Car Insurance Prices too high - Help

hotmama

My car insurance is due for renewal next month and I started looking for quotes a few weeks ago.
I had a minor bump (which went through on my insurance) in Mar this year and thought i would pay a bit extra on my premium this year but i cannot get my breath.
Last year with 9 yrs no claims i paid £500 this year with 7 years no claims (lost 2 due to claim) this year the cheapest i have been quoted is £1100 :mad:My renewal came through at £3500:eek:.
I feel so heavily penalised 9 years of no accidents, no fines then this!!
I'm on tighter budget due to studying and need car due to location of uni and placements.
I have followed the MSE guide and am still struggling.
Any suggestions for reliable, affordable cover with relatively unknown companies i may have missed would be most welcome.

mikey72

I don't think you will get reliable cover with unknown companies, I usually go for the names I recognise, they probably cost 10% more than the very cheapest.
Well worth trying every comparison site, at least you've saved £2400 on your existing renewal already.
Make sure you phone them, (and back it up in writnig, making sure they sign for it) if it's on auto-renew, or you'll find they have yet another way of making money out of you.

iamana1ias

hotmama wrote: »

My car insurance is due for renewal next month and I started looking for quotes a few weeks ago.
I had a minor bump (which went through on my insurance) in Mar this year and thought i would pay a bit extra on my premium this year but i cannot get my breath.
Last year with 9 yrs no claims i paid £500 this year with 7 years no claims (lost 2 due to claim) this year the cheapest i have been quoted is £1100 :mad:My renewal came through at £3500:eek:.
I feel so heavily penalised 9 years of no accidents, no fines then this!!
I'm on tighter budget due to studying and need car due to location of uni and placements.
I have followed the MSE guide and am still struggling.
Any suggestions for reliable, affordable cover with relatively unknown companies i may have missed would be most welcome.

I'd be amazed if other companies are recognising 7 years no claims after a bump at 9 - most companies set their max discount at 5 years, so with a fault claim you'd go down to 3 years. What level of ncb is stated on your renewal quote?

GRM

Same thing happened to me a couple of years ago. By the time you factor in the increased premiums you'll face in years 2 and 3 as well, the extra cost of 'protected NCB' starts to look like a bargain.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

mikey72

GRM wrote: »

Same thing happened to me a couple of years ago. By the time you factor in the increased premiums you'll face in years 2 and 3 as well, the extra cost of 'protected NCB' starts to look like a bargain.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

On paper though, my no claims goes from about 73% to 71% from 9 to 7 years.
What appears to happen is the basic cost is loaded, so a protected no claims wouldn't work either, as the cost would be loaded before the NCD.
Even moving from 5 to 3 years, while bad, would usually have a large effect with a protected NCD, as the basic premium is still loaded first.
Even no fault claims without a loss of NCD attract an increase from a lot of insurers now, for the same reason.
There have been a few threads on this recently.

hotmama

iamana1ias wrote: »

I'd be amazed if other companies are recognising 7 years no claims after a bump at 9 - most companies set their max discount at 5 years, so with a fault claim you'd go down to 3 years. What level of ncb is stated on your renewal quote?

The renewal states 7, i expected it to drop to 5 to be honest.

hotmama

Thanks to you all for replies, i am still trying to get the cost somewhere near the £800, if it comes to i'll have to go third party for the 1st time in 9 yrs!