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Car insurance - minefield


Gordon R
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My wife's Suzuki insurance is up next month and I have filled in the details on:-

 

Compare the Market

 

Go Compare

 

Money Supermarket

 

Quotezone

 

It's a 10 plate and the premiums range from £233.04 (Zurich Insurance) to over a grand from companies I'd never heard of.

 

I had an e-mail from Quotezone reminding me about asking for quotes, on a previous car. Re-visited their site - updated details - within 10 minutes I had a phone call from them offering me a policy for over £500. I pointed out the lowest quote of £233.04. The lad said he would see if they could better this. After about 10 minutes we arrived at a quote of £440.

 

He asked how this sounded to me. I said it sounded like double. He pointed out the freebie benefits:-

 

RAC

 

Free legal cover

 

Courtesy car

 

Free purse

 

Free phone cover

 

I said I had no need of the first three - he said they were free though - and could see little use for the latter two.

 

I pointed out that the price - almost double - got me a phone cover and a purse - which I had no use for. He asked me if I wanted to go ahead and assured me he wasn't joking.

 

Unbelievable.

Edited by Gordon R
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I used go compare and got a reasonable deal but what I had not realized, until I read the t&c's carefully, was that the extension to drive any other vehicle not owned or hired by me did not extend to my wife's car or indeed a partner !! We have had to be named drivers on each others policy. Apparently this is quite widespread now so there maybe partners driving each others car, unknowingly uninsured though they think they are covered. :sad1:

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Renewed the wife's car insurance yesterday. She was with Tesco £368 this year, a hike of £30. After a play around I got it for £262 with the Post Office. She's been with Zurich Direct in the past but after a couple of years they wanted double. She's of a 'certain age', clean licence, no claims and max NCB. Car is a Volvo xc70.

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Mine and the wife's car were up 2 weeks ago and we were both with direct line and have been for about 8 years. They wanted £550 to insure hers and £405 to insure mine. Anyway we're both now insured through admiral for £635! What a saving, I guessing they just hope that you don't look round!

 

Royal

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I was with Direct Line for several years. They always put the price up on renewal, and I'd give them a ring, quote other prices I'd found and they'd drop my quote to something near my best quote. I didn't mind paying a bit more as their service was pretty good the one time I had to use it. (Non-fault accident). This year though they would hardly budge on price, and their best offer was still at least £100 more than the quote from them for the same details if I pretended to be a new driver. I left them on the spot, and got a policy that was around half the cost from Adrian Flux. (Not sure the experience would be the same if I have to claim, but for the price difference... Anyway, I'm hoping not to have to claim! :/ )

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I renewed the insurance on my Toyota Surf last week, I am with Liverpool and Victoria (LV).

The proposed premium was £220 fully comp, up £19 on last year.

I did my usual negotiating and after dropping the courtesy car provision and overseas insurance (neither needed) , I am down to £146 fully comp.

All price reducing options were suggested by the LV "adviser".

 

I steer clear of the "compare the market" type companies, I haven't found any of them that have beaten quotes obtained by going directly to the Insurance Company.

I also don't want to be insured by anyone I have never heard of and it seems to be those sort of Insurers that always come out the cheapest.

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I steer clear of the "compare the market" type companies, I haven't found any of them that have beaten quotes obtained by going directly to the Insurance Company.

I also don't want to be insured by anyone I have never heard of and it seems to be those sort of Insurers that always come out the cheapest.

 

You may be surprised Cranfield. I used one of the comparison site (think it was Confused) and ended up going with LV!

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I used to be with LV for a few years and then the price jumped up for no reason, i got a quote from Admiral who were the same as i was paying with LV, it all ways surprises me that your old insurer does not want to match your new quote from else ware even though you have been a good customer with them and not made any claims, they just let you go.

Chris

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I go on the compare sites..get the 3 cheapest then ring them 3 direct and see what I can get out of them. Usually saves a few quid.

 

For young drivers..Quinn direct is often reasonable, i was with them from 17-21 and now at 22 I have gone elsewhere.

Paid just shy of 2 grand for a fiesta si 1.6

Now at 22 with 2year no claims I am paying just shy of 700 for a corsa 1.8sri.

Address matters also..apparently I am in a higher risk area now i live nearer a city...

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A little known fact for you. You don't need to go through this rigmarole every year as you can legally self insure your car.

 

You just need to lodge a bond of £500,000 with Lloyds of London to cover any liabilities. :oops:

 

I'm not sure who would do this though. Perhaps a very large fleet company? Obviously the only cost is the cost of having £500K tied up as the money remains yours.

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After having a relatively bad accident 4-5years ago while with a reputable firm (privilege) and seeing how it didnt seem to matter at all, they were a joke and barely fought the chav muppet that run up the back of me at all - I now go for the cheapest bit of paper that gets me legal for the road.

 

At the time of the accident I had loan cars turn up that were not from the insurance company - which they claimed was because they pass on the accident details for statistics.

 

I also presented video evidence to show me driving in front of the chav that hit me two miles away from the accident site (as he claimed I reversed out of a driveway in to the front of him) and they were still not fighting as hard as they should of.

 

They will all try to shaft you so you're better sorting it yourself with your own brief if it all goes bad.

 

I had a stone fall off a tractor trailer Nd wipe out my cars front bumper one morning and again the insurance company basically said "there's not a lot we can do"

 

Get the minimum and just do the same as most people do - deny everything and claim ignorance..

 

Bitter about it?....you bet!

 

Regards,

Gixer

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