Performance Car Insurance

shelly

layercake wrote:

I once had a break in and started a claim with Admiral, I stopped the claim and paid to fix the car myself (beacuse they were a nightmare to deal with when things went wrong... dont ever use admiral, not matter how cheap the quote). I wonder is they kept it on my record or possibly the police records now show that our property has had a auto-break in?

Oh right. I see what you mean now. I'm not really sure of the answer but my reckoning is that if ins co's had access to police records and other ins co's records then they wouldn't need to ask all the questions they do as they could just take name, address and car reg no and answer all the questions themselves

brazilianwax

shelly wrote:

Oh right. I see what you mean now. I'm not really sure of the answer but my reckoning is that if ins co's had access to police records and other ins co's records then they wouldn't need to ask all the questions they do as they could just take name, address and car reg no and answer all the questions themselves

That would be against the Data Protection Act (and numerous other laws)

brazilianwax

layercake wrote:

I once had a break in and started a claim with Admiral, I stopped the claim and paid to fix the car myself (beacuse they were a nightmare to deal with when things went wrong... dont ever use admiral, not matter how cheap the quote). I wonder is they kept it on my record or possibly the police records now show that our property has had a auto-break in?

They can't access police records, but Greater Manchester is one of the worst areas for car crime (especially performance cars. My evo will never ever see Manchester!)!

And I've been insured with Admiral for years - currently going through a claim with them, no probs so far (but accident was only on Xmas Eve). I worked for them about a million years ago, and I think they are one of the better companies actually.

Phoenix79_2

When i had a performace car (group 17 BMW, tuned 2.5 ltr engine) at the age of 21, Sabre Insurance were the only company that would touch me for years. I had to go through Swinton as they don't deal with the public direct.

shelly

brazilianwax wrote:

That would be against the Data Protection Act (and numerous other laws)

Exactly!! The OP is worried that the co's giving the quotes can see their history which they aren't allowed to do.

Astaroth

Every insurance company has a clause in their policy saying that they will exchange information with other insurers. Therefore what the OP says is true, if he made a claim then it would almost certainly be on the underwriting exchange - this normally wouldnt be used to increase the premium however but would be used as a counter fraud tool (ie new PH has said they have made no claims but u/e says they made 5 last year alone)

Insurers can buy copies of police reports but have no routine access to "police records" and certainly arent notified that someone they may have an interest in has a new record for them to purchase - price is normally over £100 these days so isnt something you just buy for the hell of it.

Anarchist

The easiest thing to do?

Do some online quotes with an imaginary person who lives next door. Miracularously though, he will have the same date of birth as you etc... See if the quotes are any different, and if so, pursue it.

If not, put it down to living in mank-chester - Cities naturally are far more expensive for insurance than elsewhere. I used to have a PR1 postcode (Preston City Centre) although I was miles out of Preston practically in the sticks, insurance didnt care though and my insurance was about 50% higher than a PR4 code, though they were very very similar neighbourhoods.

brazilianwax

Anarchist wrote:

The easiest thing to do?

Do some online quotes with an imaginary person who lives next door. Miracularously though, he will have the same date of birth as you etc... See if the quotes are any different, and if so, pursue it.

:mad:

Do not do this - your neighbour will get reminders every year from insurance companies for non-existant people!!!!

Anarchist

Not if you ask them not to contact you. That, and choose a neighbour you don't like/don't know, problem solved!

bunking_off

brazilianwax wrote:

That would be against the Data Protection Act (and numerous other laws)

...ish. I know for a fact (having had to speak to the Office of the Information Commissioner for work on other issues) that there are certain degrees of shades of grey in these things. If the companies with personal data can demonstrate that there is a greater good to society in sharing the data, and that they've taken all reasonable steps to inform the data subject/avoid the need for data sharing/depersonalise the data, then the Information Commissioner takes a holistic view. In my conversation, the insurance industry was actually mentioned as a good example, and undoubtedly the waivers mentioned by Astaroth were part of the mitigation strategy agreed with the authorities.

Layercake, try Privilege. I've found they've undercut all of the big name companies by a good 20% this year, so have ended up insuring both of my cars (group 12 and 20) with them, £310 and £510 respectively, fully comp protected NCD (admittedly we're both late 30s with full NCD).