Reassurance on Motor Insurance please

twopenny

I have a 24yr old car and my age is equivalent in human terms.

I've had an excessive quote from my previous insurers and refusal of two because of the age of the car - so I started on the comparison sites.

The best quote comes up as Tesco.

Saving of £150 on my renewal.

I've looked and they seem to be using well known underwriters/insurers etc but it's a thread of businesses to follow.

I was wondering is Tesco good/reliable to insure with? It's strange to this oldie to do something so important with what I associate with food.

The ones I've heard of otherwise come in at saving £70 for aparantly less. (Ageas, Coop,RAC etc)

I know it's a simple question but I no longer have friends to ask and my experience counts as nowt today so I'd be really grateful for help.

I need to contact whoever as well as I can't remember when the last claim was. It's over 10yrs, possibily to 20yrs so I need to get that straight with the insurer. I've never needed an exact date before

MikeJXE

I went with Tesco due to £200 saving 

High due to my age

I doubt I will know if they are any good unless I make a claim 

twopenny

Indeed Mike. That's the thing. But good to hear.

I've read the threads and most of the complaints seem to be because people haven't followed the requirements.

I did a call through to test and received pleasant and helpful response to my questions, quite clear.

They also are keeping their phone lines as well as online and will insure cars up to 25yrs and if they get older during payment of insurance (ongoing years) they will continue to insure.

Change of vehicle is free to do online (with the difference added) or £25 to do over the phone. So good choice which some don't offer.

Cheap Recovery if you want to add it and with popular recovery companies.

Can buy insurance over the phone is you prefer - so you don't miss anything with input. Proof on NCD can be sent by Freepost or as a photo - I don't have a scanner.

So so far, so good. And I get a Clubcard discount and points too I think.

MikeJXE

Plus if you go through one on the comparison sites you can get free £250 excess cover 

MikeJXE

Plus free breakdown 

twopenny

Thanks folks It's a learning curve. Unfortunately I've already paid breakdown cover and have to say it was really good when I needed it. But the free Excess would be a real bonus.

Next year it's a thought. See how the prices go.

Mike, I used Compare the Market (even if those meercats really annoy me) and ended up with so many tabs open that I couldn't try another. Still, such a big saving will do if it's ok.

I'll do the purchase tomorrow as I've had enough and need a clear head.

I miss the old days of going to the Brokers after work and they did all this for you in under half an hour.

MikeJXE

twopenny said:

Thanks folks It's a learning curve. Unfortunately I've already paid breakdown cover and have to say it was really good when I needed it. But the free Excess would be a real bonus.

Next year it's a thought. See how the prices go.

Mike, I used Compare the Market (even if those meercats really annoy me) and ended up with so many tabs open that I couldn't try another. Still, such a big saving will do if it's ok.

I'll do the purchase tomorrow as I've had enough and need a clear head.

I miss the old days of going to the Brokers after work and they did all this for you in under half an hour.

Yep I had  a broker untill 2 years ago 

Don’t forget to clear browsing history before you go on again 

twopenny

Thanks Mike. I have 'delete cookies' on close down. Makes my searches (if I know what I'm looking for) much easier

chrisw

My daughter's been with Tesco for about the last 6 years. She made a claim about 4 years ago in which her car was written off and they were really good and efficient. They paid out more than she'd paid for the car two years previously.

Since the claim, her renewals have been cheaper than the comparison sites, apart from last year but they agreed to match the cheapest quote.

DullGreyGuy

twopenny said:
The ones I've heard of otherwise come in at saving £70 for aparantly less. (Ageas, Coop,RAC etc)

But then some of those aren't insurers, the RAC Car Insurance is just a white label of Budget Insurance Brokers who will place your business with one of their panel insurers.

twopenny said:

I miss the old days of going to the Brokers after work and they did all this for you in under half an hour.

Brokers still very much exist, as mentioned above RAC is just a white labeled broker and there are many many others. Most dont seem to realise who's a broker and who's an insurer these days; many look and fee very similar and many brokers have delegated authority so you may actually deal with them for all claims too. 

What did change was the sale of insurance got split between advisory and non-advisory sales, given the very thin margins in mass market consumer insurance almost all went down the non-advisory path because the extra paperwork and so time and effort required to do advisory sales just doesn't add up when the average punter will switch companies to save under £5 per year. 

twopenny said:

I was wondering is Tesco good/reliable to insure with? It's strange to this oldie to do something so important with what I associate with food.

Tesco Personal Finance started out as a 50/50 join venture with RBS inc Direct Line (which was renamed RBS Insurance and then went back to Direct Line Group when RBS was required to divest its insurance division). They temporarily went elsewhere on a JV basis and subsequently bought out their partner to launch Tesco Bank and Tesco Underwriting. 

Writing short tail business like Home and Motor is a liquid asset intense business so has fairly good synergies with a cash heavy business like Tesco's with the hope you can significantly reduce your cost of acquisition -v- your competitors by selling to your existing customer base. Their SCR is 159% which in principle puts them at lower-middle market in terms of capital to meet claims but by only writing routine business they should be less exposed to cat events with a more predictable loss patterns hence the reasonable but not massive excess capital buffer. 

twopenny

Chris, thanks, that's reassuring for sure.

Dullgreyguy, that's amazing history. My brain went blank about half way through as it's not something I'm familiar with but sounds reassuaring too....as much as any big business can these days.

I looked into Morrisons selling data from it's cards once. I had to stop after a while as it's like a rabbit hole but as long as I'm covered and can get a reply if I need to I guess that's as far as I can go.

It's become a whole new world to me. I used to be good at this and really enjoy the challenge at one time but it wasn't as vast or tied up like tangled wool as it is these days.

I'll double check the facts, read the t&cs a bit this afternoon and can see no reason not to use them.

Perhaps I should practise comparison sites again when it's not so important - but I can think of more enjoyable things to do