True to predictions there does seem to have been a considerable hike in premiums.
Last year, our Direct Line comprehensive policy cost was just over £220. The renewal notice was £305!
I had been doing my usual trawling of the comparison sites and a few others direct insurers and after tweaking quotes to make sure I was comparing like for like, these figures were all around the £260 mark, give or take. (Including Halifax, my bank, who were as good as any)
I phoned D.L. with this information to hand and managed a reduction, to just over£276. They were adamant that was it.
After a bit of thought, I renewed with D.L. thinking that the extra hassle of not starting from scratch was worth the £16 difference.
I then, quite deliberately, paid with my Halifax credit card which has £3 cashback for a £300 monthly spend, leaving me with only a minor amount to charge to it to earn the £3
This, as my man-maths says, means there is only a net difference of £13. I will pay the card in full as soon as the debits show. I hate paying interest :-).
Our house insurance is due imminently, too. Currently it's via Kwik Fit, but SAGA are, surprisingly, looking competitive so far.
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My house was insured with Saga at the time we were burgled, I can't really fault them because it was all done by the book but it was blooming hard work, and for not a lot. I think our claim was £300 in total as all the other goods were returned.
SWMBO had about £300 cash as she'd been paid some petty cash she was owed by her work - they called a colleague and verified it. She also had the office keys nicked, and the insurance wouldn't cover them at all - quite an expensive cost, as although we got them back her company still went ahead and replaced the locks. And she had a Radley purse which I'd bought cheapish (new) through eBay. They wanted the evidence of that (also returned). She had more than one and it may have been more than two 1 hour+ long phone interviews with them.
Then when the renewal came through they'd hiked the premium quite a bit, and also put on some really unpleasant clauses about us no longer being covered if the keys were stolen from us and used for entry. That's when we said farewell. (Though they were probably no different to what any other company would have done maybe)
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Next time, Roger, it might be worth, if you can be bothered, using Topcashback or Quidco to make your purchase.
I use TC for buying various forms of insurance two or three times a year, and usually you get perhaps £10-£60 back on each purchase. The money does actually turn up (eventually), and they pay it back against your card (or into your bank).
Both sites do a load of other things you can purchase (like broadband packages and so on) as well as insurance, but I don't really look at those as I'm not in the market for them.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Fri 10 Feb 17 at 14:04
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I stopped using topcashback, they seemed to get lower and lower cash back and less turned up seemed more of a faff to chase it up.
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Just changed my house insurance to LV+-so much cheaper than my previous insurer that I will ask for a quote when my car insurance is expiring.A further discount is available if you insure car and house with them.
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>> True to predictions there does seem to have been a considerable hike in premiums.
>> Last year, our Direct Line comprehensive policy cost was just over £220. The renewal notice
>> was £305!
Renewed the insurance on wife's VW Tiguan this week with LV=. It was £268 last year and £285 this year. She's already on max NCB and nothing else has changed.
It was set for auto-renew but it didn't work as the credit card had changed. LV= renewed it anyway, and sent me a letter, although I'd already anticiated this happening and had called them to pay.
If it had been over £300 I might have shopped around but it's a bit tricky as it has both daughters on it as named drivers with full business use cover, which I think is unusual.
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We have car and house with LV and have done so for a few years. I like the customer service, one can get through quickly and speak to someone who speaks good English.
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We have 2 of the cars and the house with LV. I suspect they have been "building the book" as they have obviously been competitive across a range of risks for a couple of years at least.
I called them yesterday to tee up the new car. A few buttons to press, but sorted with minimal fuss for an extra premium of £18 for the remaining 6 months, a £15 admin fee and an assurance that I need not pay another £15 when the plate of the new car changes a few days later. Compared with other insurers I suspect that's not bad.
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House insurance quotes I've just done via Quidco are not competitive, even after cashback.
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I saw that LV='s standard motor policy does not include a hire car, The extra for that is £20 a year, near enough, making their headline quote seem much better than close rivals. Once added in, so we are comparing apples with apples and not apples with pears, it's within pennies of the price leaders on the comparison sites.
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>>....it's within pennies of the price leaders on the comparison sites.
>>
I've always (I guess 15yrs or so) found them so refreshing to deal that I'd use them even if they were slightly dearer than others. There is a limit to that though!
I recommend them to colleagues and it's odd that they're either very competitive, or absolutely miles out - there doesn't seem to be anything inbetween. They're good for one of my daughters, a teacher, but way out for the other one, who works in the NHS.
I use them through the old Civil Service Motoring Assoc (CSMA, now called Boundless) as my wife used to be a Civil Servant. I don't think it makes much difference to the premium but you don't need legal cover as that comes with the Boundless membership.
Years ago their standard motor policy did include a courtesy car, foreign use, unlimited mileage and they didn't care about licence points, only bans. However the cost of the policy became bonkers and I guess they were being murdered by others with stripped out policies.
One thing they do still have is automatic cover for garage courtesy cars, which at least saves arguing with those garages who try and charge.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Fri 10 Feb 17 at 22:14
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Both my cars are with LV. Both had the cover for garage courtesy cars, at fully comp level. I've used that a few times, and each time the garage has doubted it until shown the wording. Saved me a tenner here and there.
Just renewed one car this month. The documents have changed and now I'm covered only third party.
Whether it's just me or across the board I can't say.
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>> The documents have changed and now I'm covered only
>> third party.
>>
As mentioned above, one of ours renewed this week and the docs are slightly different (more detailed) but courtesy cars are fully comp as the cover for those is in the same section of the Certificate as the insured vehicle (section 1).
It does often cause queries with garages as the go straight to section about the policyholder driving other cars (section 5) but that's not relevant. VW dealer insisted on calling them when I took wife's car for service and was assured that any named driver is covered fully comp to drive a courtesy car.
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>> As mentioned above, one of ours renewed this week and the docs are slightly different
>> (more detailed) but courtesy cars are fully comp as the cover for those is in
>> the same section of the Certificate as the insured vehicle (section 1).
Ours both renewed on 29 Jan and still include full cover for courtesy cars. Like BP though I've had queries from garages, particularly Perrys in MK who service the Berlingo. Twice had them insist on calling LV.
I think it's a bit of a Pavlovian thing because so many punters do try and rely on the 3rd party only driving other cars section. Also got impression from one staff member that they were subject to blame/discipline in event of a damage claim where customer turned out to be uninsured and were very cautious about what they'd accept.
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My motorbike insurance is due for renewal at the end of the month. Proposal came through the post last week - up £25 from last year.
Got a phone call from them (Carol Nash) last night asking if I'd received the documents and was I happy with everything.
Told them I wasn't happy with the price increase and the agent said he would see what he could do. Put on hold for approx. 5 minutes, then he came back on the line. We can do it for £125, an increase of £2 more than last year, is that ok?
Fine with me, I replied.
I must admit I wasn't looking forward to haggling with them, but when they phone me and almost match last years price, that'll do me.
IIRC, they did the same thing last year. Must be desperate for business, not that I'm complaining mind.
I bet it won't be so easy next month with BT when I have to renew my phone and BB package with them.
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i had my renewal quote for £655 comparision websites quoted £650 went directline £490 contacted my insurers if they could price match the declined so went to direct line
pays to shop around
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Third Party insurance on my Landcruiser costs £5.00 a year. I think the AD, F & T bit costs me about £200 per year.
Any driver, no minimum age.
Slightly concerning though is that the "RTA equivalent" required indemnity sum is only £30,000 per incident.
In a country with no NHS, if you get hit by a car and your damages amount to more than £30,000 than at best you can resign yourself to 3 - 5 years of litigation.
Bit of a bummer if you need the money for medical care.
For the completeness of cover and the peace of mind, I think UK insurance is a bargain. Not that that is any reason for a single company to massively overcharge you though.
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"For the completeness of cover and the peace of mind, I think UK insurance is a bargain."
From what I have seen in other countries you are right. Probably down to the amount of competition in the UK motor insurance market. Astonishing how many quotes you get from one of the comparison sites.
I can remember the old days of the "tariff" companies when most UK insurers subscribed to a set of minimum rates and were forbidden by the tariff agreement from quoting lower. Most companies subscribed to the tariff, the only real competition being Lloyd's
Similar cartel like arrangements applied to fire and household insurance as well
Seems incredible now that such a thing was allowed - a bit like resale price maintenance
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>> I bet it won't be so easy next month with BT when I have to
>> renew my phone and BB package with them.
>>
Very off topic but I renewed mine yesterday. Last year they were really hard-faced and I only got a fiver off the package. This year I used online chat to say I was looking at TalkTalk - got transferred to someone in the UK and got the package for £16 less than "list" and it won't go up with the price increase in April. I wanted the new SmartHub too but he wouldn't do that unless I upgraded from Infinity 1 to 2, but 1 is perfectly adequate.
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Seems that INCREASES are in the air BIG style.
2 sons had renewals in this week
BMW M3 & Mini Cooper - last year £550 with full NCB, no claims/no points on licences
Last week renewal premium - same company, cover etc UP 35%
30 minutes on line, 1 phone call £580 for the next year.
Son 2 got his Esure renewal in £320 going up to some £580 for a year old 320d. Phoned Esure & they said they would call him back. 5 years with them & 1 x no fault claim 2+ years ago - they phoned back 30 mins later & said they were not budging.
On my advice he tried Aviva - £230 for similar cover - he got 20% off as he has home insured with them & they said he would get money off his home premium as he has a car policy - WIN WIN.
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Both of ours are with Elephant - and have been for 10 years. No one else can get close on the price for the cover; just got SWMBO's renewal in and it was £14 cheaper than last year - which they said right at the top of the notice (I wonder if the same is true if it goes up??). Mine due next month, see what that brings.
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>> Seems that INCREASES are in the air BIG style.
>>
Been with either eSure or Sheilas (same company) for more than a decade for a 3 litre car, as no one beat their quotes.
On the occasion that the renewal quote is high, have gone to the alter-ego and got a lower price plus some cashback to boot.
Last three times, including just this week, the quote has been much cheaper than previous year and unbeatable. £180 this time for two named drivers full cover.
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Honda Jazz/Fit - Insurance increases. - smokie
