Car Insurance Article Discussion

catnap53

My son is 17 with a provisional licence. I want to get him insured for a new/nearly new car as I feel the old banger route is not a safe option. I am getting quotes of 3,500 to 5,400 a year, and even an extra 3,000 for 8 months just to put him on my husbands policy!

I found youngmarmalade website offering insurance for 973 a year in conjunction with buying a new or nearly new car.

Anyone got any experience of this site, or any other suggestions for cheaper insurance, or he won't be driving at all.

This site (MSE) has been very helpful in the two weeks or so since I found it, (arranged BT and loan to try to sort out some spare cash) so I live in hope.

Thanks

mikki-b

Its renewal time for me and I've done all the comparison sites.Lowest price was sainsburys. I found that Moneysupermarket gave the lowest price but that price didn't include protected no claims which I wanted.
However since I do very little mileage, I tried Norwich Unions pay as you drive option, which will probably cost me less than £200 over the year (in additional I get to spread the cost over the year too)
Has any one had experience of pay as you drive?

skodafan

I think I may have been unlucky in that even after spending hours following Martin's recommendations only to find when I clicked through to get a proper quote some were more than double, I eventually only managed to save £25 but better than nothing.

I took out insurance with Provident through a company called YES who came top or near it on most of the comparison sites.

A word of caution for any one thinking of doing the same.

I had occasion to call them yesterday on the number they provide which is an 0870 number. After holding for 20 minutes I realised that a lot of my £25 saving had just gone on the cost of the call so hung up. I got a freephone number for YES from https://www.saynoto0870.com which is: 08002941680 which is just as well as I was held for another 55 minutes! I reckon they don't need to sell any insurance at all with the profits they must be making from all the telephone calls.

Whilst on hold I was scrutinising the paperwork they had sent me and was horrified to read that in spite of indicationg at the time of taking out the insurance that I did not want automatic renewal there tucked away in the small print was a clause stating they reserved the right to automatically renew unless I telephoned to opt out and guess which number they ask you to do that on? A clue - it's not the freephone one.

The first thing I did when I eventually managed to speak to someone was to make sure they had a record of my opting out and asked for confirmation of that in writing.
To be fair the guy I dealt with was really helpful with my query but I am not interested in dealing with any insurance company who keeps me on hold for 75 minutes. To add insult to injury there was a recorded message apologising for keeping me waiting which repeated every 20 seconds - I've worked out I had to endure listening to it over 200 times!

jo78

we had our renewal yesterday from the AA and they wanted £576.00 or £707.00 with me as a provisonal driver went on all the comparison sites that are on this site and tescos compare gave us a quote with e sure for £380.00 with me included and the excsses are alot lower so thats a whopping saving of £327.00 :j
i bet you can guess what i told the aa to do with there great deal ( there words not mine :rotfl: )

passau91

Things are not going according to plan for me.

I've received my renewal quote from Admiral - £340 for comprehensive, protected 5 years no claims bonus, £0 voluntary excess, £100,000 legal cover included etc.

Having followed Martin's advice and checked ALL (and I really mean it) of the comparison sites, I still can't find a quote which is lower than my renewal, once you take account additional payments to get the same level of cover as Admiral offer me AND they all demand a voluntary excess. I can't even get an external quote from Admiral, because they have to know who you are and the registration of the car (I did try).

Has anyone got any other advice, or could it simply be that on this occasion, I just can't make an MSE saving on my insurance. I can't even get it through a cashback site, as Admiral have me on an automatic renewal.

Any advice will be gratefully received.

klint

passau91 wrote: »

Having followed Martin's advice and checked ALL (and I really mean it) of the comparison sites, I still can't find a quote which is lower than my renewal

Then I suspect Admiral have the wrong information about you; perhaps you've mentioned a past accident or a fine when you've searched for a quote but you've forgotten to tell Admiral about it. If that is not the case - if you are sure that Admiral already have all relevant information about you - then you should go directly to one of those web sites that promise to beat your renewal quote or give you £100 if they can't.

klint

Another idea for passau91: I don't think Martin mentions this, but it's worth checking out the cashback sites. Some of them can give a very large amount of cash back. For example, at the moment you can get up to £120 from TopCashBack if you take out a policy through Lloyds TSB Insurance. Therefore, even if their quote is more expensive than your renewal, once you take the cashback into consideration it could work out a lot cheaper. If you haven't already got a TopCashBack account you can click on http://topcashback.co.uk/klitos and we will both be given 50p commission if you sign up.

passau91

Thanks for the two bits of advice. I'm already a member of TopCashback btw. I think my problem might be that I've always used Confused.com, so I was probably already getting a competitive quote (based on my admittedly dodgy postcode - I'm not tempted to go down the route of registering the car to an address in a cheaper postcode, as that smacks of fraud), and therefore on this occasion, I might just have to bite the bullet.

I hear what you're saying about the cashback sites, but Martin did also advise that you shouldn't choose a product just for the cashback, as there is not a guarantee that the money would definitely come through. The best I can do is pay for the renewal on my cashback Amex:p .

The only other thing I thought of is that I will want breakdown cover as well, so I'll go back to the articles to see if there might be the possibility of a saving there.

weepet69

Just a warning for everyone who has gathered quotes.I searched extensively as per Martin's advice.Most competitive quote was around £350.Then got a quote with Autotrader for £137.Thought :j .Tried to pay online but due to technical blip couldn't.I then phoned the number supplied and gave them my reference no,girl sounded surprised with this price.She told me the insurance was due to commence 30/03,i asked for a later start by 2 weeks (at no time was it mentioned this would result in a price difference).She then proceeded to quote me £337 .I said no I would rather stick with the original saved quote-she then said i was unable to use the original quote as it had been overridden by the second quote. As you can imagine i was not a happy bunny.I asked to speak to her manager as i felt appeased due to the fact she did not mention this would change the quotation.The manager said there was nothing he could do,I then spoke to his manager who also said there was nothing could be done-I then took advice from their complaints policy which recommended speaking to Cust Serv Manager-could not get to speak to CSM as apparently you can only complain if you have a policy with them.Then spoke again to the officers managers manager lol-no joy despite me saying i was going to seek advice from the FSA as i felt information had been ommited and they had not been open and honest in their dealings with me.
So all in all,not happy.Everyone should be aware that changing any detail may mean a huge raise in premium,even though you have a saved quote you cannot revert to it.Hope this makes some sense and saves someone else doing the same.
Thank you Autotrader for your help not!:mad:

mrsgrlfc

Thank you so much - renewal came in with budget at £251.54 and did all your list of tricks. Got it for £109.45 with an additional £38.25 cashback (from one of the cashback sites) with Kwikfit. (It also includes all legal protection, NCD protection, courtesy car etc). :T You are a legend Martin!