Tired old story about car insurance

fordy

A year ago I owned a Subaru Impreza, pride and joy. My renewal came through and had leaped from £500 to £800. At this point I gave up and bought a 1.4 Seat Ibiza. Instantly the insurance fell to £350, I was happy, my pocket was happy, the insurance company was happy because I was driving a low risk pram instead of a rocket ship and it does 35mpg instead of 12.

Imagine my shock when I started getting reminder emails and the quotes were coming out at £750 MINIMUM!

What the hell?

Im 35, I have 9 years protected No claims, Had my license since 1994, had one fault claim in 2008 (which had no effect on my insurance premium). Nothing has changed in a year to cause these kinds of prices.

I haven't had my official renewal (from Zurich) yet, but experience tells me its not going to be much if any of an improvement on the prices ive seen so far. I've been doing this long enough to know all the tricks.

I have done everything the insurance company would want me to do, what the hell do they want from me?

talulah25

fordy wrote: »

A year ago I owned a Subaru Impreza, pride and joy. My renewal came through and had leaped from £500 to £800. At this point I gave up and bought a 1.4 Seat Ibiza. Instantly the insurance fell to £350, I was happy, my pocket was happy, the insurance company was happy because I was driving a low risk pram instead of a rocket ship and it does 35mpg instead of 12.

Imagine my shock when I started getting reminder emails and the quotes were coming out at £750 MINIMUM!

What the hell?

Im 35, I have 9 years protected No claims, Had my license since 1994, had one fault claim in 2008 (which had no effect on my insurance premium). Nothing has changed in a year to cause these kinds of prices.

I haven't had my official renewal (from Zurich) yet, but experience tells me its not going to be much if any of an improvement on the prices ive seen so far. I've been doing this long enough to know all the tricks.

I have done everything the insurance company would want me to do, what the hell do they want from me?

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but something has changed...insurance rates have skyrocketed!

Just the usual advice, wait for your renewal, use all comparison sites, check Churchill, Directline and Aviva, dont forget your cashback sites, refer back to Zurich if you get a cheaper quote to see if they will price-match.

fordy

That would be 2 consecutive ENORMOUS (60, then 100%) price rises, gimme a break.

Why did I get rid of the Impreza in the first place?

gordonquinn

talulah25 wrote: »

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but something has changed...insurance rates have skyrocketed!

Just the usual advice, wait for your renewal, use all comparison sites, check Churchill, Directline and Aviva, dont forget your cashback sites, refer back to Zurich if you get a cheaper quote to see if they will price-match.

Yes, prices have risen, but this example is not just normal insuance price rises.

Have you have a look about? Check out comparison sites, confused.com, moneysupermarket etc.

I have 2 claims and a CD30 on a group 12 car, and I'm 21, my premium is £965, so the amount you are being quoted is crazy to me!
I'm with admiral by the way

mikey72

Postcode?
You don't live in a warzone or similar?

fordy

Well I live in Liverpool L21 which I'm the first to admit is a ****hole but ironically we never had any trouble during the riots recently.
I have tried all the comparison sites they are coming up with £750 at best. I'm dreading the actual renewal letter.

Its a 1.4 Seat Ibiza for gods sake, insurance group 12 (which would have been about 4-5 on the old method) I can't really get any less of a car without going for a 1 litre.

talulah25

gordonquinn wrote: »

Yes, prices have risen, but this example is not just normal insuance price rises.

Have you have a look about? Check out comparison sites, confused.com, moneysupermarket etc.

I have 2 claims and a CD30 on a group 12 car, and I'm 21, my premium is £965, so the amount you are being quoted is crazy to me!
I'm with admiral by the way

If, as OP says, nothing else has changed and OP has been thorough in his comparison site searches then what else would you suggest?

fordy

You expect a rise, its sods law, but i've conformed to their "perfect model" of car ownership (as far as risk goes) and now they're trying to claw back the money I saved by conforming.

fordy

Gordon, whereabouts do you live?

Wyndham

Couple of things....

Not sure if it's possible, but think about where you keep the car overnight. If it's in a garage then that's better than on a drive, which is also better than on the road.

What sort of cover are you looking at in terms of use. I.e. do you have any business use on there? If you don't need that, check you only have social, domestic and pleasure (which includes normal commute).

Are you the only person who drives the car? Is there someone else you can add to the policy? This one screws my head, but if there are two drivers on a policy it's generally cheaper than one (something to do with splitting the risk!)

Finally, may be worth a look at your excess level. If you're prepared to make that higher it could make a difference to your premium. All depends on what you could pay for if you needed to though - if you don't have spare cash around then you need a low excess.

You may have already thought of these, but if not, worth a try. Good luck!

fordy

Parked on a drive, no garage. £500 excess, most I can have according to them. No business use, just SD&P inc commuting. No one else drives in the family.

really have no choice but to wait now, unless someone on here has any miracles going spare.