Car Insurance Renewal Roulette

[Ascender]

I just do the comparison sites. All the direct ones - AF, DL, etc just come out ridiculous money And take ages to do.

I spent ages doing the Adrian Flux online thing... then it said I had to phone them to complete it so of course I just binned it.

But they called me today from a number I thought I recognised so I answered it. Dammit!

[Mito Man]

I don’t see the point of Adrian flux, they just seem to whack in your details in a comparison website, add 30%, then negotiate 10% off that and send you off with a random insurance co.

[Ascender]

I don’t see the point of Adrian flux, they just seem to whack in your details in a comparison website, add 30%, then negotiate 10% off that and send you off with a random insurance co.

Yeah, I've just been stuck on a boring call so went to Money Supermarket and have almost halved the Adrian Flux quote.

[Rich B]

Yeah, just do gocompare, compare market and money supermarket, pick the cheapest and get on with life!

[integrale_evo]

Just had the renewal for the mito. £336 from esure. £230 on the meerkats. For a few quid I wouldn’t bother swapping. For that much difference they can gtf.

[Simon]

Just sorted out the wife's Yeti cover. She's 4 years NCB but only had her license 3 years (as she was insured on the cars whilst she was learning). This seems to confuse some insurers. In the end we binned off Admiral (the incumbent, who wanted 50% more than last year - FRO) and went with Hastings Direct, who got it down to £500 with some other stuff added on like PNCB etc. As an immigrant she automatically seems to attract higher premiums than natives. Anyone else find that?

[V8Granite]

Just sorted out the wife's Yeti cover. She's 4 years NCB but only had her license 3 years (as she was insured on the cars whilst she was learning). This seems to confuse some insurers. In the end we binned off Admiral (the incumbent, who wanted 50% more than last year - FRO) and went with Hastings Direct, who got it down to £500 with some other stuff added on like PNCB etc. As an immigrant she automatically seems to attract higher premiums than natives. Anyone else find that?

My one is a ginger so you can imagine how much that costs!!

Dave!

[Zonda_]

Insured the TT for the princely sum of £220 fully comp protected with Darwin.

[Simon]

Just sorted out the wife's Yeti cover. She's 4 years NCB but only had her license 3 years (as she was insured on the cars whilst she was learning). This seems to confuse some insurers. In the end we binned off Admiral (the incumbent, who wanted 50% more than last year - FRO) and went with Hastings Direct, who got it down to £500 with some other stuff added on like PNCB etc. As an immigrant she automatically seems to attract higher premiums than natives. Anyone else find that?

My one is a ginger so you can imagine how much that costs!!

Dave!

Thoughts and prayers

[Ascender]

Current insurer wants an extra £30 for the Touring which I think is OK, but my policy is due for renewal for next month so will probably move that to another provider then. My son's car was bought last July so am tempted to keep that going until he hopefully gets first year NCB and then shop around.

I've declared the new BMW alloys and also PPF. LV have only noted the alloys on the policy and there was no cost increase.

[Jobbo]

Watch out if you're with LV insurance. I took 11 years' NCD to them last year when I switched to them and my renewal has come through with proof of 9 years' NCD. Before I spotted that I compared prices with the Meerkat and that had my details from last year, so ran all the quotes based on 12 years' NCD. I then re-ran with 9 years' NCD and lo: they're all about 10% more. LV might not care about more than 9 years, but other insurers do, unsurprisingly. So I have submitted a formal complaint to LV and asked for proof of my full 12 years' NCD. I do not think their policy is in any way compatible with the obligation to treat customers fairly - I've had no claims and end up with 2 years' less NCD than I started the year with!

I should have far more than 12 years' NCD anyway but lost quite a lot when I insured with Tesco a while back, who only gave me proof of 6 (their maximum). I wish I'd complained then. I'm certainly not willing to let it lie now.

[Ascender]

I've just had exact experience @Jobbo as I phoned back to check something. "You have 9 years NCB"....

Have emailed customer complaints....

[Zonda_]

Is proof of NCB even needed anymore? The last 2 companies I’ve insured with, Darwin and Esure just did their own checks however they do them. I haven’t submitted proof to either of them and they haven’t asked,

[Ascender]

Is proof of NCB even needed anymore? The last 2 companies I’ve insured with, Darwin and Esure just did their own checks however they do them. I haven’t submitted proof to either of them and they haven’t asked,

I'm guessing in the event of a claim its one more way for them to try and get out of paying up?

Is it worth paying to protect your NCB these days or is it the case that NCB is going to be overridden/minimised by any accidents you do have anyway?

[Simon]

Apparently there's a central database. Some insurers didn't use to remember more than 5 years NCB, remember that?

[Ascender]

They got back quickly to basically say tough, its 9 years and if you want anything more, you need to dig out your NCB proof that you provided to use... about 12 years ago...

[Jobbo]

LV have given me a rather oddly worded letter saying I had 11 years’ NCD a year ago and have not claimed since…

I’ve submitted my formal complaint. It’s not acceptable. There is a shared database of this sort of info amongst major insurers so all they will share is the number of years, meaning I’ll inevitably have some faff proving I have 12 years next.

Im paying more to insure elsewhere now.

[Jobbo]

I renewed with Axa in the end. They weren't the cheapest on the comparison site but £2.50 for legal expenses cover (which is always worth having, since I know how much lawyers' fees can be if you need to use them) made them pretty competitive and they have been very easy to deal with before. Possibly the first time in my life I haven't gone for one of the very cheapest quotes on the Meerkat which were all Admiral or Hastings group brands with basics type policies. I can see the big players are now gaming the comparison tools.

[Ascender]

I've moved the dog wagon to Admiral - they're about £500 cheaper than LV now.

Just shopping around for the boy's insurance as LV want £2700. He's been insured since August fully comp, passed his test in November and they've given him 1 year's NCB in the renewal letter. But of course, we can't seem to use that anywhere because he's not been driving long enough to have earned a full year....

[Carlos]

Youngsters insurance is a pain in the arse. If he was insured as a learner in his own name some insurers will give a years no claims from that date but you need to ring around as its not always apparent on the comparison sites!

My daughter has just had notification that they intend to cancel her policy 3 weeks short of her birthday due to adverse analytics from her telematics box. It appears to be due to driving at peak hours as she works which we declared at outset!