High fluctuating car renewal costs?

AGray

I am due to be renewing my car insurance at the end of the month, I have now 10 years No Claims and driving 15 years.

I am also part of IAM so I am with IAM Surety, last year my renewal was £350 with legal but this year they have whacked on an additional £100 up to £450.

I was aware that car insurance prices were increasing this year, but I had a shop around last week to see on the comparison websites. The cheapest was generally Tesco Bank who were offering about £410 including legal, still wasn't too happy with it so kept an eye on it daily.

Then on Saturday afternoon I checked again, GoSkippy came up as the cheapest. £320 + Cashback (+ Legal) which was quite a suprising saving. I confirmed this as well by going through GoSkippy as well to lock in the price.

I checked again towards the latter half of the evening just for reference, and suprisingly the price jumped back up to £390 through GoSkippy being the cheapest. I know that prices did fluctuate but I wasn't expecting such a big jump through one singular day.

Checking today, the prices have once again normalised at £400+.

I have heard some bad reviews over GoSkippy, but the same can probably be said for a host of companies, however being with IAM Surety normally they're very good at beating comparison sites, so after work i'll be phoning them just to beat it.

I'm just incredibly surprised by the hourly jumps in terms of prices, it really does pay to check at various times of the day.

forgotmyname

My broker covers a lot of the car clubs and i just get comparison site quotes and give them the figure and they beat it.

LadyDee

Last year my car insurance was £230 (OK, small car, low mileage etc.). Just got my renewal notice - £271.

Lower quotes for this company and others on GoCompare. I then phoned the insurer and the premium was reduced to £240.

Phoned Direct Line - same cover £206. (Actually even better as I now have a lower excess).

Anybody getting the impression that insurance companies are using actual increased tax/whiplash claims etc., etc. as yet another excuse to ramp up premiums? I certainly am, as this was the excuse given to me by my last insurer for the huge percentage rise in my premium.

paddyandstumpy

I don't think so. It's well documented the Ogden descion has cost the industry heavily - LV (third or fourth biggest car insurer) lost £139m due to the result. I dread to think what it cost those with a bigger market share.

It's also well documented that insurers offer loss leading prices to 'hook' you in year one, then load the premium at renewal hoping you'll just renew, so they can actually make a profit.

LadyDee

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

I don't think so. It's well documented the Ogden descion has cost the industry heavily - LV (third or fourth biggest car insurer) lost £139m due to the result. I dread to think what it cost those with a bigger market share.

It's also well documented that insurers offer loss leading prices to 'hook' you in year one, then load the premium at renewal hoping you'll just renew, so they can actually make a profit.

Before the days of the internet automatic renewal was doubtless the norm, the alternative was to spend hours on the phone with the yellow pages. I doubt very much that the majority of car owners nowadays just stick with the same insurance company each year. The insurance companies might well hope to hook you in, but not many fall for that I'm sure. Surely everybody with a TV has seen the never-ending adverts for the comparison websites even if they have never heard of MSE!