Direct Line car renewal with 1 years NCB

marky9074

Daughter insured her Fiat 500 Lounge last year for £449 (no black box) with Direct Line after passing her test, and the renewal this year was £750. She contacted them numerous times to ask why her premium had gone up by so much. Appreciate that the old school 30% discount for 1 years NCD is unlikely, and that in general, insurance has gone up by 10 to 20% this year.

However, when calling they kept stating that 'there was no discount on the system...'. Before we renewed she made a complaint, asking for a breakdown of her NCD to which a reply of insurance waffle was received, stating that the risk was assessed, blah blah... Surely after a year of no accidents and allegedly 1 years NCD the risk is lower....

Unfortunately, the Direct Line renewal quotation was still the most competitive, so she has stayed with them, but I would still like them to justify why the premium has gone up by so much. Any advice on whether we should keep challenging this?

marky9074

This was the response, that did not answer her question/complaint in any way shape or form...

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Thanks for getting in touch about your car insurance. 

To explain in more detail about the premium itself, its calculated by way of a comprehensive risk assessment, which takes into account a number of factors. This, in turn, will then set the premium according to the perceived risk offered by the policyholder and their particular circumstances. This practice isn't unique to our company as this risk assessment operates extensively throughout the insurance industry.

Whilst there remains a limit to the information I can provide in terms of the calculation of the premium we asked for your renewal, I can confirm we use a number of rating factors to determine the risk we're presented with and these include; the age of the vehicle, the drivers age, claims affecting the make and model of the vehicle, the experience driving a particular make and model, amongst others.

I'm unable to share the exact calculations for the premium we requested for your renewal, as they remain business sensitive.

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Aretnap

Unless you can point to a clear mistake that Direct Line have made (like not actually crediting her with a year's NCD when she is due one) then you're not going to get anywhere with this I'm afraid. After a complaint to the company your next move would be the Financial Ombudsman Service - but the FOS take the view that pricing is a commercial decision for the insurer to make and not something for them to get involved with. It's a competitive market where the insurer offers the customer a price and don't have to justify the price they offer - the customer is free to accept it or to take their business elsewhere. 

£449 is VERY cheap for a newly qualified driver so perhaps your daughter got lucky last year and was undercharged, and the insurer has corrected their error this year. Or perhaps Direct Line realised that they were charging well below their competitors for drivers of her profile and decided that they could afford to increase their price - ultimately if she couldn't find any insurer willing to offer her a cheaper quote then Direct Line are still obviously quoting her below the market rate.

chrisw

The renewal notice will state how many years NCD she is being credited with. If it says zero, then there is likely an error if she hasn't made any claims. However, if it says 1 year, then the premium will be the market price.

As above, £449 sounds unbelievably cheap, £750 sounds reasonable for a young driver with 1 year NCD.

Altior

the Direct Line renewal quotation was still the most competitive

You answered your own query really. The essence of your complaint is that they are the cheapest on the market, but you want it even cheaper...

The benchmark is what the market is offering now, not what the best available was a year ago. 

user1977

She should complain about them undercharging her last year.

Aretnap

Indeed. £449 is only a few tens of pounds more than I pay as a fortysomething, professional, driver of 25 years with full NCD. The real mystery is how she found such cheap insurance last year, not why she can't find it so cheaply again this year.

Smithcom

marky9074 said:

Daughter insured her Fiat 500 Lounge last year for £449 (no black box) with Direct Line after passing her test, and the renewal this year was £750. She contacted them numerous times to ask why her premium had gone up by so much. Appreciate that the old school 30% discount for 1 years NCD is unlikely, and that in general, insurance has gone up by 10 to 20% this year.

However, when calling they kept stating that 'there was no discount on the system...'. Before we renewed she made a complaint, asking for a breakdown of her NCD to which a reply of insurance waffle was received, stating that the risk was assessed, blah blah... Surely after a year of no accidents and allegedly 1 years NCD the risk is lower....

Unfortunately, the Direct Line renewal quotation was still the most competitive, so she has stayed with them, but I would still like them to justify why the premium has gone up by so much. Any advice on whether we should keep challenging this?

It's never great for prices to rise, particularly after a successfully claim-free year.

I'm trying to understand the call that you had with them, and I must say I am struggling.   What discount are they/you referring to?  Presumably, you have 1 years No Claims Discount (NCD) applied, so I can only imagine that you/they were at cross-purposes.   If you have achieved 1 years NCD, then the appropriate 1 years NCD should have been applied, which it sounds like it has.

You don't say how old your daughter is, but your premium sounds pretty low for a younger driver with 1 years NCD, so perhaps, even with the increase, the premium is still good?   Which seems to have been proven by your investigations.

Moreover, surely the goal is to achieve an affordable and competitive premium.   If the premium was £1,000 and only increased by 5%, surely that's worse than £449 that has increased by 30%?  

And yes, 10-20% may be an average increase range, but I'm sure that you appreciate how averages work, that some will be below, some above.

And from the insurer's perspective, I'm not asking anyone to feel sorry for them, but claims inflation is through the roof at the moment, and the repair market is all over the place with supply chain problems, repairer issues etc.

I'm not sure how much justification you are expecting re premium increase.   They calculate the premium to be £449+30% based on their assessment of the risk.   That's their premium.   If that doesn't work for you, move to another insurer.

Good luck to you

SC

Grey_Critic

Direct line has just bumped our renewal up by £300 - not had any claims and have over 20 years NCD

To use a phrase from the News of the World. We made our excuses and Left

wongataa

marky9074 said:

but I would still like them to justify why the premium has gone up by so much. Any advice on whether we should keep challenging this?

The call centre staff will have no idea how premiums are calculated and will not know the reasons.  You won't be able to contact the underwriters who calculate the premiums to ask them either.  All you can do is accept the premium if you think it is competitive or go elsewhere if you can get a better deal somewhere else.

Smithcom

Grey_Critic said:

Direct line has just bumped our renewal up by £300 - not had any claims and have over 20 years NCD

To use a phrase from the News of the World. We made our excuses and Left

 Well done.   Not every insurer will be competitive all of the time, regardless of your period of claim-free driving.  

We have a number of insurers in the UK, and each will have their own view of how to be profitable within their desired market segment.


SC