Direct Line / Admiral car insurance

Supernova

Actually, the other thing I was going to ask relates to the fact that I have £0 voluntary excess. What level of voluntary is worthwhile?

As for compulsory:
DL's are £0 for accidental, £100 for fire & theft, £60 windscreen.
Admiral are £60 accidental £150 fire and theft £70 windscreen.

Admiral do have an upgrade at £29 for 21-day car hire when stolen or written off - more expensive than DL at £15 for 14 days but more useful based on my experience. So, now it's coming in at £127 cheaper and if I have a voluntary excess the differential gets even less.

Both companies Policy documents look much of a muchness to me.

I'll be glad when I've made the flaming decision anyway!

Happy_Shrimper

Don't forget Quidco! With the Pru, I got a increased premium over my renewal quote of about £30, but quidco got me £100 cashback, reducing renewal by £70! It was a more expensive policy but included car hire, very simple breakdown cover and other 'extras'. Always worth a look on quidco!

magyar

Supernova wrote:

Actually, the other thing I was going to ask relates to the fact that I have £0 voluntary excess. What level of voluntary is worthwhile?

As for compulsory:
DL's are £0 for accidental, £100 for fire & theft, £60 windscreen.
Admiral are £60 accidental £150 fire and theft £70 windscreen.

Admiral do have an upgrade at £29 for 21-day car hire when stolen or written off - more expensive than DL at £15 for 14 days but more useful based on my experience. So, now it's coming in at £127 cheaper and if I have a voluntary excess the differential gets even less.

Both companies Policy documents look much of a muchness to me.

I'll be glad when I've made the flaming decision anyway!

Again, I'm sure I'll get a row for this one, but I would always advise getting as high an excess as possible. My reason for getting car insurance is because I can't afford to be sued if I run someone over (God forbid) nor to replace my car if it catches fire.

But I can afford to replace bits that get broken.

In the long run, you're statistically better off to get the highest excess that the insurance company will provide.

Astaroth

In which case why not TPO cover where you will only be covered for the risk of running someone over?

It is very much a personal thing and dependant to some degree on how much cash you can put your hands on in a time of crisis, little point having £1000 excess if you will never be able to afford it (normal catch 22 though that those that can quickly find large sums of money are the ones that dont need to save an extra £20 a year on their car insurance by increasing the excesses)

tripled

Astaroth wrote:

Most insurers heavily discount first year insurance and then creep the price back up to the "real" rate but there is nothing stopping you getting another new business quote from DL and if it is cheaper speaking to their retainer teams to either get them to match their own price or cancel the policy and you just buy the new one on the web.

I just thought I'd chim in, I'm with Admiral and my policy comes up for renewal in two weeks. I had a quote of £459 for 10 months (accelerated bonus policy). So I followed Martins article to get quotes, cheapest for 12 months was £630, shortly followed by... Admiral at £650! So in this instance I would be charged £100 more as a new customer for a year than as an existing one, and they're still the cheapest!

magyar

Astaroth wrote:

In which case why not TPO cover where you will only be covered for the risk of running someone over?

Because my car costs £20,000 and I can't afford to buy another one if I crash it!

Astaroth wrote:

It is very much a personal thing and dependant to some degree on how much cash you can put your hands on in a time of crisis, little point having £1000 excess if you will never be able to afford it (normal catch 22 though that those that can quickly find large sums of money are the ones that dont need to save an extra £20 a year on their car insurance by increasing the excesses)

I totally agree. Perhaps I should rephrase my comment above: "always get as high an excess as you could reasonably afford". Actually it annoys me that car insurance rarely lets you have excesses much greater than about £250.

magyar

tripled wrote:

I just thought I'd chim in, I'm with Admiral and my policy comes up for renewal in two weeks. I had a quote of £459 for 10 months (accelerated bonus policy). So I followed Martins article to get quotes, cheapest for 12 months was £630, shortly followed by... Admiral at £650! So in this instance I would be charged £100 more as a new customer for a year than as an existing one, and they're still the cheapest!

Yes, shows you should ALWAYS get more quotes. I'm convinced some insurers just have random number generators in there! In my case it helps having a brother-in-law who's a broker.....

Pagan98

I don't think I get the hire car for loss or w/o - it came in useful when shopping for a new car after my car was written off 4 years ago and Direct Line were pretty OK to deal with then.

Be warned that insurers change over time and there is always the luck of the draw on who is allocated to handle your claim. I had a car written off 2 years ago and Direct Line were generally okay, just a bit of negotiation over value. I have recently had another car written off and they are proving a nightmare: customer service is non-existent, no willingness to discuss their valuation or respond to queries, just hiding behind the Financial Ombudsman Service. They have even scrapped my vehicle in direct contravention of my written instruction that I am rejecting their settlement offer and that I am not willing to release the vehicle to scrap!

Actually, the other thing I was going to ask relates to the fact that I have £0 voluntary excess. What level of voluntary is worthwhile?
This is bounded by (i) how much you can afford to shell out should the worst happen and (ii) the marginal reduction in premium as the excess increases. I usually find any excess higher that £250 yields a negligible (to me) reduction in premium, but put the numbers in and make an informed decision.

Also I believe that the hire car on a lot of policies is withdrawn as soon as the vehicle is declared a total loss and a cheque is issued.

malky39

why do you not call direct line and see if the can match the quote from admiral

Supernova

Malky, I did. They're not budging even though I've been with them for 14 years.

Excellent points Pagan, both of which I concluded yesterday. Ciao.co.uk has some reviews of both companies. Admiral probably come off worse than DL but I'll have to make that call and the mileage will vary anyway.

£150 appears to be the optimum excess for my policy at Admiral, saving £60 - beyond that additional £100 excesses ony save £5 worth of premium.

I'll check with Admiral about the hire withdrawal.