OT Car insurance Bloody crooks

[harry]

Bloody Crooks! Car insurance was due for Roller. (Lancaster, specialises in heritage cars) Was quoted by post and Email £135 (This was up by £30 on last year). WHY? So went on line, (Gocompare) spent ages filling in details and pressed the button. GUESS WHAT? Came up with same insurance company but £86!!!!???

Two minutes later phone rings. Lancaster insurance. They didn't realise I was an existing customer. Needless to say we had a row and insurance price was revised down. SO (1) Amazing how the spy network/links work (they were ringing me in minutes of pressing get quote button. (2) It pays to go on comparison site or you'll get ripped off.

[GB]

You have my sympathy on this. The insurers are so fixated on getting new business, rather than retaining old business, that they give a large discount to new business in the first year whilst hiking up the premiums for existing customers to pay for it.

I'm with the Coop, and they offer a substantially lower premium if I sign up again with them online compared to if I simply renew. Aviva are half the price if I transfer to them, but no doubt it will shoot up next year.

[Chris J Dixon]

I moved back to Aviva again last year, as they offered me a good deal, and this year's renewal is actually even less. ;-)

Chris

[NY]

I was with Direct Line for many years and just paid whatever was quoted for renewal. Then someone suggested I threaten to go elsewhere and see what revised quote they come up with. I did this and they reduced quite a lot (a couple of hundred pounds) but I found that another company gave me an even cheaper quote - and I checked that the benefits (eg protected no-claims, legal fees etc) were the same in both cases.

The Direct Line person sounded embarrassed when I asked why they'd been able to reduce their quote when I asked them, but initially quoted higher, and admitted that they wanted to attract new business.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You could have posted the same thing each year since comparison sites started. About virtually anything.

I don't bother with a specialist insurer for an old car. Too many restrictions. Agreed value may seem worthwhile - but what are the chances of a total loss anyway? And I've yet to hear of anyone personally who's had the agreed value paid out.

[alan_m]

I made the mistake once by putting my real phone number in a compare insurance site. My answerphone took around 40 calls the week after!

All insurance companies penalise you by around 20 to 30% if you show any loyalty.

[alan_m]

Be careful with reductions on renewal.

The sneaky trick is to change the excess amounts by a large amount upwards, especially glass (broken/chipped windscreen etc). Don't assume that the proposed new policy is the same as the old

There may be a reduction due to the age band you fallen into and another insurer may still have a cheaper policy for the same cover.

[tabbypurr]

utes of pressing get quote button.

Not car hire. Hiring direct was way cheaper than any comparison site

NT

[Bob Henson]

The RAC and the AA are as bad if not worse - in fact just about anyone who has annual renewals these days. The RAC are particularly good at selling your data to others. Quote Me Happy (Aviva's online only setup) have been one exception the last couple of year's - their renewal quotes have been reasonable. Personally, I think screwing existing customers amounts to fraud and would like to see "one price for all" enshrined in the Law.

[Chris J Dixon]

Fair comment, but everything looks OK right now.

Chris

[Chris J Dixon]

As I'm sure I have said here before, for me the stock answer on (relatively) small item insurance is quite simple.

The provider wants to sell cover on which they can turn a profit. Overall, therefore, they pay out less than they charge, and on average, so long as you can stand the potential loss, you are better off putting your money in a savings account and taking the chance.

When cold called by providers, I sometimes attempt to explain this simple concept, and am surprised how few appreciate the basic maths.

Chris

[harry]

I only insure things I couldn't afford to replace. (House) Or I legally have to. (Car)

[GB]

To be precise, you only have to insure 3rd party liabilities when you drive. You could not afford to self-insure bodily injury claims.

[T i m]

A quick haggle with the AA seems to result in a good discount ('I've been with you over 30 years and have only called you out how many times?'. ;-)

It would be 'discrimination' (new customers over old) at least wouldn't it?

Cheers, T i m

[Huge]

... which could easily be multiple millions of pounds.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes its just the same as everything else they will try it on first. Energy, telecoms and almost everything else till you query it. Brian

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

I seem to remember that there is a box you can tick/untick if you do not wish to be telephoned by a sales person.

[Bob Henson]

True, and that's what I do. I just go from one to the other if they won't give me the new customer price. For a couple of years the RAC have given me the reduced price and maybe now someone has marked my computer record because this year there was, for the first time, only a small increase anyway. I don't suppose for a minute it was just me - I guess after a few thousand people left each year they may have cottoned on to the fact that looking after existing customers costs less than paying staff to haggle. I'm not naive enough to think they care an s**t about customers though - the only thing they understand is lost profits.

I would have thought so - present Law should really suffice to stop it. However, like many other things, that would requires less PC, left-wing liberalism in the judiciary.

[bert]

Same with broadband etc. etc.

[tabbypurr]

don't forget running costs, legal costs, profit, advertising, tax, pensions... you're way better off uninsured in 99% of cases

I'm sure they all do

NT