[Closed] Oh it's depressing - Car insurance

[i]£1200 if I pay in full, which I can't afford. £1800 monthly[/i]

**** me what's the APR on that?

a credit card over a year must be cheaper?

They're from different insurers but in general there seems to be a massive premium for paying monthly.

holy toot! I thought they were taking the mick wanting £300 for a 130 bhp diesel quattro.

It must be rubbish. I think I'm quite lucky, as I don't seem to have been affected by all the insurance hikes that everyone has been talking about. I pay around £300 fully comp, but I have 10 years NCD. I always have to shop around though as it seems to just up with the existing insurer every year.

Can you add additional driver?

I still add my Father as a second driver living away and I'm 3% years young 8)

Lowers my insurance a bit.

I passed my test just after I was 30, 31 now. Fully comp was £540 on a 2001 1.3 Fiesta with Carole Nash, with it going up to £620 this year for 2003 1.4 Fiesta Zetec. £1200 seems a bit high, as does the jump to £1800.

Bloody hell.

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I don't know how people afford it. I does smell to me a little of a cartel by the insurance companies. Insurance is compulsory so they can just keep putting up the prices between themselves.

WOW, I don't think I've ever paid more than £400 ever. And that includes insuring a golf gti at age 22

I blame the big car repairers who seem to charge vast amounts to do a [usually] crap job.

sharkbait - it's not the vehicle repairs that cost it's the injury claims.

Everyone claims whiplash etc after an accident.

I blame the big car repairers who seem to charge vast amounts to do a [usually] crap job.

last time someone got run over on here it was his fault for getting knocked of his bike and wishing to claim!

EDIT: oh what timing 🙄

That's crazy, I'm honestly astounded by those prices! I've just renewed our car: BMW 116i; My Mrs is main policy holder (23 with 4 years no claims), I'm named (25 with 1 year), and although it's a safe postcode, we're paying £607 fully comp.

Other than possibly no claims, what is the biggest differential insurers take into account?

sharkbait - it's not the vehicle repairs that cost it's the injury claims.

30 years old, held licence since I was 17. Advanced driver with full, clean car and motorbike licence, no accident history, insuring an alarmed and immobilised, decade old diesel saloon worth no more than £500 on a good day, based in leafy semi rural postcode. Hardly drive it, mileage limited to 4000 per year, no commuting. Car spends 99% of time parked outside house at end of quiet dead end road.

This year's renewal came and they'd decided to put my premium up by £200, for no reason they appeared compelled to articulate.

Rang up assuming some mistake had been made. [i]"No"[/i] replies woman, [i]"same for everyone"[/i]. Nothing she can do. Immediately cancelled policy, rang round and scoured online quotes for better deal, didn't find anything that could compete with the renewal quote.

Car taken to scrap yard.

Ridiculous.

Renewals are a bit of a con in my recent experience.

Last year, paid about £480.
Renewal came through for £750.
Looked online, found a quote from the same company for £450, though this didn't include my girlfriend as a named driver.

So, I rang them up, explained that I was getting a better quote online - with them. They took my renewal and removed the named driver. New renewal was about £700. I pointed out this was a bit rubbish, so they agreed to match their own online quote - £450. I then asked to add the named driver back on.... and the quote went down to £380.

Um... how can removing a named driver reduce a quote, then adding the same driver back on reduce it again? Still, I wasn't complaining - £750 to £380 with a ten minute phone call.

sharkbait - it's not the vehicle repairs that cost it's the injury claims

hmmmm, from the company my insurers hired to sort my recent bus incident i well and truly got interrogated about whether i had any injury, pain or discomfort at all no matter how minor. they were well and truly digging to make an injury claim.

To the OP; have you tried the price comparison websites? Seriously they can save you a bundle, even when you think you can't go lower.... Go Compare etc....

Me (27, 9yrs clean license, 5yrs NCD) + mrs xiphon as named (5yrs, 0yr NCB) = £700 fully comp + protected NCD + replacement hire car + commuting.

Car's an old 1.9Tdi, 'S'reg estate.

mrs xiphon on her own - £1800!! Jesus!

I've just reinsured my 1.9 TDi Octy. Been with Churchill for the last couple of years, went from £180 to £210 to £265 for the most recent, 9 years NCD, 5000miles/year, and I'm 56 this year. Confused.com showed Kwikfit to be cheapest, but when I tried them they added all sorts of stuff on, like legal cover, breakdown, etc, which took it to£336. Knocked all the unnecessary stuff off and final price was £175. Thank you very much, I'll take that.

insurance companies put up their premiums for no other reason than they want to make more money
not because repair costs have gone up or people are making more claims or people are 'arranging' write offs to make money during the recession, etc.
end of story

I've just had the same experience as jackthedog, premium has just been banged up to £500 from £300. Did alot of shopping around due to what appeared to be them blatantly fleecing me, couldn't get it cheaper anywhere else.

Yes PeterPoddy those prices I got are from comparethemarket.

In relation to the big comparison sites, this was news to me:

Confused.com owned by Admiral. Yes, that Admiral. They also own elephant.co.uk, Bell Direct and Diamond, the womens car insurance specialist.

GoCompare are “independent” but eSure has a 50% share. That’s according to the Insurance Times.

Compare the Market is owned by Budget. This one is a bit naughty, as all of the brands quoted are Budget group companies – but they don’t make that obvious – they also own Dial Direct, “Local Broker“, ibuyeco, Quote Mart, and Junction who run the insurance arms of the Post Office, Marks and Spencer, Debenhams, Bradford & Bingley, Homebase and yesinsurance.com.

MoneySupermarket have just floated (in what was described as an “unfortunate” stock market debut, they failed to raise as much cash as had been hoped for, partly due to a recent Google penalty for link spamming which saw their web traffic shrink alarmingly!). As such they are independent.

My 80yr old father (no accidents in 30yrs). 1.4l Fiesta £850.

insurance companies put up their premiums for no other reason than they want to make more money
not because repair costs have gone up or people are making more claims or people are 'arranging' write offs to make money during the recession, etc.
end of story

2 key reasons why claims are going up:
1. Whiplash claims
2. Fraud - for e.g. waiting till someone's too close and then jamming brakes on so they go into the back - then make a personal injury claim.

Also mopping up the cost of uninsured drivers - what they don't understand is, the more they put the cost up.... the more young people will drive uninsured.

I know someone who needs a car to get to work (lives in a remote village.. one bus per day... both parents work odd hours.)... but can't afford to legally pay the high cost (wrong side of £2k....)... so it's a risk he takes.

He's a very safe/cautious driver though!

Went to change over the wife's insurance tonight as i've just bought her a new car and they want just over 3 times as much as were paying at the moment.
is this a joke, no she replies it's worth more so you pay more and its a higher insurance bracket, I know but 3x more, yes sir, well it's got better security and safety features does that not count, yes sir but is still 3x the amount.
can I cancel then, yes sir i'll put you on hold for 20 minutes to the rententions team. Then when I get through to the retentions team there computers are down this is at 17.30, and although there department is open until 20.00 they won't be back up today so I can't get a price to cancel, but promised to call me back tommorow. we'll see

My car insurance went up 20% this year (just renewed), nothing changed just older and car worth less. And their renewal price was cheaper than their online (and all the confused) prices.

But still, £320 comp with business cover on a 535i ain't too bad.

tonyg2003 - Member

My 80yr old father (no accidents in 30yrs). 1.4l Fiesta £850.

Why does that surprise you? Eyesight, reaction time, hearing deteriorate.

I've written quote calculator software*, the risk loading is something like (a rotated) inverse bell curve based upon age, which is subsequently weighted by the other factors; yearly mileage, type of car, postcode etc.

* for a company which is now no longer selling private car insurance so maybe it was not so good

brooess - Member
2 key reasons why claims are going up:
1. Whiplash claims
2. Fraud - for e.g. waiting till someone's too close and then jamming brakes on so they go into the back - then make a personal injury claim.

A broker MD told me that motor insurance is not very profitable in itself. The insurers usually invest the premiums and make money on that to make up the shortfall. Now it is harder to make money on investments, the premiums have gone up to meet the shortfall.

One significant reason that insurance is going up is that insurers are very involved in the financial markets - the financial markets are a bit crap at the minute so the premiums are going up to cover the shortfall.

Most underwriters are effectively banks or very similar financial/investment institutions.

1: make car insurance a criminal offence to avoid
2: a small number of (privately owned or publicly traded)insurers
3: ???
4: massive profits

Mine topped £200 this year, very disappointed.

Landrover Defender (1991year) agreed value of £7500, no NCD due to it being 2nd car, breakdown cover.

£202 fully comp. Was £146 last year but on market value and no breakdown cover.

As a 20yo male in a 1l Yaris, I'm looking at about £1k last time I checked.

Go on, give me some perspective.

what they don't understand is, the more they put the cost up.... the more young people will drive uninsured.

I know someone who needs a car to get to work (lives in a remote village.. one bus per day... both parents work odd hours.)... but can't afford to legally pay the high cost (wrong side of £2k....)... so it's a risk he takes.

£2000/year is £40/week. A 37.5 hour week at minimum wage is £200 take home. The bloke presumably lives at home, so unless his folks are stiffing him for rent I reckon he can afford to insure his car. And if they are, he should move out 🙂

I does smell to me a little of a cartel by the insurance companies. Insurance is compulsory so they can just keep putting up the prices between themselves

Maybe insurance is expensive because insuring is expensive? Just a thought.

Lad at work has had a nightmare getting his type r civic insured. He's 40 this year, has 18yrs without a claim. His renewal went up 200 quid, he shopped around and most insurance were coming in at over a grand. Think he got it down to 700 in the end

I once did some work for an insurer, and the chief exec told me one of the main reasons why car insurance has not been very profitable across the industry for the past few years was personal injury claims. I think as a rule car insurance is now more profitable presumably because premia are up.

I am pretty sure it's not a cartel just because it's compulsory - so is food and not sure the supermarkets are cartels either. The reason they are all hiking prices at the same time is that they all face the same risk ie you crashing your car and the same inflated claims that go with it.

~MRS T-R 24 with 1 years ncb = 500 quid third party on a T reg 1.5 mazda 323 (the worst car ive ever had the misfortune to drive)

add me - 25 with 3 years NCB = 250 fully comp

me on my own same car = 150 quid

my van - , 1.9 D = 600 on my own , but 398 with her added.

madness.

never mind if she gets the job near my work next year we shall be scaling it down to 1 car (well actually we already have as her 323 went to the scrappy at the weekend bag of shite ! )

I'm more depressed about the fact that me and the wife can both insure through Saga now, £200 for fully comp on a new Yaris diesel though 😀

[url= http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/06/17/uk-insurance-britain-idUKTRE75G4E520110617 ]Reason why some people are paying more..[/url]

are people aware that insurance companies charge solictors a referall fee (on average over £500) to deal with PI claims - its a nice revenue stream for them.

government has reformed claims process in april last year and solictors costs are vastly reduced and fixed on all claims under £10,000 ( which probably covers about 85% of all claims. no pure whiplash claim is worth more than £4500/500 (and rarely are they this high))

Uninsured drivers are a MASSIVE problem and the MIB who deal with such claims are funded by other law abiding drivers via their inurance premium.

Fraudulent claims are not as widespread as people percieve.

Young drivers end up in some of the most horrific claims we see. Speed usually an issue , rolling cars , numbers of passengers. Pensioners also involved in a number of accidents but usually less 'exciting' claims and down to them 'not seeing stuff'.

I am sure the motor element of the insurers business props up other less profitable areas of the company.

Large repairers are ususally nailed down on low labour rates (volume work) so I doubt thats an issue.

Credit hire is another massive problem which has come to the fore again.

my best quotes have always been with Swift, and Elephant.

sure they may not be quite as helpful in a bump, but they cost loads less.
also, putting my mum on my insurance pulls it down a fair few hundred quid!
i dont think she even knows she is on it, but its perfectly legal.

Girl friend bumps it up 17 quid :s

Just to illustrate the oddity of premium setting. 18 year old Sandwich Junior was quoted £1300 for no NCD if he passed his test, he duly failed but was insured with Admiral on a multicar policy as a learner for a month while we waited for a March re-test. On passing his test the premium was £1k with his mum as a named driver.

Just got the wife's renewal through too; £435 last year, £560 this year...

Got mine through last month: £420 full on a 9 year old yaris with 9+ years NCD. Direct line. Got it for £200 from the AA.

Interestingly enough I was in the other half's car last year and it got bumped. Slightly. We now keep getting automated calls about compensation due to us. Lawyers chasing after fees that are causing my premiums to go up each year. Gits!

I can't believe some of the prices and situations quoted here.

I'm 31 with just 1 years ncb, got a 2.5L V6 twin turbo uber-estate, 300-odd horsepower, modifications declared, looks like it's worth nicking, I live in one of the less salubrious postcodes of Edinburgh, I've got an SP30 and 2 years ago had an own-fault crash that ended up being an insurance write-off, and yet my insurance is £528 fully comp. Down from about £700 last year. Granted, the renewal was £800-somthing, but like [b]beej[/b] I just gave them the online quote reference from their own website with the low price and that was that. How can I get such a deal, and yet Mr 40 year old, 18 years claim-free with a CTR can't get under £700?

Elephant.co.uk by the way.

I'm 36 and only passed my test last year, was getting silly quotes too,Spent 3 days on the web solid checking out all the companies and sites but I ended up going with A-plan as they were a fraction of the price of everyone else,£39 a month for my Ka, my girl was with quickfit for 5 years and had full no claims and was being quoted £680 for her 52 plate focus, went to A-plan too and got it for £300.

Hope this helps.