Mysterious Car Insurance Premium Hike

montymontezuma

My daughter & her partner have just renewed their insurance on a small, 1400cc van. They've owned it for a year and have had no claims. Their premiums for the first year were around £620, the same brokerage have offered them renewal at £1850 odd! We tried to get answer, and even the woman who answered sounded dumbstruck & just muttered about a general rise in prices - going over their details twice to see if she could improve it.

In the end I went to Directline & got a quote for about £520, the next best we could find was £1200.

This all seems a bit crazy to me (& them) but at least we did manage to better it in the end.

raskazz

tommy45 wrote: »

They all are theiving greedy pigs at the end of the day, speculation is what they base their prices on, so they had a lot of claims last year due to the adverse weather,but that is no excuse for the level of increase, what is to blame is your i have whiplash brigade personal injury claims,most being false, also they pay out for things such as hire cars for months or years needlesly and are happy to be overcharged by the hire company the use, why because they don't give a dam really as it's us who pick up these costs, the insurance buisness needs more regulation

With respect, you clearly have no understanding whatsoever of the insurance market, so why not pipe down.

DCFC79

Why do people make a song and dance about insurance going up, yes its gone up but you arent teh only 1, its gone up for other people, you have 2 choces well 3 actually, 1 stay where you are or 2 vote with your feet and its easy to do or 3 sell the car and walk or cycle everywhere

Mr_K

tommy45 wrote: »

They all are theiving greedy pigs at the end of the day, speculation is what they base their prices on, so they had a lot of claims last year due to the adverse weather,but that is no excuse for the level of increase, what is to blame is your i have whiplash brigade personal injury claims,most being false, also they pay out for things such as hire cars for months or years needlesly and are happy to be overcharged by the hire company the use, why because they don't give a dam really as it's us who pick up these costs, the insurance buisness needs more regulation

I agree with a lot of your sentiments Tommy, however its the rise in personal injury cases/fraud that's mostly to blame. Rather than tackling fraud and challenging the level of injury payments insurers think its easier just to increase premiums on honest careful drivers.

You won't get much sympathy on here as a lot of the posters are connected to the insurance industry or benefit from it ( i know, I thought it was a consumer forum too......).

raskazz

Mr_K wrote: »

Rather than tackling fraud and challenging the level of injury payments insurers think its easier just to increase premiums on honest careful drivers.

I'm sorry but this is just more absolute nonsense.

dunstonh

You won't get much sympathy on here as a lot of the posters are connected to the insurance industry or benefit from it ( i know, I thought it was a consumer forum too......).

You wont get sympathy when you are talking rubbish or jump to incorrect assumptions.

You will get plenty of support from the regulars when the insurance company do something wrong or where it isnt justified. The increase in premiums is justified when you consider the events that have occured (and fraud/claims are just a small part of the reasons. Not the major reasons).

deutsch

this is what i think will add to the list of reasons for price hikes:
- there are less cars older than 10 years out there and worth hardly any value
- there are more new cars than usual due to the scrappage scheme - insuring market value means the overall pot will have rise to cover the increased overall sum insured of every single car and the possible outcomes (which are unforunately increasing)
- car price inflation overall - the scrappage scheme pushed new car prices up so the sellers could still return a profit for subsidising one half of the £2000
- the insurance companies are saving up for a bad day - like another recession. those with big balance sheets will survive i think.

please tell me if i am wrong. just random guesses from random bits of information i somehow know.

dunstonh

please tell me if i am wrong. just random guesses from random bits of information i somehow know.

not bad guesses and all possible to have small impacts. The last one is the closest but its not so much about the next recession but the current one.

Insurers invest money. The investment returns can cross subsidise and allow for lower premiums. Investment returns were abysmal in 2007, 2008 and early 2009 in nearly every asset class (including cash as insurers dont get FSCS protection in the same way consumers do).

You also have increased solvency requirements. So, they cant keep running car insurance at a loss (although some still seem to be happy to).

There are other things as well but its effectively a perfect storm across the board.

Mr_K

dunstonh wrote: »

You wont get sympathy when you are talking rubbish or jump to incorrect assumptions..

raskazz wrote: »

I'm sorry but this is just more absolute nonsense.

Ah, it appears I touched some raw nerves here !

As predicted it appears that not all on the forum are as independent or unbiased as they claim to be. Not surprising, since a large proportion of some posters income comes from the insurance industry.:rotfl:

dunstonh

As predicted it appears that not all on the forum are as independent or unbiased as they claim to be. Not surprising, since a large proportion of some posters income comes from the insurance industry.

Again, you are talking nonsense. My signature makes it clear I am an IFA. I neither work for an insurance company or transact in motor insurance as I am not a broker or motor insurance intermediary. So, your accusations of bias are as about as accurate as all your previous posts.

To be honest, the only bias on this thread is those against the industry who clearly dont know the facts, dont want to know the facts and prefer to remain ignorant so they can carry on their pointless rants.