Car Insurance Renewal

Annie1960

I'm renewing my car insurance over the next few days.

I'm with Direct Line, and their quote is £300 for my Astra (fully comp).

I've just done a search via TopCashback, the the one that came up cheapest was Hastings. It has come up in 2 forms:

Hastings Essential £222
Hastings Direct £232

Has anyone ever used Hastings (i.e. needed to make a claim with them)? If so, what are they like? What is the difference between Essential and Direct?

I also intend to ring Saga to get a quote from them. Has anyone used Saga, and if so what are they like if you make a claim?

Thanks in advance for any information.

OnanTheBarbarian

Hastings are pretty dreadful as far as claims handling are concerned, Saga are equally poor when dealing with third party claims in my experience. Whether insurers look after their own any better than the speed they respond to third party claims, I cannot comment. But their lack of ability to respond to third party claims eventually leads to higher sums of money being paid out more often than not.

Quentin

Annie1960 wrote: »

Has anyone ever used Hastings (i.e. needed to make a claim with them)? If so, what are they like?.......

Do a search for reviews here and across the net to find out why they are so cheap!

Annie1960

Quentin wrote: »

Do a search for reviews here and across the net to find out why they are so cheap!

Thanks, I've had a look.

I'll be staying with Direct Line, then!

InsideInsurance

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

Saga actually do well in the Which? reviews and similarly Hastings Direct appears above Direct Line.

In my claims handling days I only remember one case of coming up against a Saga insured TP in a disputed liability case and their person really wasnt very good at all but I've no idea if that was one rouge handler or their general standard.

The problem with all of these companies is that there is a significant factor of how well you fit their proposition, what you value and the luck of the draw of who you deal with.

Admiral always do badly in these things and I know their product is fairly low quality but it was sufficient for my needs at the time. The queuing time to speak to them is high but the agents on the phone are always really friendly, happy and chatty which I personally like (and may explain the waiting times). Claims they are a bit heavy on the selling your details to Albany assistance but when I was involved in a fault accident I couldnt fault them - or at least couldnt fault them in combination with my preferred repair company who dealt with them directly and avoided my needing a second estimate etc (not a preferred garage for Admiral).

Others here have had terrible experience as Admiral have farmed their claim out to a credit company who lose interest when liability doesnt appear to be simple.

geoff1057

Took me 12 months with Admiral to get a TP claim sorted, they passed me on to Albany , even though non fault. Daughter recently had an accident ,her fault . After giving her details to her insurers aviva. they took over a month to get back to her , promised calls back on SIX occassions no one bothered.

whatmichaelsays

My father had a nightmare with Saga on a theft claim about 3 years ago. We had to threaten them with the FSA twice before they actually got the claim moving.

He vowed never again.

[Deleted User]

geoff1057 wrote: »

Took me 12 months with Admiral to get a TP claim sorted, they passed me on to Albany , even though non fault. Daughter recently had an accident ,her fault . After giving her details to her insurers aviva. they took over a month to get back to her , promised calls back on SIX occassions no one bothered.

Hi Geoff1057

Thanks for your post.

I'm really sorry to hear about the service your daughter received after your accident and hope no one was seriously injured.

If you'd like me to liaise with our claims team and look into this further for you, please email the following details to social@aviva.co.uk -

Policy holder's full name
Policy holder's date of birth
Policy holder's postcode
Policy number
Money Saving Expert username

I look forward to hearing back from you soon,

Kind Regards

Stephanie

Aviva Social Media Team

pinkteapot

Might be too late commenting OP, but phone Direct Line, mention the quotes you found and see if they'll drop their price. Nothing to lose if you're staying with them anywhere.