tesco–Marks 8 Spencers who pretend to be insurance companies. The have access to large volumes of impulse buyers and make their money by commission from the real insurance companies.

Insurance companies, like to keep there customers in a confused state, this is known as “confusion marketing” When you say “oh that price is very high” the will say yes but windscreen cover/breakdown assist/ replacement car/life insurance, which you will need to protect your loved ones when you die next week, are all included for free.

The fact of the matter is the are all add on items, you are buying something you don’t really want and something that may not be good value for money, take me for instance, I’m driving for about 36 years, my windscreen was broken only once and that was about 34 years ago, am I lucky or is this statistically the average.

A large percentage of people just accept the quote the are offered without shopping around, the companies take advantage of this, that is why one person pays 1000 and another with the same risk details pays 500. As has been said already, you get what you pay for, and it really doses pay to shop around.

Dec

 

[gary350]

I thought Saga was underwritten by Liverpool Victoria as was Frizzels but they may change from year to year .
They may even all use the same call centres but each insurance company may have different contractual agreements with the centre vis a vis level of staffing, claim management policy etc.

Last year it was NU I know because when phoning around at renewal time one company said I had made a claim with Norwich union for £11, this I challenged with saga they said it was a mistake and they would sort out with NU as they were their underwriters it was a typo error, thank god as I do not make claims for £11 when I have a £100 access, anyway I changed to Rias.

gary

 

[SteveL]

Not sure if anyone has seen this, it was in a national newspaper yesterday, its a poll of 30,000 drivers on how they judge their insurance companies on value, quality of call centre staff, helpfulness and communication. It was for Auto Express.

One thnk puzzles me is that Norwich Union came last yet they underwrite for Saga who finished 2nd.

gary

Funny, Sheila's Wheel's seems to be missing.... doing a comparison for the insurance on my C180, they were listed as being able to cover me ! lol

 

[ewans]

Last renewal for me was £629 from Admiral, £10 more than i paid the year before. Spent 2 hours on the web and a couple of phone calls to get the cost down to £449 will Bell........ which is a part of the Admiral group!

Policy is the same but the excess is £25 quid more so on balance worth moving.

Seems to me there is defineatly a monopoly with some of he larger insurance houses. Take admiral for example, you have the main brand name Admiral with lots of TV coverage catering to people who don't always get on line/on the phone find a better prices. You than have Elephant, also part of the admiral group, who use TV to shout about being a Internet only insurer! cheep cover but premium rate call charges to customer services. Then you have Bell, again part of the Admiral group, with little/no TV exposure, no hidden costs and lower prices.

The insurance boys are just casting their net as wide as possible, differnt brands to appeal to different potential customer groups. Thing is you cant always play one of against the other because they will require different revenue levels per customer to attain their profit margins.

Seems to me the thing is to decide on what kind of service level your "comfortable" with i.e. top end costly or budget with fewer frills and go for that, the price will be reflected in the service. So yes is a case of you get what you pay for but at the same time you should only pay for what you really need/want.

 

[Spinal]

Though I agree that quality is more important than price - the two aren't necessarily related.

I was with DirectLine, paying roughly £900 a year (young driver...). I had an accident, wasn't at fault... and I STILL haven't seen a penny back (two years later)!

Needless to say, I switched, I'm now paying £400-ish; got the car insured with me the first driver (as a pose to my parents) and my parents as nominated (in case they wanted to drive); fully comp - haven't yet had an accident (to test Barclays insurance) - but I'm quite pleased with them!