Cheap car insurance needed!

AdrianC

theshed said:

And again with the older driver, my Dad is now 83, not had a claim for at least 40 years yet his insurance is going up.
I occasionally go out for a drive with him. I find he is a safe driver but you can see the decline from when he was younger.

Which just goes to show that "how long since a claim" really is not the be-all-and-end-all of it...

cymruchris

theshed said:

And again with the older driver, my Dad is now 83, not had a claim for at least 40 years yet his insurance is going up.

Why do you think this might be happening?

It's likely because as we get older (and I mean 80 plus) our reaction times in the main become slower, and the likelihood of bumps increases. Many people don't want to give up driving, even when they should - and some (not all!) very elderly drivers can be a menace on the roads. I remember my grandfather in his 80's being stopped by the police at 4am in the morning driving on the wrong side of the road completely lost. He should have stopped driving years before - but wouldn't entertain it. 80+ as a group of drivers is significantly higher risk even though the mileages might be much lower. That's likely the reason that as each year passes now, his insurance will continue to climb, no matter his level of NCD and claim-free years.

theshed

theshed said:

And again with the older driver, my Dad is now 83, not had a claim for at least 40 years yet his insurance is going up.

Why do you think this might be happening?
Maybe decline was not the right word.  He used to drive for a living and perhaps was less cautious then ?
He now will stop at a 50/50 junction whereas in the past he would have been gone !
To be honest I feel safer in a car with him than with my wife.

cymruchris

theshed said:

theshed said:

And again with the older driver, my Dad is now 83, not had a claim for at least 40 years yet his insurance is going up.

Why do you think this might be happening?
Maybe decline was not the right word.  He used to drive for a living and perhaps was less cautious then ?
He now will stop at a 50/50 junction whereas in the past he would have been gone !
To be honest I feel safer in a car with him than with my wife.

Which can easily be said for high risk young drivers too - there will be very careful 17-21 year olds that don't have an accident, drive safely, follow the letter of the law, but they happen to be in a group that gets risk profiled to a significantly high level. As much as your dad is a 'safe' driver - he's now in the group where lots of minor knocks happen (and a few major ones) that the insurance companies build into their quotes. They don't price insurance on one person alone - they price it across a range of factors including age group and likelihood of a claim. So safe as he is, those premiums will likely continue to rise. Doesn't stop him shopping around for a better deal though if one's available.

theshed

I think that is part of the problem. Despite their calculations and algorithms it really is just an average.
With my Dads policy I shop round for him as he does not have computer. 
Last year his premium went up from £350 to £457. I shopped round and got it back to £350 so contacted the current insurer who dropped price to £294 !
If they had given a renewal of £350 he would have been happy with that. Why do insurers insist on trying to squeeze every last penny ?

AdrianC

theshed said:

Why do insurers insist on trying to squeeze every last penny ?

Because the lazy auto-renewers subsidise the smart shop-arounders.

If they gave competitive auto-renewal prices, everybody else's would go up.

theshed

Fair Point. Long live the Auto-renewers !  

CPPLUS26

Try admiral if you have other cars at the property, they saving is actual quite a lot. 

theshed

Thanks, I did try Admiral as we do have a car insured through them but the second car added quite a bit more unfortunately.