Renewal Price Doubling

Manfrommanchester

Am Fiat Panda owner. My renewal quote has doubled my premium. Have had no accidents,claims or convictions. Same address. Everything has stayed the same. Asked a number of guys around same age as me , ( including my next door neighbor ), and all sat theirs has only increased by the usual few percent.  Phoned insurance company, ( Direct Line), who gave out the guff about "cars being more expensive to repair.. etc ..etc, ( ie same b*******t as they give the media ). Asked why mine has doubled, and the twenty or so people I have asked have not. They cannot give me any satisfactory or believable  answer.

   Tried comparison sites; which all pretty much came up with the same doubled figure.

    Can anyone help me out on this one? Not only can I not afford it, but even if I could it would "lock-in" this sort of price explosion for my insurance for the foreseeable.

Hoenir

Manfrommanchester said:

   Tried comparison sites; which all pretty much came up with the same doubled figure.

   

In this instance the b-------- is probably correct then. Some makes and models have been impacted more than others. Provision of a hire car ,for instance, while the vehicle is unusable. Is a major contributory factor. 

FlorayG

Check that no claim has been made against this vehicle. While it's unlikely,it does happen, it happened to a friend of mine after she sold a car for scrap and it got put back on the road and had an accident. I know you still have this vehicle but someone may have used your registration number. Unlikely but possible

Newbie_John

What's the car year and what's the £ quote? 

Mark_d

Car parts for newer, popular cars are very expensive nowadays, to the extent that someone might steal you bonnet whilst you're at the theatre.  You could sell your car and buy a 15 year old Peugeot 207.  Or you could consider a telematics insurance policy, or a policy where you pay monthly at no extra cost.
Personally I sold my car and stopped driving when the cost got too much.  I'm now reliant on train/bus/Uber and mates!  I no longer go out to shop at supermarkets or at B&Q - I now have to pay for things to be delivered - but overall it's a lot cheaper than owning a car

DullGreyGuy

Manfrommanchester said:

Am Fiat Panda owner. My renewal quote has doubled my premium. Have had no accidents,claims or convictions. Same address. Everything has stayed the same. Asked a number of guys around same age as me , ( including my next door neighbor ), and all sat theirs has only increased by the usual few percent.  Phoned insurance company, ( Direct Line), who gave out the guff about "cars being more expensive to repair.. etc ..etc, ( ie same b*******t as they give the media ). Asked why mine has doubled, and the twenty or so people I have asked have not. They cannot give me any satisfactory or believable  answer.

   Tried comparison sites; which all pretty much came up with the same doubled figure.

    Can anyone help me out on this one? Not only can I not afford it, but even if I could it would "lock-in" this sort of price explosion for my insurance for the foreseeable.

The person doing quotes is given no more information than you get when you do a quote on their website, they aren't told how the rating engine works nor what the actual rating factors are. They have no authority to change them and aren't given access to the statistical analysis that shows why going from 40 to 41 reduces premiums by 0.193% but going from 41 to 42 only reduces premiums by 0.110%. As a consequence they talk in generalities. 

Last year when you did your shopping around were DL very different from everyone else? On the basis that everyone is the same now and DL are similar to them maybe it's not that this year is expensive but last year was too cheap and they've corrected their error. 

If everyone was similar last year and they are again this year then clearly there has been a material change in wide spread experience that applies to you but not others. It certainly can happen, take the Range Rovers when the security flaw was found in their older keyless entry, claims rocketed and insurers responded by spiking prices. 

Mildly_Miffed

Manfrommanchester said:

 

   Tried comparison sites; which all pretty much came up with the same doubled figure.<

Then that's the market rate for the risk you pose.

it would "lock-in" this sort of price explosion for my insurance for the foreseeable.

It really does not work like that.

Arunmor

We had three cars insured with direct line now none are because of exactly this is.  The last renewal they didn't even try and just said that's the price.  Now no cars are with DL.

XRS200

Arunmor said:

We had three cars insured with direct line now none are because of exactly this is.  The last renewal they didn't even try and just said that's the price.  Now no cars are with DL.

Their results were out yesterday.  Returned to profit overall with motor making a smaller loss than before.  Policy count down though.

Manfrommanchester

Thanks to everyone for replying.