Car Insurance Article Discussion

Steve_R

Hi, We've just had the same from Sheila's wheels, £28 just to cancel 10 months into a 12 month policy! It's a scam that the ombudsman 's not interested in. I know that you should always read the small print, but this was buried on page 6 of a 16 page " ammendment" and we were not made aware upon cancellation of this fee. Another triumph for the financial crooks and yet again ordinary people lose out!

LTPR1

Hi All,

Im 21 and live in the PR1 area i have a new drivers license. I have never been in an accident.
car insurance for me on a £500 Fiat Punto is £8000 at the cheapest, apparantly it is because of people staging car crashes and claiming all of the time but it means that people like me who work and have a young family of my own are unable to even consider being able to drive. It takes about 50 minutes for me to get the work on my bus and 50 minutes back and whenever me and my partner want to take our daughter out anywhere we have to rely on public transportation. it is a nightmare but looking around no-one seems to be looking into it. Does anyone no what i can do. if i moved away the insurance drops to around £2000 which is still expensive but more affordable. if it is because of the area where i live it shouldnt really matter as the car would be kept in a private car park. Please help..... and thanks in advance...

biglugs

Seems like lots of people are having issues with massive premium hikes. Unfortunately this is just tough - caused mostly by solicitors running cash for crash companies. I had a rear-ender last summer (someone ran into me) and the phone was hot with legal firms promising to get me compensation for my injuries (which I didn't have).
We're now in a world where the lawyers will do anything to get cash - and the Law Society seems to think their behaviour is perfectly OK.
Problem is - we're the ones who are paying for it. So next time someone tips you the wink and says they made a packet out of their compo claim, you'll know where your insurance premiums went.

biglugs

lordFSA wrote: »

Just a quickie.....

Used the named driver trick by adding my neighbour which has brought my quote from reputable dealers (admiral, aviva, elephant) from around £2100 to £1100.....without the addition, the cheapest I was quoted was £1000 by 1st Central (which subsequently came down to £700 with named driver). (im 24, male, new driver, 1.4l skoda fabia, 51reg)

Do you suggest I go for the cheapest option, or pay the premium to have a mainland-UK based firm? Obviously I've seen the thread on 1st central's customer service.....but its only a banger and id rather protect my NCB, pay for repairs myself and just flog it if it gets infeasible.... Oh, and im not a boy racer

I assume you have your neighbour's permission to use his name on your insurance? And remember to be sure that if either of you have accidents you should check both policies to see whether you need to declare them.
Also make sure that your neighbour has no unspent motoring convictions, or any unspent criminal convictions that could invalidate your insurance because you didn't declare them.
This "trick" might be a good way to lower your premiums, but you will have to be really careful if you're doing this.

paulasx

Hi
wonder if anyone can help, my other half got his renewal notice this morning, thought it was a bit steep, over £1200 with 4 yrs no claims, and the car only worth £1000. then he looked and saw they valued the car at £10000! so he rings them up and according to them, it doesn't matter how much the car is worth? it doesn't affect the price of the insurance? is this true??
If so, and they have inputted the valuation as £10000 does that mean in the event of a claim they would have to pay that? and how can they justify the same premium for a car worth a fraction of the price??
any help appreciated
thanks

Steve_xx

paulasx wrote: »

Hi
wonder if anyone can help, my other half got his renewal notice this morning, thought it was a bit steep, over £1200 with 4 yrs no claims, and the car only worth £1000. then he looked and saw they valued the car at £10000! so he rings them up and according to them, it doesn't matter how much the car is worth? it doesn't affect the price of the insurance? is this true??
If so, and they have inputted the valuation as £10000 does that mean in the event of a claim they would have to pay that? and how can they justify the same premium for a car worth a fraction of the price??
any help appreciated
thanks

They certainly will not pay 10k in the event of a claim for its loss. They'll pay as little as they can get away with. Aside from that if the car was lost due to a crash or something, then others might be injured, and the insurer would have to settle that too. So it's not just the loss of the vehicle that you are insuring.

Different insurers weight the cost of cars differently. It maybe that your current insurer bands all cars upto 10k in value in one band, but then other factors would come into play, like if you had any points etc etc. It may well be that if you went to a different insurer that the premium would be lower given the low value of the car.

Sarah0702

Just had renewal quote from Hastings Essentials. Last year's was £1200, no changes this year except an extra year claim-free. Renewal quote = £2900!!! Even the call centre employee couldn't believe it. Needless to say I have gone with another insurer! Admiral Multi-car (me and my husband) Total £1300 for 2 cars! How do they justify such a huge discrepancy?!

Bhagwan_H

A number of Insurers have been chasing market share for a number of years by offering unsustainable rates of premiums. This is all well and good when times are good, but when the claims cycle turns, action has to be taken and that is what is happening at the moment. We are also in the middle of a deep recession, meaning that there are more thefts/theft from vehicle claims. People who might not normally be persuaded to pursue an injury claim might well do at the moment now that times are hard. Also the number of organised gangs getting involved with staging accidents is increasing rapidly.

rodgers

It's that time of year again where I've had to renew my car insurance. I've sorted mine out and gone with swiftcover who beat my renewal quote by £100.

If anyone is interested I've paid £660.

I'm nearly 23 year old. I've got 4 years ncb. My car is Skoda Fabia vrs 05 (insurance group 9) (value under £4000).

I've put my Mam on the policy and that reduced it down by about £30.

It's not cheap but comparing that to the £1700 I paid for insurance for my first year of driving on an old micra I can at least stomach this.

All the best.

Mark

mary-op

Our car insurance is due in 2 weeks but due to illness/disability OH hasn't driven it since January and is unlikely to be able to drive for quite some time.
SIL is taking the car to his garage so its off the road (due to it being illegal to be parked uninsured) but I've heard that even if a car is off road and waiting to be scrapped insurance still has to be paid. Is this right ? We don't want to pay out any money on something that isn't going to be used for quite some time.
I know when tax is due in July we have to do a SORN but didn't know about this insurance.