First Direct Car Insurance 10% guarantee

v1kk1

My renewal from Esure was £373.96 and First Choice managed to beat it and it came to £323.00

mikey72

MilkyJoe7 wrote: »

Yes that's what I thought. Unfair as it is.

I think I will stay where I am (2nd cheapest), even though these guys are £70 cheaper. I am a bit wary.

How do you know they won't give you a massive price hike as well?
You could ask both insurers what the cost would be to move, but there have been a lot of posts on here where the price given now is nothing like the actual price at the time.
Changing mid term seems to have absolutely no bearing on any thing else. Quite often it's cheaper to cancel and start again, so that would be another figure to enquire about.

MilkyJoe7

mikey72 wrote: »

How do you know they won't give you a massive price hike as well?
You could ask both insurers what the cost would be to move, but there have been a lot of posts on here where the price given now is nothing like the actual price at the time.
Changing mid term seems to have absolutely no bearing on any thing else. Quite often it's cheaper to cancel and start again, so that would be another figure to enquire about.

On SwiftCover, you can make any amendments yourself online. As I am not on any special offer rate with them, I can make changes to see what the effect is. I have done this already and it is cheaper where I will be moving. There is no cost involved in amending and it is easy.

With First Direct, I will assumedly be on a 'special' rate as all their price reflects is that they are beating SwiftCover. Once I move they will have an excuse to requote me at whatever their normal calculated rate is, probably a lot higher. With them, there is no online account management where I can check my details and make amendments. I like this feature.

Smartdriver

I've phoned First Direct today as a result of the weekly email (my car insurance is due 2nd Feb). The young lady taking my details, and assuring me that my current renewal would be beaten by 10%, was very friendly, yet remained professional throughout. An alarm must have been triggered though during this exchange of information as she informed me she would have to speak to an underwriter.

You can imagine my concern about this - after all, I'm 63 years old, have been driving for over 30 years and have NEVER had a motoring, or any other, conviction and my last claim on a policy was over 15 years ago - it was a 'not at fault' :A . After holding the line for around 5 minutes she returned to me with the astounding news that "we don't insure SMART cars" ............... :silenced:

Hey ho, back to the comparison sites..........

rooner

I shalln't say the 's' word because somebody might sue me but The 'promise' of a 10% is all well and good as long as you don't need to add any extras i.e NCB protection, legal protection, hire car cover in event of total loss or theft, which all increase your quote with FD.

In addition, be careful with this because the price also includes £100 compulsory excess as well the voluntary excess you add on. As soon as I read this, I deleted the quote.

adamsonj

My renewal quote fully comp for my Volkswagon Touareg with one named driver was £223.93.
First Direct came back for the same cover (£250.00 Voluntary excess same as previous) at £201.55. a saving of £22.38.

mrs_toastie

Both my husband and I had car insurance through swiftcover. When our renewals came through last September I did comapisons but swift were still the cheapest for both of us. I then rang First Direct (we bank with them too). They honoured the 10% offer for both of us for like for like cover. Slight hassle as they managed to switch the policy start dates but eventually got that sorted. Since then I have had to make a no-blame claim. We used Accident Exchange to soprt out a replacement car (as recommended by First direct). Everything is now sorted. At the repairers (main dealers) we were told that it was good we weren't with swift any more as they have become really tight on paying claims for repairs at any garage other than their approved ones.
All in all now very pleased with the deal we got despite the initial hassle.

MSE_Wendy wrote: »

We've included this promotion in our weekly email, and whilst it looks good on paper we're not sure it's good in practice.

Please let us know if you've tried to use this offer and whether it delivered savings others couldn't

Did you save 10% on your cover or were there too many caveats to make it worth while?

Thanks

mrs_toastie

Details of my deal are in my earlier post.
We chose to have no voluntary excess so only have to compulsory £100. Not many insurers let you have less than this anyway.

rooner wrote: »

I shalln't say the 's' word because somebody might sue me but The 'promise' of a 10% is all well and good as long as you don't need to add any extras i.e NCB protection, legal protection, hire car cover in event of total loss or theft, which all increase your quote with FD.

In addition, be careful with this because the price also includes £100 compulsory excess as well the voluntary excess you add on. As soon as I read this, I deleted the quote.

mintymoneysaver

I've just swopped to First Direct. Renewal quote £476.00, First Direct £429. Couldn't get it cheaper anywhere else, and I do all the shopping around every year. Never had to pay more than £400 before, but I suppose any saving is better than none.

Premier_2

rooner wrote: »

I shalln't say the 's' word because somebody might sue me but The 'promise' of a 10% is all well and good as long as you don't need to add any extras i.e NCB protection, legal protection, hire car cover in event of total loss or theft, which all increase your quote with FD.

In addition, be careful with this because the price also includes £100 compulsory excess as well the voluntary excess you add on. As soon as I read this, I deleted the quote.

Well mrs toastie has already addressed the second part about the excess, so I'll just say good luck in finding an insurer that has zero excess. (I think MoreThan were the only insurer to offer me that - at least at anything near a sensible price)

As for the extras you suggest, well the terms of offer suggest cover will be on a like for like basis (as near as they can offer). So for example if you have protected NCD on the renewal offer, then they should include protected NCD in their offer.

But you can't change the level of cover from the renewal offer ... as obviously that would also affect the price the existing insurer would charge.