Car insurance more than tripled with 5 mile change of address

ripplyuk

I'm moving house over the next few weeks. I haven't rang my own car insurance company yet as I thought I'd try to get some quotes online first, just so I could work out if it's better to stay with my company or pay the cancellation fee.

My current insurance was £168 for the year. The quotes I'm getting for this new house are all between £600 - £680. :eek:

Its less than 5 miles from my house and the same very low crime, rural area. I just can't believe this increase. I'm scared now to ring my own company and see what price they're going to charge, along with all the admin fees. I've never paid that much for car insurance in my life and just can't understand how this is justified. My friend with 2 expensive at fault claims pays less than this!

I've 8 yrs NCB and never had any claim at all, or any incidents. Is there any brokers or companies that are likely to be more reasonable? I've tried the meerkat and gocompare. I'd appreciate any advice about why these quotes are so high and if there's anything I could do about it.

stator

Have you tried Direct Line too?

I was looking at moving and the new address would have been double the old one, until I tried Direct Line and they were only a little more.

It's a true postcode lottery I'm afraid. If all insurers are quoting higher it means there must be some real significant difference.

ripplyuk

Thanks, I'll try direct line.

My postcode is barely changing, just the last two letters. It's under 5 miles by road but less 'as the crow flies' so I'm just puzzled. It's literally just up the road from me. When I had just passed my driving test, and was living in a very 'rough' estate for a while, with zero NCB, my insurance was only around £300.

My home insurance with LV hasn't gone up at all with the new address. Just a £14 admin fee. And that's despite the fact my new house doesn't have key locked windows and a five lever mortice deadlock on all doors, like my old house.

rich13348

It depends on the amount if claims for car insurance not crime rates or distance or lack thereof moved. Chances are your previous owner of new house may have made tons of claims or their next door neighbors.

ripplyuk

rich13348 wrote: »

It depends on the amount if claims for car insurance not crime rates or distance or lack thereof moved. Chances are your previous owner of new house may have made tons of claims or their next door neighbors.

It seems so unfair to make me pay for whatever the previous occupants/neighbours have claimed. I thought it would be based on my own claims history. I expected it to go up a bit, and to charged a large admin fee but I didn't think it would double, never mind triple!

maninthestreet

Try Churchills as well.

toffifee

Also try Aviva, they are not in the comparison websites.
Maybe try adjusting your answers slightly (but still be truthful!) e.g. if there are two occupations that you could pick from their list, try picking the other one.
Are you choosing fully comp or 3rd party? Fully comp can sometimes be cheaper - you are seen as less risky.
Adding someone older to your policy, e.g. a parent, can sometimes make it cheaper.

Good luck!

ripplyuk

I've just rang my own car insurance company to change the address. I really expected that they would charge even MORE than the online quotes I've been getting.

Surprisingly, they didn't charge anything extra. Not even an admin fee! It seems too good to be true. I went through all the details and they said the new address doesn't affect the premium. So, I'm hoping it's the same next year!

It's even more confusing now about why the online comparison sites quoted such massive premiums. My insurance is with the AA and the actual insurer is Zurich. If they can do it for the same price, I don't understand why the others couldn't. Direct line was significantly cheaper than the comparison sites (£284) but still not as good as staying on my current policy.

Could it be because I haven't actually moved into the house yet? Perhaps it's because they would have no record of me at the new address? I must be missing something! It's a mystery.