Cheap Car Insurance Article Discussion

mcmillanb · 28 February 2012 at 2:26PM

I know what you mean, as I posted the other day I am looking for insurance.

My current insurer is Hastings Direct and the renewal quote is £607
My Quidco searching found insurance for £439.75
Hastings called and I told them I had found cheaper quotes online, so they had a look to 'see what they could do', it turns out they could do it for £486, so £121 cheaper than their renewal quote.
I then went back to Quidco and found that Hastings Direct are offering £42.50 cashback (although they don't appear on their comparison engine so you have to do the click through and quote), so went through to do an online quote which then came out as £422! So another £64 cheaper again, plus £42.50 cashback.

So ultimately from a single company, my quotes have varied by over £180 in one day. How can that be possible? And the insurance companies wonder why people believe that they are being conned. Trouble is, they can almost do what they want because we are legally required to have insurance (which is right and proper) so they have a product that is always going to sell, and they can set the price at whatever they fancy.

raskazz · 28 February 2012 at 9:36PM

mcmillanb wrote: »

I know what you mean, as I posted the other day I am looking for insurance.

My current insurer is Hastings Direct and the renewal quote is £607
My Quidco searching found insurance for £439.75
Hastings called and I told them I had found cheaper quotes online, so they had a look to 'see what they could do', it turns out they could do it for £486, so £121 cheaper than their renewal quote.
I then went back to Quidco and found that Hastings Direct are offering £42.50 cashback (although they don't appear on their comparison engine so you have to do the click through and quote), so went through to do an online quote which then came out as £422! So another £64 cheaper again, plus £42.50 cashback.

So ultimately from a single company, my quotes have varied by over £180 in one day. How can that be possible? And the insurance companies wonder why people believe that they are being conned. Trouble is, they can almost do what they want because we are legally required to have insurance (which is right and proper) so they have a product that is always going to sell, and they can set the price at whatever they fancy.

Instead of throwing around accusations of being "conned" why not take some time to understand why an insurer's price will vary in this manner?

An insurer will vary the premium it charges via different channels for several reasons:

1) Different intermediaries will take different levels of commission for generating the business.

2) Different intermediaries will have different marketing techniques and will attract different types of customer profile - with the associated effects on the insurer's loss ratio from business through that channel. The premium will be altered accordingly.

3) Again due to the differing profile of the customers they attract, different intermediaries will generate business with different "life-cycle values" - i.e. an intermediary which generates business which is less price sensitive at the first and subsequent renewals will tend to attract a lower initial rate.

4) The insurer may be tied into medium- to long-term agreements with intermediaries on giving exclusive rates etc.

Furthermore an insurer may vary the premium it quotes within one distribution channel in order to research the price elasticity of demand for various segments of its portfolio.

angelcakes_smw · 28 February 2012 at 10:25PM

it's still a con regardless!!

danni.yelly · 29 February 2012 at 1:46PM

Any help here?
I am going mad over my car insurance quotes, they are absolutely ridiculous!

Last year I paid £350 for my insurance (after £40 cashback) for my old Ford Fiesta 1.2. I then bought a new car halfway through my policy making my car insurance £400 for the whole year.

I now have a 1998 Peugeot 306, 1.4.

I have done all the things listed on here, tried all the comparison/cashback websites and I am still getting quoted like £500+ for my insurance this year!

I now have 5 YEARS NCB, gone from being a STUDENT to EMPLOYED and have even moved to a SAFER STREET!

How on earth is this possible and how does it make any sense?
I feel so disheartened and worried im going to have to end up paying more for my car insurance this year, it's due on 11th March

If anyone has any ideas on improving these prices it would be fabulous.

emrah_2 · 11 March 2012 at 11:48PM

Hello all. Compare the market just told me the cheapest insurance I could get was a whopping £1766.68.

I'm 31 years old, and have been driving for fourteen years. However, I moved to London eight years ago and haven't had a car since then, so have no no-claims discount. I have no points on my licence, no criminal convictions etc. I'm studying towards a PhD so have to put "student" on my application, which perhaps makes a difference.

I'm now moving temporarily to my parents' home in rural north yorkshire (it's a small, quite wealthy village with low crime - surely that can't be expensive for insurance?) so was looking to get a small runaround - just a fiesta or something small and fuel-efficient, whatever.

The quote is about two months worth of wages for me. Any ideas on why on earth the insurance is so disproportionately high? Any suggestions on how I can get it down to a more realistic level?

ZAB2121 · 12 March 2012 at 5:02PM

Hi all,

This is just my feedback about a insurer called Coverbox. I have 8 years no claim and was paying 68 pounds a month and on renewal they quoted me 116 pounds a month which is around 60% increase. Customer service had no reasonable answer to this increase. I then asked them to take out thier GPS device which they put to calculate miles and they said to charge 90 pounds to take it off.

I found converbox as very unorganised insurer and would advice to refrain from them.

Regards,

ZAB

Conrad3000 · 16 March 2012 at 7:25PM

danni.yelly wrote: »

Any help here?
I am going mad over my car insurance quotes, they are absolutely ridiculous!

Last year I paid £350 for my insurance (after £40 cashback) for my old Ford Fiesta 1.2. I then bought a new car halfway through my policy making my car insurance £400 for the whole year.

I now have a 1998 Peugeot 306, 1.4.

I have done all the things listed on here, tried all the comparison/cashback websites and I am still getting quoted like £500+ for my insurance this year!

I now have 5 YEARS NCB, gone from being a STUDENT to EMPLOYED and have even moved to a SAFER STREET!

How on earth is this possible and how does it make any sense?
I feel so disheartened and worried im going to have to end up paying more for my car insurance this year, it's due on 11th March

If anyone has any ideas on improving these prices it would be fabulous.

Hi

The reason your premium has increased is not because of you; it's because of other drivers making claims; the insurance companies lose more money by paying out than taking in (obviously, lol).

So in order to balance the books or get themselves into profit, they'll charge everyone (regardless if they've claimed or not), to get into that position.

Sucks, I know.

zatari · 24 March 2012 at 9:34AM

Also it would be good to add a section for new drivers that have just passed their test.

Shadow2198 · 27 March 2012 at 10:09PM

In the Cheap Car Insurance guide it states one of the cons of Moneysupermarket as "Was contacted within 60 seconds by telephone for not 'opting-out' of marketing calls (and the opt-out option is not easy to find)."

Could someone advise when and where the opt-out option is before I click on the button on the last step to proceed and show my results. Don't really want to click through and have all my details passed onto all and sundry!

Codik · 28 March 2012 at 7:46AM

Hi there

I am 31, and have just passed by test. Insurance companies are quoting me ridiculously high amounts for car insurance.

As I do not need a car, do you think prices will go down significantly if I wait prior to getting a car and insurance? If not, am I better off buying as cheap a car as possible now and building up a no claims bonus?

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