Will car insurance go up or down in 2014?

[Triv]

I didn't actually mean the above. Before I get arrested for subversiveness!

When I say broker, I mean broker as in the way I understand it. An old boy I used to go and see, sat behind a desk, who always sorted everything for me. Dependable, trustworthy and you'd see him in the pub.
Anything big and corporate these days is not to be trusted.

 

[M80]

I disagree there M80.
It takes a huge amount of my time finding my own premium, dealing with the hassle that the insurance company then throws at me, which becomes more every year and then the possibility of the nightmares that we all know exist (the majority of the posts above show them), I'll never go direct again! I'll employ a broker because, if nothing else, he's not a faceless call centre. He's someone I can search out and get my hands on if needs be...

We've to give the information required to broker or company. I use the comparison sites, which are only brokers anyway. And when you are then transferred to the company of choice the information can be corrupted so needs careful checking, again. But at least there is an ease of 'comparison' that I don't see with a over the phone broker, who might have misheard me or misunderstood my desires.

 

[Triv]

We've to give the information required to broker or company. I use the comparison sites, which are only brokers anyway. And when you are then transferred to the company of choice the information can be corrupted so needs careful checking, again. But at least there is an ease of 'comparison' that I don't see with a over the phone broker, who might have misheard me or misunderstood my desires.

And therein lies the problem. Time.
Fill out comparison site. Then fill out same questions again on insurance co site. Then find out price has changed. Or then find out you must call them anyway to clarify a dotted i or something equally as daft. Then, a week or so later, find out that you've got to send them your driving licence. What if you work away for months on end? (That has actually happened to me and caused a massive, massive problem). Then send off your only letter of confirmation of NCD. Then receive a letter demanding that you send them the letter that you sent them a fortnight ago but they've 'not received it'. Lost it more like. So then pay a tenner to your old insurance co to get a copy of the same letter, wait for it, send it off and hope.
Or, you decide at the time of looking on the aforementioned comparison site that you're not going to buy the insurance at that moment in time. Only to discover that the following week, when you do want to buy / can afford / need desperately the insurance, that the price has gone up! Solely due (try it anonymously, it works) to the fact that the site learns the serial number of your hard drive, so knows that you're reapplying and knows it can get away with it. Yet if you re-quote from a different computer, the quote is less!

I hate insurance companies, solely because of the hassle they seem to create and because it appears to me to be legalised theft. I would have agreed with you that a broker is just another middle man and so by doing it yourself, you should be able to save money. This thread though, has reminded me what a nightmare it is to deal with and that every year, I say that next year I'll use a broker.
So next October, I'll look for a real broker's office, walk in once, give him the info once, let him photocopy my licence and pay him once.
I reckon it'll take less time and I'll live longer!

 

[InsideInsurance]

We've to give the information required to broker or company. I use the comparison sites, which are only brokers anyway. And when you are then transferred to the company of choice the information can be corrupted so needs careful checking, again. But at least there is an ease of 'comparison' that I don't see with a over the phone broker, who might have misheard me or misunderstood my desires.

A comparison site is not a broker. A broker actually sells you the policy where as an aggregator only presents prices and you then go through to third parties to buy.

To add complexity to the matter, the above is accurate and true for the mainstream products of Home, Motor etc and is what they always used to be.

For other things, eg SME business insurance, then actually the aggregators have partnered with a single broker and that broker exposes its panel in an aggregator like layout but you can only buy through that one broker.

As to the earlier post, you get advisory local brokers and as long as you avoid Swintons you'll probably get a reasonable service. Plenty of brokers however are non-advisory and set up purely for mass market distribution and so adopt low cost models (aka faceless call centres).

 

[turbopete]

so INSIDE INSURANCE can you please tell me why, as ive got older, my car insurance has got more expensive, my cover has reduced DESPITE having increased NCD and also WHY there is such a HUGE variation in prices? my insurance is due for renewal next month. on comparison sites ive had figures ranging from just under £300 up to over £2200!!!

Also, why are we still asked for our gender on insurance forms, when it illegal to discriminate between genders for insurance purposes?

 

[Triv]

so INSIDE INSURANCE can you please tell me why, as ive got older, my car insurance has got more expensive, my cover has reduced DESPITE having increased NCD and also WHY there is such a HUGE variation in prices? my insurance is due for renewal next month. on comparison sites ive had figures ranging from just under £300 up to over £2200!!!

Also, why are we still asked for our gender on insurance forms, when it illegal to discriminate between genders for insurance purposes?

Let me guess.
Because as a policy holder, you're liable for claims as well as profits and divends to shareholders.
As opposed to just your likely liability.

Oops.

 

[InsideInsurance]

so INSIDE INSURANCE can you please tell me why, as ive got older, my car insurance has got more expensive, my cover has reduced DESPITE having increased NCD

NCD tends to max out in terms of discount received at 5 years. There are some that track up to 9 years NCD however some of those give less discount at 9 years than others give for 5 years. Some marketing spin obviously.

Without getting into detailed questions about your history then there is a whole host of possible reasons assuming nothing else has changed such as simple inflation, the area you live has had increased claims exposure, the vehicle you drive is becoming more commonly driven by poor drivers, that new safety or security features are on newer cars meaning proportionally yours is having more claims etc


[/QUOTE]also WHY there is such a HUGE variation in prices? my insurance is due for renewal next month. on comparison sites ive had figures ranging from just under £300 up to over £2200!!![/QUOTE]

Insurance is effectively made up of 4 parts:
1) Technical premium - the amount needed to cover claims
2) Operational premium - the amount to cover running costs
3) Taxes - IPT
4) Commercial considerations

Number 1 is predominately driven by the insurers own experience and is 95% statistical analysis rather than "thinking". If they have a rush on claims from junior doctors they will subsequently increase premiums for people who declare this occupation. Inevitably different insurers have different experiences so have different rates

Number 2 - clearly some operate a low cost model pushing everyone via the web with just an offshore call centre behind a premium rate number to deal with a few calls. Others value service higher and so have higher costs by encouraging people to contact them and their UK call centre etc

3 evidently just exacerbates a high or low premium

The last one is the hardest to explain, insurers have target markets and may decline to quote or give silly quotes to those that fall outside of their targets. Likewise they can use propensity & elasticity modelling to decide how price sensitive someone is and how valuable they will be and adjust the price to reflect this. You also have levels of competition to consider, hence TPFT often being more expensive than Comp. Theres also what profit margin they are trying to achieve, some will have a floor others may be willing to write at a loss because they are on a land grab

Your target market also feeds back into your technical pricing, one of my clients had multiple brands pitched at different market segments. With the upper end one ("mass exclusive") they generally wanted their cars perfect and so would claim for almost everything and so there were a lot of attritional low value claims where as their budget brand had very little of these claims, the new dent just matched the one on the other side. So same answers to every question in theory you need to price one brand higher than the other to compensate for their higher claim rates

Finally, there is the level of cover given. Some include DoC, others dont. Some include breakdown, unlimited EU cover, PA cover, Child seat cover and others dont.

Also, why are we still asked for our gender on insurance forms, when it illegal to discriminate between genders for insurance purposes?

Whole host of possible reasons again:

1) Cost to stop asking it, a former client wanted to remove 1 question from their system and the total cost when you factor in changing all the screens for both websites and operations systems, changing the rating engine, changing the letter templates etc all for both new business and renewals was going to be about £1.5m for 1 brand. Now inevitably there would have been economies of scale to do their stable of brands but its still a big number.

In that case they just removed it from the website and stopped the call centre asking the question getting them to enter a default instead. Behind the scenes a value was still selected and it did come out on the documents with the default but so few check their docs that the number of calls to say it was wrong was minimal

2) Marketing - whilst its illegal to differentiate pricing on gender it isnt illegal to send different marketing materials to people based on gender. Marketeers may decide that women respond better to certain imagery and copy than men and so still want to know the sex of the people they are mail shotting

3) Data Protection - You have on screen the insured is Dr Sam Smith, a caller comes on with a female voice and says they are Dr Smith. Is this the policyholder or their wife? Having a gender on file can help make the decision but inevitably can also get you into hot water with transgendered people or those with unusual voices

4) Change in law - plenty think the law will be repealed and so having the data there will easily allow gender to be added back in to the rating engines if this ever happens.

 

[turbopete]

NCD tends to max out in terms of discount received at 5 years. There are some that track up to 9 years NCD however some of those give less discount at 9 years than others give for 5 years. Some marketing spin obviously.

Without getting into detailed questions about your history then there is a whole host of possible reasons assuming nothing else has changed such as simple inflation, the area you live has had increased claims exposure, the vehicle you drive is becoming more commonly driven by poor drivers, that new safety or security features are on newer cars meaning proportionally yours is having more claims etc

also WHY there is such a HUGE variation in prices? my insurance is due for renewal next month. on comparison sites ive had figures ranging from just under £300 up to over £2200!!![/QUOTE]

Insurance is effectively made up of 4 parts:
1) Technical premium - the amount needed to cover claims
2) Operational premium - the amount to cover running costs
3) Taxes - IPT
4) Commercial considerations

Number 1 is predominately driven by the insurers own experience and is 95% statistical analysis rather than "thinking". If they have a rush on claims from junior doctors they will subsequently increase premiums for people who declare this occupation. Inevitably different insurers have different experiences so have different rates

Number 2 - clearly some operate a low cost model pushing everyone via the web with just an offshore call centre behind a premium rate number to deal with a few calls. Others value service higher and so have higher costs by encouraging people to contact them and their UK call centre etc

3 evidently just exacerbates a high or low premium

The last one is the hardest to explain, insurers have target markets and may decline to quote or give silly quotes to those that fall outside of their targets. Likewise they can use propensity & elasticity modelling to decide how price sensitive someone is and how valuable they will be and adjust the price to reflect this. You also have levels of competition to consider, hence TPFT often being more expensive than Comp. Theres also what profit margin they are trying to achieve, some will have a floor others may be willing to write at a loss because they are on a land grab

Your target market also feeds back into your technical pricing, one of my clients had multiple brands pitched at different market segments. With the upper end one ("mass exclusive") they generally wanted their cars perfect and so would claim for almost everything and so there were a lot of attritional low value claims where as their budget brand had very little of these claims, the new dent just matched the one on the other side. So same answers to every question in theory you need to price one brand higher than the other to compensate for their higher claim rates

Finally, there is the level of cover given. Some include DoC, others dont. Some include breakdown, unlimited EU cover, PA cover, Child seat cover and others dont.



Whole host of possible reasons again:

1) Cost to stop asking it, a former client wanted to remove 1 question from their system and the total cost when you factor in changing all the screens for both websites and operations systems, changing the rating engine, changing the letter templates etc all for both new business and renewals was going to be about £1.5m for 1 brand. Now inevitably there would have been economies of scale to do their stable of brands but its still a big number.

In that case they just removed it from the website and stopped the call centre asking the question getting them to enter a default instead. Behind the scenes a value was still selected and it did come out on the documents with the default but so few check their docs that the number of calls to say it was wrong was minimal

2) Marketing - whilst its illegal to differentiate pricing on gender it isnt illegal to send different marketing materials to people based on gender. Marketeers may decide that women respond better to certain imagery and copy than men and so still want to know the sex of the people they are mail shotting

3) Data Protection - You have on screen the insured is Dr Sam Smith, a caller comes on with a female voice and says they are Dr Smith. Is this the policyholder or their wife? Having a gender on file can help make the decision but inevitably can also get you into hot water with transgendered people or those with unusual voices

4) Change in law - plenty think the law will be repealed and so having the data there will easily allow gender to be added back in to the rating engines if this ever happens.[/QUOTE]

but that still doesnt answer why cover is now gradually being reduced despite increasing premiums.

When i was 20 i had a private car policy (as did my father and numerous other people i know) which covered us as follows:

Fully comp. cover on ANY car (no reg number on insurance cert, confirmed as correct when i obtained the policy AND when i changed cars) AS STANDARD
Legal cover AS STANDARD
Hire car AS STANDARD
Windscreen/glass cover AS STANDARD

nowadays on many policies hire cars, legal cover AND windscreen cover are ofthen optional, and ive even had companies quote me for a 'fully comp' policy that doesnt even cover me to drive other cars AT ALL!!!! never mind with just 3rd party cover.
how they get away with calling them 'comprehensive' is beyond me as to me, 'comprehensive' means it covers pretty much EVERYTHING.

and for reference, i was paying £230 give or take a few £ on the policy when i was 20. last year, on a similarly grouped car (based on the 20 group system that was used a few years ago) at age 37, my premium was just over £350!

 

[InsideInsurance]

but that still doesnt answer why cover is now gradually being reduced despite increasing premiums.

When i was 20 i had a private car policy (as did my father and numerous other people i know) which covered us as follows:

Fully comp. cover on ANY car (no reg number on insurance cert, confirmed as correct when i obtained the policy AND when i changed cars) AS STANDARD
Legal cover AS STANDARD
Hire car AS STANDARD
Windscreen/glass cover AS STANDARD

nowadays on many policies hire cars, legal cover AND windscreen cover are ofthen optional, and ive even had companies quote me for a 'fully comp' policy that doesnt even cover me to drive other cars AT ALL!!!! never mind with just 3rd party cover.
how they get away with calling them 'comprehensive' is beyond me as to me, 'comprehensive' means it covers pretty much EVERYTHING.

and for reference, i was paying £230 give or take a few £ on the policy when i was 20. last year, on a similarly grouped car (based on the 20 group system that was used a few years ago) at age 37, my premium was just over £350!

So take inflation into account and you were paying £375 when you were 20 and now are being charged £350. Obviously you dont give any other details to allow comparison. Claims on the other hand have had near double digit inflation for over a decade, mainly fuelled by ambulance chasers and other hanger ons.

When I was 20 I had a new Saxo 1.1 X and was paying £800 so £1,250 inc inflation. I now have a new Mercedes SL350 and am paying £750 inc having a learner driver on the policy

Comprehensive (there is no "fully" in the title) simply gives you own vehicle cover for Accidental Damage. There are a number of other sections that are commonly also added, eg windscreen/ glass, but it isnt what makes it comprehensive.

Insurance over time has become increasingly commoditised and people are increasingly price sensitive. There was an interesting article (for insurance) a while back from one "ethical" brand and they find on aggregators like confused.com people will leave them/ choose others to save less than £2.

With people being so price sensitive you need to strip as much out of the policy to get it as high up the comparison site and one easy way to do it is take off the Legal Expenses etc and then attempt to cross sell them back in when you get the click through.

I am about the same age as you and certainly my first memory of Driving other Cars (DOC) cover was Third Party Only so surprised both at your insurance costs and having comprehensive cover. Likewise "Hire Car" was never standard, Courtesy Car was standard but thats a Group A car given to you by the garage and only if the car is repairable. I assume this was a private policy is your own name etc?

You can still get the "fully comprehensive" with all the bells and whistles including comp DOC if you look at the high net worth offerings from the likes of Chubb Masterpiece. I had a quote from them a few months ago when I got the SL and they were £1,200 which includes like for like courtesy car and many other features. I'd have been tempted but they only sell Motor to those buying Home and their price for that was way out compared to my current insurer.

Of cause finally, look at the recent press and you will see insurance, on average, went down considerably last year hence why this thread was created

 

[turbopete]

So take inflation into account and you were paying £375 when you were 20 and now are being charged £350. Obviously you dont give any other details to allow comparison. Claims on the other hand have had near double digit inflation for over a decade, mainly fuelled by ambulance chasers and other hanger ons.

When I was 20 I had a new Saxo 1.1 X and was paying £800 so £1,250 inc inflation. I now have a new Mercedes SL350 and am paying £750 inc having a learner driver on the policy

Comprehensive (there is no "fully" in the title) simply gives you own vehicle cover for Accidental Damage. There are a number of other sections that are commonly also added, eg windscreen/ glass, but it isnt what makes it comprehensive.

Insurance over time has become increasingly commoditised and people are increasingly price sensitive. There was an interesting article (for insurance) a while back from one "ethical" brand and they find on aggregators like confused.com people will leave them/ choose others to save less than £2.

With people being so price sensitive you need to strip as much out of the policy to get it as high up the comparison site and one easy way to do it is take off the Legal Expenses etc and then attempt to cross sell them back in when you get the click through.

I am about the same age as you and certainly my first memory of Driving other Cars (DOC) cover was Third Party Only so surprised both at your insurance costs and having comprehensive cover. Likewise "Hire Car" was never standard, Courtesy Car was standard but thats a Group A car given to you by the garage and only if the car is repairable. I assume this was a private policy is your own name etc?

You can still get the "fully comprehensive" with all the bells and whistles including comp DOC if you look at the high net worth offerings from the likes of Chubb Masterpiece. I had a quote from them a few months ago when I got the SL and they were £1,200 which includes like for like courtesy car and many other features. I'd have been tempted but they only sell Motor to those buying Home and their price for that was way out compared to my current insurer.

Of cause finally, look at the recent press and you will see insurance, on average, went down considerably last year hence why this thread was created

taking salaries into account (not inflation) i am on the same wage now (when i can get work) as i was at age 20, but everything else has changed with inflation. at the time i was insured with royal sun alliance with the full bells and whistles policy, comprehensive on ANY car (made life so much easier for me at the time as i was often having to use different cars) and the car I actually owned was irrelavant to the policy or the cost (i couldve had a sierra cosworth if i could afford to buy it, on the policy and they were THE affordable performance car at the time).

back then the courtesy car/hire car, call it what you will, was STANDARD on every policy i had ever had. as was glass cover, legal expenses etc (all the 'add ons' as they seem to be now) and also excesses were much lower/non existant (most i ever had was £50!) and the cover was also known at the time as FULLY comp, hence you really did get pretty much everything thrown in.

IMO it is for the very reason that the prices for insurance got ridiculous AND that the cover was reduced and things were made 'cost options' (and even silly things like a pinstripe of tape down the car started to be classed as a modification to increase premiums) that we began to get the 'ambulance chaser' culture. the theory of 'well ive paid a fortune for it so im going to get some back' rules. if the prices and cover had remained relatively static (forget inflation, its the NUMBERS that people hear) then the 'ambulance chaser' culture would probably be much reduced.

and if we take parts and the prices of cars, theyre cheaper now than they were 20 years ago, so why isnt insurance? people have likened the industry to bookmakers. the difference being if the horse you bet on doesnt run, you get your stake back. if the insurance we buy is never claimed on, we are asked for a similar amount the next year, rather than a hugely reduced rate or even cost free (after a set amount of years without a claim) to encourage people to STOP the ambulance chasing and drive more carefully!

 

[InsideInsurance]

back then the courtesy car/hire car, call it what you will, was STANDARD on every policy i had ever had. as was glass cover, legal expenses etc (all the 'add ons' as they seem to be now) and also excesses were much lower/non existant (most i ever had was £50!) and the cover was also known at the time as FULLY comp, hence you really did get pretty much everything thrown in.

<snip>

and if we take parts and the prices of cars, theyre cheaper now than they were 20 years ago, so why isnt insurance? people have likened the industry to bookmakers. the difference being if the horse you bet on doesnt run, you get your stake back. if the insurance we buy is never claimed on, we are asked for a similar amount the next year, rather than a hugely reduced rate or even cost free (after a set amount of years without a claim) to encourage people to STOP the ambulance chasing and drive more carefully!

But as i say, courtesy cars are given by the garage. Ok, if you have a policy without one and go to your insurers approved repairer then you wont get one however go to a garage of your own choice and you most likely will. I've never added courtesy car cover (or had it by default) and yet never not had a garage provided courtesy car.

The Hire Car and Credit Hire (for non-fault accidents) are all relatively new inventions with the former being funded by your insurer directly.

As vehicle damage is an ever decreasing proportion of the total cost for an insurer. Personal injury costs, credit hire etc are all growing massively. Marketing costs are also growing massively, to buy a click on Google's adwords is going to be around £7.50 for all but the longest tail terms and thats just a visitor, you cant even be sure that person even is in the market to buy.

As to why PI claims are growing? I dont think it is in revenge for increasing insurance premiums personally. I'd argue the change in law that created the No Win No fee approach rather than legal aide was the biggest driver as it suddenly gave them a powerful marketing message. Likewise the changes that allowed lawfirms to pay for business meant that telesales companies could be set up to generate leads and sell these hot leads to solicitors at very good rates. Rarely does a day go by when I dont get at least 1 text or email from one of these firms.

Insurance is like a bookmakers, its exactly right. In fact the chairman of a former client used to introduce himself to the press as a gambler as they were more interested in him -v- when he introduced himself as working in insurance.

Have a policy and not claim is not the same as a horse that doesnt run as presumably you have used your car/ house etc. Personally, I am very happy that I have never claimed on my PHI, PMI, CI, Home etc and hope that I never do because it means I've never been seriously ill or had my house burn down etc.

 

[davemercedes]

.....back then the courtesy car/hire car, call it what you will, was STANDARD on every policy i had ever had. as was glass cover, legal expenses etc (all the 'add ons' as they seem to be now) and also excesses were much lower/non existant (most i ever had was £50!) and the cover was also known at the time as FULLY comp, hence you really did get pretty much everything thrown in.

IMO it is for the very reason that the prices for insurance got ridiculous AND that the cover was reduced and things were made 'cost options' (and even silly things like a pinstripe of tape down the car started to be classed as a modification to increase premiums) that we began to get the 'ambulance chaser' culture.....etc

I whole heartedly agree with these comments and these...

...Insurance over time has become increasingly commoditised and people are increasingly price sensitive. There was an interesting article (for insurance) a while back from one "ethical" brand and they find on aggregators like confused.com people will leave them/ choose others to save less than £2....

Hmm... 'commoditised' ...very well described!

But... it was the insurance companies who introduced the "commoditisation" in effect either increasing their prices for the same product or reducing their risk (and effectively increasing the price) where the customer chose not to pay for what they now classed as "extras" or, as I'm sure quite often happened in the early days, policyholders hurrying to get the job done simply did not notice the way it had been cut out from their cover. Hopefully everyone is aware of these "tricks" now?

Sadly, this is all part of the greed culture. Many of the people we once regarded as trustworthy professionals such as bank managers, insurance brokers/advisors etc eventually showed themselves to be simply opportunistic and money grabbing.

I can see very little difference between these companies nowadays and the cowboy supermarkets who, for example reduce the size of a pack of cheese, increase the price and in the same breath, tell you they are saving you money!. Check it - the average cheese pack which was always 400g is now 350g and there are lots of other things like the 900ml bottle of fruit juice with the same label that used to be a litre etc... etc... What's the difference between these pricing tricks and breaking up the components of your insurance policy. - You need to take your flaming reading glasses with you to check every **expletive** thing, just like you need to read all the small print on insurance documents to see if they're doing the same!

I mentioned some time ago that the latest trick some brokers introduced was a "renewal fee" of about £30 - they charged you a "nice little earner" for the privilege of them taking some money from you - and then they wonder why so many customers go to comparison sites! I had this happen to me with my house and contents policy. Surprise, surprise when I gave them the opportunity to retain my business or lose both the renewal and what I regarded as a disgraceful add-on, they capitulated.

I am now of the opinion that you must review EVERYTHING: cost, content/extras and the insurer's reputation when the time comes for renewal, And if you're one of those busy, "hard working people" our politicians love to talk about you mustn't skip over it - you just have to find the time to check everything and look for alternatives. Sadly, the days when your trusted broker really did research to find the best product/price for you (as opposed to promoting one of their "panel" of companies ...which presumably gave them the best commision) are long gone so it's not surprising that so many of us end up on the "go compare" route. And we don't ever get charged broker's fees because we do that work ourselves!

Phew! Rant over (for the moment...)

 

[InsideInsurance]

Hmm... 'commoditised' ...very well described!

Commoditised distress purchase and one of the few things you buy but hope to never have to use.

Unfortunately I spent to many years talking to marketeers and picked up all their rubbish. "Mass exclusive" is still one that amuses me though.

I mentioned some time ago that the latest trick some brokers introduced was a "renewal fee" of about £30 - they charged you a "nice little earner" for the privilege of them taking some money from you - and then they wonder why so many customers go to comparison sites! I had this happen to me with my house and contents policy. Surprise, surprise when I gave them the opportunity to retain my business or lose both the renewal and what I regarded as a disgraceful add-on, they capitulated.

Interested to know who this was as never heard of anyone charging a fee to renew a general insurance policy.

Sadly, the days when your trusted broker really did research to find the best product/price for you (as opposed to promoting one of their "panel" of companies ...which presumably gave them the best commision) are long gone so it's not surprising that so many of us end up on the "go compare" route. And we don't ever get charged broker's fees because we do that work ourselves!

But you also dont get access to a number of products that are only sold via brokers or other intermediaries.

There are certainly some brokers out there that are worth their salt but they arent going to be sorts selling the standard Home or Car policies unless they have found a tiny niche. There simply isnt the margin in the products for it to be cost effective. At best for Car a broker will be getting 10% commission but many sacrifice commission to lower the sales price. The average annual premium is £655 according to Confused.com

Net premium after taking off IPT is £618 and so broker is getting a maximum of £61.80. Confused.com however charge £60 per sale so actually they get £1.80 but then they've got to print and post policy documents, often pay per sale fees to their software providers, rent their buildings etc etc.

Of cause there are other ways of generating income once you have the customer in the door but there is a reason why Motor has gone to telesales/ web only with low cost operating models on a non-advised basis.

Look at business insurance, Protection and other areas where margins are much fatter and you will still find the traditional advisory broker. I know of a couple of good ones that I go back to each year (but unfortunately they cannot beat my direct proposition)

 

[L John]

With all the flooding darn sarf, I expect all insurances will be going up.

 

[Triv]

With all the flooding darn sarf, I expect all insurances will be going up.

Not just for those claiming...