Car Insurance!

Well that was like pulling teeth!

The Mk4 is up for its 3rd year of insurance and what a PITA!

My current insurer wanted over £800 (!!) and comparison websites were returning quotes 700+, except for Morethan who were mid-500s, but after actioning the quote and then calling them to note the Dashcam and steel wheels, they came back and said their system wouldn't let them insure my car with the steel rims! Told them what other insurers did and questioned how they would handle having winter tyres on steel rims, but they wouldn't budge and basically said I'd have to put the 17's back on or the policy wouldn't cover me

My last 2 insurers couldn't even add steel rims as a modification as they didn't have an option for it, and their policies stated they only needed to know about modifications that increased the performance or value of the car, so they just noted it with no change to the premium in the notes on their system. Don't know why Morethan have such a weird policy... if anything I should get a discount for having steel rims!!

Direct Line wanted over £900 (!) and Toyota wouldn't even give me a quote via their on-line form (Didn't bother calling them), but by a curious twist of fate I have ended up with Adrian Flux!

Initially their quote was very high too (>£700) but after I accepted and then cancelled the policy with MoreThan, I called them back a few days later and discovered they'd had a cheaper quote for me come back in the mean time (~£530), just hadn't told me about it like they said they would, so it's a good thing I called back!

I think from now on I'll call them first then let the quote stew for a few days while I try all the others, then call back and see if they got any lower ones...

Alas having a Dashcam or being a member of this club didn't attract any discount on my policy with them tho'!

19 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Well that was like pulling teeth!

The Mk4 is up for its 3rd year of insurance and what a PITA!

My current insurer wanted over £800 (!!) and comparison websites were returning quotes 700+, except for Morethan who were mid-500s, but after actioning the quote and then calling them to note the dashcam and steel wheels, they came back and said their system wouldn't let them insure my car with the steel rims! Told them what other insurers did and questioned how they would handle having winter tyres on steel rims, but they wouldn't budge and basically said I'd have to put the 17's back on or the policy wouldn't cover me

My last 2 insurers couldn't even add steel rims as a modification as they didn't have an option for it, and their policies stated they only needed to know about modifications that increased the performance or value of the car, so they just noted it with no change to the premium in the notes on their system. Don't know why Morethan have such a weird policy... if anything I should get a discount for having steel rims!!

Direct Line wanted over £900 (!) and Toyota wouldn't even give me a quote via their on-line form (Didn't bother calling them), but by a curious twist of fate I have ended up with Adrian Flux!

Initially their quote was very high too (>£700) but after I accepted and then cancelled the policy with MoreThan, I called them back a few days later and discovered they'd had a cheaper quote for me come back in the mean time (~£530), just hadn't told me about it like they said they would, so it's a good thing I called back!

I think from now on I'll call them first then let the quote stew for a few days while I try all the others, then call back and see if they got any lower ones...

Alas having a dashcam or being a member of this club didn't attract any discount on my policy with them tho'!

 

Cyker is your car in a high insurance group I just renewed my insurance £280 fully comprehensive including nationwide breakdown. Was it essential you had to mention the steel rims. 

That seems a bit steep, i didnt think that the mk4 was in such a high group, I suppose a 3-year-old car is currently worth not much less a new one and repair costs are high

its group 13-14 !! whereas the mk3 is 8-11

Being in London is on the high cost side, cost me around that for my MK3! Though it's on a business policy, so I expect more when I get the MK4 😞

That’s some insurance cost for for your car. Is it a sports model?

Think we need to move up north where insurance are sub £400 and can use winter/all season tyres 😉

Alas no it's not the sports one  Also nothing to do with insurance group or anything like that; Mojo called it - just the price of being in London, plus high miles and using it for work so with business insurance and other extras like guaranteed courtesy car! Oh and the epic price gouging of insurance companies this year apparently - Was £460 last year!!

The steel rims I think I have to mention as it's a fairly big change and I don't want to risk the insurance being invalidated for something so stupid, same with the dash cam.

TBH just being in the £500s isn't too bad - My Fiesta and first Yaris Mk1 were in the low £700s for most of their lives until I became an Old Person. It's been around the £500s generally, but the £700+ quotes I've gotten lately were just ridiculous. I dread to think what people who don't shop about end up paying!!

It is definitely a post code lottery - When we both had Mk1 D4Ds, my insurance was in the £700s and my brother, with an identical car but living in the middle of nowhere, was something like £300.

I think he's paying something like £150 for a Hyundai i30 at the moment!! The smug git!  

I knew London was expensive but that’s crazy prices.  

Tell me about it! I don't know why people and businesses and people still come here - Everything is just out to gouge you down here.

I also think the whole of London is now classed as a high crime area by insurance companies due to the lack of policing  

3 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Tell me about it! I don't know why people and businesses and people still come here - Everything is just out to gouge you down here.

I also think the whole of London is now classed as a high crime area by insurance companies due to the lack of policing  

 

So why not insure your car at your brothers address if it's cheaper.

Because that would invalidate the policy?

20 minutes ago, Cyker said:

the epic price gouging of insurance companies this year apparently

Don't forget that legislation became effective in January preventing insurers charging new customers less than existing customers - which has led to increased costs of new policies.

Just had the same yearly chore, although a lot easier this year cos although I had a good look round comparision sites etc. there was a lot less choice price/cover wise compared to our renewal with quite a few same price as our renewal but not as good cover so stayed where we were. Even got a smidge of discount by renewing with them, so all in all ended up paying about same as last year.

Aye, the insurance companies/brokers do seem to live on a far distant planet.

A few years ago 2004, I bought a mid life crisis bike, and despite having ridden and insuring bikes for a long time, and being even then what could be described as "mature".

MAG insurance would not even quote.

Took a fair bit of hunting around to find cover for a absolutely no claim record on this bike.

Hi.

Glad we could help out with your insurance this year.

Regards,

Dan.

Last week our S-I-L received his quotation for renewal of his car insurance.  He is in his early 50s, never had a claim, and his circumstances remain completely unchanged.    His current insurance premium was £500 - the quoted renewal is £1,200. The insurers are Tesco Bank.

For a few years now, insurers have been saying that there costs are rising acutely, but acute rises of this magnitude and levelled at careful and stable drivers, are nothing more than money-grabbing.  The insurers are testing the market to find out just how much they can rake in, and taking advantage of the fact that for most drivers the ownership of a car is essential.  They are a disgrace to their profession.

29 minutes ago, Haliotis said:

Last week our S-I-L received his quotation for renewal of his car insurance.  He is in his early 50s, never had a claim, and his circumstances remain completely unchanged.    His current insurance premium was £500 - the quoted renewal is £1,200. The insurers are Tesco Bank.

For a few years now, insurers have been saying that there costs are rising acutely, but acute rises of this magnitude and levelled at careful and stable drivers, are nothing more than money-grabbing.  The insurers are testing the market to find out just how much they can rake in, and taking advantage of the fact that for most drivers the ownership of a car is essential.  They are a disgrace to their profession.

Many things are not as they seem: The worst things in life never are.”😀

The website ‘thecomplaintsresolver.co.uk’ shows an article - Car insurers under investigation for ripping motorists off.  The Financial Conduct Authority are/were supposedly carrying out this investigation.  It is dated Feb 6th 2019, so have the FCA completed their investigation, and have they decided on the outcome?  If so, it would appear that the insurers have been cleared of any wrong-doing (they are still up to their antics), indicating that the FCA, like most of these regulators, simply have rubber teeth, stay quietly in the background, and take their easy salaries with impunity.

Since the FCA are largely responsible for the hike in prices in the first place I'm not optimistic they'll help reduce them...

So the money-grabbing insurers are at it again.  Just received my Feb newsletter from go.compare.  First heading is “Accelerating car insurance costs.  Drivers are in for another rough ride in 2024………..”

Frankly, I have found the car insurance comparison websites to be a sick joke - they are probably doing more harm than good.  But, with or without them, the insurers are treating motorists as idiots and blatantly ripping us off for as much as they think the market can stand.  They know that most drivers run a car because it is essential in order to manage the daily lives of their families and themselves,  so they feel immune to any chance of kick-backs.  This, of course, is of no consequence to the hard-nosed insurance companies, whose sole purpose is to extract as much money as possible from every driver on their books.  Which is why they use actuarial calculations based on risks that in most cases do not relate to a driver’s true risk factor and, conveniently, they only consider the risk factors in isolation - the positive side that reduces a driver’s chances of being in an accident is deliberately ignored.