Car Insurance - Sick and Fed Up With Insurers!!

retro.kid

I really am fed up with car insurance companies.

Renewal time was in January. Went with Elephant after shopping around.

9 Years no claims, never had a claim in my driving career. 37 years old, drive a run of the mill VW Passat. Grudge the amount my premium is, but that's another story...

Moving house on Friday. Actually, moving in with the in-laws, 2 streets away. As the crow flies, 0.09 miles. Same town. Same housing estate.

So they tell me my premium may go up or down as a result of address change. Fair enough, i could be moving to a rough bit of town with a history of theft and break in's etc.

I'm actually preparing myself for a decrease in premium as currently my car is parked on a road. My new address from Friday, ensures the car is parked up a private driveway at the side of the house.

Nearly fell off my chair when i was told my premium was rising by £51.23 a year. Of course, i query this with the Insurance Representative (IR)"

IR: "Yes, according to our risk database their is has been a lot of people claiming on car insurance in that street".
ME: "Oh really, and why does that affect me and my personal policy?"
IR: "Because you might claim as well so you're a higher risk"
ME "And how do you come to that conclusion?"
IR: "Sorry Sir, we cannot tell you that information because it's confidential"

I'm gobsmacked.

I thought if you claimed on your insurance at fault, it would affect your own policy premium - not affect the whole street!

So I query the fact i'm parking the car at night on a driveway rather than a public road

IR: "I understand sir, but your car could still be vandalised"
ME: "Yes, but surely the risk is reduced?"
IR: "It's still a possibility"
ME: "Yes, but the risk of the car being hit by another car is removed"
IR: "But your car could still be vandalised"
ME: "So if there is no difference to risk whether car is parked on road or driveway, why am i asked?"
IR: "Sorry sir, i cannot answer that"

I give up.

I'm fairly easy going, i pay my way - but i am sick of getting fleeced by car insurance. I have the opinion that figures are now plucked out of thin air at random. Each year my policy renewal is higher, they can't compete with price comparison, i shift my policy, then the next year i find the original insurer is now the cheapest.


I can't be the only one to think that if car insurance is compulsory, then it needs to be regulated. I'd love to see this risk database they refer too that is highly confidential. I'm thinking it doesn't exist.

My father in law, whom resides at the same address as me now, pays £190 a year for fully comp insurance. Hardly high risk then?

I'm scunnered with the whole industry.

dacouch

Cars on drives have a high theft rate due to thieves breaking into the house for the car keys

retro.kid

dacouch wrote: »

Cars on drives have a high theft rate due to thieves breaking into the house for the car keys

Fair point - never thought of that, but not everyone dangles their car keys at the front door / lying about obvious.

That's the problem - everything's generalised. Certainly, in the street i'm moving too, there has not been a theft of a car in the 37 odd year the mother in law has lived there - and she would soon find out if there was one!

Seems your penalised by parking on a street because someone else might hit you, yet if you park it on a drive, you're penalised because someone might break into the house for the keys!

Grrr.

Buzby

Driveways are not the holy grail - a garage certainly is. Different underwriters have different criteria so you need to find one that is sympathetic your requirements. Just don't beat yourself up!

In my area, driveway breakins are more prevelant due to it being less 'public'.

Spiderham

I'm surprised that's what they said on the phone. I'd also be surprised if Elephant were happy with someone in the call centre saying something like that; it sounds like they've made up reasons on the spot and plucked them out of thin air.

The way prices are set is quite complicated and the reasons for prices being relatively higher and lower are not always intuitively obvious. I really doubt someone working in the call centre would understand all the vagaries of the pricing structure (I'm saying this as someone who works in motor insurance and is involved with pricing).

dunstonh

ME: "Oh really, and why does that affect me and my personal policy?"

You do realise that insurance is not about you personally. It is a collective pot of people with similar risks.

cdavies1960

Catch22 situation... You can't win. They will always find an excuse.

Does that fee include any admin fees? Because alot of insurance companies charge admin fees on top. (Prepare yourself )

FlameCloud

retro.kid wrote: »

Fair point - never thought of that, but not everyone dangles their car keys at the front door / lying about obvious.

That's the problem - everything's generalised. Certainly, in the street i'm moving too, there has not been a theft of a car in the 37 odd year the mother in law has lived there - and she would soon find out if there was one!

Seems your penalised by parking on a street because someone else might hit you, yet if you park it on a drive, you're penalised because someone might break into the house for the keys!

Grrr.

If you do not generalise and base on statistics, how would you suggest the insurers quote? Would you pay for them to come and visit you just to get a quote from them?

rs65

retro.kid wrote: »

I'd love to see this risk database they refer too that is highly confidential. I'm thinking it doesn't exist.

Seriously? You don't think all insurers have a vast number of claims on which to base their underwriting decisions?

wozearly

retro.kid wrote: »

That's the problem - everything's generalised. Certainly, in the street i'm moving too, there has not been a theft of a car in the 37 odd year the mother in law has lived there - and she would soon find out if there was one!

Which is both the blessing and curse of risk-based pricing.

You benefit from sharing characteristics with other lower-risk drivers, but bear the burden of sharing characteristics with other high risk drivers.

When insurers see a larger than average number of claims from a particular area (for whatever reason - not necessarily theft / vandalism) they will often assume there's something going on that makes it more risky, and will up the price accordingly as a defensive measure.

The Elephant IR seemed to handle this particularly cack-handedly - most IRs should at least have a passing familiarity with what affects risk and how. Or he could have run the quote as if you'd been on-road versus a driveway and actually told you what the difference was (driveway is probably safer, but the difference may be fairly small).


The other problem is that as individuals we're (frankly) rubbish at estimating future risk because we tend to assume it will mirror past experience. Its how our minds are built to work.

Take the 9 years no claims - what we see is a blemish-free record, which will continue into the future unchanged because our experience is that it has so far. We assume that must be down to our own skills, with no real influence from luck (e.g. not being in the wrong place when a raving lunatic is on the road), so its outrageous that insurers want to charge so much.

A huge majority of drivers tend to say they're 'above average' - they can't all be right.

On the other hand, Insurers have a lot more collective experience taken from across a huge number of people. They know that a certain proportion of people with 9 years' no claims will nonetheless be involved in accidents, have their cars damaged or stolen, etc. So they approach things with a lot more cynicism, and set their prices on what statistical experience tells them.

And they don't all agree on how best to do this, which is why shopping around works.

Quentin

Buzby wrote: »

Driveways are not the holy grail - a garage certainly is.....

Who told you that?

Generally on the road is often the cheapest option these days.