Have car insurance companies lost the plot?

radial_2

I've been starting to look around for car insurance quotes as it's due soon, I'm currently with Adrian Flux (well another company, but AF are the broker) and I'm happy using them, but I thought for kicks I'll check see what mainstream insurance companies would quote..

The quote that made my chin hit the desk is from LV... They quoted me a fraction under £1800 fully comp with £250 excess!! My current policy cost me £378 fully comp with £150 excess.

I'm male, 33, no convictions, 1 accident in 2007 (my car was hit by another car) 7 years no claims and never even a sniff of a ticket!

Ok so my car is no slug, a 2.3l 2001 Volvo V70 T5, but !!!!!!, it's one of the safest cars on the road, and I'm hardly in the "risk" group, so how on earth can they justify these costs?

This is more of a rant than anything else, but I just wondered what people take on this is.

raskazz

It's just LV's way of saying "thanks but no thanks", that's all. Each insurer has a target market, and increasingly if you fall outside that target market the insurer will just price themselves out of your business.

radial_2

Seems like a particularly rubbish way to do business, especially if you take in to account the nonsense in their advertising.

mikey72

So a 33 year old, volvo driver with 7 years ncd, and no convictions isn't in LV's target customer group?
What sort of market share are they after?

raskazz

mikey72 wrote: »

So a 33 year old, volvo driver with 7 years ncd, and no convictions isn't in LV's target customer group?
What sort of market share are they after?

Who knows? We don't know the area in which the OP lives, his occupation, socio-economic profile, how renewal retention rates stack up for his profile etc etc. Every insurer will have a different perspective on this from their own experience and interpretation of data.

charlotte2011

Hi there

We're talking about the rising cost of car insurance tomorrow (Friday 4th March 2011) on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 . Would you be interested in talking to me about your situation? We have Martin Lewis on the show who will be offering advice.

[EMAIL="charlotte.craze@bbc.co.uk"]charlotte.craze@bbc.co.uk[/EMAIL]
tel: 2027 636 2273

Thanks
Charlotte

dacouch

charlotte2011 wrote: »

Hi there

We're talking about the rising cost of car insurance tomorrow (Friday 4th March 2011) on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 . Would you be interested in talking to me about your situation? We have Martin Lewis on the show who will be offering advice.

[EMAIL="charlotte.craze@bbc.co.uk"]charlotte.craze@bbc.co.uk[/EMAIL]
tel: 2027 636 2273

Thanks
Charlotte

Would be a show worth listening to if you got Raskazz, Mikey72, Quentin, Pedro, Lisyloo and Dunstonh maybe even some Sassyone

Ninnut85

I had a very similar response from LV as well. Their adverts make it sound like anyone with 5 years NCB or over will get a bargin however I have never witnessed anyone get anything other than ridiculous quotes from them. No idea how they are managing to win any customers with their ludicrous prices.

Their ad states they give 75% discounts for 5 year + NCD so are they suggesting if you had no NCD they would be asking for £3150 a year?!

God knows who their target audience is??

Quentin

charlotte2011 wrote: »

Would you be interested in talking to me about your situation?...... We have Martin Lewis on the show......

Doesn't mean the BBC can break the rules! That Martin Lewis is on lots of other (better?) broadcasters shows, they don't come here name dropping like this!

TV companies, newspapers and researchers are not allowed to post on the forum asking for case studies or for people to help them with their surveys

Inactive

I insured with LV this year, they gave me the lowest quote from any reasonable quality insurer.

dunstonh

charlotte2011 wrote: »

Hi there

We're talking about the rising cost of car insurance tomorrow (Friday 4th March 2011) on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 . Would you be interested in talking to me about your situation? We have Martin Lewis on the show who will be offering advice.

[EMAIL="charlotte.craze@bbc.co.uk"]charlotte.craze@bbc.co.uk[/EMAIL]
tel: 2027 636 2273

Thanks
Charlotte

Martin isnt authorised to give advice. He is just a journalist.

So a 33 year old, volvo driver with 7 years ncd, and no convictions isn't in LV's target customer group?
What sort of market share are they after?

I suspect women. They came out top of the pile for my wife for the last two years. However, nowhere near in my case.