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Renewal notice came through for car insurance - £620+ . A tad excessive so I went on comparethemeerkats and the cheapest offer was under £300 with Hastings (current insurer) at £322. Called Hastings to let them know I would not be renewing and they said they would price match. No change to car, other than annual mileage is slightly down, and they offered £420. So they failed to price match themselves but were still £200 cheaper than automatic renewal. Queried why and apparently it's all the fault of the underwriter
Have two cars insured with RAC - the first one was £340 and the renewal was £315. Best comparison price I could get was £340.
The other was £174 and the renewal £170 but got it for £120 with Hastings (with £24 Quidco cashback).
First time I have had two policies go down and I was actually very surprised.
thing is, the only reason you get a quote for £300 is because some people accept the auto-renewal of £600 - the company has to cover their averaged costs of (say) £400 per policy somehow. I'm happy for other folks to pay a lazytax if if means my insurance is cheaper
I'm convinced it's basically arbitrary.
Years ago, I had a 1.3 Golf Mk2. My insurance was about £400, because the computer said I was a testosterone fulled single male, so i was likely to race it around ring roads and stuff it into a lampost
My then girlfriend also had a 1.3 Golf Mk2. Her insurance was about £150, because the computer said she was a sensible ladywoman, who was only going to use it to drive to the hairdressers and back.
We both had the same insurers.
I rang the insurers to add her to my policy. They wanted an extra £250. When I asked why, given that she had a full policy in her own name, on an identical car, with the same insurer, for less than that, they said it was because she was under 25 so was a greater risk. Mental.
None of it makes sense. I've done the re-quote-not-renewal thing several times and invariably come out both perplexed and better off as my existing provider beats their own renewal quote. They gamble on people being lazy, same with remortgaging.
What totally floored me was that by adding my abarth to my T5's policy through admiral multi car, I got a rebate of £49.
I phoned my insurer to cancel when I found a better deal online (as always). Stupid twonk says, can I ask why?
Well, because you obviously don't want to keep me as a customer! Why else would you try to overcharge me, when, as with 90% of people these days, I can go online and find a cheaper deal?
Well, of course we want to keep you as a customer.
Well, you're gonna have to try a damn site harder than that aren't you.
What totally floored me was that by adding my abarth to my T5’s policy through admiral multi car, I got a rebate of £49.
Yeah, sort of similarly, the girlfriend I spoke of above later became my wife, and later still became my ex-wife. When I rang the insurers to take her off my policy when we split, they said it would increase my premium by £100. So I kept her on it.
dez b - yeah, had pretty much the same conversation with Hastings who then offered to price match and failed to match their own on-line quote.
Get 3 points on your licence
Mine went down 200 quid
I rang the insurers to take her off my policy when we split, they said it would increase my premium by £100. So I kept her on it
Same here, not £100 but it was more to take her off than leave on. They're (I can't swear)
I have the same dance every renewal with Tesco. They send me a price, I go on Compare The Market to get a better price then get them to price match. One year they actually beat their own on-line quote when I phoned them. This year I saved £60 for 20 minutes work. Insurers really are a bunch of highway bandits.
Get 3 points on your licence
Mine went down 200 quid
Is that because you are now on 11 points so they know you will to be really careful to avoid a ban? 😉
I'm with Privilege. Have been for a few years. Mines come down to £312 for a brand new karoq.
Not had to move for a while.
Not quite the same thing but breakdown cover.....rang up to tell them a change of address. They said they would have to add £40pa to the cost. When queried why they said it was all calculated on address and how far it would be to the nearest breakdown dept etc. When I pointed out I had moved 50 metres and to get to the old address you had to drive past the new address they had no response but as a 'gesture of goodwill' would waive the increase. Twonks.
I’m convinced it’s basically arbitrary.
Its not even slightly arbtrary.
Its all based on decades of claims data.
They don’t know who you actually are, so they base their underwriting decision on past claims data from people with the same/similar characteristics.
People with kids claim less than people without kids. Single people claim more than married people. Policies with two named drivers from the same address are a lower risk than policies with one named driver.
It might not always make sense or apply to you, as an individual, but the data they have backs up their assessment of their risk overall.
(Auto renewal prices are just a gamble on lazy people not bothering to change though, and they make it cheaper for everyone else)
"They don’t know who you actually are"
Yeah they do - social media and Experian. pricing is still silly but some insurers are cottoning onto the idea that if they give a realistic number in the letter it's cheaper than having to take the pricematch call it generates
Yeah they do – social media and Experian.
They really don't. I've had some scary conversations recently about the poor quality of MI they generate.
A lot of cash is being spent trying to automate and update, but their underlying systems are 40+ years old.
Every year I ring up my insurer and ask for a better price, and they knock at least £100 off just for asking. It's a multicar policy and it's actually a pretty decent price once they give me my "loyalty discount" or however they dress up the removal of the lazy-person premium.
It's tedious, but at least new regulations mean that your renewal notice has to show you what they charged you last time, which makes it easier to see how much they're trying to shaft you.
Being as it's risk-based, I'm looking forward to paying basically nothing when I'm driving a speed limited self drving car which can't have an accident!
Its not even slightly arbtrary.
Its all based on decades of claims data.
They don’t know who you actually are, so they base their underwriting decision on past claims data from people with the same/similar characteristics.
People with kids claim less than people without kids. Single people claim more than married people. Policies with two named drivers from the same address are a lower risk than policies with one named driver.
It might not always make sense or apply to you, as an individual, but the data they have backs up their assessment of their risk overall.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Exactly, and its so competitive they make a tiny amount of money overall, in fact they can make a minor loss, but how they invest that money (into the billions per year UK wide) in between you paying them and them paying out to the claimants is how they make a profit.</span>
(Auto renewal prices are just a gamble on lazy people not bothering to change though, and they make it cheaper for everyone else)
They need the money to pay claims from somewhere, so don't complain. Everyone who is too rich or too stupid to shop around are subsidizing the rest of us.
The below is pure speculation:
Too lazy to shop around? maybe you're too lazy to check your tires, or to indicate...
Expect everything on a platter and consider insurance co's to be big evil corporates? more likely to put in a spurious whiplash claim...
The premium you pay also includes amounts that aren't specifically based on the risk you are. So even if you're driving the perfect car and you are the perfect driver, there's a fund for something called "large losses" that everyone contributes to, plus uninsured drivers (the MIB coughs up for those, funded by insurers, funded by you), and a whole host of other stuff.
And some profit.
Oh, and don't forget insurance premium tax.
I paid the same amount for two years (increase by £10 in the 3rd yr this is the 4th year with the same car insurer) then this year they tried to increase it so I gave them a call. Told them I wanted to stay with them but if they wanted to increase for no reason then I would have to insure with other insurer. Last year they told due to increase in insurance premium the best they could do is get me to pay the increase of £10. Other insurers quoted me slightly higher so I continued to stay with them.
This year they gave me the typical corporate answer blaming the underwriter ...
I said I got better quotes from Confused and Go Compare (£30 to £40 less) so they asked me to forward the quote to them to see if they could price match, so I forwarded the quotes to them. They contacted informed me later that they could Not price match but instead they could me discount for my renewal by £9 (compare to my last year's premium).
Since I have been with them for 3 years I thought I would stay with them for another year to see how it goes.
If the premium different for next year with my current insurer reaches £50, and if they cannot reduce my renewal quote, then I shall switch to other insurer.
For me I prefer to stay with the same insurer so long as they do not try to rip me off too much. Less than £50 difference I can handle but more than that I will be switching.
“They don’t know who you actually are”
Yeah they do – social media and Experian.
Yes, Of course 🙄
you seriously think that in the 40 seconds it takes for the meerkats to produce 50 fully underwritten quotes on your screen, that there is someone looking through your Facebook profile and your twitter feed to see if you look like a safe driver?
Get a grip 👍