Car Insurance Article Discussion

Ginger_Nut

Ankara wrote: »

I do find it quite naive of both Direct Line and Aviva to promote in their current advertisement campaigns that you won't find them on price comparison websites. This immediately sets the alarm bells ringing. Why? If their car insurance prices were that competitive and that cheap, surely they would want to be featured on price comparison sites?

I got a quote for my car insurance on directline.com and was quoted over double the price of the best quote I got on confused.com.

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When I got my quotes from direct line, Aviva and CO-OP with just me on the policy with 12 yrs driving and 9 yrs ncb and the quote was £400 and on the price comparison site was £250 this year. :mad:

Linuxman

Just had a row with former insurer (large bank) over transfer of no-claims bonus. An example: When coming to them with say 15 years NCD, they will downgrade this to their maximum 9 Years. Upon leaving, they will NOT reinstate the original NCD, nor will they add on the one year or more you've had with them. So you lose when you go in with them, and you lose when you leave them because whatever your historic NCD, they will only issue 9 years NCD with your new insurer.

Now this might not matter to the overwhelming majority of quotes, but when I searched for my last car insurance quote in November, at least 2 companies said they would take more than the 9 Years NCD if officially available - and hence a financial reduction in premium.

The Govt needs to tie this up so any NCD and/or non-accident record follow the insured and not the insurer.

I don't like this industry. We can't make one single genuine administrative error lest we invalidate our policies, yet the Insurance industry can simply create its own rules seemingly ad hoc.

spark_deals

Linuxman wrote: »

Just had a row with former insurer (large bank) over transfer of no-claims bonus. An example: When coming to them with say 15 years NCD, they will downgrade this to their maximum 9 Years. Upon leaving, they will NOT reinstate the original NCD, nor will they add on the one year or more you've had with them. So you lose when you go in with them, and you lose when you leave them because whatever your historic NCD, they will only issue 9 years NCD with your new insurer.

Now this might not matter to the overwhelming majority of quotes, but when I searched for my last car insurance quote in November, at least 2 companies said they would take more than the 9 Years NCD if officially available - and hence a financial reduction in premium.

The Govt needs to tie this up so any NCD and/or non-accident record follow the insured and not the insurer.

I don't like this industry. We can't make one single genuine administrative error lest we invalidate our policies, yet the Insurance industry can simply create its own rules seemingly ad hoc.

Me thinks the way around here is:-
Do not post your latest renewal notice. Ask them to confirm of NCD directly with your insurer. Next year, use the notice as you can (i think) keep the NCDs for 2 years if you do not insure.
HTH

charlieheard

Ankara wrote: »

I do find it quite naive of both Direct Line and Aviva to promote in their current advertisement campaigns that you won't find them on price comparison websites. This immediately sets the alarm bells ringing. Why? If their car insurance prices were that competitive and that cheap, surely they would want to be featured on price comparison sites?

I got a quote for my car insurance on directline.com and was quoted over double the price of the best quote I got on confused.com.

Then again, I insured with Aviva as it was significantly cheaper than any of the known names, admittedly when using Quidco. Which reminds me - they still haven't paid me after 4 months!

Linuxman

spark_deals wrote: »

Me thinks the way around here is:-
Do not post your latest renewal notice. Ask them to confirm of NCD directly with your insurer. Next year, use the notice as you can (i think) keep the NCDs for 2 years if you do not insure.
HTH

I'm not worried about this personally because I shall be writing to the relevant ministry and officialdom in order to have a good moan, but I do wonder why an industry is allowed to steal NCDs in this, the 21st Century. The excuse I got over the phone yesterday (they won't put anything contentious in writing), is that some companies restrict to 5 Years NCD. "So what?", I stated, "What have the failings of other companies got to do with YOUR own sharp practice?"

Of course I got no response.

cat16966

I am looking for some help and advice.

My partner had the misfortune of losing half of his weekly working hours recently. We therefore could not afford to run two cars and had to sell one of them.

When cancelling the policy Aviva slapped us with a large fee. This included a policy cancellation fee (as described in their T&C) and also a fee for the full cost of the legal services cover (£24.99 when we were only 2 months into the policy).

I am currently challenging this with Aviva who advise me that insurance companies have to pay the full fee up front to the legal services company!! Is this right? Has anyone else had this problem?

Their T&C states that no refund of additional options can be made - but we are not asking for a refund - we chose the pay monthly option so have not paid in advance for this service option (althought we do get hit with a hefty APR).

Any comment grealtfully received.

DC

Ginger_Nut

Ginger_Nut wrote: »

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When I got my quotes from direct line, Aviva and CO-OP with just me on the policy with 12 yrs driving and 9 yrs ncb and the quote was £400 and on the price comparison site was £250 this year. :mad:

UPDATE:
Just brought this years insurance it was 280 some thing and I was able to get the hubby on the insurance whilst on his provisonal.:D:p

Wasn't to bad a price.

I noticed that when it came to buying the policy that they wanted to charge me 2.5% for paying by credit card which I thought was a bit off.

Why do they do this as I don't remember paying an admin fee last year.

dogbot

Their T&C states that no refund of additional options can be made - but we are not asking for a refund - we chose the pay monthly option so have not paid in advance for this service option (althought we do get hit with a hefty APR).

Sorry, but you are mistaken. You HAVE paid for the full annual premium up front and are paying this off by installment ON CREDIT (hence an APR interest rate). The credit agreement is a seperate thing.


As their policy clearly states, you are not entitled to a refund of any optional extras, and are only entitled to what is effectively a pro-rata refund of the remaining annual premium, though this also takes into account that the costs of transacting/setting up the policy is a major part so you don't get 10 months of premium back. There is then the cancelation charge. Then there is the fact you have bought the policy on credit, so there may still be something to pay.

Yes the legal expnses premium usualy goes direct to the legal expenses insurer.

Neverabargain

I actually work for an insurance company and am somewhat disgusted about the promise of the cashback scheme on policies. We receive a number of complaints from past and present clients who have had to wait months to receive the miserly sum of £25.00 (for example). What people are failing to notice is the massive amounts of interest generated by the insurance company pooling all this dead money together and promising the cashback somewhere along the line 3 months, 6 months, who knows. I would also like to add that people when using price comparison sites fail to put the correct information on the site thus causing a fee through not reading the small print. People really need to be wise up to the fact of excesses too its all very well paying 96p fully comp but what are you really getting for your money £500.00 excess on a car worth peanuts??????

As my insurance is due for renewal soon could somebody provide me with a snappy cashback service from their present insurer. And before you ask NO my policy is not cheaper with my current insurer (disgraceful).

Madasacat

Can anyone help with tips for reducing the cost of insurance for a 17 year old. The car is in my name with him being a named driver. The quote I have so far is just under £1000.00