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How to get out of this car insurance renewal nightmare

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  • As to the original question... have you just done a single quote with one renewal date and then X weeks later done another quote with a different start date? Or did you do multiple quotes? Insurers are concerned about "rate raiding" (the very idea you suggested) and also fraud and so typically if someone does lots of quotes tweaking different elements (eg job title) then they often see prices escalate and insurers stopping offering quotes.
    Thank you for your insight, it's certainly interesting.

    Yes, I did multiple quotes over multiple days and to a degree I played around with job titles. I did however do this *after* my initial reasonable price comparison quote was unavailable 48hrs later. How does one go about get the best deal without doing multiple quotes? A system which penalises those who search hardest to get the best deal does seem pretty rigged to me.

    TBH, I am not even the worst kind of person for this stuff. I really don't want to spend my time running comparison quotes to save another £30 here or there. Indeed, if my original insurer had just quoted me the same as last year, or even a slight increase, I'd have probably just renewed as my time honestly isn't worth it to save small amounts. Unfortunately, if they're going to double it, I have no choice but to search for a better deal. Additionally, had that very first price I was quoted (£800) been available to me just 48hrs later, I would have taken it there and then.

    So I guess what we're saying is we have a system that's pushed me down a path, then penalised me for going down that path. All I want from here is a way out. Hell, I'll even pay £200 more than last year (a 25% increase) here and now if one of these insurers would just quote me along those lines. Accepting a £400-500 increase right now because I made a mistake by looking for a better deal than a 100% increase does not feel even remotely fair or reasonable.
  • mgfvvc said:
    SprostonGreenHead said:

    It would appear to me that esure have shared my renewal price at cancellation and now I can’t get anything like a reasonable deal. I also now have my current policy expiring on 14th Nov, so I need to sort it before then. Every day since this, I’ve been renewing the profe comparison site quotes, and they remain ridiculously high.


     Insurers are concerned about "rate raiding" (the very idea you suggested) and also fraud and so typically if someone does lots of quotes tweaking different elements (eg job title) then they often see prices escalate and insurers stopping offering quotes.
    It seems that running too many quotes could be the issue here?
    Maybe abstain from the comparison sites for a week?
    When returning to quotes perhaps you should start with some of the companies that aren't on the comparison sites and won't already have seen multiple quotes from you?

    Yea, this is my current plan, more-or-less. I'm even thinking about letting the insurance lapse and doing without that car for a week or so. I have another car I can use for some things, but it's a 2 seater sports car and no use whatsoever for transporting my 5 month twins around. The insurance for that one is due too, but the current insurer has given me a quote with £100 discount (25%) on last year's price, so I won't even bother looking for a better deal as I'm happy with that.
  • mgfvvc said:
    It seems that running too many quotes could be the issue here?
    Maybe abstain from the comparison sites for a week?
    When returning to quotes perhaps you should start with some of the companies that aren't on the comparison sites and won't already have seen multiple quotes from you?
    Possibly, though if its 2 quotes a few weeks apart that would be unlikely... if they've been tweaking then more likely. If it is an issue of trigger counter-fraud measures you are likely to need to wait a lot longer than a week for the insurers to forget. 30 days since the last quote used to be the recommendation but a poster here a few weeks ago said they were at 45 days since doing a ton of quotes and still most were refusing to quote or giving silly prices.
    I certainly did some tweaking, mostly around job titles, but also around a named driver (my Mrs who is on a provisional). Actually in the past, adding her as a named driver has generally reduced the premium, but I wanted to see if the effect of that had been reversed. I also think getting a baseline quote with me as a single driver is a better starting point for comparing multiple quotes.
  • 400ixl
    400ixl Posts: 4,482 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Third Anniversary Name Dropper
    Try some of the insurers that do not respond to the comparison sites such as Aviva and Direct Line. They will not have been influenced by multiple quotes. You then have brokers such as Peter Best, Chris Knott, Adrian Flux who also may be able to help find a lower quote.

    @DullGreyGuy yes it is far more than actuarial, but i didn't feel the need to go much deeper of an explanation.
  • DullGreyGuy
    DullGreyGuy Posts: 18,613 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    400ixl said:
    Try some of the insurers that do not respond to the comparison sites such as Aviva and Direct Line. 
    This is where you get into the semantics of what an "insurer" is.... Direct Line and Churchill are both brands of the insurance company UK Insurance. Churchill appears on the aggregators and Direct Line doesnt. Aviva would be in a similar position. 

    I dont know how Direct Line Group, the parent of UK Insurance, organises itself these days but it used to be product centric outside of Marketing and so the same committee deciding the pricing changes for DL and Ch. You phone the Motor claims department and the same person does Direct Line and Privilege and just their phone tells them which salutation to use.

    Certainly UK Insurance could make the same decision on a person irrespective of which brand and channel the customer approaches them on. Back in my day of consumer insurance the challenge of doing it was the capacity for the rating engine to deal with the volume of concurrent quotes and so actually there were 4 instances with agregators being on their own but I'd hope with the improvements in technology that wouldnt be necessary any more
  • 400ixl said:
    Try some of the insurers that do not respond to the comparison sites such as Aviva and Direct Line. They will not have been influenced by multiple quotes. You then have brokers such as Peter Best, Chris Knott, Adrian Flux who also may be able to help find a lower quote.

    @DullGreyGuy yes it is far more than actuarial, but i didn't feel the need to go much deeper of an explanation.
    Thanks, will do. Broker sounds like a good shout to be honest, I've nothing to lose by engaging with them anyway.

    I actually tried Aviva multicar, because my sports car is insured with Aviva (under a single car policy). They've offered me £525 to renew the single sports car with them (which I'm likely to take unless I need to use it as a bargaining chip to get this other quote down). When I do a multicar quote with them, the sports car quote jumps to £750, and they want £1500 to insure the E-class estate, so £2250 for the year vs the £1550 for both last year.

    I'm cursed!
  • I work for an insurer and honestly the pricing is done so much behind the scenes that even experienced staff have no insight lol. There are factors that influence it of course eg mileage, age, driving experience, but if none of these have changed there's no way for normal advisors to know what has changed. No one shares prices on cancellation however as the rates change daily and especially if rates are going up overall some insurers may increase to avoid attracting too much business due to being priced very cheaply in the market. If you've since taken out any credit that will be listed on experian also bear in mind a lot of insurers now use experian reporting.
  • baser999
    baser999 Posts: 1,242 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Past few years I’ve managed to get a decent deal with Admiral for combined motor and home insurance. I’ve found that at renewal having the combined policy has given that little bit of leverage by saying that I’ve been quoted cheaper by taking separate policies elsewhere.
  • diystarter7
    diystarter7 Posts: 5,202 Forumite
    1,000 Posts First Anniversary Name Dropper
    OP. Please feel free to ignore but have you looked at selling your car and possibly getting a Ford Fiesta/Ka etc low on insurance and running costs. Then in a few years time with your NCB etc, etc get the car more to your liking.

  • OP. Please feel free to ignore but have you looked at selling your car and possibly getting a Ford Fiesta/Ka etc low on insurance and running costs. Then in a few years time with your NCB etc, etc get the car more to your liking.

    Not really an option tbh. I only bought it in May, and I need a car of this size for transporting two kids and their "stuff". Initial quotes for other cars along the same lines were similarly priced.

    In the end, I've took the hit of £1150 for a year's insurance. Once these price comparison sites start giving me reasonable quotes again (£800), I will cancel and switch.
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