Insurance - my favourite subject (not!)

[grahamcol]

Well the classic cover on my 2001 SLK will become due next month and I've been preempting matters so that l have a good idea on price before the renewal invitation comes through from the current provider. Doubtless they'll be trying it on. Today l spoke to Adrian Flux who came up with what seemed to be a reasonable quote including agreed value. I asked for an email confmation which came through but now that doesn't include the agreed value element and for this they now seem to want an additional £50 odd. WTF? Also there is a potential problem as they want proof of the fitment of a Thatcham cat 1 security device which must be in working order. As far as I am aware the R170 was fitted with one as standard but how do l prove this? And how do l prove it was working should the car be stolen? (ie no car so who can say?). I hate this insurance merry go round, really l do. Just wondering how others get on? As an aside, l see Adrian Flux have some terrible reviews!

 

[davemercedes]

It's an absolute PITA but nowadays we have to go through the shambolic system to avoid being taken for an idiot. I don't know how you go about comparisons with a car that has a classics value but I just went through the rigmarole with LV trying to bunk up my premium (following a year when my mileage fell like a stone due to Covid 19 etc). For our C Class estate, they quoted me £416.05 for myself and SWMBO i.e.: an increase of £42.64 (11.4%) even though I have max NCB.

After consulting the opera singer I transferred to Hasting with a "Premium" policy that includes legal protection and AA recovery (which I don't need) and had £0 excess on all sections except glass - I did reduce next year's mileage a bit and the new, better premium cost £110 less than renewal.

It goes to show that you can beat these "bookies" at their own dirty game and I'm afraid we all have to expect every year now.

Good hunting!

 

[grahamcol]

Thank you Dave. Beware of Hastings as they'll rip you off something rotten if you change car mid term. Ask me how l know. Watch them at renewal too, just like the others. I challenged their renewal price this year for my daily driver (l always do) and it was considerably cheaper to take out a new policy with them than to renew the existing one. Guess what l did! Complete madness really.

 

[Flyinspanner]

Just got the renewal in for our 3 cars £1774

Did research on confused/meerkat etc, and armed with prices, got on the phone to renewals dept and got it reduced to £1343

rather pleased.

 

[EmilysDad]

just renewed with LV. I confess that I just renewed as I couldn't face talking to loads of insurers and explaining the bump in Feb (she went into the back of me ..... & for some reason, it's still open )
It went up slightly from last year to about £1250 for 4 cars .... ML350, Smart Fortwo, Smart Roadster & EmilysMum's Citroen C3 that does sub 2000 miles a year

 

[mioba]

its the same old same old groundhog day but annually isnt it.
My renewal goes up each year with admiral. i go on the comparison sites (they are handy as they have all the data saved) and hit get new quote - always lower than Admiral.
I then call Admiral and the price comes down.
Insurance Co's are a world to themselves and the consumer has to be on top of his game.

 

[Chrishazle]

I had a good laugh when I bought the SLK last November, my previous "toy" insurer was ridiculous as the new toy was not a "classic", tried LV who have the house, contents and S204, also ridiculous, so tried Chris Knott - initially ridiculous, but then they came up with an acceptable price from of all things a subsidiary (Highway) of LV! Based on what I've read on the 968uk forum I'll ask Adrian Flux for a quote as the SLK renewal is due on 11/11!!

 

[flowrider]

My SL500 is with Aviva, the renewal is £178, it was £176 last year. I have had similar quotes with lower excesses on comparison sites so I need to decide if its worth changing insurers.

 

[sonic]

its the same old same old groundhog day but annually isnt it.
My renewal goes up each year with admiral. i go on the comparison sites (they are handy as they have all the data saved) and hit get new quote - always lower than Admiral.
I then call Admiral and the price comes down.
Insurance Co's are a world to themselves and the consumer has to be on top of his game.

I do exactly the same.

 

[grahamcol]

I had a good laugh when I bought the SLK last November, my previous "toy" insurer was ridiculous as the new toy was not a "classic", tried LV who have the house, contents and S204, also ridiculous, so tried Chris Knott - initially ridiculous, but then they came up with an acceptable price from of all things a subsidiary (Highway) of LV! Based on what I've read on the 968uk forum I'll ask Adrian Flux for a quote as the SLK renewal is due on 11/11!!

Beware when you approach Adrian Flux, see the comments in my first post and good luck.

 

[grahamcol]

My SL500 is with Aviva, the renewal is £178, it was £176 last year. I have had similar quotes with lower excesses on comparison sites so I need to decide if its worth changing insurers.

That's a very very good price l think

 

[ajlsl600]

Sorting this is out without getting mugged is often a half day P.I.T.A for me these days.
Like near everything in life today its generally less for more and lower quality.
Mars bars,crisps, cars, white goods,everything .

 

[daveenty]

As it's classic insurance which you were posting about then it may be worth a look at A Plan? I insured my 190E through them with a company called Markerstudy, an agreed valuation of £18k and a total premium of £112.80.

I did have a limited mileage (4,000p/a) clause but this was not a problem and easily amended if necessary. They briefly asked about security but nothing was specified as to what type. I'd just be tempted to state that it's the original manufacturer's which is fitted and leave it at that. Also mention that it must be working correctly otherwise it would flag warnings up on the dash.

All they insisted on with mine was that it was garaged when at home, and photographic evidence of this was required, I'm assuming to confirm that I actually did have a garage which would accommodate the car...

 

[grahamcol]

As it's classic insurance which you were posting about then it may be worth a look at A Plan? I insured my 190E through them with a company called Markerstudy, an agreed valuation of £18k and a total premium of £112.80.

I did have a limited mileage (4,000p/a) clause but this was not a problem and easily amended if necessary. They briefly asked about security but nothing was specified as to what type. I'd just be tempted to state that it's the original manufacturer's which is fitted and leave it at that. Also mention that it must be working correctly otherwise it would flag warnings up on the dash.

All they insisted on with mine was that it was garaged when at home, and photographic evidence of this was required, I'm assuming to confirm that I actually did have a garage which would accommodate the car...

Well the quotation small print stipulates a cat 1 device and proof etc. It's not something that was asked of me nor volunteered. I'm pretty sure it's standard fitment on the R170 and it's listed on the Thatcham website. Maybe this is proof enough of fitment? But I'm pretty sure there will be no dash warnings if it fails to work as was the case with one of my previous Mercs.

 

[ajlsl600]

Have my ngtf insured for 10k agreed value and 3k miles a yr with haggerty classic near 140 if I remember correct

 

[grahamcol]

Well when l see some of the low prices here and elsewhere it makes me very concerned. I live in a reasonable area, am not a boy racer, cover a very low annual mileage with a good driving history and no convictions. So why am l being quoted rather higher prices? The whole insurance scam makes me feel so shafted and victimised. They all seem confident they can provide "good" prices at first but then when the actual quotation is provided there's always something or other that causes the premium to go up or some other gotcha.

 

[davemercedes]

Hi Graham

At least you should be able to get a better price by using one or more of the comparison sites and giving up some of your time...

I used Go Compare a couple of weeks ago (because LV quoted me an increased premium of 11% despite having no claims and like most during the Covid year, we had only travelled half of our average or less).

When I first tried for a quote the Go Compare screen wouldn't work because the date I asked for was one day too early so I changed it just for that. On their web site it warns that the quote may alter because it's done "in real time". Then a few days later I decided to take the offer and surprise - it was about £5 dearer when I went online again. So I changed it back to the correct renewal date (minus 1 day!) and bingo! I got the price quoted. In the process I decided to shave our forecasted annual mileage a little and didn't even bother calling LV because I know from past experience they would wither have refused a reduction or given me £5 off. So in the end, I transferred to Hasting with a "Premium" policy that includes legal protection and AA recovery (which I don't need) and had £0 excess on all sections except glass (and it's rated defaqto 5 star) - and I'm pleases to say the new, better premium cost £110 less than LV's renewal and was less than last year's premium.

I'm not surprised to say that others have warned me to watch out at my next renewal date because I can expect the game to be repeated.

As many have said on this forum, insurers are nothing more than bookies now and the only way for all of us is to play these jokers at their own game. I get quite amused to think that the comparison companies earn commission on people swapping insurers. What a shambles!

Best of luck on getting a better price!

 

[davemercedes]

Hi Graham

At least you should be able to get a better price by using one or more of the comparison sites and giving up some of your time...

I used Go Compare a couple of weeks ago (because LV quoted me an increased premium of 11% despite having no claims and like most during the Covid year, we had only travelled half of our average or less).

When I first tried for a quote the Go Compare screen wouldn't work because the date I asked for was one day too early so I changed it just for that. On their web site it warns that the quote may alter because it's done "in real time". Then a few days later I decided to take the offer and surprise - it was about £5 dearer when I went online again. So I changed it back to the correct renewal date (minus 1 day!) and bingo! I got the price quoted. In the process I decided to shave our forecasted annual mileage a little and didn't even bother calling LV because I know from past experience they would wither have refused a reduction or given me £5 off. So in the end, I transferred to Hasting with a "Premium" policy that includes legal protection and AA recovery (which I don't need) and had £0 excess on all sections except glass (and it's rated defaqto 5 star) - and I'm pleases to say the new, better premium cost £110 less than LV's renewal and was less than last year's premium.

I'm not surprised to say that others have warned me to watch out at my next renewal date because I can expect the game to be repeated.

As many have said on this forum, insurers are nothing more than bookies now and the only way for all of us is to play these jokers at their own game. I get quite amused to think that the comparison companies earn commission on people swapping insurers. What a shambles!

Best of luck on getting a better price!

Hi Graham

At least you should be able to get a better price by using one or more of the comparison sites and giving up some of your time...

I used Go Compare a couple of weeks ago (because LV quoted me an increased premium of 11% despite having no claims and like most during the Covid year, we had only travelled half of our average or less).

When I first tried for a quote the Go Compare screen wouldn't work because the date I asked for was one day too early so I changed it just for that. On their web site it warns that the quote may alter because it's done "in real time". Then a few days later I decided to take the offer and surprise - it was about £5 dearer when I went online again. So I changed it back to the correct renewal date (minus 1 day!) and bingo! I got the price quoted. In the process I decided to shave our forecasted annual mileage a little and didn't even bother calling LV because I know from past experience they would wither have refused a reduction or given me £5 off. So in the end, I transferred to Hasting with a "Premium" policy that includes legal protection and AA recovery (which I don't need) and had £0 excess on all sections except glass (and it's rated defaqto 5 star) - and I'm pleases to say the new, better premium cost £110 less than LV's renewal and was less than last year's premium.

I'm not surprised to say that others have warned me to watch out at my next renewal date because I can expect the game to be repeated.

As many have said on this forum, insurers are nothing more than bookies now and the only way for all of us is to play these jokers at their own game. I get quite amused to think that the comparison companies earn commission on people swapping insurers. What a shambles!

Best of luck on getting a better price!

Our house insurance renewal quote came (only plus 3% on this one but they were charging platinum price since we made a claim over 4 years ago (our immersion heater tank died and flooded the upstairs and hall underneath) but whereasI was told by one or two people that the cost would gradually go down again it certainly didn't so off I went to the Go Compare website again. Cutting this story short, I decided go go for the Hastings Premier policy and got a better policy for about £145 less than the renewal quote.

In about 3 weeks SWMBO's runaround will be up for renewal too and it's covered by the same bookies - sorry, I mean insurers - and they will probably lose that business as well so overall, not that they know or care, they will be losing about £1500 income by driving me to look elsewhere. And it's a nice feeling to beat the bookies!

 

[Chrishazle]

Update on my SLK - I got the Chris Knott/Highway renewal offer through, but I'd also had a look on comparethemeerkat - where I got a quote from General Accident (underwritten by Aviva) for about £160 less than the renewal offer. Called Chris Knott, they asked for a screen shot of the GA quote and dropped the renewal to about £20 more than GA.

Have the S204 insurance also due, got the LV renewal quote, on comparethemeerkat LV's quote was £20 cheaper plus gets me 1 year of meerkat meals and movies plus a cuddly toy for my grandson. Crazy!

 

[davemercedes]

Well, I've achieved what I set out to do...

Only a couple of weeks ago our daughter blew her clutch and electronic handbrake on her Scenic and needed to bring it to the garage near us and we lent her SWMBOs for a week. I arranged cover for her and specifically told them do not include her in the policy renewal quote. English is my mother tongue but no surprise - the renewal included our daughter... I had already decided to try to get a reduction by going elsewhere anyway so I guesstimated that the policy would have gone up by 3 or 4 percent, the same increase as they quoted for the S203.

I compared the cost for my S203, SWMBO's Renault and our House Insurance policy - courtesy of the opera singer's web site.

I decided to go for Hastings "Premier" policy on both cars because it includes all the items for which other companies charge extra (and I know I'll have to watch out next year)! The nice thing is that even though the new policies are an "upgrade" they still cost less than last year and I had the pleasure of not giving any more dosh to the current provider (LV=).

I was rather miffed when the first car policy (my S203) arrived and I commented that like most people in UK our mileage had fallen like a stone so they really should have been offering a reduction but of course no chance.

So I've now taken away over £1,000 and saved quite a bit against last year's price in the process. I know LV couldn't give a primate's gonads because I'm only one of their millions of "screwees" but if we all did the same thing maybe the insurance "bookies" would learn that clients are not just cash cows with bulging wallets!