Car Insurance B*st*rds

[londonblue]

I have a renewal letter from my insurance company for my car insurance. However, one thing that I needed to let them know about was an accident my wife had in April as she's a named driver on my policy. A little old lady drove into the side of my wife's car whilst my wife was stationary. She apologised and her insurance company paid out in full. So, this accident wasn't my wife's fault, and wasn't in the car being insured, but the insurance company want to put my premium up by nearly 14%.

Out of principle I don't want to accept this. The problem is they're still cheaper than everyone else.

 

[Jam_Man]

Wtf ?

Your premium should go up if you have an accident that causes your insurance company to have to pay a claim, it should not go up just because some old biddy cant drive, her premium should be the one that goes up.

That really makes no sense.

However it they are cheaper than everyone else then probably not much point doing a lot about it other than be peeved at the principal of it.

 

[MK Shrimper]

I'd tell them to stick their insurance.

 

[ian_the_girth]

have you asked them if the claim has been closed, or is it still pending?
i had a problem like this two years ago when a car transported wrote of my car while i was at work.

 

[Davros]

Unfortunately what they will tell you is that because you were in an accident (regardless of fault) you are statistically more likely to be in a accident again. Codswallop to the individual as what counts for one person may not necesarily count for another, but they probably have the statistics to back it up somewhere unfortunately.

The other problem lies in the fact that premiums are generally on the rise even for people who haven't had an accident, due in part to the whiplash culture, and the kick-back culture between Insurance and rental companies etc, and so your premium may have gone up anyway.

Have you considered using a cashback website, like www.topcashback.co.uk for example, as sometime, even if the premium is initially slightly higher, it can work out to be less overall once you factor the cashback in, there are some teriffic offers. Gocompare even gave me £1.76 cashback just for using the quote service, even though i didnt buy via them!

 

[Pubey]

Unfortunately what they will tell you is that because you were in an accident (regardless of fault) you are statistically more likely to be in a accident again. Codswallop to the individual as what counts for one person may not necesarily count for another, but they probably have the statistics to back it up somewhere unfortunately.

The other problem lies in the fact that premiums are generally on the rise even for people who haven't had an accident, due in part to the whiplash culture, and the kick-back culture between Insurance and rental companies etc, and so your premium may have gone up anyway.

Have you considered using a cashback website, like www.topcashback.co.uk for example, as sometime, even if the premium is initially slightly higher, it can work out to be less overall once you factor the cashback in, there are some teriffic offers. Gocompare even gave me £1.76 cashback just for using the quote service, even though i didnt buy via them!

I hope you invested it wisely.:smile:

 

[Davros]

Ha, very good sir. Big fan of topcashback, earn't over £200 in two years, which has paid for my wedding cake

 

[Tommy2holes]

My insurance went up from £33 pm to £41pm even though I had not incurred any penalty points convictions or accidents.

I also went up to 4 years no claims.

I went on line and they were still the cheapest.

Car insurance is a joke

 

[hockleyeast1964]

it's due to all these whiplash insurance firms.I had a call 2 weeks ago about a claim made 2 years ago.A girl reversed into my car caused what i thought was minimal damage,after hire car etc etc it came to a whopping 6.5k on her insurance (expensive car).These insurance shysters were genuinely shocked that i hadn't put an injury claim in,it's all a massive con it needs to be stopped.

 

[londonblue]

Unfortunately what they will tell you is that because you were in an accident (regardless of fault) you are statistically more likely to be in a accident again. Codswallop to the individual as what counts for one person may not necesarily count for another, but they probably have the statistics to back it up somewhere unfortunately.

The other problem lies in the fact that premiums are generally on the rise even for people who haven't had an accident, due in part to the whiplash culture, and the kick-back culture between Insurance and rental companies etc, and so your premium may have gone up anyway.

Have you considered using a cashback website, like www.topcashback.co.uk for example, as sometime, even if the premium is initially slightly higher, it can work out to be less overall once you factor the cashback in, there are some teriffic offers. Gocompare even gave me £1.76 cashback just for using the quote service, even though i didnt buy via them!

Just tried that, and even with the cash back my company are still at worst the same price, give or take a few pence. Interestingly one of the quotes was from Swiftcover which with the cashback came to the same price as Swiftcover on Comparethemarket.com. It seems they've upped their premium just to bring it down again.

 

[tottenham541]

ive renewed mine this month and i was quoted £120 more than the previous year so i rang them and said you can stick it at that price and said nearly £80 of it was commision that someone was gonna get out of it, what a joke i said and i told them i had a better quote elsewhere and they soon budged and now i get my insurance for £14 a month less so they just try it on alot of the time to see if you will accept the first quote you were offered, a complete rip off and no one should put up with it, shop around online as theirs lots of good deals around.

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

Mine is due next month so expecting a hefty rise even though i've not claimed, last year they tried to stick it up £140 to something over £900, i did a meercat search thingy got a whole host of cheaper quotes then called Elephant (my supplier) and gave them notice to quit, i ended the conversation getting £60 off my previous amount (ie £200 cheaper than the renewal notice) .. the bloke on the phone pretty much admitted it was standard procedure to stick 15% on top of renewals as most people just renew without checking the amounts

daylight-robbery.com

 

[OldBlueLady]

If you're able to pay in one lump sum it's worth giving the insurance company a call as I was told that they quote figures based on monthly payments, whereas a lump sum would be cheaper. If you're a member of the Trust, there's also a very useful gentleman who you might consider calling as it's his job!

 

[londonblue]

If you're able to pay in one lump sum it's worth giving the insurance company a call as I was told that they quote figures based on monthly payments, whereas a lump sum would be cheaper. If you're a member of the Trust, there's also a very useful gentleman who you might consider calling as it's his job!

Unfortunately none of that is relevant to my situation. The renewal letter had a price on it that took into account my previous payment method, i.e. a lump sum. They only put the premium up when I told them about the accident. I expected it to go up, even though I don't believe it should. I was just surprised that it sent up so much. The problem is that they are still cheaper than everyone else...

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

The problem is that they are still cheaper than everyone else...

bottom line is do you want to cut off your nose to spite your face .. i'd be tempted to tell them to stick it and pay more elsewhere, but then i'm a bit stupid at times

 

[londonblue]

bottom line is do you want to cut off your nose to spite your face .. i'd be tempted to tell them to stick it and pay more elsewhere, but then i'm a bit stupid at times

It is tempting, but I'm not rich enough to just throw money away!

 

[pringlejon]

There's a lot going on in the market at the minute.

Women can expect higher premiums due to incoming gender directive banning pricing on a gender basis.
As previously mentioned, high levels of personal injury claims have pushed claims costs high, causing the linked rise in premiums. This is mostly being applied to younger drivers (<25 years) though is having an effect on the whole market.

Few tips which can help;
Note:

• all comparison websites can quote different prices for insurers so worth checking a couple of them
• most insurers will operate on a get 'em in cheap and then put through large price hikes upon renewal as mentioned previously, so be sure to shop around
• some brands are owned by same people so you should be able to get brand matched prices if you ask as it will cost insurers more money on paperwork etc to switch you between brands (e.g. Admiral/Elephant/Bell/Diamond, Axa/Swiftcover, Direct Line/Churchill/Privilege, Aviva/Quotemehappy)
• Also check Direct Line and Aviva who aren't on price comparison websites, not normally cheaper but worth checking
• If you've got multiple cars, go to Aviva, Admiral and Direct Line for multicar discounts

 

[South Bank Hank]

I have a renewal letter from my insurance company for my car insurance. However, one thing that I needed to let them know about was an accident my wife had in April as she's a named driver on my policy. A little old lady drove into the side of my wife's car whilst my wife was stationary. She apologised and her insurance company paid out in full. So, this accident wasn't my wife's fault, and wasn't in the car being insured, but the insurance company want to put my premium up by nearly 14%.

Out of principle I don't want to accept this. The problem is they're still cheaper than everyone else.

You didn't mention in your post whether the price rise was directly connected to the accident or just a standard rise. Have you asked them?

As someone mentioned, prices are rising across the industry anyway due to claims getting out of hand.

.. the bloke on the phone pretty much admitted it was standard procedure to stick 15% on top of renewals as most people just renew without checking the amounts

daylight-robbery.com

As others have said, have a conversation and it might make a difference anyway.

 

[Hotman]

I have a renewal letter from my insurance company for my car insurance. However, one thing that I needed to let them know about was an accident my wife had in April as she's a named driver on my policy. A little old lady drove into the side of my wife's car whilst my wife was stationary. She apologised and her insurance company paid out in full. So, this accident wasn't my wife's fault, and wasn't in the car being insured, but the insurance company want to put my premium up by nearly 14%.

Out of principle I don't want to accept this. The problem is they're still cheaper than everyone else.

It's not because of the accident, they have a range of risk factors. The main one being your blindness, evidenced by your choice of watches #mickeymouse x

 

[South Bank Hank]

It's not because of the accident, they have a range of risk factors. The main one being your blindness, evidenced by your choice of watches #mickeymouse x

Such a blinkered, bigoted view. If they didn't want blind people to drive, they wouldn't have put those little finger bumps on the steering wheel so blind people can tell when they're going straight.