Cheaper car insurance - Updated 14.03.08

x12yhp

O&D did a scheme through my former employer as well. Basically, they promise to beat your premium or give you £25. So They did. However, the price I got was nearly £1000 less than what they had quoted me without the price match. So I made very sure to check what would happen 'next year' because there would be no point saving £25 one year only for them to bump it up £1000 the next. But they confirmed to me that subsequent premiums would be based on the previous, assuming that there were no claims or accidents etc.. One year on... my insurance renewal came in. So it went from about £560 and jumped to nearly £1800. I chased them and chased and they came down to about £1500 and told me that I should take it because it was as good as I could do - they also told me that the price beat was an intro offer and subsequent years would be considered using their normal policies. My beef is not that they do this, but that they would waste my time and mislead me. Had they not done this, I would have stayed with my old insurer, I would have paid £25 more and would have accrued more 'loyalty bonus' with them. As it was, I ended up paying £200 more because I was starting from scratch. The silly thing is that I am assuming that O&D went so low on my premium initially that they may very well have lost money on it. So they lost money, I lost money... what is the point of that!?

As for the female specific... I was not suggesting they would change it 'mid policy' - rather that renewals may well be subject to significant rises which might not be just as large were one insured with a company which does not target this area. It was a heads up rather than a big warning. Apologies.

Incidentally, as for the reasoning, it may be true that women have fewer accidents than men but is it fair to discriminate on that grounds? Smokers may have a different risk, but I doubt that is allowed to be considered. Disabled people may be more prone... pregnant women might be more prone... It really is a tough one - what is discrimination and what is not? I cannot help being male. It does not actually make me a more dangerous driver. I just happen to be grouped in the same class as some other drivers who are more dangerous. Why should I be paying more? All IMHO of course.

Sor

Ah. I'm at the lower end of insurance costs, so I'm not going to find a hike of £500+ between years.... I hope! And I'm generally quite happy to switch each year if need be, as a company's loyalty bonus (if they have one) is probably going to be very small even if added up over a couple of years. Think the longest I was with a company was 5 years or so.

Anyway, the quote I got was for £330 comprehensive, including business(commuting between sites whatever that's called), excess of £250. Includes 2 named drivers, one of whom is over 80. Breakdown assistance, driving down south, key protection cover, and all the other usual stuff. Most other companies, I need to leave the 80+ year old off, not that that is a really big deal as he'd only be an emergency driver on my car, and they still quote higher than this. (Ok this year I've only tried ringing one other company so far, but have looked at the comparison sites....) Last year I paid £340.

So, about the possible hike in women-specific insurance companies- if I had a policy with them and they had to change their policy causing the renewal to be significantly higher, I'd just go elsewhere. *shrug* But ta for the information.

joanne_d_3

I got my car insurance from Go.compare , the comparisson website , i use it every year to find the cheapest deal .

I dont think i have been with the same company twice and i have been driving for almost 10 years lol.

The price i got this year was with "Barclays" , tpft as my car is 11 years old , protected ncb and legal cover......£175 and thats for me as main driver and my hubby as named driver !

Not too bad is it ? lol

I was with Hughes years ago and after reading through this thread i thought id get an online quote from them.......£1,100 !!! I nearly died !

Just proves that what is good for one person isnt always going to be good for the next.

x12yhp

joanne_d wrote: »

I was with Hughes years ago and after reading through this thread i thought id get an online quote from them.......£1,100 !!! I nearly died !

Just proves that what is good for one person isnt always going to be good for the next.

The price I got online was high as well... a quick talk on the phone was needed to get the price competitive...

MoneySaverNI147

I'm a 25 year old male, driving a 2litre Toyota Rav 4, insurance group 13. I have only 2 years no claims bonus as I was insured under my father for 5 years previous. I have had no accidents and no convictions or penalty points. I was insured under Quinns for £620 this last 2 years, with the next cheapest being £900 with Tesco. However, due to Quinns going into liquidation, they quoted me £1550 this year and I obviously declined. I searched for quotes using 'Go Compare' & 'Money Supermarket', and the cheapest I could find for NI was 'Easyinsure.co.uk' for £610. I disn't like the sound of an internet only based insurer so I kept looking for options. I contacted almost every insurer in NI with the cheapest being £850, which to me is still a rip off! Finally, one day while walking in Bangor Co.Down, I popped into AXA just to see what they could do as I heard people had recommended them before. I was surprised that they could offer me Fully Comprehensive cover, with £250 escess, windscreen cover, and 24hr breakdown assistance all for £480!!!! Absolutely amazing! They told me that they were taking my 5 years driving experience under my father into consideration which apparently not many insurers do these days, hence the cheap quote! Worth a try for anyone out there with a similar problem! :-) :j

joanne_d_3

My Husband had been with Axa for around 11 years and never felt the need to leave them as they always gave him a good quote.....that was until his renewal came in this year and the price had rocketed !

Any other year i shopped around for his insurance and took the lowest quote to Axa to see if they could match it which they always did . This year however the lowest quote we got from other companies was 120 lower than Axa and for the first time ever they refused to match it....... Needless to say they lost our business after 11 years !

c172driver

Anyone had any bad experiences with EasyInsure by any chance ?
I got the lowest quote from them (~852), previously being with Open And Direct, they increased my premium to 1100 out of the blue (telling me that the insurer I was with is no longer on the market, blah blah).

I am just not sure about the 'internet based' insurers, such as EasyInsure. At least OpenAndDirect are local, and reachable. However, I do not see any justification in paying £1k to them. (250 more). They got eventually agreed to lower it by 100 quid (to 1k), but that's still a lot.

Btw, AXA wanted to rip me off on 1500 for the same thing. Terrible.

D.A.

EasyInsure ARE local - as far as I can tell, they're basically a trading name of McClarty's in Coleraine. They have another site as well, specifically selling insurance for women (sorry, can't remember the name of it).

Pretani

I've been with legal and general for 7 years now. Also take out house insurance plus family legal protection with them. Priced a few others but there's not much difference in price, plus I can't be bothered sieving through other offers to see what isn't included in their cover.

Heather89_2

Hello, Has anyone any suggestions where I might obtain "reasonably" priced insurance for my 17 year old son? I want to add him to my insurance, not set him up on his own, but it's costing me £800 with AXA, and I wondered if anyone out there might suggest a cheaper option - if it exists!
Thanks!