Insurance Whinge Of The Week (Conning Bastards)

[GLPoomobile 958]

I am a very unhappy bunny right now

 

Here's the scenario:

My current policy is with a well know company on here, who we shall refer to as Smadrian Dux ( ). It was £550 for the year for fully comp, protected NCB, social domestic pleasure and commuting, limited to 3000 miles per year. That's a modified car policy with Equity Red Star. Vehicle is an Alfa 166 3.0 V6.

 

As I'm changing to a (totally standard) Volvo V70 T5 at the weekend, I needed to change the existing policy. But since I'm now using the car to get to work I needed to increase the mileage to 7500 per annum, and also change it to Business Use (becuase our stupid work policy dictates that we have to have a business use policy, even though I'm only commuting to/from a single place of work).

 

I did a quote through Quidco first of all, and the best came out at £596 through Endsleigh with £23 cashback. At the back of my mind I just knew that this would count for nothing....

 

So I call up Samdrian Dux. They come back saying the best quote is still with Equity Red Star, but no longer on their modified car policy...........and it's over £800 per year meaning I have to pay something like £150 to change my policy with 4 months left to run.

 

So that's £596 for a new policy from Endsleigh, versus over £800 with Smadrian Dux who I've used for years. Well the choice is obvious, had this been renewal time, I'd be changing provider.

 

What happens if I cancel my policy then, I ask? Well, after they've deducted their commission, taken off the £25 admin fee, I'm left with a total refund of £3. Three frickin quid with 4 months left on a £550 a year policy! Oh, and I don't get my NCB for this year (but that's OK as I have full NCB). Utter, utter, tossers

 

So they have me over a barrell basically. I'm bent over, legs akimbo, trousers around my ankles, with Smadrian Dux banging away.

 

As a compromise I've had to change the policy to 5000 miles per annum (just to get me by until renewal time), and forget about the Business Use (hoping I can dodge the bullet when I put my expenses claim in, that they won't ask to check my policy). And for that compromise I only get shafted an additional £75 today (so annual premium changes from £550 to £630). Those who are paying attention will notice that a £75 charge pro-rata (4 months left on the policy) against an £80 annual increase doesn't make sense, even taking in to consideration the £25 admin fee

 

Guess I'll probably be taking my cover elsewhere come renewal time.

 

NOTE TO SELF - never change my car mid-policy!

[m_attt 31 1 Cars]

i hate dux lol, had no end of troubles with them on a few occasions in the past. Say will insure me on a car for x amount if i change policy, go buy the car two days later and get told cant/wont insure and if they will it will add 1k to the policy. Also wanting over 500 quid to swap a gti to a diesel

Edited March 8, 2012 by m_attt

[GLPoomobile 958]

Also wanting over 500 quid to swap a gti to a diesel

 

Yes, all insurers seem to be very good at this. I don't think I've ever been given a reduced quote for downgrading a car mid-policy, becuase they know you can't just go elsewhere as easily as you can at renewal time.

 

I'm convinced that had I been changing my car to the slowest, gayest piece of s*it on the planet (any Corsa) this weekend, they'd still have stiffed me on the premium. I guess that's why it's called a "premium"!

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

Have you tried Adrian Flux?

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

Had the same thing years ago with them so nothings changed, had a good 4 to 5 months on a policy and got around £20.00 back after months of chasing them.

Go with a good Insurance company/Broker and yes you may pay slightly more but at least you get a good service

[Matt Holley 11]

We've had a similer experience lately, we insured the 205 with gti6 engine TBs, cage etc etc for £300 but when we wanted to insure a nearly standard 106 gti instead they wanted nearly £500 Where do they get these quotes from?

 

So the wife phones Admiral who the other car is insured with and they will do a multi car policy and only charge something like £350 for the extra car, quick insurance comparison check brings up with Admiral quoting under £300 for the car on it's own policy, They really are jokers.

[2-Pugs 57]

I do sympathise with you GLP. As you say there's not a great deal you can do though. FWIW I have always found AF to be a complete joke and an absolute waste of time. I would not touch them with a barge pole. I think the existence of 'Flux Babes' at that particular crummy car show says it all about them. I take my business and money elsewhere.

[BenC 6]

We've had a similer experience lately, we insured the 205 with gti6 engine TBs, cage etc etc for £300 but when we wanted to insure a nearly standard 106 gti instead they wanted nearly £500 Where do they get these quotes from?

 

So the wife phones Admiral who the other car is insured with and they will do a multi car policy and only charge something like £350 for the extra car, quick insurance comparison check brings up with Admiral quoting under £300 for the car on it's own policy, They really are jokers.

 

I had a similar issue with Admiral, my renewal came through at around £795, quick check online as a 'new customer' - £700, for the same policy. WTF?! Call them up and the drop the £95 straight away. But if I hadn't of checked that would have been an easy £95 in their pockets. They just do it to catch out people who are too lazy to double check quotes or shop around at renewal time.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Have you tried Adrian Flux?

 

Funny c*nt

[swordfish210 20]

At least you didn't nearly get a CCJ because of Smadrian Dux...like i did.

[pp205 17]

I had two policies with them, one for the 205 and one for my Alfa.

 

Sold my Alfa and had to cancel one policy which cost me £167 to cancel. Needless to say I was absolutely raging.

 

Then when it came to renewal on the 205 (with an Mi on modified policy) they were going to charge me £750 which would have left me thoroughly r*ped. So I called sky insurance who quoted me £560. Phoned flux back and without questioning gave me £550 on 7000 mile policy fully comp with breakdown cover and 3rd party on anything else! £200 saving!

 

Seems like they were playing good cop, bad cop with me!

[Richie 32]

I play the same little game every year with hadrian bux

 

They send me a retarded quote in the post hoping i'll not shop around

 

I shop around and tell them they are having a giraffe.

 

They beat my best quote by 25p or something daft. They don't do me any favours.

Edited March 8, 2012 by Richie

[GLPoomobile 958]

Thing is, I only use them because they usually end up being the cheapest for me. These days I find there doesn't seem to be that much choice for modified car insurance, and when you ask for suggestions on here you usually just get oodles of suggestions for Classic policy places instead. Plus the fact that as I'm getting older, I really just can't be arsed any more with the hassle of having to phone up loads of insurers and play them off against each other. You can usually get the initial cost down a fair bit after just 2 or 3 quotes and after that you don't tend to see much reduction.

 

But this situation has really pissed me off. I see it as them s*itting on their own doorstep.

 

Fortunately, as the Volvo is bog standard, I now have the luxury of being able to shop amongst a far greater number of insurers come July, so I don't need to depend on the few "specialist" companies. Of course, the difficulty will be keeping the Volvo standard!

[Goliath 94]

I have had a similar experience with adrian flux, theyre a bunch if morons. A word of warning though, sky insurancr are much, much worse.

[dave richards 26 1 Cars]

i pay 900 for my modified gti, I asked for a quote on a standard stdt and got quoted £4685.68, yes i have no claims on the gti but 2 years ago when i insured the car as my first car my insurance on that was only £1300

 

[M@tt 77]

I also hate the fact that if you need to change car mid policy they've got you over a barrel, therefore it begs the question isn't it probabaly better to just pay for insurance monthly, granted you might pay £30/40 over the year more for the priveledge but if you do need to change vehicle presumably you can just cancel your policy/stop the direct debit/standing order payments and move to the beter policy. The insurance company can go swivel for the remaining amount.

 

Obviously you wouldn't get the years NCB from your existing insurer but then thats no biggie

 

They can't come after you for the remainder of the policy can they?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

They can't come after you for the remainder of the policy can they?

 

Sadly I think they probably can, you'd certainly need to read the small print as to early cancellation terms and conditions.

[GilesW 41]

When I've had to do change things mid term for ANYTHING and they come back with an oppertunistic price I tell them that and I tell them why I think it is too high and and if tehy don't take teh hint I tell them that I feel as a long term customer etc I feel that the oppertunsitc stance they are taking I will rememeber when it comes to renewal time and that I would be happy to hold whilst they talk to their supervisor/manager (or that I would just like to check with them myself) that they do want to ruin a long time relationship and stop me even considering coming back to them in the future by being oppertunistic in this manner.

 

I have always had success with this....

 

 

Of course this only works if you are a good customer, they think you will stay with them, and you are gopod a negotiating (which many people arten't!).

You will of course most likley to have to talk to teh organ grinder as rarely are the monkeys able to make thsi sort of decision.

 

 

But for all of those that think insurnace businesses are not like any other business - really??? They are there to make as much money as possible, not to make freinds with you so that you will send them a Christmas card. So you need to stick your business head on and deal with them appropriately to get the best result for you.

[luggy 13]

 

As a compromise I've had to change the policy to 5000 miles per annum (just to get me by until renewal time), and forget about the Business Use (hoping I can dodge the bullet when I put my expenses claim in, that they won't ask to check my policy). And for that compromise I only get shafted an additional £75 today (so annual premium changes from £550 to £630). Those who are paying attention will notice that a £75 charge pro-rata (4 months left on the policy) against an £80 annual increase doesn't make sense, even taking in to consideration the £25 admin fee

 

Guess I'll probably be taking my cover elsewhere come renewal time.

 

NOTE TO SELF - never change my car mid-policy!

 

I use my non 205 for work where the company insists on business cover, the only time they want to see the insurance policy is when its been renewed.

[Liquid_106 97 1 Cars]

But since I'm now using the car to get to work I needed to increase the mileage to 7500 per annum, and also change it to Business Use (becuase our stupid work policy dictates that we have to have a business use policy, even though I'm only commuting to/from a single place of work).

What? Seriously? How can they dictate to you what policy you have to have, especially when A: it's not a company car and B: you're not using it for business travel.

Sorry, but just sounds wrong to me! :oS

[GLPoomobile 958]

What? Seriously? How can they dictate to you what policy you have to have, especially when A: it's not a company car and B: you're not using it for business travel.

Sorry, but just sounds wrong to me! :oS

 

Because I take a company car allowance, which comes with various T&Cs. As I used to live and work in London I used to pocket the cash and just get public transport everywhere, and as such never submitted an fuel expenses either. So I seem to have slipped through the net. One of my colleagues told me the other day that he used to get chased constantly for a copy of his insurance certificate and strung it out for a few months until they threatened to stop his car allowance.

 

So I'm concerned that once I start putting through regular mileage claims they are going to want my insurance certificate.

Edited March 9, 2012 by GLPoomobile

[M@tt 77]

<cough>knock up a certificate T&Cs in MS Word</cough>

[AlexRS2782 136 1 Cars]

I always used to use Flux for years with my cars since i was about 21/22 y/o and up until last year still had my Focus RS insured with them, that was up until the point where i got the renewal quote through that was hilarious considering the car was never really used often (3rd car), limited mileage, securely stored away, etc. They also decided off their own backs to lower the agreed value of my car by £4k without telling me.

 

Another joke was finding out that even though i had made them aware of every modification i had done to the car (and there were quite a few), they had only entered "exhaust & filter" under modifcations to the car so technically i wasn't ever insured correctly the previous years.

 

Best of all however is when they attempt to "automatically renew" a policy using your payment details from the previous year. Doesn't quite work though if the details they have on file are of a card that has expired. Ironically they still tried chasing me for a payment for a policy i had already told them i didn't need as i'd gone elsewhere.

[richsmells 2]

Similar thing going from a Gti6 to a 1.1 106 with Admiral. What really annoyed me was having to pay £270 extra when moving from Bournemouth to Portsmouth. Moving back 6 months later, to the same original postcode and there's no reduction. How does that work?

 

 

Currently with Tesco as they're the cheapest I could find. Still expensive for a 1.8 306,7 years no claims, but I have one non-fault and a 50:50 last year.

Edited March 10, 2012 by richsmells

[kyepan 291]

I got stiffed by cancellation charges last month and so changed to footman James, they wanted half the price of Hadrian Sucks, which was what I would have got back had I renewed and sold the car a month later... Doing it monthly doesn't work either as previously stated, because you need to see out the credit agreement so they claw back a similar amount if money.

 

Insurance is one of the all time sticky biscuit scams, if they make a loss one year they make it back the next, the more money flowing into the system the more profit they make and kickbacks they get....