Insurance hikes?

GadgetGuru

Paid £712 for my car insurance last year.
BMW X5 - 2019 model. Have a Ghost Immobilser installed, as well and front and rear dash cams (on top of teh vehicles own 360 cameras)

I have had no claims, no points/convictions, no house move, same car, no modifications, 17 years no claims - so no changes whatsoever.
Renewal came through at £1460!

Looking online, they are all mega expensive this year - I don't understand it! Even Tesco, who were generally quite cheap, quote me £2500!

Cheapest I've found is by a company called 'Boom' - not a company I've come across before, but quote me £886.
I generally go for a more well known insurer, but the next cheapest is around £1200, so I may have to go with this 'unknown to me' insurer for a year and keep my fingers crossed!

I was expecting a small increase due to inflation etc, but more then double?!

DullGreyGuy

Certainly above average at double but EY were predicting at least an average of 30% increases this year with most insurers still making an underwriting loss (as most did last year). 

Boom are an intermediary, the policy is written by Mulsanne Insurance Company, Gibraltar who are an unrated insurer. At least they are passing on the cost savings of being in a lower regulation jurisdiction than the UK

MikeJXE

 DullGreyGuy said:

IftiBashir said:

Paid £712 for my car insurance last year.
BMW X5 - 2019 model. Have a Ghost Immobilser installed, as well and front and rear dash cams (on top of teh vehicles own 360 cameras)

I have had no claims, no points/convictions, no house move, same car, no modifications, 17 years no claims - so no changes whatsoever.
Renewal came through at £1460!

Looking online, they are all mega expensive this year - I don't understand it! Even Tesco, who were generally quite cheap, quote me £2500!

Cheapest I've found is by a company called 'Boom' - not a company I've come across before, but quote me £886.
I generally go for a more well known insurer, but the next cheapest is around £1200, so I may have to go with this 'unknown to me' insurer for a year and keep my fingers crossed!

I was expecting a small increase due to inflation etc, but more then double?!

My Jaguar XE went up £200 to £800 with Flow at renewal but shopping around I couldn't get anything less than £1000 and some were over £2000 same situation as yourself

cymruchris

My Mercedes SLK350 went down this year from around £450 last year to £380 this year, so not all insurance is going up.

It could be a combination of factors working against you. As much as you have the immobiliser (and I gather they are very good units), you may find that your vehicle (and similar) have seen an upsurge in theft over the last year, it may also be that in your local area car theft in general has risen over the last year. If the average claim has gone up for your local demographics, your premium will too. The factors may be beyond your control.

Smithcom

IftiBashir said:

Paid £712 for my car insurance last year.
BMW X5 - 2019 model. Have a Ghost Immobilser installed, as well and front and rear dash cams (on top of teh vehicles own 360 cameras)

I have had no claims, no points/convictions, no house move, same car, no modifications, 17 years no claims - so no changes whatsoever.
Renewal came through at £1460!

Looking online, they are all mega expensive this year - I don't understand it! Even Tesco, who were generally quite cheap, quote me £2500!

Cheapest I've found is by a company called 'Boom' - not a company I've come across before, but quote me £886.
I generally go for a more well known insurer, but the next cheapest is around £1200, so I may have to go with this 'unknown to me' insurer for a year and keep my fingers crossed!

I was expecting a small increase due to inflation etc, but more then double?!

 Should be fine going with a 'non-mainstream' insurer, based offshore, that you have never heard of.   What's the worst that could happen?

dunstonh

Paid £712 for my car insurance last year.

Was that a renewal premium or first year premium?

If first year, then there was a good chance it had early year discounting.  That is now banned.  You generally find that those who had early year discounting are seeing big jumps as they are no longer getting that discount.

GadgetGuru

dunstonh said:

Paid £712 for my car insurance last year.

Was that a renewal premium or first year premium?

If first year, then there was a good chance it had early year discounting.  That is now banned.  You generally find that those who had early year discounting are seeing big jumps as they are no longer getting that discount.

It was the renewal price - been with then 2 years. 

As mentioned in first post, I have been quoted £886 from 'Boom' - but upon going through to the site to pay, a message pops up stating they cant offer me insurance on this vehicle!!!

Next cheapest is Esure Flex at £1250 - not sure what the difference is between Esure Flex and Esure itself?

DullGreyGuy

IftiBashir said:
Next cheapest is Esure Flex at £1250 - not sure what the difference is between Esure Flex and Esure itself?

And their website only has meaningless marketing spin rather than a real explanation of the differences.

Flex is a 3* product only sold via aggregators whereas Esure's standard product is a 5* product sold via multiple channels. There therefore will be some differences in levels of cover on the non-core items... so one easy spot difference is Esure has the normal token level of personal belongings covered whereas Flex doesnt. Additionally no telephone numbers for Flex whereas you can phone standard.

Personally would argue that makes it less flexible but I understand they are intending to allow you to customise the policy more in the future

GadgetGuru

DullGreyGuy said:

IftiBashir said:
Next cheapest is Esure Flex at £1250 - not sure what the difference is between Esure Flex and Esure itself?

And their website only has meaningless marketing spin rather than a real explanation of the differences.

Flex is a 3* product only sold via aggregators whereas Esure's standard product is a 5* product sold via multiple channels. There therefore will be some differences in levels of cover on the non-core items... so one easy spot difference is Esure has the normal token level of personal belongings covered whereas Flex doesnt. Additionally no telephone numbers for Flex whereas you can phone standard.

Personally would argue that makes it less flexible but I understand they are intending to allow you to customise the policy more in the future

Just spoke to Esure and the rep said she didn't know much about Flex as its a separate product, just that it was online only. So no call centre etc available. If she gets any questions from Flex customers her advised course of action is to refer people to their account on the website - so absolutely no phone support whatsoever. 
as you correctly state, I did notice the fewer defacto stars between the two as well.......

Managed to get slightly cheaper with Flex via an online comparison site - so my options now is whether to just renew with esure and hope the prices settle again next year, or go with Flex and save £230, but have potentially more agro in the event of any claim etc......

dunstonh

It was the renewal price - been with then 2 years. 

You may still have had early year discounting then.   Not as much as year 1 but often the discounting would go for 2-3 years phasing out.

As mentioned in first post, I have been quoted £886 from 'Boom' - but upon going through to the site to pay, a message pops up stating they cant offer me insurance on this vehicle!!!

They may have changed their target market or underwriting criteria.