Car Insurance Article Discussion

kingkongkirk

Got a Renewal quote from Loyds Tsb of £433. Using Martin's system i managed to get the quote down to £241. ( this does however include a cashback of £22.50 from yocashback.com). so thanks martin for the system.

But here's a warning to People. Give you my example.

*Was With Swinton and built up 10 years no claims bonus.
*Then i went with Rac and their maximum ncd claim is 5 years.
*Then went with LLoyds Tsb and i had to give the rac renewal as my proof of no-claims-bonus.
*Then this year i'm going to go with Liverpool Victoria And when i told them that Lloyds bank renewal shows 6 years, when infact i have 12 years and i have the old renewal's as proof ( i could see this happeneing, hence i kept copies). LV replied that they will only accept the last renewal will be accepted.

I believe this to be the industry standard.. Hence 6 years was wiped off my no-claims-bonus. It made no difference to my quote when i put in 9 or more years (which is LV's Maximum) or 6 years, but that's not the point. There will be people out there who will be getting shafted. And it's not right.

So the moral of the story is check how many year's your insurance company will go up to or display in regards to your no-claims or like me you can find you get years wiped off.

CrispyUK

Just wanted to re-iterate Martin's tip about getting on the phone and haggling, well worth doing. Insured with Direct Line last April for £1850 - expensive I know but best quote I got for a just passed, 19yr old male - high risk!

1 year no claims, renewal from Direct Line was £1064. Did all the searching and the best quote was Churchill at £947 (not in the article nor do the comparisons include them, but check them out!!) plus they're currently offering £100 cashback via Quidco.

Called Direct Line and asked to cancel my automatic renewal as had a better quote, she asked what it was and I told her and the cashback, she said as RBS owns both Direct Line and Churchill she'd see what she could do for me, called me back a few minutes later offering a premium of £851, a reduction of over two hundred quid, couldn't give her my card details quick enough

Churchill after cashback would've been £4 cheaper but figured it was better not having to wait for the cashback to roll in and the slight risk of it not tracking!

So...

• Check Churchill for a quote!
• Once you've got your best quote, try and get your current insurer to beat it

kingkongkirk

Congrats.
Did exactly the same thing with Lloyds Tsb. Included in the my LV quote to LTSB the yocashback "cashback", but they only could come down to £367, still over £100 difference.

By the way is this "automatic renewal thing, done for our convienience or to catch us out"? Anybody else's veiw on that!

kingkongkirk

Seems That I'm hoggin this forum.. sorry for that, hopefully last point from me on this subject.
Motor Legal Protection Cover. i didn't get the insurance company's one as with most, they charge £15-20, LV's was £18. There's a company called Best Advice Uk that charges £4.99 a year for it. So might be worth checking them out.

Sabriellote

As a provisional driver I searched comparison sites thoroughly last year when I bought my first car insurance in september, to make sure i got the right cover for me and reasonably cheap. Eventually i went with Quinn-Direct which at £551 was brill including breakdown, legal and windscreen as third party fire & theft.

However....

I got a nasty surprise when I passed my test.

I called them to change the details on the cover for me as a now fully-licenced driver....and they said there was a charge of £157 to do this!!!
A ridiculous price considering i only paid £550 originally -making my insurance for this year over £700!

well, i was horrified to say the least...especially as i'd asked before i took out the origonal policy whether there was a charge for changing my licence! I asked the guy why this was and he told me that as a fully-licenced driver i was more of a risk as i didn't have someone else with me at all times, and that he didn't know why i was told it wouldn't cost me anything to change my licence on it before.

When i asked how long i could have to update my policy he said: 'yeah you can take some time to think' whilst i was think more of a 14 day policy cover overlap or something like you get on the car tax...

Thinking of changing insurer i said i'd go and look at some new quotes -and he didn't even bat an eyelid (so to speak!) just said: 'yeah you can do that...'

So i asked how much was the cancelation fee: £35. And they would refund the remaining 5 months unused (i pay annually).

Needless to say i searched the comparison sites again but unfortunatly most came up with quotes around £1k, and even with martin's technique i didn't get a reasonable price, the best i got was churchill's at £607 but i was thinking of going with direct line which is slightly more expensive at £644 but currently has a garantee on to not increase the price next year if you have no claims. -I'm going to phone up directline and challenge them with their price as i think they're part of the same company as churchill (well, the website is identical) and why don't they match the price?

Could anyone help me???

I was going to phone up Quinn-direct and say they have to waive the charge if they want to keep me as a customer...

or i was also going to go to them as a 'new customer' get a quote and then challenge them with churchill's price of £607

As to the charge could anyone else advise me as what i can do about it?, at the moment i'm not driving as my insurance isn't valid for a full licence, and i can't afford to pay such an extortionate charge.

As something different: do anyone know if i cancel this insurance and join another, will i be entitled to my one one-year no-claims-bonus? or do i have to stay with one insurer for the whole year in order to earn it?

I have to cancel &set up a new insurance before the 29th in order to get 5 months back, so please help me quick!

Paul1_2

kingkongkirk wrote: »

Seems That I'm hoggin this forum.. sorry for that, hopefully last point from me on this subject.
Motor Legal Protection Cover. i didn't get the insurance company's one as with most, they charge £15-20, LV's was £18. There's a company called Best Advice Uk that charges £4.99 a year for it. So might be worth checking them out.

I have just found this site too, perhaps Martin could add some advice to his articles on insurance! Also a recent article questioned the value of NCD Protection and another post suggested there is little point with compamnies like Esure that provide very high NCD levels, a research opinion on this could be very useful.

monie2008

Hi there,
I'm wondeing if anybody can help me or give me some advice.
I took out an insurance policy with Ecar insurance in September 2007, i arranged to pay them monthly by Direct Debit on the 15th of each month. In January 2008 my direct debit for ecar was returned by my bank and therefore i defulted on a payment. As soon as i found out i emailed ecar (because you can't phone them) and was told if i paid my policy in full by the 5th February 2008 they wouldn't cancel my car insurance.
I then on the 4th February made full payment to ecar of £128 and they then sent me a reciept in the post.
I just happened to need to check my policy online for my policy number and could see that my actual car insurance was showing as a status of cancelled. I emailed ecar immediately to see why my policy was showing as cancelled and the response i had was this;-

Dear .............,
Thank you for your email.
Your policy EC1239816RID was paid for by direct debit you paid a 15%
deposit of £57.57 and 9 equal monthly payments. because one of those
direct debits defaulted the policy was cancelled on 5/2/2008. You were
sent a letter on 29/1/2008 informing that the policy would be
cancelled in 7 days.

There was no mention of the £128 i paid them so i sent them another email with proof from my bank statement that i had paid and also attached emails from a Mike Stephens an employee at Ecar telling me how to make my payment.I am still waiting a response from ecar and i don't know what to do, i'm so angry as i've been driving with no car insurance for almost 3 months even though i have made full payment. I can't drive my car because i'm not insured and i don't know if i can buy another policy. If anyone has any ideas on what i can do please let me know. I contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service but they were really no help.

Thanks in advance

GlobalSquare

Not sure if this is right place to put this ... but just made a huge saving thanks to martin and this site :cool: (and haggled for a sweetner to!)

Last year i did my yearly phone around via yellow pages etc and ended up going with my old(;)) insurer

Along comes renewal time and i get a nice renewal offer of £538.92
(that was one of the best quotes i could get last year!)
(Im 28, single, park on a quite road outside my house etc)

Used 3 of the listed comparison sites and got some much smaller quotes including the same stuff :eek:

Ended up deciding to go with the second cheapest (£2+ more expensive)
(tried haggling with my old company they couldnt come near )

so i went though all the policy preparing to accept .... and saw they were offering personal injury insurnce if injured in the car for £24.95 ... and thought what the heck ... phoned them up. Explained i was after a little sweetner to seal the deal and they knocked 40% of that price for me )

So i got new car insurance for just over £207 + £14.97 for the injury insurance

Renewal offer = 538.92
New insurance = 222.32

Saving a massive £316.60 :T or a 58.7% saving/difference

id have been happy to have got £100 off as previously its been a big effort trying to get cheaper insurance and i probably would have settled for £50 off realistically

(might not be the biggest saving ever but i am well chuffed )

tatiana

We have just bought my son, dob 24.2.83, works for a bank, lives in the
country, a Ford Focus Ghia TDCI estate, Dec 2001. It is his first car so he has no ncb. I am 59, retired and have 6 years ncb on my car but he naturally wants to start earning his own by having his own comprehensive policy. I am totally befuddled by trying to find the best price. He doesn't mind a small excess if it keeps the price down and would like roadside assistance either within a policy or separately. Can anyone please help?

madmum8335

Got my renewal from Churchill £410 and have been shopping round using comparison sites ( I do this every year). Having read car insurance article on main site I just thought I'd try getting a quote from Chuchill as a new customer. Quoted £337 and I can get £70 cashback from GreasyPalm.
What I'd like to know is Can I Really Do This? Won't Churchill have some sort of objection? I know I could give them a ring & try & haggle but I won't get the cashback if I go that route. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has tried this & if they succeeded.