Insane Insurance Prices

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I have a policy with Admiral, fully comp which is about £800 for the year for myself on the Rallye, £75ish a month, now the Rallye is off the road I'm driving the Diesel (non turbo) around with its mighty performance and that now costs me twice as much to insure!?!? I phoned and complained, she put me on hold for 5mins to tell me the price is correct and the only I can do is cancel then policy!

 

What bollock faced idiot came up with the idea of basing insurance on capacity alone? I tried to argue with her saying my mums 3L terrano is slow as anything and my 205 Rallye is a lot quicker but she just kept telling me some crap about its based on a number of factors mainly capacity.

 

I'm in the mood to take on the big man and change this fecking metal way if insuring.

 

What do you think!?

 

Ali

[m_attt 31 1 Cars]

it is ridiculous, i can insure my 205 gti6 and 205 8v turbo for £200 each, but cheapest i can get the dturbo is £450 ?????

[CaptainK 11]

I had the same problem when I was trying to insure myself on my mums old car, a 1.9 309 GLD. Cost was extortionate because they said it had a massive 1.9 engine it. Didn't matter than it was only the standard 64bhp (?) from the N/A 1.9 engine. I looked into it and getting a faster 1.6 petrol was cheaper to insure. Ridiculous.

[C_W 3 1 Cars]

Premiums had increased this year, but I've noticed something got very worse very recently; when I tested some insurance quotes for a potential new address this week (a very similar postcode) the insurance nearly doubled, worried by this I put my normal address back in and it stayed practically the same(!), tried Tesco and they were quoting £950 for an Audi A3 with a quote for a Clio 182 similar too, both of which were about half that last year...I will have to shop around majorily for the renewal.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Don't forget that premiums are based on risk assessment, which in turn is based on claim statistics. Perhaps Diesels are involved in a s*it load more accidents!

[iamjackiechan 0]

My insurance on the 205 with every single modification declared, s16 on carbs, stage 2 cam, roll cage etc etc £950.

With the same insurance company i got a quote for a mk1 mx5 complataly standard, £1350.

 

doesnt really make sense as the 205 had not far off double the power

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Maybe, I live in a very small, very rural village though! I don't think there's much point in trying to get them to change it, but I will send a long, ranting email which I already assume I'll get no response!

 

Ali

[Alan77 78 1 Cars]

Dont bother writing the ranting mail, use your time trawling the web for a new insurer.

I have no idea why people on here still go for fully comp. I went 3rd PF&T on mine about 8 years ago and it dropped from £450 to £150. (still paying £170 now with Elephant, DT1, 11 yrs NCB protected, 33 yrs old)

Swap companies each year if you have to. You mean nothing to them so just find the best deal you can.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I'm only 19 and completing this years insurance will mean I get my 2nd years no claims, so in the long run it is anoyingly cheaper to pay the extra for now!

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

There is about £10 difference if I go third party so I never bother

[muddatrucker 125]

Its often cheaper to go fully-comp and obviously the kind of cover is worlds apart. Saying that, my quote has gone up by £200, I'm now 25 and haven't made a further claim since I last had insurance - so no reason why it should have gone up - its the market I guess, they don't even try to be competitive anymore.

 

More Than sent me an email saying "we recently gave you a great value quote..." I just responded with "we obviously have different definitions of good value" they responded and apologised, but in the past they would of phoned and haggled with me.

[GLPoomobile 958]

I think the TPTF Vs FC debate probably comes down to age. I used to go TPFT as I just wanted the cheapest insurance I could get, and admittedley, I assumed FC would be far too expensive. Then I guess it was when I was in my mid-twenties I did an online quote and for the first time saw that FC was only going to cost about £30 more, so went with it.

 

Obviously on an old car like a 205, if you know deep down that any claim is going to result in a write off, and you only get offered a few hundred for it, then there's no point going FC if it's going to be quite a big hike from TPTF.

 

But I will say that I'm bloody glad I've been going FC ever since, as if I was still TPFT now I'd be well in the s*it after crashing my Sabb 9-3 the other week. At least I stand to get something rather than nothing. Plus I've got protected NCB - is that an option on a TPFT policy?

Edited October 12, 2010 by GLPoomobile

[Anthony 1,003]

Plus I've got protected NCB - is that an option on a TPFT policy?

Yes, with some insurers atleast - I had it for a few years with two or three different insurers

 

Part of the advantage of going fully comp is that you normally get things like windscreen cover included, whereas it's usually excluded on TPFT / TPO cover. Not such an issue in a 205 where a brand new screen is only about £80 fitted (or certainly was last time I had one done) but on other, newer cars it's worthwhile as windscreens can be several hundred quid.

[SurGie 54]

£45 of everyone's insurance quote is paying for all the false/fake claims etc.

[GLPoomobile 958]

£45 of everyone's insurance quote is paying for all the false/fake claims etc.

 

And the remaining £xxx of every policy lines the pockets of the insurance companies. So what's your point?

[SurGie 54]

It does not help with the insanity of these increased insurance price's, this is one reason why they go up every year & in case some dont know and now they do i hope it means some will get caught, as well as last years bad winter.

[mfield 20]

And the remaining £xxx of every policy lines the pockets of the insurance companies. So what's your point?

 

The point is it's not the insurance companies fault that the premiums have gone up it's the scum that lines the street, but hold on it's not their fault that they've done this it's the governments fault for cutting their benefits off and reducing their income, hold on it's not the governments fault that they've had to cut the benefits off and the scum are making false claims and the insurance companies are hiking the prices, it's the dirty bankers that have screwed the government , but hold on it's not the banks fault that they have to be bailed out by the government who then has to cut benefits which has the knock on effect of a rise in false claims and a increase in premiums it's our fault for living off of an unsustainable credit culture, but hold on it's not our fault it's our parents who brought us into the world who should be blamed, but hold on it can't be anybodies fault in this blameless political correct society so it must be gods fault , yes that's it, our premiums go up every year because of " an act of god"

[SurGie 54]

Its nothing but acts of fat cat selfish gigantic greed why we are in this s*it, god has nothing to do with it.

 

"Money money money, is the reason why"

[mfield 20]

Surgie 0 - 1 Irony

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I'v always wonderded how much effort, time and money it would take to set up your on insurance company and just insure yourself a very select few friends! I would assume this would be littered with consumer rights problems and loads of laws!

 

Would be good though!

[notamondayfan 44]

I'v always wonderded how much effort, time and money it would take to set up your on insurance company and just insure yourself a very select few friends! I would assume this

 

You'd need a lot of cash in the bank incase you had to payout. If one of your "select friends" hit a Aston Martin you'd be royally screwed.

 

 

But as said above, always shop around. I have never stayed with the same insurer.

 

And always ask how much more FC is over TPFT, on my motorbike it was £2!

 

And with FC you can usually drive other insured vehicles (with permision and third party only), but saying that I once had a TPFT policy where I could drive other cars, never seen it since though!

[muddatrucker 125]

I'v always wonderded how much effort, time and money it would take to set up your on insurance company and just insure yourself a very select few friends! I would assume this would be littered with consumer rights problems and loads of laws!

 

Would be good though!

 

You'd need millions to prove that you could pay out in the case of a claim, imagine if one of your select few friends rear ended a Bugatti Veyron or ran someone over!! then there's legislation, laws but I reckon guessing on your disappointment at a high premium...you probably don't have those initial millions anyway! if you do though, can I have some?

 

You'd need a lot of cash in the bank incase you had to payout. If one of your "select friends" hit a Aston Martin you'd be royally screwed.

 

 

But as said above, always shop around. I have never stayed with the same insurer.

 

And always ask how much more FC is over TPFT, on my motorbike it was £2!

 

And with FC you can usually drive other insured vehicles (with permision and third party only), but saying that I once had a TPFT policy where I could drive other cars, never seen it since though!

Haha, I had the reply window open for the best part of 10 minutes, beaten to it!

[gtmotorsport 0]

I had a funny one with insurance on my Landrover Discovery recently when I tried to put my dad on the policy. I got all sorts of questions as to why (what fecking business it of theres), then they wanted £560 extra to put him on the policy (50+ bloke with a clean record).

 

As I pointed out to them it was free to have the misses on the policy and I don't pay £560 at present to insure it fully comp any how. They weren't interested and when I pointed out he will just have to continue using it (rarely) on a third party basis under his own insurance that sparked another arguement with them.

 

The daft thing is I wasn't charged anything extra for the mods installed last year of a larger intercooler and chip to aid towing.

[danpug 1]

You'd need a lot of cash in the bank incase you had to payout. If one of your "select friends" hit a Aston Martin you'd be royally screwed.

 

 

But as said above, always shop around. I have never stayed with the same insurer.

 

And always ask how much more FC is over TPFT, on my motorbike it was £2!

 

And with FC you can usually drive other insured vehicles (with permision and third party only), but saying that I once had a TPFT policy where I could drive other cars, never seen it since though!

 

My policy is TPFT and i can drive other cars, can't remember who i'm insured with though!

[Andy_C 50]

I'd really love some of the zillions that we as an industry apparently line our pockets with.

 

In simple terms, insurance costs have been on a downward slide for years, against rising costs associated with repairing them (parts, paint, labour, cost to run bodyshop premises such as rent, rates etc.). The industry's tried to counteract this by applying book or factory repair times to vehicles thus creating a flat rule for every single Mondeo, Astra etc. This is less relevant on older cars for reasons such as parts availability, value of the car - both of which are relevant factors for 205's for example.

 

For reasons around the dreaded H&S insurers will write modern cars off far quicker than a few years back also - I could bore everyone with stores of 3 year old Boxsters being totalled for a £8k repair due to strucutral integrity being compromised and so on.

 

Injury claims have snowballed and of course that's had an impact, as has credit hire as many have now become convinced that the Punto courtesy car for a fortnight's no longer any use and we have to have an euqivalent replacement. A good example was a client of mine losing a repair on a Bentley GT due to £38k of credit hire effectively writing the car off - madness.

 

This has created a really thriving industry, based on repairers being paid a commission whenever they "sell" an equivalent replacement vehicle. This income replaces that lost when insurers screw down their repair times, quoting factory times and costs and they face reduced turnover and bottom line as a result.

 

Insurers have allowed premiums to reduce over the last 10 years as no-one wanted to be the first to break rank and put rates up; it's now started and of course smack in the middle of the worst recession in years, yet again damaging the industry's reputation and it's pretty much their own fault - we all know that the overall cost of motoring has increased across the board during that time and to keep market share insurers have allowed rates to slide backwards during the same period.

 

Few insurers actually make money out of motor insurance but it gives them a market share and the access to other areas of insurance - I'd bet that most house owners here will have had a flyer from their motor insurer offering cheap house/travel/pet cover too; even my classic broker's started doing it (and even giving their policy a fancy name like The Chatsworth or something). Results are better in other areas and this is where they can make their money. The daft thing is that they never publicise these stats, partly because they'd make little sense to Joe Public (or so they think), only profits which naturally piss people off - especially when their motor insurance premium has increased significantly.

 

Regulation has really, properly tightened up the system so the old "insurers don't want to pay up" argument is genuinely irrelevant nowadays - if the claim's valid, they have to pay it. And promptly. There have been numerous cases of the FSA fining insurers for not playing by the rules and everyone in the industry is acutely aware of the power regulation has given our customers - it'd be suicidal to ignore it, believe me.