Car Insurance Cartel, or Rip Off Britain at its Best?

MikeJXE

Oops my mistake I didn't notice the red line

I will suck it up forever then, no point complaining about something I can do nothing about other than maybe downsizing 

DullGreyGuy

MikeJXE said:

dunstonh said:

Sorry, that was just a whine, really but the age group most likely to have an accident on our roads today is the 17-25 year old one*. Not those of us in the sensible septuagenarian plus group. *That is, according to those traffic cop shows that I appear to be addicted to now. . . 

The ABI data is more reliable as it uses real claims data.  The cost to insurers jumps in the age 76-80 band.  


2021:

So looking at the chart I'm going to have to suck it up for the next 7 years before my premiums come down. 

How does that work, is it because there are less drivers over 90 or do we become better drivers ? 

You will see the frequency is flat but the value reduces... would suggest that as you get older you do less driving on motorways and other high speed roads which see higher claims values.

The above is also simply claims per year and doesnt factor in mileage which again tends to go down with age as you're no longer commuting, family more often come to you now etc.

dcweather

I can assure you it is an unofficial cartel and a ripoff and I have some evidence of that. My premiums have been drifting up at age 74 last time but still a reasonable (compared to some) £430 p.a for a brand new smallish hybrid SUV. But last month my wife had her first ever claim after driving low mileages for 50 years. Even then she just hit a motorway style barrier in a spiral multi storey car park. As it damaged the door substantially we decided to do it through her Tesco insurance. This was all very straightforward and we were relieved when it was not written off. This is wear the rub comes. The approved repairer pointed out on the schedule and it was basically the door and the wheel arch. Then I get a phone call saying it will be with them for at least a month as they cannot get the new Alloy wheel from Toyota. I said that the wheel wasn't on the schedule and it already had the scratch on it (It's ten years old, all the wheels have dents and scratches!). His reply was "that's okay sir, we like to give the best possible service to our customer so our engineer has negotiated a new wheel for you on the grounds that it was more damaged than we noticed in the photos". I said it doesn't need a new wheel. He replied - "it's ok Sir, it's the game we all play, win/win". I exploded a bit and said - so the win is you make more profit on the new wheel and we all pay higher insurance premiums to cover the cost of the unneccessary wheel. I call that win/lose. He went a bit quiet!
But I have heard this a lot recently - cars going in for very minor damage and being quoted thousands if it is through insurance.
The recent inflation thing is the easy response to con fools. Yes it may be 20% but each person in the chain pays 20% so it is still just 20% for the end user, not additive. It is an excuse to double prices.

DullGreyGuy

dcweather said:

I can assure you it is an unofficial cartel and a ripoff and I have some evidence of that. My premiums have been drifting up at age 74 last time but still a reasonable (compared to some) £430 p.a for a brand new smallish hybrid SUV. But last month my wife had her first ever claim after driving low mileages for 50 years. Even then she just hit a motorway style barrier in a spiral multi storey car park. As it damaged the door substantially we decided to do it through her Tesco insurance. This was all very straightforward and we were relieved when it was not written off. This is wear the rub comes. The approved repairer pointed out on the schedule and it was basically the door and the wheel arch. Then I get a phone call saying it will be with them for at least a month as they cannot get the new Alloy wheel from Toyota. I said that the wheel wasn't on the schedule and it already had the scratch on it (It's ten years old, all the wheels have dents and scratches!). His reply was "that's okay sir, we like to give the best possible service to our customer so our engineer has negotiated a new wheel for you on the grounds that it was more damaged than we noticed in the photos". I said it doesn't need a new wheel. He replied - "it's ok Sir, it's the game we all play, win/win". I exploded a bit and said - so the win is you make more profit on the new wheel and we all pay higher insurance premiums to cover the cost of the unneccessary wheel. I call that win/lose. He went a bit quiet!
But I have heard this a lot recently - cars going in for very minor damage and being quoted thousands if it is through insurance.
The recent inflation thing is the easy response to con fools. Yes it may be 20% but each person in the chain pays 20% so it is still just 20% for the end user, not additive. It is an excuse to double prices.

So the "cartel" you are alleging is the garages who have conned Tesco out of paying for an extra wheel for you?  I'm assuming you are saying it's the garage that phoned you. 

Very different from the original post that said insurers were in a cartel together