Your opinion about high car insurance premiums in B2-B12 postcodes

sean_30

Hi there,
I was recently given a quote for my car insurance, the quote was £3400 for insuring a fiat punto. I have 10 years no claims, no convictions, high voluntary excess, etc but just because I live in a B9 post code my insurance premium has gone through the roof. Now, who do I complain to, no one, the fact that I am a good driver with no previous claims goes unnoticed. I can understand that there is certain criteria when insuring someone, age, risk, convictions, crime rate, etc. I then realised that the situation was the same for the residents of B2-B12 postcodes, that is probably around 50000 drivers paying overpriced premiums.

Are you in similar situation and had same experience? What can be done if anything and I am not talking about lying in order to bring the cost of your policy.

rev_henry

Persuade your neighbours to actually get insurance. Its a vicious circle - insurance is expensive > no one bothers with it > gets more expensive for those who do bother > those who do bother are now tempted not to.

I feel your pain, although not quite as badly. When I moved permenantly with my car to Manchester from Cumbria I went from being able to insure pretty much anything for £500 tops to now paying £900 for a 1.6 saloon car.

There is no one to complain to. Either move house or buy a different car. I imagine your car doesn't help - its a typical cheap runaround popular with young lads.

Lit_Up

Where are B-B12 postcodes? I live in NW1 (London) in a nice, quiet street which the Met classes as no car theft area, but I've also been quoted a similar price. Crooks

hcb42

the stats for car crime are very high.

together with car choice, this will be pushing up premiums, no one to complain to, as these are the facts

i only live 30 mins away but crime is much lower than average here, and we probably pay £300 a year.

kingstreet

This is urban Birmingham and chances are the car crime and claim stats, perhaps even for "cash for crash" claims are likely to be above the national average.

I'd say the same about Manchester, Liverpool etc too.

mills705

Any Birmingham postcode is a huge increase in premium on probably a national average!
London is exactly the same really!
Can't really complain tbh there offering you a premium based on the risk profile which you have given them.
If you don't like the price then vote with your feet

OnanTheBarbarian

It's essentially down to the low life who can't help but having accidents and claims. The fraudsters have had to move on from having deliberate accidents with each other now as they are all on the databases of the insurers and patterns immediately get spotted and the claims investigated.

So now they have accidents with innocent third parties where you will slam into the back of their car due to their brake light bulbs being removed and a deliberate slam-on. So although you are a careful law-abiding and safe driver with a good record, the vermin you live with and share the local road with have spoiled the party for everyone.

sean_30

I agree with everything said, insurance company has to make money, fraudsters have to commit fraud, Birmingham central is expensive to insure and so on. But what happened to the way that insurance used to function, you have no claims and every year they lower your premium, it seems that some kind of method is being used, the only way I can describe it is probability method where by no matter how many claims are made we are still covered because we are overcharging everyone else, therefore there is no way we loose out. Insurance policies can be tailored if the insurance wanted to tailor them, for example, no whiplash claim included in your policy, higher excess, no fire and theft, passengers not covered, etc. I am sure that like anything else insurance can be tailored

OnanTheBarbarian

You'd be a bit mad to tailor out things like third party cover for whiplash etc.

We are all human and capable of mistakes, would you want to lose your house if you decided to save £50 off your insurance premium and took your eyes off the road for a second and hit somebody causing serious injuries?

sean_30

Of course you would be mad, but for £3400 i am able to cover the cost of the vehicle and whiplash:)

Aretnap

No, insurance policies can't be tailored to exclude things like whiplash claims. They must cover all third party personal injury claims to comply with the Road Traffic Act. You can't pick and choose which injuries you think should be covered and which shouldn't.