Car Insurance Renewal Roulette

[Simon]

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....

Admiral accepted my wife's 1 year NCB earned whilst she was learning to drive, after she renewed after her test.

[Carlos]

Its become more convoluted!

She is apparently "exceeding the speed limit" regularly in 20mph zones, advisory 20mph zones with the 20 in a black circle!

The local authority has updated the telematics people that these areas are now 20mph limits, which they aren't as the legislation doesn't come into effect until sept and the signage hasn't been updated.

I'm furious, although its ok as the existing insurer will still insure her for an additional £1500!

[nuttinnew]

Ffs

[Jobbo]

When I renewed there was an option for a telematics policy. It wasn’t even the cheapest. Er, no thanks Hard avoid.

[Mito Man]

Yes I recall it was £300 more because they had to install their black box
I’d probably have my policy cancelled pulling out my carpark!

[Jobbo]

I have insured my new car as a swap on my existing policy. £322 extra, which covers about 49 weeks so most of the whole year of the policy. I wonder if insurance for an S6 would be significantly cheaper elsewhere?

[Carlos]

I have insured my new car as a swap on my existing policy. £322 extra, which covers about 49 weeks so most of the whole year of the policy. I wonder if insurance for an S6 would be significantly cheaper elsewhere?

Sound like its worth running a comparison. That's a chunk extra for a similar vehicle!

[Carlos]

Its become more convoluted!

She is apparently "exceeding the speed limit" regularly in 20mph zones, advisory 20mph zones with the 20 in a black circle!

The local authority has updated the telematics people that these areas are now 20mph limits, which they aren't as the legislation doesn't come into effect until sept and the signage hasn't been updated.

I'm furious, although its ok as the existing insurer will still insure her for an additional £1500!

Cancellation avoided

I managed to get the Local Authority involved as they were adamant they wouldn't have supplied data for advisory speeds as mandatory speed limits. Insurance company backed down and confirmed they don't know why but have lots of 30 limits incorrectly mapped as 20!

It must effect 100's of young drivers just locally. Fingers crossed she survives the year and we can get rid of the pesky box lol

[jamcg]

I understand these black boxes are to prevent kids going backwards through a hedge. However that is how you learn the limits of a vehicle by thrashing a slow shopping trolley to within an inch of its life and either almost putting it on its roof or by actually doing it

They then move on to a vastly quicker car with no knowledge of handling limits or how to tell when you’re close to them and end up binning their new motors due to lack of experience

[Mito Man]

The weather is warming up again so I looked for insurance for the quad at lunch time and found one website which actually had it listed on their software - Lexham insurance. £169 fully comp and the software seemed bugged as regardless of date, excess or mileage it wouldn’t budge from £169. So I started the cover from today, with £0 excess and 5000 miles
Drove it round Dover a bit and inhaled many flies. Come back and notice that I still haven’t been emailed any documents nor any confirmation etc. I just have this screenshot which said my insurance began today at 2:00pm and a policy number. Go to their login page and it asks for a password but I don’t have one as it never asked me to make an account.

Their reviews seem very suspicious with lots of foreign ones or ones with broken English giving 5* and all the genuine looking ones complaining - anyway I shall be keeping a close eye on AskMid next week.
Hopefully I won’t ever have to call them to find out how useless they are!

[Marv]

Bike insurance renewal through - up 40 percent

The insurance on my CRF250 Rally was £120 last year, down to £77 this year...I'll take that

All of my bikes are now under £80 each a year to insure now...guess that's the benefits of being old and having slow bikes...

[Ascender]

Getting new insurance for my boy is proving to be an exercise in futility so we might just have to pay the £2600 offer that's on the table from LV. So far that's the cheapest option and doesn't ask for any sort of monitoring.

[mik]

@Ascender It is such a ballache, but in my experience it does drop notably after the first year (assuming no claims obvs).

We avoided black-box policies - more than once my eldest has reported being in friends cars as they drove through red lights in their desperation to finish their journey before the black box triggered a violation for driving outside of permitted hours. And I remember Harry Metcalfe highlighting that his son got a warning for his driving standards after he managed to avoid a collision, but in doing so breached a pre-defined maximum g-level.

[Ascender]

We've found one where the black box stuff isn't restrictive, but it also looks like having a cheap Corsa with small engine isn't helping with premiums either - something less common seems to lower the cost.

He's losing 6 months NCB basically by LV jacking their premium up this year and he needs his car to commute to work so it just feels like they've got you at every turn!

[Carlos]

My daughters is supposedly only monitored for speed and mileage but still a bind. The consequences for having a policy cancelled due to breaking the terms are horrendous for a very long time, possibly forvever!

Passplus is another help if they do that at your local authority?

[Ascender]

My daughters is supposedly only monitored for speed and mileage but still a bind. The consequences for having a policy cancelled due to breaking the terms are horrendous for a very long time, possibly forvever!

Passplus is another help if they do that at your local authority?

Yes, I noticed that question about other qualifications gets asked so have a note about that.

Funnily enough I was also wondering about the consequences of having a policy cancelled so might yet change!

[Carlos]

My daughters is supposedly only monitored for speed and mileage but still a bind. The consequences for having a policy cancelled due to breaking the terms are horrendous for a very long time, possibly forvever!

Passplus is another help if they do that at your local authority?

Yes, I noticed that question about other qualifications gets asked so have a note about that.

Funnily enough I was also wondering about the consequences of having a policy cancelled so might yet change!

If the insurer cancels your policy you have to declare it forever and is usually associated with fraud or non-disclosure so comes with a heavy loading. There doesn't seem to be a way of bypassing this for cancellation of a telematics policy for breach of terms not associated with the usual reasons!

If you cancel your policy that's not an issue.

[Mito Man]

Yep you don't want to have your insurance cancelled or you're never getting cheap insurance in the future.

When I was young pass plus only saved a negligible amount of money with a few insurers who had vastly uncompetitive quotes in the first place so check first before you have your kid waste money on a further 6 lessons.

[Simon]

I was one of the first to do Pass Plus back when it started in 1995. I didn't do it to get a discount on the insurance (as it wasn't so bad back then), but rather because it gave me experience and tuition in the areas of driving that you wouldn't normally get as part of a standard driving test (motorways and the like).

Don't dismiss PP just because it may not give you a big discount - all learning is good learning.

[Carlos]

Yep you don't want to have your insurance cancelled or you're never getting cheap insurance in the future.

When I was young pass plus only saved a negligible amount of money with a few insurers who had vastly uncompetitive quotes in the first place so check first before you have your kid waste money on a further 6 lessons.

Passplus is supported and subsidised by our Local Authority's Road Safety Team. Its £20 for 3 hour classroom course plus 2 hours of driving!