Good and bad car insurance companies

andy4466uk

ANDENA wrote: »

my son is with ecar insurance which is internet website if you need to talk to them via email it takes 4 days to reply and if you want to phone it is a £1.00 a min. i dont recommend this company. anybody else had dealings with them.

Don't recommend! I'd go further and warn people to avoid these rip off merchants! We switched to ecar from another company earlier this year, paid our premium in full, and promised to forward our proof of no claims to them as soon as we recieved it from our previous insurers. About 14 days later we recieved our proof of no claims and promptly forwarded it to ecar by first class signed for mail. The following day we recieved a letter from ecar telling us they'd cancelled our insurance the PREVIOUS night (i'd been driving for 24 hours with no insurance..totaly unaware of the fact) because they hadn't recieved our no claims proof! Since then they haven't returned our proof of no claims and have offered to pay us a refund less admin and cancelation fees, i pointed out i hadn't actually canceled...they had (without informing me!) and i wasn't prepared to pay admin fee since i wasn't in anyway or form satisfied with anything they'd done.2 months later still no response, no refund and after 18 mins on hold on their £1 a min "help" line without actualy speaking to anyone begining to think NO hope ...debating going to the police.......feel like i've been mugged!

gilbert_and_sullivan

Like Coop, NFU are excellent.
Local offices staffed by intelligent people, not the cheapest but by no means the most expensive, don't charge you for changes/admin/anything they can think of, polite and honourable in their dealings, and seem to appreciate customers of the similar manner.
Fair dealings in the event of a claim.

catflea

I've heard good things about NFU but never actually given them a go. I'm quite pleased with the service I am getting from Admiral at the mo but come renewal time I will be talking to my local NFU office

welshsue

I have AA insurance and have always been very pleased with them. Haven't had to make a claim yet but they are always very pleasant on the phone and very competitively priced.

gilbert_and_sullivan

catflea wrote: »

I've heard good things about NFU but never actually given them a go. I'm quite pleased with the service I am getting from Admiral at the mo but come renewal time I will be talking to my local NFU office

You won't regret it.

I'm with them now for buildings and contents too, had to make a damage claim (various electrical items ruined) due to lightning strike...no problems no loss adjuster visiting, all done by phone and letter.
I made an honourable fair claim with no crafty upgrades, they paid me fair and square without a single visit or problem, they were aware of the strike being local anyway.

I just wish we could as a country go back to this old fashioned way of business and life...yes silly old fool i know, and not likely to happen as too many unscrupulous shysters trying it on.

Inactive

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

I just wish we could as a country go back to this old fashioned way of business and life...yes silly old fool i know, and not likely to happen as too many unscrupulous shysters trying it on.

I agree, alas, in part it is because of the comparison sites that this downturn in service standards has come about.

Insurers are cutting back on service in order to achieve the initial lower prices, then making up the cost of paying the highly profitable comparison sites by adding on bits and bobs here and there.

Like you I prefer to use an insurer on service standards over companies offering initial apparent lower prices.

DaveMacD

Been with Co-Op for 3 years now, and have always been pretty decent. Quotes haven't really changed by much over the time either. From £270 to £350 over 3 years isn't a huge amount, not when the competition were wanting £700+ for less cover. As it stands, they give me fully comp. on a 04 plate L200, driving other vehicles, and cover for use as an Ambulance First Responder. Elephant wanted £750 without covering for other vehicles...

Andy4466uk, have you considered the insurance ombudsman? You have a valid complaint , so have a look http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/ and good luck.

marlot

catflea wrote: »

Aviva have a terrible reputation if you actually have to claim through them.

Not my experience. We've had one of our cars with Norwich Union/Aviva for years. They've generally been fair at renewal time, and all 4 claims my wife has made over the years have gone through smoothly.

marlot

I've just switched my car, using Adrian Flux as the broker. I was very impressed - they genuinely made it as easy as they could, and very prompt to a couple of follow-up questions by email (ie. within the hour).

Inactive

marlot wrote: »

Not my experience. We've had one of our cars with Norwich Union/Aviva for years. They've generally been fair at renewal time, and all 4 claims my wife has made over the years have gone through smoothly.

You have been very lucky, take a look on the Insurance Section on here to see what people have endured at the hands of NU/Aviva.