Car insurance renewal

[Old Boggy]

I am sure that this has come up before, but there are a couple of things that may be of interest as mentioned on the latest Martin Lewis money programme. 

1. Apparently there is an optimum time (i.e. cheapest) to get a quote from one or more of those comparison sites and that is 21 days (or thereabouts) prior to the renewal date. The reason given was that insurance companies regard someone who is organised and applies in good time and doesn't leave thing until the last minute as a better risk and thus quoted a lower premium. Seems a bit odd to me but will try it out next time as I generally try about a week or two before, so may well have been missing out on saving a few bob.

2. A young driver could get a cheaper quote by putting an older person as a named driver. In this instance, insurance companies take an average of the overall risk, the young driver being the high risk and the older driver a lower risk, thus bringing the overall risk and premium down. I suspect that there probably aren't many PW members in the very young category (ageist comment or what ?) so like myself, this could be relevant to sons/daughters or grandchildren. It always used to be the case where a young driver was put on their parents insurance initially for cheapness but whether this still happens I don't know.

3. Mention was made on the programme that Aviva and Direct Line should also be tried for a quote as they do not subscribe to comparison sites and may well be quite competitive. This fact is pointed out in the Direct Line advert by the mafia style Winston Wolf !!

As is widely known all or most insurance companies offer multi car cover as being cheaper than insuring individual cars with the same or different companies. I run two cars, one 'newish' car for best and a 20 year old small 4x4 for shooting, both of which are currently insured with Admiral on a very good multi car cover. What I was surprised at however, was the older car was cheaper to insure fully comp than third party fire and theft. Why that is I don't know. Perhaps someone more 'au fait' with car insurance can enlighten me.

I apologise if the above has been covered previously but raising them again can do no harm.

OB

 

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Thank you for your timely reminder Mate.

[Old Boggy]

58 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Thank you for your timely reminder Mate.

I take it your car insurance is up for renewal.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Oh yes and the house insurance, got the FEO coming today then will use the rest of a wet day to do some personal admin!

[welsh1]

My lovely wife told me about Martin lewis and the optimum 21 days last night, it's a pity the car insurance is due in 15 days time, and i got quotes the day before yesterday lol.

Auto renewal want £100 more this year, online the same company offer me the same insurance for a £10 increase .

[udderlyoffroad]

1) Interesting, will set a reminder in my calendar.  Isn't being a grown-up fun?

2) Cue inevitable dire warnings about 'fronting'

3) Usually an utter waste of time in my experience, but if you're fast at typing go for it.

4) Again, I find the multi-car cover is usually a waste of time if you're attempting to insure an older shooting truck and a daily driver.  Maybe for 2 recentish sensible family cars it's different.  If you're driving an older vehicle, try the specialist 4x4/classics insurers.  I was with Peter Best when I had my old Discovery.  You usually have to ring these people rather than getting quotes online.

As for the fully comp being cheaper thing, been that way for years, only recently noticed it swinging the other way.

 

1 hour ago, Old Boggy said:

on the latest Martin Lewis money programme

If you can get over the appallingly 'busy' website design, worth having a read here

 

[Farmboy91]

No 1 definitely works, I got stung in the past leaving it last minute, that was about 4 years ago and Ive always done it when I get the renewal through now.

When I was a new driver direct line were cheapest for the first couple years then the prices went astronomical. I've been driving over 11 years with no claims or convictions and they wanted over a grand last September  for a 63 plate diesel golf 😂 ended up paying a tad over £300 with LV.

[Davyo]

I didn't know about this but have always started looking for insurance at least 4 weeks before the old one runs out.I save them and pay when the renewal drops through the door (always way higher than last yrs).I then phone prev insurer and advise not to auto renew as i have already paid for new provider to take over when old one ceases.You then get the usual "oh can we match it or beat it" no thanks you have not shown loyalty so why try and reel me back in now  its paid. I cant confirm if doing this is an advantage but ive always been happy with the outcome.I'm usually got another cover in place and paid 2 to 3 weeks before the other runs out. I think you can pay within 28 days of the start date.     

Edited February 13, 2020 by Davyo

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Just received my renewal offer, £155, cheaper than last year!

Just getting to the 3 week point so will have a look and see what offers I can find.

[Lord Geordie]

On 13/02/2020 at 09:45, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Oh yes

 

 

and the house insurance, got the FEO coming today then will use the rest of a wet day to do some personal admin!

Must be with Churchill  

[TIGHTCHOKE]

No with Provident, their renewal £155 was as good as those from the comparison sites!

 

OH YES!

[bear-uk]

Iv'e just renewed mine. Aviva was £390 up £50 from last years expensive price. So a quick comparison quote had Quote me happy and General accident over £100 cheaper, plus I got better extras. Another strange thing is the excess. Every £100 + or - seemed to only alter the price by £10. So for £30 I have my excess at zero and I will take a chance and save £300 if I do have to claim.

 Both are owed by Aviva acording to my son who works for Aviva. Speaking to the helpline guy said they have removed or altered the perks like having other insurances with them. So loyalty is worth naff all.

 

[AVB]

I had a multi car policy with admiral covering my Tesla, Audi and Defender. This year it went up £500. 

Ended up getting a multi car with Churchill for the Tesla and Audi but they wouldn’t insure the Defender. So went for a separate one with esure for the Defender. 

Admiral did say could they try to   Price match but like Davyo I hate that approach so declined. 

[Dibble]

I'll offer an alternative to point 1, I renewed my motorbike policies today via the well known bike broker.

The renewal was £489 up from £430 excesses going up by £50  to £300/300/400 (Guzzi, CRM,VFR)

They were truly desperate to get me to sign up today rather than Monday because they wanted to hit this months target.

We ended up at £401  and my Excess " insured free of charge" so £0 in effect. Even after I declared the recent 3 points.

This won't work of course if they are going to cruise their target or if they are miles off.

 

It's difficult for me because Multi Bike policies are similar to cars, its difficult to get a policy to cover different types of bike and I don't always work in the same office so can't just have social domestic and pleasure, I have to have Business use which costs!

The Insurance companies seem to continually trip themselves up with their own greed, if the renewal was only a few quid more I'd just have paid but they always have to mess around with excesses which makes me look around.

[Vince Green]

My 87 year old mother's Nissan Micra is actually dearer for her to insure than my 5.5 litre V8 Mercedes is for me. And she is down for 3000 miles a year.

Mind you, having witnessed her driving first hand I can understand why

Age is becoming quite a factor these days, the young and the old get loaded heavily