The Avensis has been insured with LV for a number of year, as has our other vehicle giving us a supposed additional 10% discount. I have been very please with the service I have received from them up to now so have stayed with them, accepting a modest increase on renewing.
The other vehicle, a Yaris, was due for renewal a month or two back. A quick online check showed they were out by about £40, a sum worth worrying about. I tried to phone but was number X in the queue and got fed up with waiting, so they lost the opportunity for that business.
The Avensis renewal has come through this morning. Up from £287 to £315. I have of course lost the notional 10% discount which may not have helped. A quick search shows John Lewis at £220 the cheapest.
I am quite happy with the thought of switching to JL, and saving £95. Interesting to note that LV did not quote on the two comparison sites I visited, the second of which offered the JL policy for £250. As ever, it pays to shop around.
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A family member is with LV, and had her renewal quote last week. It had come down a tenner from the previous year.
I'm also with LV. Mine had gone up from £275 to £330.
I used the topcashback comparison website to get quotes - LV were quoted, at £304.
Preferring to talk to them, I rang Monday, long queue, gave up.
I rang Tuesday at 9am, they answered instantly, and happily matched the £304. If I'd pushed perhaps I'd have got more, but hey.
I stick with LV based on my experience of an accident in my Zoe about four years ago, when someone drove into the back. LV dealt with it really well I thought, with no delays, fast response on the phone, lots of info, they paid out with no hassle, including the excess, and so on. I can only hope that level of service is still applicable if something else happens.
Even the cheapest quote online was about £260, with some unknown to me insurer. For the extra £45 LV wanted I'll stick with what I know. Avoiding the potential stress of some manky insurer arguing the toss about everything and being really slow is worth the money.
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Just signed up with LV online - no problems at all.
Reason for change from RIAS - they tried to increase my renewal premium by £100 - 45%. LV were £60 less than the renewal offer, and are also Which magazine top of the pops so no contest.
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I am with LV too. We must all fit a certain demographic! I usually find they are not much more than comparison sites but they are well out for my wife’s car. She is with Direct Line.
LV included “free” European cover which annoys me as nothing is free. As I don’t use it I subsidise those who do. I am not sure if they still include it as it is a bargain for those who need such cover.
I will run a comparison at renewal time in October but hope LV are still competitive as they are well regarded.
Last edited by: martin aston on Wed 30 Jun 21 at 15:14
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>> LV included “free” European cover
I recently helped the driver of a broken down car who had "free RAC European cover" with his Aviva policy. When he phoned for rescue, the RAC told him it doesn't cover the UK, only the EU!
Last edited by: Manatee on Wed 30 Jun 21 at 15:20
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I have Skoda Assist that all Skodas have for the first three years. That covers Europe as well as the UK, apparently. As did my Ford breakdown cover and my Volvo one before that.
The Ford and Volvo ones were "free" as long as you had a main dealer service.The Skoda one is not, but at £99 a year it's pretty competitive for the cover provided.
Do most manufacturers offer such a thing I wonder, for newer cars? Anyway, the point is whatever the insurer offers may well be double cover and not needed.
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I certainly agree with the positive comments about LV. I had a stupid self inflicted accident a couple of years ago, not too expensive but worthwhile claiming. Their Service was excellent.
I’ll swap this time but would hope to return to the LV fold next year. I do rather think I have Somehow slipped out of their target market unfortunately. Yes, demographics I fear,
I have breakdown cover with my bank account, Nationwide Flexplus. We originally swapped to them not for the breakdown cover but the travel insurance. It costs a few pounds each month but there is an offset with interest earned on the balance. It’s worth doing the sums if you need breakdown, travel and mobile phone cover.
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>> I certainly agree with the positive comments about LV.
Both wife and I, and our oldest daughter, are insured with LV=.
I wasn't impressed by how they handled no-fault write off of daughter's car a couple of years ago Owned from new and "no expense spared" on maintenence, cambelt, Cross-Climate tyres etc, it had a bit of a bump in the back. Repairer said they'd fix it then next thing daughter gets a message saying cheque's in the post and we're coming for the courtesy car - as she lives in a rural area she'd be stuck.
For the valuation they used a similar car in Autotrader that had obviously been mis-priced to make it appear top of the seach results. They did agree to extend the hire car for a week and upped the value from 5K to £5,500 but stone-walled any further discusssion. I genuinely think £6K would have been fair, and even that is quite a bit less than it was worth to us - it was one of the last of the fairly 'basic' cars, with manual handbrake etc and we'd have kept it for many years.
Someone on another forum wanted the car and LV weren't co-operative, insisting it had already gone to Copart, when it turned out it hadn't. I thought someone had knabbed it as it would have been an easy fix, but it did eventually show up there, oddly quite a long time later.
And both wife and I premiums went up this year - mine for the first time for years, her's has been steadily creeping up. I did call about wife's and again (seems to be a theme in my experience) they stone-walled any suggestion of a reduction based on other quotes. I'm reluctant to mess around with wife's cover as both the kids are on there with full business use, which I understand is unusual.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Thu 1 Jul 21 at 16:29
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There used to be only a limited number of insurers who would insure my Vauxhall Ampera. I was with More Than for a few years then switched to Direct Line two years ago, who I've used many times previously and have always been good with claims.
Last year's renewal was something like £240 but a call got it down to £220, which was less than I'd paid the previous year. The renewal has come through today and it is now £236.
Comparethemarket tells me the AA will insure me, with better cover (courtesy car and foreign travel and a lower excess) for £195.
Bye Direct Line... I'm not even going to give them a chance this year as even if they matched it the cover simply isn't as good.
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>> I have Skoda Assist that all Skodas have for the first three years. That covers
>> Europe as well as the UK, apparently. As did my Ford breakdown cover and my
>> Volvo one before that.
>>
>> The Ford and Volvo ones were "free" as long as you had a main dealer
>> service.The Skoda one is not, but at £99 a year it's pretty competitive for the
>> cover provided.
>>
>> Do most manufacturers offer such a thing I wonder, for newer cars?
SEAT is 2yrs included then renews free upon dealer service. VW is one year only, then you pay.
If you're keeping the car you then "All In" might be worth a look - VW, SEAT and Skoda are all offering it and it includes service, MOT, Assist and Warranty. www.skoda.co.uk/owners/all-in-service-plan
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That's very interesting, thanks for that. My Octavia isn't 3 until January, so not eligible just yet, but I'll look to see if that is still available then.
Mind you, I configured a new one yesterday. I was disappointed to discover the lovely little economic 1.0 engine I have is no longer available. It has to be a minimum of a 1.5 with an official mpg of 53, which is way under what I get in the real world now. Progress, eh.
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>> Mind you, I configured a new one yesterday. I was disappointed to discover the lovely
>> little economic 1.0 engine I have is no longer available.
It's available on the lower trim levels. It's obviously not befitting of being placed in the upper level models! :)
Daughter has it in her Ateca and even in that it goes well. I notice the power has dropped a little now though - 110PS where it used to 115PS.
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Ah, I had discounted the SE as not having adaptive cruise, so started with the SE Tech, which I currently have, as it has that feature. Only to find the new ones no longer do. So I had to get to the SEL.
Which meant after some extra just because I was playing options it was nigh on 30k.
I bought mine at a year old and it was under 13k, just for comparison.
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Toyota Avensis - Insurance renewal - Crankcase
