First central insurance (car) - any experiences?

dacouch

Not biased at all, I have many years of experience in the industry and understand the difference between a cheap Insurer that will do their best to avoid paying a claim and a decent Insurer.

Most brokers do not depend on Car Insurance as it is very labour itensive with a low return. We do have a large amount of motor customers but they tend to cover all of their Insurance needs with us.

We are not always the cheapest but people like the fact they can get straight through to someone on the phone and that the person they speak to actually knows about Insurance. If they do have a claim they have the broker on their side to sort out any problems that do occur.

I take it from your have never had a claim with an Insurer that has gone wrong or had problems. Have a read through the MSE Insurance forum at the many different problems which are often caused by people just buying the cheapest policy and / or not understanding their policy.

Do you buy the cheapest possible product in everything you buy?

jacobsdaduk

dacouch wrote: »

Not biased at all, I have many years of experience in the industry and understand the difference between a cheap Insurer that will do their best to avoid paying a claim and a decent Insurer.

Most brokers do not depend on Car Insurance as it is very labour itensive with a low return. We do have a large amount of motor customers but they tend to cover all of their Insurance needs with us.

We are not always the cheapest but people like the fact they can get straight through to someone on the phone and that the person they speak to actually knows about Insurance. If they do have a claim they have the broker on their side to sort out any problems that do occur.

I take it from your have never had a claim with an Insurer that has gone wrong or had problems. Have a read through the MSE Insurance forum at the many different problems which are often caused by people just buying the cheapest policy and / or not understanding their policy.

Do you buy the cheapest possible product in everything you buy?

I think you need to take those rose-tinted broker glasses off.

dacouch

I think you will find you are the one that needs to take the rose tinted glasses off, if you think that buying Insurance solely on price alone is a sensible thing to do. In the current market which is incredibly competitive Insurers are stripping out parts of the cover and increasing policy excesses to make their premiums appear high on comparison sites and entice customers like you who buy on price alone.

You mention Aviva as a company that would upset me that they go direct, are you aware of their incredibly poor reputation, they generally come in the bottom 30% of surveys and feature in many problems on MSE.

mattymoo

jacobsdaduk - it really is horses for courses with insurance.
If the budget is tight then yes of course you are going to buy on price and hope that things work out in the event of a claim. However, many have found this is a false economy and have had claims declined or ridiculously low settlements.

One of the common "tricks" insurers use is vouchers and low cash offers. For instance, stolen jewelery is worth £1500 say. Insurers can get their suppliers to sell it to them for £1000. You do not like the choice on offer at that jeweller because the items were family heirlooms and the jeweller only stocks modern Ratner type tat. So you ask for a cash settlement instead. The insurer will offer you £1000.

In the above circumstances you are entitled to £1500. Dacouch knows this, I know it and most insurance brokers know it (not sure about Swintons and their ilk).

Treat insurance as a price sensitive commodity by all means but don't complain when the cover is lacking because you did not do your homework.

EDIT - take a look at this thread - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1916385
TPFT motor policy that does not cover fire (caused by arson). Fortunately it has a happy ending thanks to the advice of a broker (dacouch). Would you have spotted the shortcoming or known what to do?

jacobsdaduk

dacouch wrote: »

You mention Aviva as a company that would upset me that they go direct, are you aware of their incredibly poor reputation, they generally come in the bottom 30% of surveys and feature in many problems on MSE.

If you took the time to read my comments correctly rather than getting emotional, you would see that I have already mentioned Aviva as having a terrible claims service.

jacobsdaduk

mattymoo wrote: »

EDIT - take a look at this thread -
TPFT motor policy that does not cover fire (caused by arson). Fortunately it has a happy ending thanks to the advice of a broker (dacouch). Would you have spotted the shortcoming or known what to do?

Yes - anyone involved in the sale of insurance should have spotted that one.

dacouch

jacobsdaduk wrote: »

Yes - anyone involved in the sale of insurance should have spotted that one.

This case was a situation where the customer bought the cheapest policy from an internet site. The site should have spelt it out in very big letters that arson was excluded but it wasn't. This is an example of how an Insurer takes off parts of a policy you would reasonably be expected to be covered in order to get their price to the top of the list.

I'm surprised it has been resolved so quickly especially with Swintons being involved, this could be due to it being for a relatively small amount (Although not small to the OP). If it had been for a larger amount there would have been a lot more arguements and delay. As I said before a car is generally the second most expensive investment for most households.

I think you will find that Debjk will not be following your advice but having had an experience of a cheap and uncheerful policy will not weigh up the price, cover and quality of Insurer in the future. People expect Insurance to be a fairly even playing field but just like any business there are wide variations in quality

Here is another example of an MSEr who has discovered cheapest is not always the best http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=25054909&highlight=flexicover#post25054909

lafulford

Hi,
After reading this thread and going though my step-dad's policy, he decided to cancel it and go with a more well known insurer. I had bought the policy online for him yesterday. Today he called them, and after several unsuccessful phone calls he finally got through, and canceled it, after being told about the £30 cancelation fee. What happened to the 14 day Cooling off period?

biggriffin64

i insured with these cowboys and have had nothing but problems.
no documention. lack of replys to emails. they may be cheap but i should have known you get what you pay for.:mad:

brockhurst

Be very careful of this setup, My wife broke down while by herself and being as we had taken out the breakdown recovery option thought it wuold be no problem!!!!!
On calling for assistance, after being play greensleves for ages, were told that there were no record of us on the breakdown system??????????
If we would like to leave credit card details, they could send out help??????
Next year i think it will be back to my old broker in the high street. At least i can then take to a human being