I won’t name my current car insurer, with whom I have Brian ( the slow Focus), but today I decided to trawl the comparison, and other, insurers to get a quote for the new motor.
My current policy expires next June, and for changing from a cheap runaround to a mega expensive motor, the cost to upgrade, over 8 months, was £69.
They’d never heard of GAP insurance, which some policies include for either 12 or 24 months
I obviously thought this was incorrect, so I went through all the info again with the person on the other end of the phone, and was told it was a correct figure. The only proviso is that it must have a Tracker fitted... but even so.
The cheapest online, after trawling through 4 comparison sites, without Tracker, , was £440 ish, with total excess of £800, including a voluntary £500
The non comparison site insurers, LV, Aviva & Direct Line were all a few hundred more.
I need to call back tomorrow once I’ve sorted a suitable Tracker and see if the excess has moved upwards from the original Focus policy
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LV= and Aviva (Quoteme happy) are usually on comparison sites (for me anyway).
I usually try moneysupermarket.com last.
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QuotemeHappy were the cheapest on all 4 comparison sites on MSE. I tried Aviva separately... I I didn’t know they were the same company.
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Aviva underwritten, but online interface only..... (the online interface isn't bad, but only a claim will reveal if there are any issues)
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A friend of mine traded his Citroen DS3 diesel against a Mercedes C63 estate and his insurance came down, for reasons no one seemed to understand. Not that he minded.
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Aviva's policy terms are usually worth paying a bit extra for, I am not sure if Quotemehappy feature the same terms though they certainly don't enable 1to1 contact, it's all on line.
I'm paying about £280 with Aviva for the M135i as I recall which includes all the usual extras, except for breakdown cover which is within the warranty, and also includes business cover for both my wife and myself.
Insurance does not have to be expensive for sporty cars once you are considered to be mature - as opposed to mild, medium or vintage ;-)
EDIT: My excess in about £250 IIRC, I'd shop around LL.
Last edited by: Hard Cheese on Tue 3 Oct 17 at 11:03
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Aviva beat the best quote I got from comparison sites (including Quote-Me-Happy) by over £100 this year. I even felt the need to call them and verify all the details to make sure I hadn't made a mistake.
I know I'm the wrong side of 40 now, but even I didn't expect to insure an M140i on 15k a year with business use, upgrade courtesy car and protected NCB for £390. Everyone else coming in around the £500-£550 mark, and the renewal quote was £590.
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Similar experiences DP.
I was going to add - I haven't done this, it's kind of counterintuitive though some say that you premium may reduce if you say that the car will be parked in the street rather than in a driveway because when a car is on a drive the scrotes know where to find the keys.
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>> I need to call back tomorrow once I’ve sorted a suitable Tracker>>
Probably best to get the Tracker fitted by the dealer so it's manufacturer approved.
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Yes. I’m doing that cheesy
I’ve received the amended insurance certificate & policy, and despite querying it with the insurer (twice) they still only required a further £69, which included the admin fee, for the remaining 8 months of the policy. And the total excess payable remains at £250.
The ‘only’ extra cost is the 4 year ‘ Vehicle Replacement Plus GAP’ insurance, so if it gets stolen within the next 4 years and not recovered, this policy pays out the difference between what my insurer pays out and getting me back into a brand new one at whatever the new list price is, and I’m pretty sure there will be annual price increases. That cost £378 FYI.
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I paid £283 last year with Aviva for the M135i with all the usual extras (except for breakdown cover which is included in the warranty) as well as business cover for my wife and myself.
Just got the renewal, £309, happy with that.
OK, it's a 12% increase though I am not going to shop around for £26 and the Aviva cover is good.
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Bike insurance has just come through from Carol Nash.
£125 last year.
£124 this year.
This will be the 1st time ever that I've not had to phone them up to haggle a cheaper deal. They usually increase it by £30 to £50, but then match last years price (or thereabouts) after phoning them.
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>> This will be the 1st time ever that I've not had to phone them up
>> to haggle a cheaper deal. They usually increase it by £30 to £50, but then
>> match last years price (or thereabouts) after phoning them.
>>
I fell out with CN a few years ago, after over 20 years as a loyal, but increasingly dissatisfied customer. As you are no doubt well aware, they've gone from being biker-focussed to just another provider with staff who clearly don't know one end of a motorcycle from t'other never mind the niceties of Stage 1 upgrades and the like.
Since all of mine now qualify as classics, I use Peter James as a broker. The only downside is that they keep standard office hours and don't open weekends, but the service so far has been excellent and their prices are highly competitive. I'd suspected that this might be offset by budget breakdown cover, but they use the AA, who in my experience are far superior to any of the others where bikes are concerned.
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I am new to personal car insurance renewals. I got my first one in January and my policy renewed yesterday.
Last years premium was £515 (including business use). The renewal was £483 - with the usual "look we are saving you money, don't go to the cheapest, they won't be as good" messages.
Did the searches on line and the same company for a better policy (foreign cover, equivalent courtesy car etc.) was £370!
Grrrrr!
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>> my policy renewed yesterday.
>> Grrrr
Cooling off period? Surely it can be changed/cancelled?
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You would have to check the policy. There will be a cooling off period for renewals. That will allow cancellation but there would be a charge for Time on Risk and normally an administration charge. Depending on the amount of that charge it may or may not be economic to cancel and replace with a new policy.
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Renewed mine and Mrs B's at end Jan. Stunning quotes on comparison sites from Admiral and associated companies but as soon as they knew I'd been on a speed awareness course they were only slightly better than incumbent, LV.
Direct Line looked good too but need you to tell them every time you take car abroad to retain full cover. Aside from proper holidays we often take caravan to Kent and day trip on ferry/shuttle so that hoop jump is just too easy to overlook.
More Than who Miss B, her Beau and his family all swear by gave me an eff off quote; close to £1k.
By time we'd sorted out a minor change for both Mrs and Miss B's occupations and factored in discount for both cars with LV and free foreign use without needing prior notification we stuck.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 6 Feb 18 at 21:33
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Our, or technically my wife's, car insurance is due next month,
Once upon time we had a quote from Saga, so we had a canvassing letter today suggesting they were such wonderful people that she (me really!) should get an updated quote.
Robbers!
Over £550.
Currently she/we are with Direct Line, with last years premium a tad over three hundred quid, which for a car of our value (no more than £5/700, trade) and given our low mileage was, I thought, more than enough.
I'll start proper research in a few days as quotes are only good for a month and our renewal is roughly the middle of March (I think).
I'll change for anything over £20 difference, or use a decent quote as a haggling tool. ;-0
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Grrr...
They did reduce it. Still sharp practice though!
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My renewal has just come through from LV.... few pounds over £200 for the BMW inc business use. £2 more than last year... not worth the effort to look any further. That's the third year running they haven't tried it on at renewal.
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It looks from my trawling of the usual sites, that Saga may be cheapest for home and contents at just under £90, We are with Saga for this cover at present, so I'll wait and see what their renewal premium is.
The fun bit is, as always, car insurance and the search for that is on next week
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>> The fun bit is, as always, car insurance and the search for that is on
>> next week
I simply put my stuff into Money Supermarket (or something) and one or two others. I don't normally take the cheapest, compare it with my renewal quote and Robert's your parent's male sibling.
I quite enjoy the fluff of working out if all my many convictions are now time lapsed.
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I had a few years with Saga until they were quite hard going when we were burgled a few years back. Then at renewal they put an unacceptable exclusion on burglary - something along the line that if entry were gained by the keys being stolen from us they wouldn't pay out.
So back to Direct Line it was... they always seem competitive for me, and we have claimed for damage in the dim and distant past with no issues.
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Just renewed with Admiral Multi-car. They reduced it a bit when I grumbled at the initial quote. Their revised price was better than anything else I could find:
£1,500 for newly-licensed 17-year old son in his Citroen C3, and £1,000 in total for the other 4(!) cars.
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Oddly enough the renewal quote from Direct Line pooped through our letterbox today.
Having looked around,earier, the usual suspect's comparisons were coming out round the £330 mark.
I was pleasantly surprised that the DL renewal was £306, which looking at last year's figure (conveniently given on the new quote) was only a hike of £30. (I'd mis-remembered last year's cost)
Fair does, to DL, I thought, I'll renew.
I phoned them and after a friendly chat I asked (very nicely) if they could improve the quote and immediately was rewarded by fifteen quid off.
Result!
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I think that this year is the first time that I have renewed our car and house insurance, rather than switching providers.
As I mentioned above, Direct Line car insurance was competitive with the renewal price and much to my surprise, our current brokers, Saga, were within three or four pounds of the best quotes from the comparison sites for the house and contents insurance.
Saga place the risk with Royal & Sun Alliance and from the information I saw, seem to levy a brokerage charge of £25. They break down the elements of the total cost, so it seems transparent enough. The total quote includes their fee.
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I think that from many posts on this subject there has been a sea change in Insurer’s renewal strategy and they are now offering much more competitive terms to existing customers. That has certainly been my experience for the last couple of renewals.
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CGN, not universally I am afraid. Our renewal came in at 20% increase with no changes to circumstances. We have secured alternative, better, cover for half this. Both are household names.
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Hmm.................
I've just had the annual renewal paperwork from Homeserve covering our boiler and central heating system. (Homeheat 200)
This year I've been paying £20.40 a month: the figure for the next 12 months is..................................... (wait for it).......................... £ 30.60 a month. (No claims this year)
A hike of nearly 50% is one of three things.
1) They are lunatics.
2) They are taking the urine.
3) They don't really want the business.
The search for a sensible quote starts now - I'm not feeling as though I even want to try and have a haggle with them - via Top Cashback, USwitch and the usual comparison sites.
Last edited by: Roger. on Mon 12 Mar 18 at 20:13
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From the AA site.
"We no longer provide quotes for boiler and home cover to new customers."
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Oh. Sorry, we took one out last year (fortunately as it turned out) we had a partial power failure knocked out a load of sockets. Electricians there within the hour and sorted it. Renewed with them since, especially as we were moving to a house that was an unknown quantity.
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Schemes like this are not really Insurance but are simply methods of funding the inevitable. Your boiler will break down eventually and your radiators will,spring a leak. As such such they are very expensive ways of budgeting and unlesss you really can’t put a bit by each month into a contingency fund ar best avoided.
Even your old premium seems hugely expensive to me.
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One of the problems is getting someone to come out in an emergency (never mind getting someone to want to price up and install a boiler in the first place) - maybe it's a sound investment for the technically inept (like me). Homeserve was one of two national firms who we tried. Failed at the first hurdle sadly, being unable to find the place (not that hard) and then at the second hurdle (a technically ignorant "surveyor') and then at the third hurdle of a hugely inflated price (end of rant)
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>> Schemes like this are not really Insurance but are simply methods of funding the inevitable.
>> Your boiler will break down eventually and your radiators will,spring a leak.
I was thinking much the same thing - pet insurance is similar. A friend of minewas complaining this evening that she had paid for eight years plus when the premium went up 50%, the excess doubled and the maximum payout was cut to 80% when the dog finally got ill and she claimed £1200.
Had she put the money away for 8 years she would probably have been better off.
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>> The search for a sensible quote starts now - I'm not feeling as though I
>> even want to try and have a haggle with them - via Top Cashback, USwitch
>> and the usual comparison sites.
>>
Don't bother (I suggest).
Put the money in a building Society (or similar) each month. Long term you will be better off.
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At one point we did have pet insurance and I was probably even at the end of the period because of claims we could make.
One lucky claim was due to a friendly vet we used. One cat had some problems with teeth (she didn't ever eat hard dried cat food which help clean teeth), so had some decay and broken teeth. Teeth needed removing but the vet wrote up the claim form so we could claim something.
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>> A hike of nearly 50% is one of three things.
>>
>> 1) They are lunatics.
>> 2) They are taking the urine.
>> 3) They don't really want the business.
Its a price worth paying. < snigger >
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The risk of needing to claim goes up as the pet ages. Obvious I know. So they gladly give you a cheap rate when they are not likely to need a claim. Approaching older years the premium goes up, the excess goes up, the percentage of what you can claim goes down.
Better to not bother and put the money to one side. Or just not bother at all if you can afford it.
I know of someone who's paid many thousands to keep a very old, poorly dog going because the family (wife) does not want to lose the dog. He's not well, blind, deaf and never was taken for regular walks. Tragic for that dog all his life.
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My dog, beloved as it is, has a price cap. Above that and its history. I can always get another.
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>> Better to not bother and put the money to one side. Or just not bother
>> at all if you can afford it.
Or do what we did and don't own a dog.
Offer to look after people's dogs when they are away - and charge them for it.
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Smart move Duncan.
We used to have three cats. One died a long time ago due to a road accident, next died from kidney failure and that one's mother lived for a lot longer. She had to be put down due to failing health but she was about 18 or was it 19.
We knew the older cat had thyroid issues but decided not to medicate her because she did not take to that. She lived at least another 4 years happily with us instead of longer and us having to stress her each day and take her to the vets twice a year for tests.
Our current solution (although we did it when we had the cats) was to 'adopt' one when in Greece :-) Or Spain for that matter.
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Me previous dog wasn't insured. Lived fer 15 years. If e'e got ill I fixed 'im, like.
Two present dawgs, both from KC ass-ured breeders (££££!) ain't insured, both bin ill in the 3 years I've Adam.
Mendem meself like I does when I gets ill. Broken bones is another thing of course, but there's always 'no more nails' I 'spose.
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>>>I know of someone who's paid many thousands to keep a very old, poorly dog going because the family (wife) does not want to lose the dog. He's not well, blind, deaf and never was taken for regular walks.<<<
Maybe if he went for regular walks with his wife he would not be as ill? :)
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>>
>> >> A hike of nearly 50% is one of three things.
>> >>
>> >> 1) They are lunatics.
>> >> 2) They are taking the urine.
>> >> 3) They don't really want the business.
>>
>> Its a price worth paying. < snigger >
>>
Buffoon.
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>> >> A hike of nearly 50% is one of three things.
>> >>
>> >> 1) They are lunatics.
>> >> 2) They are taking the urine.
>> >> 3) They don't really want the business.
>>
>> Its a price worth paying. < snigger >
>>
Most likely a sound commercial decision which is presumably what you mean? They get to keep the 8 years premiums, instead of collecting another few hundred and then paying out several thousand when the old dog inevitably gets poorly.
The pattern with my dog-owning acquaintances seems to be that even when the dog gets something very serious or perhaps even terminal, if there is insurance then expensive treatments are given in its final weeks - enough to wipe out years of premiums in some cases. That's how insurance works of course, but unless and until pet policies are written like more like human term or whole life cover the premiums won't be affordable when the risk is at its highest.>>
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Well, surprisingly, British Gas has won on price and being a good, known, entity.
We have used them in the past with good service No excess on the Homecare 2 plan, which includes an annual service, for just a bit over eighteen quid a month.
Last edited by: Roger. on Wed 14 Mar 18 at 17:10
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Not quite sure! I'm waiting for the documentation.
There's an offer on the website, but that's with an excess. Without an excess it goes up a bit.
Last year and the previous year, we had no repairs, but the year before that, having no excess saved us a good bit. Nearly all the internal bits of the combi boiler were replaced over a good few calls. I'm rather doubtful if they would have treated that as one incident. (Funnily enough, by British Gas, who had the cover then!)
Last edited by: Roger. on Wed 14 Mar 18 at 20:19
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Insurance...so what’s the catch? - Manatee
