I have just changed cars, from an 09 Ka to an 07 Focus convertible. I had to pay an extra £55 to up the insurance for the 6 months that it has to run, making an annual premium of £270.
Having nothing better to do I went to the Meerkat site and looked for an an annual quote and found a cheapest of £152 from Esure, a most expensive of £5492 from Acorn Insurance and there were 24 cheaper than my current quote. I expected there would be a range of quotes but I never thought iit could/would be that wide. Is this other members' experience when using these sites?
|
Absolutely. It's always worth doing a comparison check before renewing insurance. The highest quotes can go right off the scale. I've had ones up in the tens of thousands and then more that won't even quote at all. Then at the low end something like your £152.
Watch it with house insurance too. They get you settled with automatic renewal and then push the premiums up every year, relying on most people being too lazy to check.
I recently asked RIAS why they were quoting £540 renewal whereas I could get a quote from the same company (L&G) online for £210. The answer was "mark up" !
So I went for AXA at £182.
|
|
Thanks Cliff. I have just checked my partner's quotes for a 7 years old 1.4 206 auto, garaged and it is is £280. She is urban and I am country but that is almost twice what I am being quoted for a 2 litre Focus. It is an enduring mystery which makes my brain hurt, a lot!
|
|
She lives in Bracknell, nuff said.
|
>> I had to pay an extra £55 to up the insurance for the 6 months that it has to run,
And probably half of that was for the admin charge for the change of vehicle.
|
|
No, there was £10 more for the admin.
|
>> £152 from Esure
Translation: We love you and wish to have your babies.
>> £5492 from Acorn Insurance
Translation: We strongly suspect that you are actually a psychopath in his early twenties, who has shoehorned a Cosworth V8 into his car and is considering investing in a set of Carlos Fandango superwide wheels.
|
>> >> £5492 from Acorn Insurance
Is that the same people who ran Acorn Antiques?
|
I took out house and contents insurance with Privilege last year at £199 for the full shebang. Very good value. It did go up to £237 this year but still worthwhile.
But what did make me angry, even though I renewed the policy, was the fact that Privilege, apart from the automatic renewal approach, informed me that it would cost around £27 to stop carrying on the policy.
It's the first time I've come across an insurance company charging you (or attempting to do so) if you cancel a policy. I'd cancel the annual direct debit mandate long before that could happen...:-)
|
>> >> £5492 from Acorn Insurance
>>
>> Translation: We strongly suspect that you are actually a psychopath in his early twenties, who
>> has shoehorned a Cosworth V8 into his car and is considering investing in a set
>> of Carlos Fandango superwide wheels.
Or more likely: We don't want or need this business. Here's a stupid price. Go away.
Although that is a spectacularly silly price. I normally get a few well into four figures, but >£5k is pretty impressive. :-)
|
>> investing in a set of Carlos Fandango superwide wheels.
The third or fourth reply contains the original Carlos Fandango advert.
www.rodsnsods.co.uk/forum/chat/carlos-fandango-real-person-who-he-anyone-know-26943
|
My L&V auto renewal notice came through, up from £570 to £605. I have as extras European breakdown with generous expenses covered, business use, 30k miles pa, £100k legal expenses, loan car, NCD protection.
Off to meerkat inc and similar experience to OP from £200 to £4,000 for almost identical cover but I couldn't add business use on the online system. Rang up to buy from HSBC but on checking business use this wasn't covered and would add £300 to a quote of £200. Ended up with M and S Insurance for £450 like for like. No cuddly toy yet.
|
|
Did you ask LV if they would match your subsequent M&S quote?
|
It's easy to get the impression that insurance quotes only work one way - ie upwards, whatever you want to do.
But once in a while the quirks of the statistics-based assessment criteria throw up quotes in the customer's favour:
I discovered that it was much cheaper to insure my 17 year old daughter on a 20 year old Volvo 240 with a 2.3 litre engine than it was with a sensible little Peugeot with 1.4 litres.
Presumably no 17 year old would ever be seen dead driving an old brick fifteen feet long, so no one has ever had an accident.
I also found the joys of adding multiple classic cars to the same policy. It costs the same £104 pa however many cars I have. Even with 2 named drivers, unlimited mileage, and commuting.
|
|
Good points Cliff. I love "Statistics-based Assessment criteria" BTW! Very Sir Humphrey!
|
I wondered how long it would be before someone followed up with a link to that...;-)
|
Wide range of Insurance quotes - Cliff Pope
