John Lewis car insurance - any experience of out there?

Blue_Parrot

This is a laugh. (If you're as tired as I am, one of the options is to laugh.)

Having spent 1.5 hours at the dealership today closing up the paperwork for our new car, I now have the registration plate.

I went back to my chosen insurance-provider - to buy insurance for it - and right at the end, when I enter the registration plate.......

..........

Ta Daa! The registration plate is (of course) not recognised because the car hasn't arrived at the dealership yet. It hasn't been registered with the DVLC yet, so insurance websites don't see it.

Therefore, I cannot insure our new car until the day before it is delivered. Therefore, the price I will have to pay on the day will be way more than all the quotations I've carefully examined and printed out. This is because every day I "refresh" the quote, it goes up, day by day. (Similar to buying an airline ticket on-line?)

No point getting angry. That's the system. All this self-education has been very interesting.

TomsMom

Blue Parrot - Can I ask who you went with in the end?

I have spent the whole weekend doing car insurance comparisons, checked reviews of the 5 cheapest and they weren't good. Went by the Which Report and got quotes from NFU, John Lewis and LV.

NFU were almost £100 dearer than the others.

LV seemed good (and cheapest) but online reviews again are generally not good when it comes to customer service if making a claim. Yet the Which site shows it's top of their list with 5*/78% for claims satisfaction.

Precious little in the way of reviews for John Lewis.

Blue_Parrot

TomsMom wrote: »

Blue Parrot - Can I ask who you went with in the end?

I have spent the whole weekend doing car insurance comparisons, checked reviews of the 5 cheapest and they weren't good. Went by the Which Report and got quotes from NFU, John Lewis and LV.

NFU were almost £100 dearer than the others.

LV seemed good (and cheapest) but online reviews again are generally not good when it comes to customer service if making a claim. Yet the Which site shows it's top of their list with 5*/78% for claims satisfaction.

Precious little in the way of reviews for John Lewis.

Hallo TomsMom,

I can't insure the car until it has arrived at the dealership and has been registered by them with the DVLA.

I've decided to go with John Lewis not because of the price but because their policies include so many things which other providers ask extra for.

Incidentally, Aviva phoned and worked very hard to get me a quotation. It's in the ball-park but nevertheless they also charge extra for things which John Lewis include as standard.

I also went to our nearest NFU office and went through the quotation process. They were very friendly and efficient, but their quote came up over £100 more than the next nearest equivalent.

TomsMom

The only extras I want are protected NCD and legal expenses. Both of these are covered in the quote from LV. I have to pay an extra £25 I think from John Lewis. Shame as there was only £2 between their quotes with JL coming in cheaper. I phoned and double checked with LV and was told it was included. Perhaps I'll ring JL tomorrow and see if they can do anything.

I hope you don't have to wait too much longer for your car to arrive .

Blue_Parrot

TomsMom wrote: »

The only extras I want are protected NCD and legal expenses. Both of these are covered in the quote from LV. I have to pay an extra £25 I think from John Lewis. Shame as there was only £2 between their quotes with JL coming in cheaper. I phoned and double checked with LV and was told it was included. Perhaps I'll ring JL tomorrow and see if they can do anything.

I hope you don't have to wait too much longer for your car to arrive .

I've never heard of LV (which turns out to mean Liverpool Victoria) but I have heard of John Lewis, who have a massive reputation to protect.

You might like to read this article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/8008339/How-good-are-John-Lewiss-insurance-products.html

".........John Lewis is aiming to carve a different path in the insurance industry – it is going against the grain and putting quality above price. Its range of car, home, travel and event policies will be fully comprehensive, with luxury extras as standard.

..........The car insurance is just as extensive. John Lewis has introduced mis-fuelling cover as standard – as a result of the 10,000 drivers last year who made the costly mistake of filling up with the wrong fuel. There is a £25,000 payout if you are the victim of car identity theft (when someone duplicates your licence plate and incurs congestion zone charges, parking tickets and speeding offences in your name), and emergency taxi cover should you need to get somewhere before your courtesy car has time to arrive....... "

"Andrew Hagger of Moneynet.co.uk said: "There's always the chance you may regret plumping for the absolute cheapest cover and it's not until you come to make a claim that you realise how good your insurance company is. John Lewis has an A1 reputation for customer service in-store and you'd expect the same from its insurance arm."

Can't disagree with any of that, and it's worth an extra £25 a year, I'd have thought. IMO.

TomsMom

Thanks Blue Parrot. I still have a couple of weeks before my insurance is due for renewal so I will be looking at JL again. It's not far off the renewal price from current broker who have given me a renewal with Provident rather than Ageus who they put me with last year. Provident's reviews are dire so I definitely don't want to go through with that renewal.

I have to say I like the look of JL, perhaps if I speak to them they might move a little bit on price. I also want to double check they have all the right info as what's come through on my renewal shows a few things wrong. Good job I didn't have a claim!

TomsMom

I've spoken to John Lewis, legal expenses and NCD protection were included in their price so that was all good. I wanted to confirm that they had the postcode correct of where the car was kept, it's on the road at my son's house (a cul-de-sac) as I live up a pedestrian lane. He lives just two minutes walk away, post code difference is mine is 1ES and his is 1EU. This increased the premium from £191 to £215 :eek:. I did try but they weren't budging on price. I think I'll be sticking to the LV quote at £193. Shame.

If I used the car a lot I would probably go with JL but it's purely a little local runaround, if I do 2000 miles a year that would be an over estimation and I'm only really keeping the car until my grandkids (two are almost 17) have learnt to drive and one of them could have a very nice, low mileage car that's been well looked after, for their first car if they so wish.

Lulu58

I'm scouting around for car insurance so found this thread interesting. Just in case anyone else is reading it, I've found a few reviews online for John Lewis and it isn't looking good!

http://www.reviewcentre.com/Car-Insurance/John-Lewis-Car-Insurance-reviews_1375315

rs65

To be fair, they get better reviews on Which

http://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/reviews-ns/car-insurance/whichrecommended-providers/

Parking_Trouble

Just renewed with LV= for one car, moved another across to LV=. They have good reviews from Which, the policy is good and the price was excellent.

Also moved house insurance to JL based on Which reports and the policy itself.