Insurance premium same or higher every year

makoto

For the past three years we have been insuring the same car to my name and my husbund as a named driver. We have no accidents (none in the past), 2yrs no claims and we are both of course way over 25. Every year the quotes are higher than before and insurance companies claim blame increased premiums.

This is becoming really frustrating, we are trying to figure out if there is something we are doing wrong. We tried swapping the main driver, miles etc prices remain relatively same and most importantly we have moved to two different providers and when the renewal period comes...guess what, they call an "offer" an increased premium and they rather see you go than make a better offer.

The lowest quote is always around the same amount and it doesn't even include breakdown cover these days...

mikey72

makoto wrote: »

...........we have moved to two different providers and when the renewal period comes...guess what, they call an "offer" an increased premium and they rather see you go than make a better offer....

I shop around and move every year.

My insurers usually come back with an inflated renewal, which I always refuse as I've found a better price. If they offer to match the lower price, I refuse, and tell them if they can still afford to insure me at the lower price, they should have offered in the first place, instead of trying to rip me off.

Use a cashback site as well.

Bigphil1474

I insured with Kwik Fit last year as they were best priced. When the renewal came up the total price was a 100% increase. Feeling bold, I rung and told them I'd got a quote from Aviva for less than I was already paying never mind the increased price, and they immediately reduced the premium to lower than last years, plus they are paying the 12th month payment for me. Now I'm not usually very good at getting good deals out of any company so it is surprisingley easy to get this done. By the way, I should probably have got a quote from Aviva in case they asked me anything about it, but never mind.

I know Martin hates it when people auto renew but usually the savings to be made don't make much difference to me when I'm with a company I have had good dealings with. If my insurance company had simply gave me a renewal quote the same as last years, I probably would have renewed without thinking about it. As it is because they put the price up, they've actually cost themselves around £100 ! Result.

jonesMUFCforever

I agree with shopping around - it is not difficult to get quotes from hundreds of insurance companies with a few mouse clicks - but be sure that you input accurate and truthful information and make sure you compare like for like policies.

deanyboy1985

I was due to have increased car insurance premiums this year too and like you I have now had another years no claim bonus, even when I shopped around on comparison websites I couldn't get it cheaper!

I decided to join a car forum for my car at the time (skoda) and I found a discount code that I could use with a brokers who were site sponsors, I managed to make a saving of around £350 on my premium! Could be worth a try!

makoto

Thanks for all the replies. We have been shopping around and never stay with the same insurer, but somehow, we never find that cheaper quote...

While gocompare and moneysupermarket are useful, the information they pass on to insurers is limited and sometimes incorrect. So I just jump in the first 5 best quotes and go through the process by tweaking values to get a better quote.

Our car is now over 5 years old, and we thought we could save a little by doing only third party-fire-theft. Apparently insurers in the UK charge more money than comprehensive! In other countries it is the opposite. We are getting quotes around £700 and the car value is not more than £4000, ridiculous.

Can you give me a better idea for cashback offers and/or promotional codes?

scooby75

I'm in the same situation and it's so annoying getting quotes higher than the previous year despite getting a discount. I bet the insurance companies are pi**ing themselves laughing. I've looked at some cashback offers, but really, £50 is the highest I've found on a quote that was £300 more than the cheapest one. I'm totally underwhelmed.

raskazz

scooby75 wrote: »

I bet the insurance companies are pi**ing themselves laughing.

Yeah, I bet they are, what with losing 20p for every £1 of premium collected as a market.

scooby75

I've heard this so many times before for so long. Any industry that makes a loss like this would go out of business. I've yet to see any figures that convince me.

FlameCloud

scooby75 wrote: »

I've heard this so many times before for so long. Any industry that makes a loss like this would go out of business. I've yet to see any figures that convince me.

All that happened before was that premiums were artificially low as insurers knew that they would make up the difference on investements. We are now seeing the premiums return to a normal level.

Just_Some_Guy

scooby75 wrote: »

I've heard this so many times before for so long. Any industry that makes a loss like this would go out of business. I've yet to see any figures that convince me.

Go to any insurer's corporate website and download their accounts. Page down through the "we are the best" bumpf and get to the profit and loss pages. Takes about ten seconds. To save you the effort I did a couple for you:

Aviva (also own RAC): earned £4.09bn in UK general insurance premiums, paid £4.31bn in claims, wages and other expenses (2010 report and accounts)

RSA: earned £7.18bn in premiums with expenses of £7.33bn (2010 report and accounts)

Insurers never earn enough from premiums to cover their expenses (claims, salaries, reinsurance premiums, office rents, ...). The profit comes from investment income and myriad fees and commissions.