hanging car insurance ripoff

JimArnold

Got what I thought was a good deal on insurance in August £144 (-£25 Quidco) so £119 for my elderly Ford Focus from Lloyds bank insurance seemed a good deal at the time

Now I'm changing to a new Fiesta so called up Lloyds and to change cars for the remaining 9 months - they want £122 ! £97 + £25 Admin

Now that was a shock for a very similar car

So I went off to gocompare - a new 12month policy on the new Fiesta best price £144

from .........Lloyds bank ! and I can get £25 cashback from quidco again and it includes a second driver which the origional wanted another £18 for !

Lloyds say its all their underwriters fault - perhaps (their words) the underwriter has had a bad experience with that model. I said perhaps they are just trying to rip me off !

So I can pay £138 for 9 months with Lloyds
or I can cancel (get £52 back) and take out a new policy effectively paying £67 (after refund + cashback) for 12 months with Loyds

Or I can look for an insurer that values its existing customers?

harveybobbles

No insurer values custom. They rely on people not bothering to do homework and shop around.

ILW

It's a result of the comparison site culture. They do not value customers and customers look no further than the initial price.

Mr_Mink

JimArnold wrote: »

Or I can look for an insurer that values its existing customers?

Good luck with that. Companies that have loyalty to their existing customer are like a dog who speaks, very rare.

worried_jim

I work for Lloyds Banking Group and even with staff discount there is not one product (except for staff mortgages) that I can't get cheaper myself on the high street.

JimArnold

has anyone recently changed cars and not been asked for a similar increase ?
new Ferrari owners need not reply :rotfl:

OddballJamie

JimArnold wrote: »

has anyone recently changed cars and not been asked for a similar increase ?
new Ferrari owners need not reply :rotfl:

We changed my partners car from a KA to a C3 had two months left on the policy and was charged £8. We would've got a £7 refund if it wasn't for the £15 admin fee. That was with Tesco.

I've never even bothered getting a quote from Lloyds since I was in my early 20s and got talked into an in branch quote. It was about £4k and I was paying less than £1k at the time.

oscarward

JimArnold wrote: »

has anyone recently changed cars and not been asked for a similar increase ?
new Ferrari owners need not reply :rotfl:

My son changed from a Hyundai i10 1.1 to a Hyundai i20 1.2 and got £28 refund on a policy with 2 months to run from Aviva.

Then when he started working full time added commuting at £0 extra cost.

Done online in mypolicy. :beer:

The renewal was interesting as well. They rang and asked if he was going to renew, when he said yes but wanted protected NCB the girl reworked the quote, added a discount and he renewed for £50 less than the renewal price but including protected NCB.

RichardD1970

Last year we changed from a 55 Kia Rio 1.5 diesel to a 08 Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 1.6 diesel, 8 months left on policy.

Changed main driver from me to wife, total cost £17, all done on line with Axa.

JimArnold

thanks for the above - it was what I was expecting
After 4 calls moving up the chain of complaints I have an explanation and a resolution
It appears on new business that the existing underwriter SABRE would quote £300 for the fiesta (aspposed to £144 I paid for the focus Hence the £127 changeover fee
Theu have several other insurers who would charge £145-£170 for the fiesta as new business
Lloyds have offered that if I take out a new policy with one of their other insurers they will not charge me a cancellation fee on the first policy (saving me £55) so I will get £110 back
given that I will get 12 months rather than 9 it means effectivly the change will cost pennies

So it appears I have found a broker who cares about customers!

Kite2010

Comparison sites mean people go to the cheapest, and to become the cheapest the insurers get rid of any extras which used to be included for free and charge large admin fees if you need to change anything

Not all insurance companies are the same