MSE News: OFT to investigate rising car insurance costs

mikey72

You be upset if Tesco double their prices every time you get a home delivery though, and hoped you didn't notice.

dunstonh

If they can get rid of the referral fees and cap personal injury fees then that would be great. At the moment, the insurers are between a rock and hard place there and legislation may be the only way they can move forward to reduce it.

My point is that the insurance side hasnt got a lot of scope, if any, if the re-assurers wont set their risk costs lower. The world is a lot more risk averse than it was before the credit crunch. It will need the other areas to focus on if you want premiums to drop.

Percy1983

As it is my cost has been static for the last 3 years and with the same company (oddly my renewals have been the best prices).

What can I say Admiral love me.

imran22

I am probably the unfortunate one

I was paying £33 a month until last september then my renwal came and the insurance increased to £90 without any reason.

I used all the comparison websites on earth and I couldn't get anything near the same price I was paying.

Then immediatly after renwal i had an accident and my insurance shot up to £120 a month.

Now i got my renwal and it has increased to £130.

Just_Some_Guy

Lawyers, bad investment returns, and fraud are to blame for this.

Two decades ago personal injury claims were rare and followed major accidents. Now even a minor bump costs your insurer £10k in legal fees. That money has to come from somewhere and in the end it is Joe Public.

Also, insurers invest premium income earning interest on the "float" (the bit between receiving the premium and paying out claims). Insurers always make an underwriting loss with the investment income making up the difference. When there's no investment income to be had then premiums go up

Finally there are a lot of people (well not lots but enough) in the business of arranging accidents for bonanza insurance payouts. If you have the same kind of features as someone with a dodgy claims record (e.g. postcode or choice of car) their bad behaviour will see you tarred with the same brush. Similarly people who receive a minor injury often act up like they've been brain damaged for multi million insurance payouts.

Ban referral fees, kick the recession and jail the fraudsters and premiums will fall.

Molly1

My renewal premium has doubled!! Last year it was £460 this year £990!!
Ok ive changed my car but its only a mini not a ferrari. Apparently my postcode is a bit dodgy although its not like ive recently moved.
Ironically the price my usual broker has come up with is from aviva and yet after doing a load of price comparisons, aviva have come back with the cheapest quote at £808. How does that work?
NB. Has anyone noticed how reluctant your current insurer is to send you proof of your no claims bonus before the renewal date when you want to change insurer.

chanz4

3 words, person injury claims. They money has to come from somewhere

magpiecottage

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I disagree. I don't think they should be making any money from people's apathy.
to argue they should be making more money from people's apathy is, in my book, just plain wrong.

"A company's job is to make money; it is NOT there to help you, it is NOT your friend."

If you do not consider it sufficiently important to ensure the price is competitive why should they?

miss_miggins

Am I the only one who finds policies have become cheaper?
I have shopped around a lot this year and used cashback and have just paid £116 for a year's car insurance. I am very happy.

mikey72

magpiecottage wrote: »

"A company's job is to make money; it is NOT there to help you, it is NOT your friend."

If you do not consider it sufficiently important to ensure the price is competitive why should they?

It depends on how you view the relationship.
If it's utmost good faith, and the insurer requires you to be honest, treat them fairly, and disclose anything that will affect the relationship, is it unfair to expect them to treat you fairly in return, and to offer a product at the same price they would offer it to others.

On the other hand, it they are there to make money, to screw every penny they can out of you in the hope you don't notice it, to overcharge on renewal in the hope some customers will be apathetic, is it unexpected if other customers in turn mis-represent themselves, attempt over exaggerated claims, and attempt to treat the inurers exactly as they are treating customers, in an attempt to make money. Why should customers be their friends?

Insurers can either attempt to be professional, and expect to be treated the same way in return, or can model themselve on the worst double glazing salesman from the 80's, and again expect to be treated as they were.