My quote went up this year – a bit! But this is the first year in living memory that the cheapest quotes on the meerkat were more expensive than the renewal quote.

Every year in the past I have used the meerkat quotes to either negotiate the renewal offer down to something sensible, or swapped to a new policy.

Credit card acceptance fees are not allowed in the UK. However over here you would have been hit with $120 worth of the dreaded VAT.

You should try insuring a car over here !

Relatively expensive insurance has some benefits (but not to you careful and blameless drivers). Here in primitive NZ, insurance is not compulsory, so young lads career around in high-performance cars, which may – or may not – have scraped through the MOT-equivalent examination, which is feeble in comparison to the MOT. Darwinism removes a few, but the remainder are a danger to all, and a noisy annoyance. Driving standards here are dire.

Just renewed my car insurance with as quoted by the insurer “a five star defaqto expert rated” insurer. Last year the premium was £244, this year £257, I have no complaints and am perfectly happy with cost which includes a discount for 13 years no claim discount, the prices are very much dependent on the area in which you live, the nearer to large city conurbations the higher premiums generally become. A strange anomaly that I have come across with some insurers, my own included, is that as a 75 year old if I insure for myself as the sole driver then the premium is higher than if my wife is also on the policy as another named driver, she is also the same age as myself. My wife still has a current driving licence but prefers to be a passenger nowadays which suits me, can anyone explain why insurance companies reduce the premium if there are two named drivers on a policy as opposed to a single driver, it doesn’t seem logical to me.

In respect of Chris and his penalty for a non claim it appears that most insurers follow the same process so it appears that if you have the misfortune to scrape your car and fund the repairs out of your own pocket telling your insurer will cost you dearly even though they are not required to fund any repairs. If not telling them then that contravenes the contract that you have taken out with your insurer depends in all probability how you interpret the complex insurance document they have given you. It is so easy with the way insurance terms are written to find yourself being accused of insurance fraud. Dave W

My Daughter just been telling me the quote for our caravan insurance went up by £70 she phoned them and ended up paying £5 less than last year if insurance companies didn't play this silly game with renewals they could keep their own cost's down

H

You don't need to. Insurance companies share information and know who is covered, policy holders and named drivers. Not difficult or expensive to do, connected computers, not the ledgers and letters that made insurance fraud worth a punt when I was a sprog!

Anyone who has a named driver on their policy and fancies the experiment is welcome to make a claim and see what happens when everyone's premiums are renewed.

Harry: sorry, don't know about 2019. 2017 figures are the most recent I could find.

Dave

Dave

Received a renewal reminder from RAC Car Insurance this week.

Last year's total = £115.25

Renewal price = £213.39 !!!!!!!!!

I tried to cancel online but was unable to do so. You can renew online (with no interaction) but to cancel you have to contact a customer representative.

I've changed insurer.

Zenith Insurance. Fully comprehensive. £0 voluntary excess. £109.54

> if insurance companies didn't play this silly game with renewals they could keep their own cost's down

Insurance is an odd business where the normal rules of competition don't quite apply in the same way. Renewals are a good illustration of this dynamic.

Year 1: insurers A, B, and C all charge about the same and all have about a third of the market.

Year 2: insurer A increases renewal prices. Some customers stay and some leave. Because A's old customers are paying more, new customers can be charged less.

Year 3: B and C have a problem. If they stick to their old method, they are now more expensive than A for new customers. In addition, their old customers are eyeing up A and thinking about switching.

Year 4: all three insurers are now charging low prices to new customers and high prices to old customers. No one company can stop doing this alone or they will get no new business.

In fact this dynamic applies to almost every feature of an insurance policy. I am sure a few readers here remember when insurers started introducing smoking and non-smoking rates and how quickly the whole industry adopted them: they had to, otherwise they were too expensive for non-smokers, and therefore ended up with only smokers – who of course claim more.

The only solution to these dynamics is mutual agreement, which isn't permitted under competition law, or government or regulatory diktat, as with the abolition of gendered pricing or last year's imposition of renewal pricing rules.

If you lot are griping about a few hundred quid you should try living inside the M25. I thought this thread was going to be about the rip off of nobody driving anywhere during lockdown and yet paying more.

And on the subject of insurance in general all the ME clubs that didn't do any public running or other insured activity yet still didn't get a rebate. My men's shed got a whole 2 months free after not meeting or doing anything for six months.