Cut Your Car Insurance In 4 Steps Discussion Area

jhanlon

The Nov 2006 edition of Which? mag (try your library if you don't subscribe) has a very useful article on cheapest car insurance companies on p38. I tried the 3 companies reccommended for someone in my situation and they've virtually halved my premium:j ! But now I have to decide between 2 companies and of course it's one thing finding the cheapest and comparing their policies but does anyone know how I can find customer comments on how well their claims have been dealt with?

Or is there anyone on here who has had positive or negative experiences with either FIRST DIRECT or SWIFTCOVER? The premiums are certainly competitive. But how good are these two insurers??

joshwa

I'm having mixed results with these sites:

comparethemarket.com : £934 (budget, £500 excess, 4yrs ncb, 8000miles)
moneysupermarket.com : £759 (esure, £350 excess, ", ")
confused.com: £717 (sheila's wheels, ", ", ")

but then when actually going to sheila's wheels you realise the database has the car details wrong (90bhp / old model instead of 100 / newer model), and then when you correct it, the quote goes upto £757.

the car we have isn't especially powerful, we're both over 25 years old, and the insurance is in my wifes name.

£757 is much better than what I'm getting now (£1000 from tesco!!) but I've heard people get much much better deals, and I'm not sure.

Has anyone got any recommended insurers to try that these sites don't include?

Just tried first direct, and I'm getting a quote of £686 ! (although the car details are again wrong, 110bhp this time apparently, correcting it to 100 hasn't changed the price)

PurpleNaartjie

I've just completed the four stage process and knocked 143 pounds off my current policy. However, I'm not due for renewal until July and, stupidly I am currently paying by monthly instalments (costing me an additional 40 pounds, so I could have been saving 183 pounds if I'd done all this at the outset).

So, I phoned the AA and got through to Customer Services. They say they don't do price matching of any kind. It turns out that with all the fees relating to early cancellation I would end up paying 66 pounds more for the year if I switched now. I asked them to check the policy I have through them as there maybe savings to be made. They ran their quote system and no, no savings there.

So... at the mo I'm stuck with what I've got.

Hurumph!

Richard741

Including the £50 cash-back from the Post Office, I’ve just got one years' car insurance for . . . . . . . (you won’t believe it – but it’s true) . . £46.
Thanks Martin. That's less than a tank of petrol!

anewman

Richard741 wrote:

Including the £50 cash-back from the Post Office, I’ve just got one years' car insurance for . . . . . . . (you won’t believe it – but it’s true) . . £46.
Thanks Martin. That's less than a tank of petrol!

At my end of the market (26 year old just passed test) the £50 barely makes the post office competitive with cheaper quotes, but it's good to see it seems to have worked out particularly well in your case :T

yantotwenty

I had just renewed mine with Budget about 3 hours before the newsletter arrived............... I decided to check on the the possible savings and OMG !! the same company BUDGET was £120 cheaper using the 4 step process but no home start ...... So I called them, gave them the on line quote and an ear bashing ....they agreed to match it, I then used the 3rd cheapest breakdown service on the moneysupermarket link and paid £42 for the same service I had been paying £99 for with the RAC
Total saving of £78 !! I am well pleased ......Thanks to all

jhanlon

well I guess no-one has claimed via Swiftcover or First Direct then. Have decided to go with the former - just over two hundred quid fully comp - not bad for a group 15 car! I knocked £100 off just by putting my Mum on there so I highly recommend that strategy! Wish I'd thought of it before :j

tiamaria

I've had to claim on my insurance twice, minor incidents, the first time about 2 yrs ago and the second claim has the car booked in on the 31st of this month.

However - my insurance finishes on Feb 1st and i would like to get some quotes. my insurer phoned me re this latest claim and told me that I have now lost my protected no claims but I still have 5 yrs no claims on my policy. When i contact insurers for quotes and they ask me if i have made any claims what should I correctly say?

PS I gather my present insurer are obliged to get the job done even if I don't renew with them?

TIA

KingWilliam

I would like opinions on my situation. I lost control of my car on an oily corner when I was 18 and hit a parked car. No one was hurt and no criminal offence was caused - just an accident. My insurance company at the time (Endsleigh I think) refused to renew. This was 18 years ago and I've only had a minor incident bumping a car in a car park since. But all insurance search engines ask if you've ever been declined insurance and being honest I always say yes, this seems a bit harsh for 18 years ago - should I mention this and how much am I likley to be getting penalised for it? Sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place I'm a newbie.

Pantera_Fan

KingWilliam wrote:

I would like opinions on my situation. I lost control of my car on an oily corner when I was 18 and hit a parked car. No one was hurt and no criminal offence was caused - just an accident. My insurance company at the time (Endsleigh I think) refused to renew. This was 18 years ago and I've only had a minor incident bumping a car in a car park since. But all insurance search engines ask if you've ever been declined insurance and being honest I always say yes, this seems a bit harsh for 18 years ago - should I mention this and how much am I likley to be getting penalised for it? Sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place I'm a newbie.

Whilst technically yes you do need to declare it most insurers wont take much notice of an event 18yrs ago. Best to call a few and discuss.