Car ins renewal £633.21 down from £1311.12 - thanks MSE

grey_lady

It's actually not Swiftcover that Im with, but I've looked at the thread on Swiftcover and several people on there said they were fine to deal with.
Others complained of bad experiences but some of them were complaining about things that were clearly in the terms of their policy!
e.g its pretty standard for personal contents in cars only to be covered up to £100 for theft claims and its in the paperwork but a poster on that thread was complaining about not knowing this?

Its really not the companies fault if people dont read the paperwork and understand exactly what they are covered for, check for errors, how much it costs to cancel or for copies of documents.

Only one of the posters having a bad experience said they had complained to the ombudsman!

Personally i expect all insurers / banks / councils / customer service in general to be poor - its a nice suprise when Im proved wrong.
Sadly I dont think that by paying £xxx more for a policy i can expect better service, i'd rather save the money.

toptip

After your home, a car is the 2nd most expensive purchase most people make - so it does surprise me (although it shouldn't) that everyone wants the cheapest quote regardless of levels of cover, but are the first to complain if things are not going as fast as they like during a claim.

With 1 or 2 exceptions, you always get what you pay for in this life.

withabix

The main reason for changing insurer every year is to take advantage of new customer discounts, which many insurers offer. Quidco/commission can also make a difference.

Stay with an insurer too long and they ALL take the p*ss with renewal premiums.

If you need Business Use on your insurance, the differences in premiums can be quite high between insurers, some of whom are very expensive for no good reason.

JonBoy_SCFC

i repeat, if all you are after is 3rd party only insurance, or you have a low value car, then the "you get what you pay for" just doesn't apply.


all you are after is a piece of paper to make sure you aren't breaking the law, so just go with the cheapest and save your pennies for other things:money:

dacouch

If you chose a really rank Insurer (I can think of two but won't name names), then there is a small chance it could cause you problems on a Third Party Only Policy.

For example these companies have a warranty on their policy that the car must be kept in a roadworth condition and they specifically mention this includes all lights and mirrors on the vehicle must be working properly, brakes must be working properly and tyres must be legal.

Under the RTA law the Insurers would normally have to pay the Third Parties Claim out but can then sure you to recover the money they have spent if you have breached these conditions. (I've seen it happen)

They normally only look into these on larger claims or claims that they find suspicious.

So with these two companies (There may be other I don't know of) you do get what you pay for....

JonBoy_SCFC

you mean yuou get what you pay for if your car is not road-worthy? of if you submit a dodgy claim?

not sure what you mean by "suspicious claim" when it comes to 3rd party only? do you mean the other person is dodgy?

dacouch

There are lots of things that might make an Insurer think a claim is suspicous, these can be you having an accident in the early morning, evening or at night (When few witnesses around) and hitting a car that has a lot of passengers in it who all put a claim in for injuries and / or the car you hit is a hire vehicle etc etc.

Or they could think things do not add up on the claim or that you are not disclosing information.

With the two companies I referred to they normally are obliged under the RTA laws to pay a valid third party claim but if you have breached the policy conditions eg in this companies case the car did not have working mirrors or brakes or lights they could then sue the policyholder for the money they have paid out which as you know could run into thousands and thousands