Car insurance - strange refusal

Shanker

My problem may well have been reported in a previous thread that is now closed to contributors.

I traded my faithfull 8 year old Skoda Yeti in for a brand new Skoda Karoq 1.5 TSi SE L.  I picked it up 1 September 2022.

I approached my insurer, (RIAS), who had covered me for over 10 years.  I stayed with them because the cost did not increase appreciably from year to year, in fact some years it actually decreased.  Happy days!

They weren't as accessible due to COVID and the dreaded WFH but eventually after prolonged calls and being placed on hold they stated they couldn't offer a policy because my new car was over £30,000.  I couldn't believe my ears!  My immediate comment was exactly how much business were they going to turn away with the increase in ownership of electric and hybrid vehicles!

They said, "we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it".  I replied that to the bridge had already been reached.

I had no choice but to go further afield and ended up with Direct Line at a very competitive rate which was on a par with what I had been paying on the 8 year old Yeti.

I am now a year later on and the battle lines are drawn again!  Direct Line have sent me the renewal and straight off quoted a 60% increase!

The cost had gone from £190 to £304, (rounded).

I was straight on the phone.  They could only reduce it by just over £50.  So I stopped the automatic renewal process to give me a chance of trawling the insurance market for something better.  What a waste of time and effort.  It's quite obvious that the insurance industry is a cartel.

Getting a substantial reduction and getting closer to under £200 is proving extremely difficult.

Then I had the idea of returning to RIAS.  I went through the whole palaver yet again.  At the end of it I experienced deja vu yet again.  They couldn't cover me.  The reason, (or excuse) - my car hasn't got enough information on their database.  Strange.  Not the cost this time because the £30,000 has inevitably reduced by depreciation.

Strange also because so far RIAS are the only insurer I cannot get a quote from of any description, so how can it be a database problem as they all pretty much access the same information.

So I'm faced with having to trawl through comparison sites and suffer the indignity of being inundated with emails and phone calls for eternity.

The refusal goes largely unexplained which I am extremely disappointed in.  It's a Little Britain scenario where, "the computer says no".

The other strange thing is that RIAS are underwritten by Ageas.  Several of the companies on all the comparison sites are also underwritten by Ageas and they have had no problems offering quotes and policies, so what the hell is going on?

Has anyone else had this problem or is it just me?

redped

Shanker said:
The cost had gone from £190 to £304, (rounded).

I was straight on the phone.  They could only reduce it by just over £50

So your insurance has gone up from £190 to around £250 - given there have been various reports of insurance premiums rising this year, I suspect a lot of people would be happy to be paying £250 for their insurance.

Shanker said:

So I'm faced with having to trawl through comparison sites and suffer the indignity of being inundated with emails and phone calls for eternity.

"Indignity" and "eternity" - talk about making a mountain out of a molehill!

#firstworldproblems

Money_Grabber13579

redped said:

Shanker said:
The cost had gone from £190 to £304, (rounded).

I was straight on the phone.  They could only reduce it by just over £50

So your insurance has gone up from £190 to around £250 - given there have been various reports of insurance premiums rising this year, I suspect a lot of people would be happy to be paying £250 for their insurance.

Shanker said:

So I'm faced with having to trawl through comparison sites and suffer the indignity of being inundated with emails and phone calls for eternity.

"Indignity" and "eternity" - talk about making a mountain out of a molehill!

#firstworldproblems

Yep, I would be delighted if my insurance was only £250. In 13 years of paying for insurance, it’s never been less than £500, last year was the cheapest ever but this year, the quotes are coming back at £800 (and all that is with no claims to date).

friolento

Shanker said:

 

So I'm faced with having to trawl through comparison sites and suffer the indignity of being inundated with emails and phone calls for eternity.

 

Next time you use a comparison site, you could first set up a disposable email account, and use a fantasy phone number. That way you can easily ignore the unwanted emails and you won‘t get any phonecalls.

More tips about insurances on the Insurance forum (you are on the Saving and Investment forum atm) https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/insurance-life-assurance

PixelPound

Wheres_My_Cashback said:

And this has exactly what to do with savings and investments ??

Maybe posted in the right place will bring a better response.

The original thread was closed, so now spamming on unrelated boards. 

400ixl

On the comparison sites you just untick the box which says that you allow the 3rd parties to call you. Then you will only get one email from the comparison site giving you the top quotes and no calls.

You will then get a reminder email from them in a year with some new quotes but thats not a bad thing as you should be doing the re-comparison every year anyway.

Reports are coming out from various motoring bodies, insurance analysts etc that this years premiums on average are 21-30% higher than last year, so it is affecting everyone.

As for being declined by RIAS, you clearly no longer meet the profile they want to insure. The person you spoke to will not necessarily know the reason why the system has decided it does not want to quote you so has told you something to get you off the line so they can get onto another call to meet their metrics for the day. It is the Little Britain scenario in many cases, the operator does not know the exact reason that the computer says no. Its not personal from the call centre handlers point of view.

Bottom line is RIAS does not want your business for whatever reason. Move on.

As for Insurers being in a Cartel, that is utter rubbish, they are in a highly competitive market where they are trying to keep the price of the policy as low as possible (for the demographic they want to insure) which trying to keep the costs going out for claims to a minimum to allow them to do the former.

Scouring the market for the best deal you can get is the only answer. If you don't like doing it yourself, engage an insurance broker to do it on your behalf. Their fee will be baked into the prices you get which may or may not be lower than you can get yourself.

facade

Insurers are not in a Cartel, Cartels are illegal in the UK.

However, like petrol stations and supermarkets, everyone simply keeping an eye on the competition and increasing their own prices to match them (and therefore maximise profits whilst maintaining market share) is not illegal (like the "pricematched to Aldi" stickers in Tesco just mean that prices go up together!) - it is having an agreement to do this, rather than it being common sense that makes it a Cartel.

Shanker

nic_c said:

Wheres_My_Cashback said:

And this has exactly what to do with savings and investments ??

Maybe posted in the right place will bring a better response.

The original thread was closed, so now spamming on unrelated boards. 

The previous expired post was posted in this area.  That's the reason why I placed it here.

Shanker

Lot of aggression on here.

Maybe some people are used to paying high premiums.  I'm not.

I've had a clean license and zero accidents in over 50 years.  I see no reason why I should pay for poorer drivers who should be penalised accordingly.

I have been searching and I have managed to lower the increase to 19%, which is a lot better than the outset figure of 60% from Direct Line.

I just cannot see how they equate even 19% to the rise in the cost of living.  I know there have been increases but my cost of living hasn't gone up anywhere near a 5th.

All in all, now all these agents are WFH I cannot see why costs could not have been held or even lowered.  

tifo

Shanker said:

Maybe some people are used to paying high premiums.  I'm not.

I've had a clean license and zero accidents in over 50 years.  I see no reason why I should pay for poorer drivers who should be penalised accordingly. 

Not some people, a LOT of people are used to paying more than £190 for their car insurance, especially this year when all premiums have increased by an average of 40%.

Everyone pays for poorer drivers, that's how car insurance works. They're penalised and we all pay for the insurers losses.

DullGreyGuy

The average uk premium is now over £500
The majority of policyholders have maximum no claims bonus
The average person in the UK is 41 years old not 18

A premium of less than half the average is very good going, even back in my day of motor pricing no matter who you were or what you drove we simply didn't offer premiums under £200 as after paying acquisition costs that are fixed fee not proportional the residual premiums were too little to cover both operating costs, taxes and leave a sensible claims reserve.