The Wacky World of Car Insurance

[l5foye]

The renewal notice for my wife's insurance arrived showing a 45% increase in premium from last year. A tour of some price comparison sites produced quotes showing a 18% increase on last year's premium. As a last shot, I went onto the MoneySupermarket site. It and it alone brought up a price 4% lower than last year's. Lesson learnt-not all price comparison sites are equal.

 

[ALFAitalia]

If that happens to me I usually just ring and ask my current company to be more competitive or lose the business.....usually works for me....or as least near enough so I don't have the hassle of changing. Been with my current one for about 15 years or so!!

 

[fabes]

Car ins premiums are on the up due to genuine increases in parts costs, parts availability (or lack of), those delays leading to longer / higher courtesy car costs, increased write off costs due to the above and increased labour rates when it can be fixed.

Definitely time to shop around

 

[f17ant]

The renewal notice for my wife's insurance arrived showing a 45% increase in premium from last year. A tour of some price comparison sites produced quotes showing a 18% increase on last year's premium. As a last shot, I went onto the MoneySupermarket site. It and it alone brought up a price 4% lower than last year's. Lesson learnt-not all price comparison sites are equal.

Iv found this too same insurance on 2 different comparisons sites (usually both the 2 are cheapest on both sites) but one could be 10-15% more cheaper than the other comparison site

Sometimes both are around the price but one offers more on the policy so that’s worth checking too

 

[Doodle]

Half the time it seems blatantly like they're just plucking random numbers out of thin air. Circa 2009 I went to insure a newly acquired Speed Triple, one underwriter quoted me over £1000. Going via a broker, on the exact same underwriter and scheme, the figure was less than £200.

 

[ChrisHGTV]

If that happens to me I usually just ring and ask my current company to be more competitive or lose the business.....usually works for me....or as least near enough so I don't have the hassle of changing. Been with my current one for about 15 years or so!!

This is what I normally do. This year our insurance went up but found plenty of places cheaper. But then you look at what you sometimes have to do to provide evidence of no claims etc and it’s more faff than it’s worth. Two cars are still with Admiral and they almost matched the cheapest quotes I got.
The big surprise was the Alfa though - with all the mods declared and a limited mileage of 3000 fully comp for £175!

 

[nyssa7]

Found it strange in January when renewing with Admiral Multicar that the AMG GTS, Ioniq 5 and Evoque driven by the “grown-ups” (wife and I are 122 between us) worked out £350 dearer than if I’d moved them separately, but the ”kid’s” cars” (23 year old son with Abarth 595, 24 year old learner wife’s smart roadster) were cheaper than anywhere else
son then bought a 986 Boxster which Admiral insured for him for less than the Abarth, but wanted more than he paid for the wife to take it over. Moved it for half the price

only conclusion here is that Admiral happy with the perceived high risk young drivers to the point of subsidy pricing, but actively don’t want the alleged better risk older drivers - or hoping we’ll just pay through the nose. This year I figured I’d struggle to insure the kids cars for less than £350 more, but more changes of cars between us have cost far too much - so Admiral will lose all 5 remaining cars next renewal

 

[ChrisHGTV]

Found it strange in January when renewing with Admiral Multicar that the AMG GTS, Ioniq 5 and Evoque driven by the “grown-ups” (wife and I are 122 between us) worked out £350 dearer than if I’d moved them separately, but the ”kid’s” cars” (23 year old son with Abarth 595, 24 year old learner wife’s smart roadster) were cheaper than anywhere else
son then bought a 986 Boxster which Admiral insured for him for less than the Abarth, but wanted more than he paid for the wife to take it over. Moved it for half the price

only conclusion here is that Admiral happy with the perceived high risk young drivers to the point of subsidy pricing, but actively don’t want the alleged better risk older drivers - or hoping we’ll just pay through the nose. This year I figured I’d struggle to insure the kids cars for less than £350 more, but more changes of cars between us have cost far too much - so Admiral will lose all 5 remaining cars next renewal

It is odd, I moved the Alfa to LV. However the other cars through LV on their multi car were way more expensive than Admiral. Clearly insurance pricing is not all about the risk as you say, and is influenced by each providers business model.

 

[l5foye]

Do you really think they have a business model? A blind person and a pin come to mind.

 

[E55BOF]

I'm with Admiral on a multi-car policy, and have been for several years. I'm an old git with two high-performance cars, and they aren't necessarily the cheapest, but they're not far off, they charge (me at least) very little additional premium for sensible remaps (less than about 20% more power than standard), and they're very helpful in short-term additions to the policy when i acquire other cars.

Motorcycle insurance may be a more whacky world, though. I can't recall who I was with last year, though it wasn't Carole Nash (£200 last year), but when I wanted to add the BMW at this year's renewal they wanted well over £300. Swinton did it - same cover, both bikes - for £104. Go figure...

 

[pioneercollector]

I have never even thought about Swinton for bike cover!! I usually bat between Motorcycle Direct and Carole Nash, Every other year one will take the P*SS so i swap... one year there was a 68% hike, same bikes, same garage .... go figure...

 

[Rayny]

It's worth remembering that underwriters like to spread their risk - At any given time they will offer low rates for a certain postcode/make of car/age group etc., in order to attract business. If they get a lot of business within that group that year, they may need to raise the premiums the following year in order to lose some of those customers. The renewal rates are usually calculated about four weeks in advance. When the renewal date gets nearer, if not many people take up the renewal the underwriter can then reduce the premiums for some of that group in order to retain some of the business. It's all about where the underwriter wants the business, and the timing.
In the modern age of computers, underwriters are able to amend their rates in real time - Not like the old days when they needed to print their rates and send them out to brokers.

 

[Spider10]

Just had a quote from Meercat .com for the SLK55 £305 fully comp with no no claims (modern classic) I must be getting old it was with SAGA

 

[D2028]

Just had a quote from Meercat .com for the SLK55 £305 fully comp with no no claims (modern classic) I must be getting old it was with SAGA

I’ve had a quote from Admiral for the two vehicles ( Discovery2 and the clk) 10 years NCD on the landrover and I’m 62 years old this week and have held a clean licence for 44 years…….£751.99!

 

[E55BOF]

If you can do it it significantly cheaper, please let us know. Mine was over £1000 in October last year for the two AMGs, but I couldn't better it anywhere else.

 

[D2028]

I certainly will, but it looks like the discovery 2 will have to go

 

[davymead]

Quoted £292 for myself FC on the JCW Mini before I agreed the purchase, and then by adding the trouble was then re quoted £210. Surprising TSTL.

 

[D2028]

Obviously a second handbrake is safer

 

[ChrisEdu]

Was chuffed today. It's only costing me £22.63 to change from my W211 to the C218 for the rest of my policy (30 weeks). I thought that was pretty good.

 

[ALFAitalia]

Quoted £292 for myself FC on the JCW Mini before I agreed the purchase, and then by adding the trouble was then re quoted £210. Surprising TSTL.

The only reason "her indoors" is on my policy at all is to get the premium down....funny thing is that I have NCB since 1988....and she nearly killed her SLK with a deer a couple of years back. If I take her off my policy the premium goes up by about £75....how many times has she driven it in the 4 years I've owned it?.....none!