A month ago I insured an additional car ( Subaru BRZ) with no available NCD to apply and was pleasantly surprised to get it for £313 from Darwin, of whom I had never heard.
Today my renewal for the Outlander came from QuoteMeHappy, £400, which was well up on the £351 they charged me last year.
Went to Moneysupermarket.com for comparisons, Darwin was the cheapest at £278 with £500 total excess legal cover, courtesy car, and 17 years NCD. 5 Star policy.
Cancelled the renewal with QMH, whose online portal then dropped their renewal offer by 20% to £320.
QMH is owned by Aviva.
Darwin is owned by Direct Line Group which is owned by Aviva
So after about two hours faffing about (because Darwin makes you have separate portal accounts for each policy) I have moved from Aviva to Aviva and saved 30% of my premium.
Nil carborundum.
My two Darwin policies also include driving other cars (not limited to service loan cars) which seems to have disappeared from a lot of policies.
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VAG own various car companies all with different prices / strategies / target customers etc, similar with Stellantis. Ins companies no different in that respect.
Though the main difference is the actual product, the majority of us have set criteria and then just go with the cheapest quote at the time. We tend not to have brand loyalty in insurance like we might have with car makers.
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Good point Bobby.
A few years ago (2021) they were obliged to stop offering new customers a better deal than existing ones. However - this only applies to the specific channel through which they bought the existing policy. This is a massive opportunity for them to do what they have always done and hook new customers through other channels at better rates. Specific channel means for example the same comparison site that you used when you took the original policy out. QMH wasn't on the comparison site I used.
I honestly can't remember how I took out the first QMH policy on the Outlander but it's pretty clear that they are still 'tuning' premiums, also known as 'price walking' customers. I wouldn't be surprised to find that they keep changing the products offered to new customers too, like the energy companies who keep exiting customers on old tariffs that are no longer available.
Although I suspect Darwin and QMH might still be siloed from each other, Aviva is probably being quite smart about this. I think I had a win (and I did) but what actually happened is that they tried it on and although that didn't work, they still kept the customer.
As I am now looking after 4 cars I have just created a spreadsheet for recording all the premiums, renewal dates, quote-seeking dates, service dates, MoT dates, and VED dates - I nearly missed the Outlander's MoT last year. As it was I had to park it for a nearly a week while waiting for the earliest appointment.
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The Boss's Mazda 2 Hybrid insurance renews on 28 August. Quotemehappy were at £463 last year (their adjusted figure after a car change) and just offered a renewal at £487.
Ran it through Moneysupermarket.com - after a couple of cheaper telematics policies Darwin won with £331 including protected NCD and legal cover.
Cancelled QMH from renewal. They offered to knock £70 off, still £86 away.
That's 3 cars with Darwin now. MX-5 is with QMH, it was only £194 last year. Comes up in 7 weeks. Be interesting to see what they do with that.
It's quite satisfying saving £156. They really do try to walk you up the hill.
Darwin is a new name to me but they have been around a while.
www.insurancetimes.co.uk/news/dlg-owned-darwin-hits-customer-milestone-by-doing-motor-differently/1446226.article
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I renewed mine recently, all the quote engines came up with Darwin who I don't ever remember featuring before.
In the end renewed with Hastings as they managed to get within a smidge of the others for slightly better cover.
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Likewise…renewed last week with Hastings Direct on their ‘app policy’. Aviva wanted £350, up from £280, and ran figures through a comparison site and was quoted £233.
£125 total excess, 90 days allowed pa in EU.
No sign of Darwin insurance on the comparison site.
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As above, I have moved 3 car insurances from QMH to Darwin in the last 3 months. A fourth is coming up on 22/9, for the MX-5. Last year with QMH it was £194. The renewal offer is £274, which I don't need a calculator to see is a 40%+ increase.
Another comparison session I think.
Meanwhile, I have had a communication from Darwin in relation to one of the earlier policies giving me notice that the insurer will change from Darwin to Aviva. I've stopped trying to work out what is going on.
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£234 with Churchill, another UKI/Direct Line company.
Shortly after I pulled the trigger, I thought I had shot myself in the foot. QMH cover extends to Europe on their 'comprehensive plus' policy which I have. Churchill only covers third party for European use unless you add a third party extension. Before I cancelled the policy I'd just taken out (this car is going to Spain next month) I checked the cost online. For a month it was £7.34.
Worth noting however that not all policies give full cover in Europe. Darwin doesn't cover it without an extension either.
Last edited by: Manatee on Fri 28 Aug 26 at 12:13
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I’d never heard of Darwin so I stuck my details in their portal . There I hit an oddity. I’ve not been asked for the specific date I passed my test for more than 50 years. I had to guess and it will be out by a few months either way and could presumably invalidate the policy if they get picky.
Also their basic cover doesn’t include Europe, other cars, windscreen and legal and when you add those on it’s not going to offer much, if any, saving assuming LV October renewal comes in close to last year’s price.
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My new Hastings Direct policy ( previously Aviva) gives me up to 90 continuous days per trip in the EU. I have confirmed that it is per trip, not a max of 90 days per annual
policy which I could exceed.
That’s with a total excess of £125 ( zero voluntary excess) but £135 excess for windscreen replacement.
Think it’s about £235 with 9 years NCD, their maximum, and mileage restricted to 10k pa which is very close to my anticipated mileage….6k on the continent, 4k in UK where i use buses & trains wherever possible.
Last edited by: legacylad on Sat 29 Aug 26 at 23:12
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>> I’ve not been asked for the specific date I passed my
>> test for more than 50 years. I had to guess and it will be out
>> by a few months either way and could presumably invalidate the policy if they get
>> picky.
If you have a photo licence it's likely to be on the reverse in column 10 as a start date for entitlement to drive. Mine is 26/05/1977.
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Mine says <21.07.76 in column 10.
The day before my birthday .28 in column 11.
118 in column 12.
Woss all that mean?
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Column 10 is the license start date/date enttlement to drive the category in column 9 commenced.
For me that was when I passed my test. As I was 17 in 1977 my license was issued by DVLA from the get go.
When answering the question about not recalling the date I'd not contemplated the case of people whose licences were issued by the Council before local government reform in the seventies. My Mothers was a red booklet issued by the West Riding.
It may be that for people in that catgory column 10 is the date their first DVLA licence was issued.
Day before birthday in column 11 relates to expiry at 70 and at intervals thereafter.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 30 Aug 26 at 08:18
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I had forgotten about local government reform, I had assumed the date in 1976 was when licences went from paper to card.
Brompy. I am surprised at you. You being a civil servant an all.
Write out 100 times.
License is the verb.
Licence is the noun.
The thing we should carry with us when we are driving is a licenCe.
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Column 10 is a start date for the category of vehicle you are licenced from.
In my case Column 22/10/76
It is not the date you passed your test. I passed my Car Test 22/09/1964 - the date in Column 10 in my case is probably the date of my 1st photo licence
Column 11 is the date your licence expires - In my case, being an oldie the date is 1 day before my 82 birthday, renewal due to give me another 3 years on the road!
For younger drivers it is the end of the 10 year licence life and the need for licence to be renewed.
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>> In my case Column 22/10/76
>> It is not the date you passed your test. I passed my Car Test 22/09/1964
>> - the date in Column 10 in my case is probably the date of my
>> 1st photo licence
In my case it's the date I passed my test or possibly, where some vehicles had a min age above 17, the date on which that age was hit.
As alluded to in my reply to Duncan I suspect that for those whose licences were issued by Local Authorities the date on which, having expired, that licence was replaced by one issued by DVLC - as it then was.
Those were printed on paper. I still have one issued when we moved to our current address in 1998.
The credit card sized photo licence came along much later.. I've had a one 0f those since around 2012.
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>> In my case Column 22/10/76
>> It is not the date you passed your test. I passed my Car Test 22/09/1964
>> - the date in Column 10 in my case is probably the date of my
>> 1st photo licence
>>
I suspect it's more likely the issue date of the first (green?) paper licence (replacing the little red booklet). I hung on to my pink paper licence until fairly recently (when 70 dictated renewal) so it's not that date for me.
I think photocard licences were introduced in the late '90s.
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Mine also shows <14.05.76 in col 10. It implies that the start date for the category was before that date (and they didn't transfer the record?)
Bromp has explained col 10, it's the date at which the category expires/must be renewed.
The codes are explained here:
www.gov.uk/driving-licence-codes
Expanding the explanation, driving licence code 118 means that the start date shown next to a specific vehicle category on your licence is actually the date you first gained that earliest entitlement, rather than a new renewal or upgrade date.
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Am I the only person here with an old paper licence?
A few months back I hired a carpet cleaner. The member of staff was a girl in her twenties who was mildly flummoxed when I produced the paper licence as ID. Older (male) colleague explained what it was.
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Mrs A still has a paper licence. Google says 4.7m are still in use.
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>> Am I the only person here with an old paper licence?
Does it have a red pasteboard cover?
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"Does it have a red pasteboard cover?"
No. But it still lives in the plastic wallet supplied with it. It dates from 1999 when we moved to the current address.
My wife only moved to a plastic one fairly recently when forced to by Vinted. They wouldn't release funds without photo ID. Despite several attempts to tell them she didn't have any, they insisted it was the law to have it. AI at work :(
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We are arranging a visit for the car club to a museum on an MoD site. We need to supply details for 'vetting' and provide photo ID. The club coordinator does not have any valid photo ID. He only has a paper driving licence and his passport is expired.
We might as well just bring in ID "cards" and have done with it.
On the European cover - yes I tripped myself up. At least 2 of the 4 cars are unlikely to go abroad. And £a charge of £7.34 is trivial. I've still saved over £200 so only my pride is hurt. I have legal cover and protected NCD on all the policies.
I'm surprised however. They were all Defaqto 5 star which reassured me enough not to read the policy detail before buying.
On the plus side, Churchill and Darwin both include "driving other cars" (RTA only) which QMH did not - it only covered me for service loan cars. Driving other cars is quite useful for me.
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>> The club coordinator
>> does not have any valid photo ID. He only has a paper driving licence and
>> his passport is expired.
Bus pass?
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>> Bus pass?
M & S Bank won't accept this as a for of photo ID.
I'm trying to sort out and help with my mum's finances. She's never been abroad, so no passport, and never driven, so no driving licence either.
M & S are being a right PITA and insist they are the only types of photo ID they'll accept.
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What about the photo ID the council will issue for voting?
I think this is an M&S, or even M&S on line problem.
Moneyhelper has information here: www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/blog/savings/how-to-beat-id-issues-when-opening-a-bank-account
HMG's own information suggests it's possible without phpto ID at least for 'basic' accounts: send-money-to-prisoner.service.gov.uk/en-gb/help/setup-basic-bank-account/ Ignore the bit about prison - it's just the context for the information.
Pretty sure when I was at CA we had information on banks that would deal with homeless applicants and other 'difficult' groups.
Regulation around ID is so tight that some groups are excluded from access to service. I had a firend who was a solicitor, she's now deceased, who told of an eledelry lady recently widowed who needed advice. Never had a passport, no driving licence - husband had driven. Sje was taken on as a client on grounds that denying the facility was totally egregiuos. SRA rules were by passed.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Wed 2 Sep 26 at 11:24
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>> What about the photo ID the council will issue for voting?
She does postal voting, so doesn't need photo ID for that.
As she's now in a care home, and I have Power of Attorney, I'm hoping things might be a bit easier going forward.
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>> >> Bus pass?
>>
>> M & S Bank won't accept this as a for of photo ID.
>>
>> I'm trying to sort out and help with my mum's finances. She's never been abroad,
>> so no passport, and never driven, so no driving licence either.
>> M & S are being a right PITA and insist they are the only types
>> of photo ID they'll accept.
>>
She could apply for a provisional licence.
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> Bus pass?
>>
>> M & S Bank won't accept this as a for of photo ID.
>>
They should accept her shotgun certificate.
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>> We are arranging a visit for the car club to a museum on an MoD
>> site. We need to supply details for 'vetting' and provide photo ID. The club coordinator
>> does not have any valid photo ID. He only has a paper driving licence and
>> his passport is expired.
Is it worth checking if the expired passport is OK?
As long as the person is recognisable from the photo DWP, for example, accept them for Universal Credit ID.
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I'll suggest it, I'm seeing him tomorrow.
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Just get him to ask whoever is sponsoring the visit on unit or if he wants to do it himself just ring the guardroom and ask.
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>> We are arranging a visit for the car club to a museum on an MoD
>> site. We need to supply details for 'vetting' and provide photo ID. The club coordinator
>> does not have any valid photo ID. He only has a paper driving licence and
>> his passport is expired.
Conclusion.
The club coordinator can't go on the trip.
Or
He renews his passport.
Or
He gets a new licence.
I can't be doing with people living in the previous millennium.
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Insurance Watch - QuoteMeHappy>>>Darwin - Bobby
