are multi-car insurance cover really cheaper - don't think so

copierboy

My insurance policy for my mine and my wife's car was due for renewal recently.
This was with Admiral insurance and the renewal had rising from £1594 per year to just over £2400. a rise of over £800.
a 33% with the cars a year older so the values had reduced, points had gone past the live dates, and an accident had left the 5 year window.
when we called to try to get a reduction they offered £219 off but couldn't expalin why the hike.

next step was the comparison sites - multi car options still over £2k.
then we looked at splitting the cars to separate policies. WOW what a difference
Wife's car was £477 (Tesco Bank) and mine was £910 (Churchills friend Darwin). Total £1387 saving £207 against current, and over £600 against renewal .

don't think the multi car policies are going to automatically be cheaper, Shop around and split them up.

DE_612183

Thats good advice - I can see that from the insurers point of view multi-car should save them money, but it also leads to laziness from the insured party.

It's enough faff to go to the sites for one car, never mind two and then two sets of documents etc - they will play on this especially at renewal time.   

mgfvvc

I always get individual quotes and then compare against the multicar. Last year, individually, LV= were cheapest for one car, but not the other. Once I added the multicar discount they were cheapest overall.

DullGreyGuy

Most are not true multi-car policies but really multi-policy discounts.

They can be cheaper or they can be more expensive, its really variable and can change year on year.  From an insurers perspective, if they can harmonise renewal dates it means more time and effort has to be spent at the same time which means more likely people cant be bothered and so retention rates go up.

dunstonh

a 33% with the cars a year older so the values had reduced, 

Except used car values have been rising and its not all about your car. What about cars you hit in your accident?
Repairs are more expensive due to a shortage in parts resulting in more cars being written off than repaired, which increases the claims.

when we called to try to get a reduction they offered £219 off but couldn't expalin why the hike.

Did you really expect a call centre worker to understand the pricing models?    If they could do that, then they would not be a call centre worker.

If you haven't been with them for many years, you may have had early year discounting in the previous years which you no longer get. 

don't think the multi car policies are going to automatically be cheaper, Shop around and split them up.

To be honest, I never thought they were.  However, I can see how some of the marketing could make you think that way.

copierboy

i've read the messages above , and thank you all for taking the time to read and reply.

the biggest P*** take is/was that when i used the comparison sites, Admiral were close to the current costs. we all know that new business attracts more discount, but i thought there was an agreement that new and existing customers got the same

DullGreyGuy

copierboy said:

the biggest P*** take is/was that when i used the comparison sites, Admiral were close to the current costs. we all know that new business attracts more discount, but i thought there was an agreement that new and existing customers got the same

They have to be the same or lower if its the same product, same sales channel (which does differentiate web and comparison sites) etc are all the same.

If you phoned up last year to negotiate the price down it may be its recorded as a telephone sale and as such your renewal would have to be the same or less than a telephone quote would be which can be higher than a comparison site quote. 

YorkshireTraveller

We have just gone through the annual process of shopping around for our car insurance.  Used the comparison sites and direct with Direct Line.  Also checked direct with LV (we had been insured with them in the past) - they had not come up on any of the cost comparison sites.  The multicar policy with LV saved us nearly £150 rather than going for the cheapest separate quotes.  Also included 180 days of European cover for which we would have had to pay extra for with the individual quotes.  As always it pays to shop around.