Easy way to reduce your car insurance

[Micman]

Hi all

Just thought i'd post this. I've just renewed my car insurance for another year and tried using this tip from Money Saving Expert.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/compare-cheap-car-insurance

Basically, by getting online quotes from the following sites in this order you cover pretty much 100% of the insurance market.

Moneysupermarket
Confused
CompareTheMarket
TescoCompare
DirectLine
Uswitch
GoCompare

I always phone around each year, so my insurance has always been pretty good value, but this year I gave this a try and I've just saved myself a further £80.00 so well pleased!

Well worth doing if your insurance is up for renewal soon.

 

[type49]

Just tried different quotes. I was unable to retreive a price for the compulsory excess or wether I was allowed to drive other cars. Initial prices seem good though but I would rather speak to someone to go over the "hidden" bits.

 

[Micman]

In my experience most of the quotes had a 'more info' button that gave you full details of cover.

Don't just take the cheapest one at the top of the list, in most cases those had a few missing extras - within the top 5 quotes on each site you can normally identify the ones that have the most comprehensive levels of cover and included benefits.

The important thing to do is once you've selected say your top 3 favourites is to go to those insurers web sites to view full details of their cover and to confirm the quote.

If there are still things you need confirmation with then you simply call them up and ask!

 

[jberks]

I went through this in January.

I had been with LV since 1998 but they told me this year that despite being a long term loyal customer, who always pays his premium in full in advance and has never had a claim, the only way I could get a remotely decent quote (and it still wasn't good) was to cancel my policy and reapply online. So I told them that I would take the first half of their advice but severe weather warnings would have to be issued in hell before I ever did business with them again, and I went looking for another policy. Proving once again that these firms would rather spend millions getting flighty new customers than a few quid retaining loyal, existing ones (I hope they go broke but no hard feelings ;-))

Pretty much all the quotes I got on the search engines listed above were better than my renewal quote so I did what people normally do and mistrusted the top couple as being too cheap and I'd never heard of them.

Then I stopped myself and revisited the top one, just as an excercise. This was remarkably cheap. After a few more question, yes it went up a bit but still substantially cheaper than the next option down the list. Pushing on I got a phone number to call. After 10 mins of interrogation, comparing their small print to my LV policy, I couldn't come up with a question they didn't have a good answer for. They wanted another £20 for a guaranteed loan car, but that was about it.

It's a huge spanish insurance co that is trying to get into the uk market and the firm is some little broker in Bristol. Never heard of them but that doesn't mean much. After all, my house insurance is through a broker I've never heard of in Huddersfield and they were brilliant when I had a break in.

So I've signed up, got the policy doc and small print which is no different to my old one and am paying nearly £300 less than LV wanted.

 

[Skiday]

jberks - So who are the mystery Spanish firm and their broker?

Skiday

 

[hawk20]

The trouble with all you guys using Confused.com (owned by Admiral BTW)and other Comparison websites is that they are putting up the cost of all our insurances -since they demand and get £50 kickback from whoever you eventually choose. Adding on this unnecessary tier of middlemen is in the long run costing us all dear.

Direct Line won't pay them the middleman's fee so none of them recommend Direct Line, of course. Pity more insurance companies don't refuse to pay.

On a separate point am I alone in not wanting cheap car insurance? I want good car insurance without lots of clever exclusions and from a firm who pays out instead of trying to avoid paying. What Car got experts to draw up what a good policy should cover and put it out to tender. Liverpool Victoria became the provider and I have found them to be good value and offer superb cover

 

[jberks]

jberks - So who are the mystery Spanish firm and their broker?

Skiday

Can't remmeber off hand - I'll have a look and post back.

 

[jberks]

Hawk, you're not alone. As I said in my post, I was very suspicious of this cheap quote initially. I don't want 'cheap' car insurance, in the same way as I won't drive a cheap car or buy a cheap TV set. Cheap is more often than not, as poor value as expensive. a £100 TV set isn't good value if it only lasts 13 months.

What I do want however is a competitively priced policy. Not necesarily the cheapest available - I have stayed with them over the years, in spite of cheaper quotes as they were within £20-£30 and for that, I'm not going to chase around.

My anger at LV was their complete arrogance in the way that they take advantage of any naive enough to simply accept the renewal or to put it another way, to trust that their insurance company, to whom they've shown loyalty over the years, isn't going to try to steal from them. If they're a bit more expensive that everyone else, then ok - no problem, we can discuss the pros and cons and make an informed decision. After all, Merc are more expensive than Ford - we still happily pay the premium for a better product.

However, when a company has 2 prices, one for new policies and another higher price for loyal customers the only word I can come up with is dishonesty. After all, a product costs an amount to provide. They don't advertise a "new customer incentive - first year x% discount" and if they did, even if I'd cancelled, I shoudn't be eligible.

Instead they say pretend to be a new customer and we'll charge you less, at the same time, knowing full well that this is simply a trick to sucker people in and then hit them with massively higher renewal costs next time in the hope that some of these suckers will be too busy to spot it. That is deception in my book. Ok I know they're not alone - its a common business practice, but it shows a change in corporate morality from the high ground to the low ground and if that's the way they are moving, they will quickly start quibbling about payouts too.

All a far cry from where they were last year. I rang them with a similar quandry. Their renewal was a bit steep. They told me that they accepted they weren't competitive in certain markets this year and whilst they sorted this out, didn't want to lose valued existing customers so had considerable lattitude to offer discounts. Fair enough and we agreed a fair price. Not the cheapest by a fair margin, but considering the quality of the policy, a 'fair' price. This year, cancel your policy and pretent (lie) that you're a new customer if you want a half decent deal.

As far as the quality of the policy is concerned, I want a couple of things. Firstly I obviously want them to pay out- to be fair , most ins cos do - even the slightly dodgy ones. Secondly I want a loan car irrespective of fault - this I had to pay extra for - fair enough I knew the cost ans was prepared to pay for it. Legal cover was extra too but I paid extra for this with L.

I have now guaranteed that I will be mobile (the critical thing after all) and won't be paying lawyers out of my own pocket. If they muck me about, they will be paying for the rental car so any messing around will cost them - not me. Windcreen cover, stereo cover, green card (though I've never needed one) is all the same. So, what exactly am I getting for my extra £300?

This is rather like the tyre discussions. People pay for a percieved increase in quality. My argument is that scratch beneath the shiny veneer and more often than not, it's the same item looking back at you. Reminds me of an 1970's consumer feature I watched as a kid. Flashy expensive 'music centres' as they were back then. They opened them up to reveal cheap transistor radios and cassette players glued inside with rods and bits of string to connect the fancy controls on the front to the cheap ones inside.

 

[hawk20]

If that is their new policy I shall be joining you. I hate this and think the govt should make it illegal to have different prices for old and new customers -whether building societies, banks , or insurance or whatever.
Just like AOL. You get a free laptop if you are a new customer but when I asked where mine was ........

 

[drcarrera]

I'd been with NU for a while, but by using confused.com (I think it was that one) I got covered for £400, against my renewal premium of over £1k !
I'm sorry if using these sites puts up everyone's premium a bit, but with a saving of over £600 I'm going to have to be selfish

In addition, the new company don't use ****** offshore call centres either

 

[Balal]

"sainsbury car insurance" (even sounds cheap ) .... now it saved me exactly £200 from the price what kwik fit quoted to renew my policy this year....
I have got insurance from ASDA, TESCO in past...dunno how good they are when it comes to dealing with claims...but they certainly are cheaper ...
NU, KWIK FIT had an unbelieveble renewal premium....
O and direct line wanted a tracker to be fitted in car.... otherwise wont be covered for theft...
<my story of car insurances >

 

[Rory]

However, when a company has 2 prices, one for new policies and another higher price for loyal customers the only word I can come up with is dishonesty.

I've used Liverpool Victoria (actually Frizzell, through the CSMA) for several years. I really like (and value) that they have all their people in the UK, and one particular aspect of their policy that I like is that it gives automatic cover for dealer courtesy cars, so you don't have to get into an argument about paying the £10 or £12.50 per day that many dealers charge now, or else faff around getting temporary cover.

I put a small claim through them a couple of years ago (somone ran into the back of Mrs R's car) and they handled it effortlessly after one 'phone call and even waived the excess which I'd expected to have to pay and reclaim from the 3rd party.


I too noticed that their online pricing is quite a lot cheaper, *but* the policy is somewhat stripped out compared to their old policies - these things may not matter to you, but the older policies are unlimited mileage, no need to notify of speeding fixed penalties, lower windscreen excess, included courtesy car, included foreign travel etc.

I renewed our Jazz's insurance with them the other day, after a bit of discussion they knocked £70 off to get within range of the other quotes I'd had.

However I renewed my MB's insurance today and their online system was £120 cheaper - when I spoke to them directly, the best they could do was still £70 dearer, so I cancelled the automatic renewal on the old policy and took out an new one on line. One thing nearly caught me out though - there is a fixed excess of £100 on the online policy for the Merc, so with the voluntary excess also at £100 it made a total of £200. Changing the voluntary excess to zero increased the premium by £20, so still £100 cheaper than their original renewal premium and £50 less than their best offer (although on their slightly worse, newer policy though).


I had other quotes at up to £60 less, but the lack of hassle in dealing with LV is *well* worth £60 to me.

 

[hawk20]

The point is you would have saved £50 more and all of us too, if we did our own searching of the main competitors instead of using middlemen.

 

[Rory]

The point is you would have saved £50 more and all of us too, if we did our own searching of the main competitors instead of using middlemen.

I don't know if that's true. Would the insurers be so competitive without the comparison sites?

Also, wierd things happen through those sites. I used moneysupermarket.com (MSM) to get quotes for my daughter's Colt. She's currently with Admiral and the renewal was £530.

MSM offered Bell (owned by same company as Admiral) at £100 less. Yet running a quote through Bell's site produced a premium of £480.

MSM links to a phone number for the insurer so I called up, Bell pulled up the quote and said £480. I said no, MSM says £430 and he said "oh yes, I can see that now"!

The call handler was also able to see daughter's old Admiral policy, stop the auto renewal, and tie in the NCD details!

How bonkers is all that?

 

[hawk20]

I don't know if that's true. Would the insurers be so competitive without the comparison sites?

Interesting point. I don't know the answer. Could be that by informing more people of what is on offer that they do increase competition. I just wish the £50 was transparent and charged to customers not added on by suppliers.

 

[jberks]

I'm not sure this charge is actually passed on in a lot of cases. I have tested this by going through the comparison site and then going direct - normally nothing in it.

All I can say is that I have insured my E270 for Me and the Mrs, Class 1 business use, guaranteed loan car, legal protection and a protected NCB - and it cost me £368.88. My renewal from Frizzell was over £650.
Its an obscure bunch I admit I've never heard of. Bedford Insurance seem to be the broker, 'Paragon' the insurer and 'Santam Europe' the actual underwriter, who is a subsidiary of South Africas largest insurer so it's not a small tin pot outfit at least. Bedford insturance appear to be behind the 'Motorquote Direct' web site and offered me a choice of 3 insurers, though these guys were the best value.

Without the supermarket sites I wouldn't have found them so I'm not complaining.

 

[euclidb2]

Like Rory,i too am with LV and it's nice to know that they paid up without fuss,gives a bit more confidence in them.Last July for 53 E220 Elegance,fully comp,protected NCD,8000 miles/year,£200 excess,but no loan car or legal cover, i paid £198,the year before paid £328 with the Pru.I ring around every year,as new policy customers get better deals than loyal ones.I still wonder if they got price right,even rang them to confirm,happily yes.

 

[Rory]

All I can say is that I have insured my E270 for Me and the Mrs, Class 1 business use, guaranteed loan car, legal protection and a protected NCB - and it cost me £368.88. My renewal from Frizzell was over £650.

Well, this year I used Frizzell through CSMA's online quote system (which I *think* only saves 7.5%, so not a huge deal) my C270CDi for me and Mrs R, class 1 biz, £0 voluntary excess (there's a fairly sneaky compulsory £100 excess but it is fairly obvious before you click through to pay).
Legal cover is standard, I added courtesy car and extended personal injury cover, but I skipped foreign cover, which is included on their old policy. I also went for guaranteed NCB, which is a step up from protected and there is no limit to the number of claims.
I agonised over the mileage (the old policy had no mileage limits) but went for 15K. Changing it to 20K did bump the premium up (can't remember how much, but it was enough to stop me choosing). 15K should be easily enough.

Premium was £282 (vs £382 for their old policy renewal).

The first quote came back at a stupidly low figure - from memory it was about £140!! But that's with bigger excess's, no biz use, no add-ons etc. It shows how cheap it could be though.


The only obvious difference I can see between their old and new policies is that the windscreen excess is £60 (was £50). I am anxious to check that COMAND is fully covered (looks like OK as factory fitted) but that bit is a bit hazy on the on-line details. I also want to make sure the dealership courtesy car cover is the same as the old policy.

 

[hawk20]

I'm not sure this charge is actually passed on in a lot of cases. I have tested this by going through the comparison site and then going direct - normally nothing in it.

.

Exactly: that is what is wrong IMO. You cannot see the fact that you are being charged £50 for using the comparison site becuase instead of charging their customers they charge the comapny that you choose via their website.

It is like all those financial advisers who get huge commissions when you buy pensions, annuites etc. The commission is built into the pricing strucure which is not transparent.

 

[Rory]

Exactly: that is what is wrong IMO. You cannot see the fact that you are being charged £50 for using the comparison site becuase instead of charging their customers they charge the comapny that you choose via their website.

No, that's not the point at all. The rip-off, if there is one, is that you get exactly the same for going direct as you do if you go through the comparison site.
So, if it's really true that the ins co is paying £50 to the comparison site, then they're keeping that £50 for themselves if you buy direct.

It also doesn't explain my example where the comparison price was £50 cheaper than going direct.