Insurance companies

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

Car insurance time is coming round again and I have changed car. When I did that they promptly refunded some of what I had paid as it was lower group car. Not much but the policy only had a couple of months to run. Great company – it seems. I reduced my annual mileage once and had a refund for that too. All done on the web. Even a certificate for the car change came via the web.

Renewal doc's came last week and the premium had been bumped up by nearly £250. This made a similar % increase last time I changed and when I phoned up they came up with the usual crap – you have a new car now so it's more valuable and your last premium was discounted as it was older. That one started with them new too. I've been with them for well over 10 years and no claims.

This time I though I'd try some one else. Chose a company I have used in the dim and distant past. Guess what it came out nearly £200 cheaper. About where is should be really. Most accident repair don't depend on the value of the car, just it's write off value.

We had the house insurance with the same company so though may as well check that. Around £100 cheaper and better cover.

I'm getting a bit brassed of by over paying my ISP for phone and the net so that they can give fantastic new customer offers to people. Usually the initial discount on insurance is no where near as much but maybe these days it pays to change every year. Have to wait and see.

All I can say is if people are with Aviva do check. Previously no one else could really compete significantly. If so and you change car that may not be the case.

John

–

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

Over charging for insurance

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Strangely(?) I got a reasonable reduction in premiums when I added my wife to my policy even though we both have unblemished licenses and claims histories (although I subsequently hit a deer on the M61 a few months later). Apparently you may also see a reduction if you fit a towbar.

Rather than have to keep changing companies every year or so, it would be nice if they weren't so damned cynical, shafting anyone who stays longer than a year or two. Many of those penalised are elderly, insecure, infirm or have lots on their plate so this practice must be hurting people who could do without the grief.

With ISPs, I found that if you move part way through your (typically 18 month) contract, most insist on renewing the contract from the beginning again. Conversely, if you try to cancel early, they also expect to collect the remaining premiums. I was lucky enough to be coming up to the end of my contract with Talktalk so they are now history – and good riddance.

Particularly funny that one of the ISPs is running a big ad campaign right now, trumpeting how there is "no line rental charge" with their product. Funny that it still works out almost exactly the same price but clearly the idiot in the advert is too dumb to bother checking the bottom line. I guess they believe that most of their potential customers are similarly retarded….

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

My hastings car insurance renewal came in at £650, usind a compare website I could get it to £350 and would you believe still with Hastings – its now even cheaper than last yer. Got Sky down from £50 pm to £18 with the loss of just one channel, namely the F1 channel which I didnt even know existed. Swapped gas and electricity and phone and internet. Total 12 month saving of over £1000.

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

Gas and electric come next. Problem though. When we bought the property it was owned by 2 elderly spinsters*. In order to keep their costs separate they had their own electricity and gas meters so we have 2 of each. This means we can only get a duel fuel deal on one and not the other. They used slightly different addresses but once they ask us about name as they are now the same they just say we already have one.

It's almost funny really. They recently fitted the new smart meters. There was some sort of mix up and no one turned up. On phoning them they saw the problem – we had 2 appointments booked so they cancelled one. Net result we still have one old meter on each system. Must sort that out first.

*

The spinsters live on separate floors and let out the top floor to students at times – we have a pay electricity meter up there complete with a supply of old shillings.

John

–

[JAParticipant @ja]

I have used an insurance broker for vehicle insurance since Norwich Union started to mess about with its rider's policy (motorcycle) about 20 years ago. Instead of messing about with dodgy comparison web sites I wait for their yearly reminder and recommendation. Over the last 10 years or so the premiums, fully comprehensive, have not changed by much. Before anyone asks I pay £260 for the car (Audio A1) and £250 for all the bikes (one W650 and four old British bikes). I sure I could do better than the broker but it is not worth the bother.

Perhaps there should be similar energy brokers?

JA

[Rex HanmanParticipant @rexhanman57403]

I was with Direct Line for ages. Supposedly got a "discount" for having car, travel, house and pet insurance with them. Lord knows what it would have been without the discount!

Changed the house insurance 2 years ago and paid half. Dumped the pet insurance for one with better cover. Will cancel the travel insurance when it's next due.

Last June my car insurance cover seemed steep with a significant increase. Asked the Meercats for their opinion. Got 85 quotes below Direct Line's price. Now pay £150 less for the same cover except for a slight increase in the excess for a chipped windscreen.

It seems the insurance companies have a different interpretation of the word loyalty. I shall shop around again next June.

[mick70Participant @mick70]

they tried bumping mine up for car by 350 last time.

went to broker and ended up with 125 less than i had paid year before.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I got rid of my car because of insurance companies trying to screw me all the time, they're a bunch of thieves and I'd rather not encourage them

We're lucky in the UK, in the USA you get individual healthcare insurance each year and have to spend days reading it and figuring out if you're going to buy a lemon and it's 2000-5000 dollars a pop

Then you've got dental on top of that…yikes

It's a insurance thieves paradise

I always preferred using a broker btw, they do all the nonsense with the insurance company if there's ever a claim and don't put up with insurance company runaround tactics

Edited By Ady1 on 11/10/2016 21:19:47

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

If you want to know about how the Insurance companies screw their customers, come to Christchurch, there are hundreds of people here with out standing claims for earth quake damage, many who will never get their house rebuilt/repaired, or payed out, others will wait for years yet, it is six years since the incident. Also the premiums have doubled, and many can't get household insurance.

Ian S C

[steamdaveParticipant @steamdave]

I have tried to get insurance for my workshop which is in a detached single garage, but here in Ireland I can get cover for all my 'Outdoor' items – gardening stuff as well as workshop bits for a maximum of EU 5000 only. They just don't want to insure anything out of the ordinary and a hobby workshop is something out of the ordinary here. Now, according to them I have under-insured my Outdoor goods, so if I have to make a claim I'm not sure if I will be able to get the maximum EU 5000.

I can't get any form of supplementary insurance because everything is on the one property.

Not saying exactly where I am in case I get any unwanted callers one dark night!

Dave
The Emerald Isle

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

We were burgled once late in the year. They even took some good quality towels to pack the stuff away in suitcases. The insurance company sent a loss adjuster round and I had spent hours producing a list of what went and what it would cost to replace it. I took great care with replacement costs so that they couldn't argue. The loss adjuster was rather impressed that I had done so much in such a short time. I took 1/2 day off from work. I asked him if we would get replacements by Xmas as we would need some of them. Answer yes. On the way out he said that we must fit seven lever mortice locks to all doors and etc, I pointed out that we didn't use the normal night latch and that the mortice locks couldn't be fitted. "Doesn't matter that's what will be in my report". Wouldn't be so bad but they had several goes at getting in and had failed on all but one – a transom window that they had managed to lever open. Must have been a pretty slim small guy who got in and managed to avoid hurting himself with the 5 1/3 foot drop to the floor.

Phone up a few weeks before Xmas. Couldn't get any sense out of them. Loss adjuster said I still have a red pen mark by some items – price wise. What items I asked – no answer. Several phone calls and still no joy so come Feb I sent them a letter saying that if the claim wasn't settled very shortly I would buy the lot on my credit card and they could pay the interest etc. I threatened them with Which / Consumer Society as well so they probably thought they would help. No chance unless people buy their separate legal insurance. The claim was settled 2 days later. I had a phone call from the loss adjuster asking if I was sure I hadn't missed anything out. The problem is that these people are expected to save their cost on claims. Bit of a problem if they can't. The companies also hang onto money for as long as they can. I've had the same sort of problem with several types of claims. Net result some have a note saying that I can be a very awkward person to deal with. The Police too. That's from my twenties and was still there in my mid 50's so probably still is. My car is now back with one of the insurance companies that has or had the note.

They do get a lot of people trying to swindle them so don't and throw everything you can think of at them. These days legal insurance might well be a good idea. It can obtain advice from specialist lawyers who work for the large companies that offer it. I don't have it but am sorely tempted just in case. Most will give one session for free anyway maybe even one letter.

John

–

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

If you live abroad, even for just a month or so, the insurance companies will refuse to recognise your no claims history when you return, even from before you left the country. They insist that you start again from scratch. Very convenient. So you lose your NCD (my wife and I had the full 70%?). And even better than that, the few that will insure you will shaft you blind. I ended up having to get insured by Adrian Flux alongside drink/drug/banned drivers and paying £1800 for the first year for me, having been used to coughing up around £300 previously. We managed to recover a few years of NCD but the damage is cumulative over several years. It's bloody outrageous opportunism. At least when we got to year 2 we had a slightly more reasonable choice of insurers and mine came down to just over £400.

And another thing, you can't get a phone contract or mortgage until you have been resident again for a year because as you know we are all swindlers, money launderers and drug smugglers. Your credit rating is useless without electoral role, credit card, bank account etc. Even after a year there are only 2 companies that will offer you one (Santander / Abbey and Halifax), unsurprisingly at somewhat uncompetitive rates. And then you can try opening bank accounts for your kids who are also drug smuggling, money laundering swindlers, obviously – all you can get are the "basic" accounts that were created for bankrupts and convicted swindlers. We are indeed in safe hands.

(Rant over)

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

I had my house insured with a well known insurer. Had a rather large claim for storm damage, loss adjuster very understanding and his Report was to the point. They paid out in full and did not increase the Premium the following year.

So I asked the same insurer to cover my workshop and contents, no they said as the "contents" would now be very high. I checked the well known Model Engineer's Broker and there price was a bit high, but more to the point, underwritten by my existing insurer. No logic there is there?

So I went to another, so called expensive insurer, I now have unlimited cover on my house and the workshop is covered in full, all for less than the combined premiums of my late lamented insurer.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

In my book, insurance trades on fear. The basis is the statistical risk odds.

Keep getting pleas from the water board, to insure the plumbing. My last payout to a plumber was in 1964, so £5/month would have been a nice earner for someone. The blowlamp, pipe cutter, and pipe nut spanner were much cheaper, and immediately available!

Cars were insured with Direct Line, for years, each year renewal increase by 22 -23%. Phone up, supervisor says "Two cars, loyal customer, £2 less than last year". Until one year, they did not want to know; so did not get the business. Now they keep pleading for me to return! No wonder, last claim was 1981.

Long pockets, short arms at payout time, is my perception of insurers.

They probably compete for bottom place in the popularity stakes with Parking Wardens

Howard.

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

I haven't tried a quote from Direct Line for a long time. I was with them and a coach swiped the corner of my car while I wasn't in it but did hang around to tell me about it. Lucky me. They told me to take it to their repairers – they own them. As not far away I went and had a look at the work they did. There was plenty of it in the car park. The repair didn't blend into the rest of the car in one single case so I refused to take it there. It went to the garage that serviced the car for me instead. As usual they had to blow in panels to get it all to match. Directlne's man that went out to look wasn't happy about this or the quote but they did pay it. No more Directline for me. They were cheaper than many when I insured with them.

Last time I phoned for a quote and gave my details the reply was sorry but I have to quote blah blah for you. Makes me wonder. Might have been a slip of the tongue.

A mechanic I know's son used to work for Directline in their repair shop. They get paid a pretty decent salary and a bonus based on how long they take to do the job compared with the times Thatcham quote. It's not unusual for them to reduce the time by 30 to 50%. The garage charged based on Thatcham figures and included matching in the panels. The son ripped a tendon playing football and couldn't keep up the work rate so following a period where they put him in an easy job with no bonus while he recovered he had to find another job.

Personally I think insurers and a number of other fields need regulation but wont get it as it's more money for the boys.

John

–

[JimmieSParticipant @jimmies]

When checking out policy price, also check out the company's attitude to paying out on claims. Some years ago my wife lost an expensive ring when out walking. Reported it to the police in case it was found and handed in, was given a crime number, contacted our insurers and inside 10 days was able to go to any jeweller with the necessary paperwork to get a replacement.

[Halton TankParticipant @haltontank]

Recently I renewed my car insurance and noticed that it might be advisable not to drive at time of change over the old policy to the new one as the old expires at 23:59 and new one does not start until 00:01, so for 2 minutes you uninsured.

Luigi

[Author]

Posts