I've just had my renewal quote for next years car insurance which has made me look up what I paid in previous years for comparison
Same company, same car, same address, no change in my driving history/NCD and same cover (fully comp) etc
year 12-13 £134.69 year 13-14 £123.37 year 14-15 £108.46
It seems there are not many, if any, other bills which have gone down like this over time.
For comprehensive cover your same car is worth a lot less.
Your age has increased which may have taken you through a threshold for lower costs.
Check the small print for excess costs. You may find that a broken windscreen has a £1K excess and not the excess you had last year. Increasing excess amounts is a common trick to effectively remove many things from the insurance, both car and household, and reduce the insurance company risk.
Don't assume all the terms and conditions are the same with your renewal quote.
The vehicle will be 19 years old at the start of the new policy so I suspect has been at a point of minimal depreciation for each of the last
3 years. (First reg jan 1995) I have just turned 60 which might explain the large premium drop this year. Excesses appear to be the same, £75 glass, £100 fire & theft and £300 accident.So it does seem pretty like for like.
down like this over time.
This week's "Money Programme" on Radio 4 confirmed this.
Apart fromt he car getting older. I think they are desperate to keep customers that don't make claims. I bet you haven't made a claim in years. They can trace your claim history back a long time now, it is all pooled centrally.
The cost of claims these days is astronomical with all the administrative add ons. So if they can get people that don't claim, it's just a case of rake the cash in. Apart from accidents, many claims are down to carelessness by the owner.
Most accidents too. Having your own accident is usually carelessness. Good driving is about avoiding being involved in other peoples' accidents.
Nice to see the free market operating as it should. At some point the premium for new drivers has to come down if there are to be any middle aged drivers in 20 years time. Ban Top Gear I say, it's a bad influence on the kids. Go out with an ambulance crew and see what fast driving is really about
I understand there are three factors coming in to play at present:
(1) New EU equality laws force premiums for females to be the same as those for males. Since males have more accidents on average, this makes premiums come down especially for young males.
(2) The authorities are starting to get to grips with the rash of false claims for whiplash injuries and the like.
(3) There has in recent years been a substantial minority of drivers with no insurance at all: the use of number-plate recognition systems by the police has made it harder to carry that off without detection. Mind you the fines for driving without insurance are often lower than the cost of insurance, if you are a young, reckless male driver, so I gather that isn't always as effective as it might be.
Sorry - I meant "Moneybox"
No such thing as accidents these days, only collisions. ;-)
I say this only partly tongue in cheek. A couple of years ago our county (Wilts) were running a "driver improvement campaign", which my employer arranged to have visit our site. It was essentially a 1 hour presentation where retired policemen, firemen and do gooders showed pictures of horrific accidents and said "Don't drive too fast", "Don't drink and drive", "Don't drive when tired" and "Don't try and impress you mates when you are only 17 years old"
The only thing I learnt from the presentation is that the term "Road Traffic Accident" has now been superseded by "Road Traffic Collision" as there is no such thing as an accident.
This is apparently a big deal.
First of all legal firms have to deduct costs from damages now. So the sort of few hundred quid claims are not being picked up by them.
I THINK there is also tighter requirements on evidence of actual injury and so on. And in a thousand up case its worthwhile sending a bloke with a video camera round to spot defendants 'maimed and unable to work, m'lud' playing football on tin the park.
I heard that too.
Or let them all have free go kart racing and get it out of their systems.
I always used to drive impeccably after an hour of spins crashes and wheel banging on the track.
good for sharpening up reflexes and skid control too.
Yep, what the point in paying loads of money for insurance on an old banger that is only worth a few hundred quid, same with road tax, MOT... Get caught they'll take the motor off you and slap your wrists possibly a small fine. ANPR should flag up all those missing bits of paper so as you say detection rates have probably got quite high.
The insurance companies are also catching up with the repairers and hire car companies charging more than they really justify for the services they provide.
The value of the car maze zero difference to your quote (at least for cars that you can insure for 100 quid)
The third party claims that you might make are exactly the same regardless of the value of your car
I'd rather ban the Daily Mail. But then, what would bigots like you have to do on Sunday mornings then?
Don't worry - the insurance industry has come up with a scheme to stop you checking what rate a new customer would get and then negotiating your renewal fee down - that comes in during next year. No quote will be given until you supply your drivers license number, as part of an agreement they've struck up with the government.
My wife's car got to the point where I thought I could stand the risk of not having it insured, so I asked about 3rd party only. It made almost no difference.
Andy
You're welcome to ban the Daily Mail. I only look at the pictures anyway.
Just checked again how much it'd cost me to insure a few different small cars; cheapest quote I had was just over £2000. I've had my driving licence for around 9 months now but still can't afford to run a car - well not without being broke all the time. The good thing is, I have access to a company car which I do use weekly so I still get practice.
And the insurance company will have access to the number of points on the licence, including those that may have expired. Premiums will be adjusted instantly based on this information.
Information on MOT failures will be used to determine on how the car is maintained.
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