Want to know the REAL reason why your car insurance premium has gone up??

mikey72

Kilty wrote: »

I know these prices are regulated however how are they still getting away with charging about 4x what I can hire an Aygo or equivalent for? :eek:

Maybe it's time to look at who has interests in the credit hire companies?
As to the regulation, that's done by the Association Of British Insurers, so what does that suggest?

jase1

I received a text from one of the companies that have presumably been given details by insurers -- for a single-car accident five years ago.

Will I persue it? Not on your life.

This whole culture of making claims for anything and everything needs to stop. I personally feel that anyone who loses such a claim should be subject to an immediate investigation and possible trial for fraud. It might deter the frivolous claimers.

Kilty_2

mikey72 wrote: »

Maybe it's time to look at who has interests in the credit hire companies?
As to the regulation, that's done by the Association Of British Insurers, so what does that suggest?

It's a bloody cartel.

You know it's bad when a credit hire firm is lending a car to one of the UK's biggest hire companies............. (I've had TWO Drive Assist cars from a large rental firm)

raskazz

mikey72 wrote: »

http://www.admiralgroup.co.uk/press/pressreleases/02_03_11.php

Well, Admiral, who are only in car insurance appear to disagree with you, but by all means put up the links to show the losses, because no one else, even those in car insurance, can actually find them.
But I do read it reguarly, so the information, (or mis-information), must be somewhere.

The evidence that the UK motor market is loss-making is very easy to find - just read the financial returns publicly available. To constantly and disingenuously assume that the market as a whole must be profitable just because one insurer - Admiral - makes a profit is nonsensical.

Here are a few links as a taster - the facts are there for all too see, why not spend some time educating yourself:

Allianz: Full year motor combined ratio 2010 of 113%

http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=389529&c=1

Brit: Essentially pulled out of private motor

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9ODMyODZ8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1

Aviva: Personal motor COR 103% and commercial motor COR 98% - overall loss of £36 million on motor

http://www.aviva.com/library/pdfs/investor/results-and-reports/results/2011/prelims_2010_030311.pdf

Axa: UK general insurance combined ratio 110%. Bulk of the underwriting loss attributed to AXA’s personal lines motor book.

http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=389441

Equity Red Star: Combined ratio of 142.3% for 1H11

http://www.iag.com.au/results/financial/media/HY11/1H11_Investor_Report.pdf

Chaucer: 2009-2010 combined ratio 111% - looking for “below 100%” for 2010-2011

http://www.chaucerplc.com/chp/uploads/medianews/1CHP2010InterimStatement.pdf

NIG: 2009 combined ratio around 144.7% (since stopped underwriting private motor business as it is unprofitable):

http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/Journals/Newsquest/Insurance_Times/On-Line_Archive/attachments/NI.pdf

And they are just the first few insurers in the alphabet (apart from NIG). I could go on.

Here's a slide from Admirals annual report which is a particularly straightforward illustration of the state of the market if you understand the terminology used:

http://img863.imageshack.us/i/admiral.jpg/

Look at the red line in 2009. That means that for every £1 of income received by the market £1.22 was paid to cover claims and expenses.

mikey72

Kilty wrote: »

It's a bloody cartel.

You know it's bad when a credit hire firm is lending a car to one of the UK's biggest hire companies............. (I've had TWO Drive Assist cars from a large rental firm)

Well if you look at the track record of Malcolm Offord, the first director in the list of Drive Assist Holdings Ltd,
"He has been responsible for originating and exiting the successful Charterhouse investments in Tussauds, Avent and Saga, and was a non-executive director of Coral Eurobet. Since then, he has originated and led the transaction teams for Drive Assist UK, Acromas Holdings (the new company created following the £6.15bn merger of Saga and The AA in July 2007), Giles Insurance Brokers Limited and most recently, in June 2009, the £550 million MBO of Wood Mackenzie"

adamc260

mikey72 wrote: »

Why can Admiral make a profit, whereas other complacent insurers are happy just to pay out, make a "loss" on underwriting, complain, and then remedy it by simply stating they have to charge more? Why should the customer pay for mis-management?

When I worked for Admiral from 2008 till the end of 2010 they were spending 93p per £1 taken so they're running close to the border line.

raskazz

Mankysteve wrote: »

Is it Australia where third party is covered by your road tax sounds like a good idea to me. If something is compulsory and private bodies have proved they can't provide at a reasonable price or service then the government should provide at roughly at cost level. They can still take into consideration risk amount on individuals.

People always trot this idea out as a good one for UK but in doing so ignore several issues:

1) Australia is very different to the UK in terms of geography and traffic density
2) Australia has a different legal system to the UK in terms of driver training and licensing and, importantly, tort law
3) The one thing that the UK public sector is good at doing is wasting money and inefficiency. There is no way in hell that they would be able to run compulsory motor insurance cheaper than the market.
4) Pricing incorporated in road tax does not differentiate pricing between good and bad risks

raskazz

mikey72 wrote: »

If you buy an apple from Tesco's, you pay for the apple. Tesco make a profit on the apple as a product. If they make a loss on the packaging process, I don't agree to pay them more to cover it. They make enough on the rest of the product.

:rotfl::rotfl:

Possibly the most hilariously stupid "analogy" I have ever read.

If Tesco made a loss of £1.22 on every £1 of apples they sold (ignoring the loss leader element) then they would either (i) increase the price of apples or (ii) stop selling apples.

This is exactly what the motor insurance market has done - premiums have increased and some insurers have stopped selling motor.

raskazz

mikey72 wrote: »

or do we believe the actual results published at the year end by a car insurer dancing for joy after yet another record year?

Well, if you want to avoid being ignorant then what you should do is read the results from all the players in the market, not just one of them. Try starting with a few of the links above.

mikey72

raskazz wrote: »

The evidence that the UK motor market is loss-making is very easy to find - just read the financial returns publicly available. To constantly and disingenuously assume that the market as a whole must be profitable just because one insurer - Admiral - makes a profit is nonsensical.

Here are a few links as a taster - the facts are there for all too see, why not spend some time educating yourself:

Allianz: Full year motor combined ratio 2010 of 113%

http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=389529&c=1

Brit: Essentially pulled out of private motor

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9ODMyODZ8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1

Aviva: Personal motor COR 103% and commercial motor COR 98% - overall loss of £36 million on motor

http://www.aviva.com/library/pdfs/investor/results-and-reports/results/2011/prelims_2010_030311.pdf

Axa: UK general insurance combined ratio 110%. Bulk of the underwriting loss attributed to AXA’s personal lines motor book.

http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=389441

Equity Red Star: Combined ratio of 142.3% for 1H11

http://www.iag.com.au/results/financial/media/HY11/1H11_Investor_Report.pdf

Chaucer: 2009-2010 combined ratio 111% - looking for “below 100%” for 2010-2011

http://www.chaucerplc.com/chp/uploads/medianews/1CHP2010InterimStatement.pdf

NIG: 2009 combined ratio around 144.7% (since stopped underwriting motor business as it is unprofitable):

http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/Journals/Newsquest/Insurance_Times/On-Line_Archive/attachments/NI.pdf

And they are just the first few insurers in the alphabet (apart from NIG). I could go on.

Here's a slide from Admirals annual report which is a particularly straightforward illustration of the state of the market if you understand the terminology used:

http://img863.imageshack.us/i/admiral.jpg/

Look at the red line in 2009. That means that for every £1 of income received by the market £1.22 was paid to cover claims and expenses.

I don't need to focus on just the underwriting aspect, I'll just quote Aviva for their view of their results, which even they think are acceptable.

"Our sophisticated pricing enables us to target the right price for
the right risk. In personal motor we have seen rating increases of
25% in 2010 building on our early action in previous years to

respond to rising bodily injury claims inflation."

Brit insurance, £81.6m profit wasn't enough for their business model, so they're focusing on commercial.

I'm sure the rest are a similar story.