They're havin a laugh, ain't they?

Got my car insurance renewal quote through from eCar today and it's over £700..what's that about?

Fair enough it's class 2 business insurance with breakdown cover, but last year it was only £500.

It's a bloody rip-off..so no doubt I'll have to go shopping around.

I'm sure they make it up as they go along.

1 bike no problem, as soon as I add the second the premium quadruples, the reason? oh it's your post code! huh? My Post Code is good for 1 bike but is a mega risk with 2, umm

I hate to think what fun they are going to have next renewal, looting, rioting and a good few fires ain't going to do me any favours.

Yep. They've got you by the short & curlies.

They put soo much effort into winning new custom from their competitors that the only way they make money is by hoping you don't notice the increase.

Oh and then there is the £30 admin fee for doing anything.

Always worth a shop around every year.

In saying that I've kept with Carole Nash for a second year running and although it did go up a bit it did include euro breakdown cover.
I won't be doing the euro thing this year but have used the breakdown bit once already after big mac wrecked my tyre.

Cheers
Rosco

Seriously steep there Wooster.

My bikes due up in a few weeks and I think I will be going Carole Nash as well, cheapest quote and didnt see flush indicators as a serious modification unlike 28 of the 30 companies on Go compare who wouldn't quote!

billyw wrote: unlike 28 of the 30 companies on Go compare who wouldn't quote!

We know a song about that don't we children.

We do...

"With a few kicks, or just two bricks
you can smash your TV, and you'll still hear Go Compare
Go Compare!!"

It's a bit like the Joe Pesquale clasic "I know a song that'll get on your nerves......"

Don't start me on fookin insurance prices..... My car insurance has gone up over £150 a year yet my bike is only just over £100, I have business use on both and Nicks new bike is well less than £200 a year even though it's easy to damage, worth lots of dosh and easily nickable?????

No logic at all.

never accept the renewal quotes!
just tell them you've got a cheaper quote else where say axa etc.
I got a renewal notice for my car £291.56p .
told them I can get it cheaper £248.etc they came back £236.02p a drop of £54!
its the same with gas/electricity my neighbour was paying more than me with the same company. they rely on your idolness so you end up paying more!!

I had a mate that was doing the same thing with Cable.

I was on twice the internet bandwidth, the same TV package and the same phone package, but he'd been paying double what I'd been for years.

Rosco wrote:
They put soo much effort into winning new custom from their competitors that the only way they make money is by hoping you don't notice the increase.

Spot on Rosco. I work for an insurance company in IT and get to know how the different tariff algorithms work. We have one set of rates for new business and another for renewal. It is also why if you query your renewal, you're more likely to get a lump knocked off, they'd rather keep you on board than have to pay to attract new business. Some companies are also playing around with different pricing depending on a completely random factor to see what flex exists on price. One such example was a company that if your customer number ended in an even, the standard price was increased by 10%, odd number by 5% and if you were lucky enough to end in 0, you got a 5% discount. All this was done to compare the renewal retention rates of the different price changes from standard (they also factored in location and product) to see if they could put up the price and still have good renewal retention.

The motor market has been horrendously under-priced for the last few years with the arrival of new companies trying to get in on the act. Most insurance companies have been running their vehicle book of business as a loss, using household and commercial to make the money. Now these areas have seen people squeezing the premium so motor have had to have upwards of 35% increase (for some companies) to try and claw the money paid out in claims.

Also we've seen a huge hike in personal claims, all them whiplash claims, or exaggerated damage claims have had to be paid out of the pot. So to cover them, guess what... yup, up goes the price once more.

Defo shop around and it can be worth asking a broker if your insurance isn't a run of the mill product. A specialist broker will know which companies are more lenient to the flush indicators than others, and will also know if there is a bespoke insurance company out there who understands that business use on both car and bike will actually mean you're a good driver. It also costs a fair amount to get onto those aggregators like Go Compare, so you'll only find the big names on there.

Within 5 days of me sustaining a whiplash Injury for which I had no intention of claiming for, the other party's insurance phoned me and offered me a large payment to settle the claim.

Wtf?? I didn't even have to claim! But the rep that hit me admitted full liability from the word go and even gave me a hug after he'd rear-ended me (err, can't word it any other way lol)

I frequently examine people with neck injuries following an RTC and never write a diagnosis of 'whiplash' because they will always win their claim, instead I write 'soft tissue injury neck'

But looks like I'm wasting my time when they phone up and offer money anyhow.

I keep getting text messages telling me I'm entitled to loads-a-money in compensation for my recent accident. Er - what accident? I know I'm getting on a bit but my memory's not that bad!

Yes, I know, these messages are just sent out at random by ambulance chasers on the basis that x% might find a soft target. And if you reply "Stop" they know you exist and carry on with the spam. But this compensation culture still really annoys me. If I choose to do risky things that's my decision, I don't expect anyone to pick up the tab if it goes pear-shaped, unless it's clearly their fault.

Last year when it came to renew my car insurance I phoned up my insurer (Admiral) and send cut the crap and save doing all the usual 'compare-the-market' bullshit/junk...just how much are you going to knock off???

Answer: They knock off £94 just like that!

ALWAYS worth challenging renewals, car or bike (and house)

I have a pool of companies that have given me decent deals in the past, so I'll go around them next week.

Confused.com is run by Admiral Insurance and Comparethemarket.com is part of the same group that own Bennets.
This is why I don't trust some of them.

Out of curiosity I started a fresh quote with eCar, who gave me the £728 renewal quote and it came in at £980.
...Obviously they don't want my business.

Someone on another forum (with similar issues) linked to this advice: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
..read through it and checked out Aviva.
They gave me a much better quote of £477.


I'll check a few more later in the week to see if prices fall a bit on the back of Friday's ruling about banning automatic referrals to personal injury parasites.