AVIVA / QuoteMeHappy / Admiral

MoneySaver123

I have to get new car insurance as my current provider can’t insure my new car. Through my research on comparison sites, aviva, quotemehappy and admiral are the cheapest and similarly priced. 

Does anyone recommend one over another based on claims experience?

Also, if I’ve not completed a full year with my current insurer, will I effectively lose the 9 months NCD I’ve been building when I switch?

Peter999_2

I've been with Admiral once, had a claim and wasn't happy with the outcome - I had to jump through a lot of hoops.

I've been with Aviva for a few years and only had one claim which was settled and the car fixed very quickly so I'd always recommend them.   Also, with Aviva Plus you can pay monthly at no extra cost (a lot of companies seem to charge 5% extra to pay monthly).

Whichever you do choose, remember to go through topcashback as they currenly offer £35 for Aviva and £50 for Admiral.

MoneySaver123

Thanks very much! And about cashback. 

I have been with Aviva before but never claimed. Although I had a quick scan of their online reviews and they surprisingly look terrible compared to the others. But perhaps not an accurate reflection.

TELLIT01

A problem when comparing reviews is that people generally only post a review when they have a bad experience.  The larger the insurer, the more reviews they are likely to get.

MoneySaver123

I’d agree but Aviva have only 1.6k reviews compared to 25k for Quote me happy on TrustPilot. Anyway, I guess I’ll pick one and see how it goes!

MoneySaver123

Have just read that QMH are underwritten by Aviva......off to Aviva I go!

Dandytf

Aviva have been as good as expected past few years, online service if very high standard.
Though I've had to use their e-chat service past 2 years, as renewals have never really been dropping much, sometimes slightly higher.

dunstonh

I would not insure my car with Aviva.  Had a poor claims experience with them and avoided their general insurance products since.  

MoneySaver123

dunstonh said:

I would not insure my car with Aviva.  Had a poor claims experience with them and avoided their general insurance products since.  

What happened? Was it a very slow process?

dunstonh

MoneySaver123 said:

dunstonh said:

I would not insure my car with Aviva.  Had a poor claims experience with them and avoided their general insurance products since.  

What happened? Was it a very slow process?

I was rear ended whilst stationary and shoved into the car in front.   Aviva settled it as a fault claim for the front damage and reduced my NCB and wouldnt reinstate it when the claim was settled by the person that rear ended me.   The garage that they made us use was awful didnt fix the car correctly and they didnt care. 

Sandtree

dunstonh said:

MoneySaver123 said:

dunstonh said:

I would not insure my car with Aviva.  Had a poor claims experience with them and avoided their general insurance products since.  

What happened? Was it a very slow process?

I was rear ended whilst stationary and shoved into the car in front.   Aviva settled it as a fault claim for the front damage and reduced my NCB and wouldnt reinstate it when the claim was settled by the person that rear ended me.   

Shunts are difficult because the rear car will often claim you hit the car in front and then they hit you whereas you as the middle car often say they stopped short and were pushed into the car in front. Normally in these circumstances it all comes down to the statement of the lead car as they've no vested interest, as to if they recall feeling one bump (so a true shunt) or two (so the first scenario). Did Aviva say why they were holding you liable?

I was insured with Admiral for many years and would be again, made one fault claim whilst with them and it was handled reasonably. The two points of warning with Admiral is a) if you say you were in a non-fault accident they will pass you off to their sister company and push you to use credit hire and repairs rather than deal with you directly and b) they require that you declare ALL modifications to your vehicle including factory fitted optional extras (eg metallic paint, satnav, cruisecontrol etc) whereas most insurers only want to know about post construction changes. Took nearly an hour to go through all the optional extras my last car had and the agent to work out how to put things like "air scarf" into their options.

Quote Me Happy is not only underwritten by Aviva but is fully owned by them too (or was on last check)