Due to an unfortunate quirk of fate, I have a Sprint GT, Mercedes family estate and Fiesta run-around all with insurance expiring at the same time at the end of the month. The cars are insured with Admiral and I got a renewal almost 40% higher than last year, despite no claims, offences etc. The bike insurance has gone down. However, the big con I have noticed is that the excesses have gone through the roof. F*cking £750 for the bike and over £500 for each car. I think these companies are profiteering as they are trying to make up the loss in money by increasing premiums and reducing what you get. Thus, "comprehensive" insurance is actually becoming "third-party plus". I thought I might complain to the Insurance Ombudsman, but will more than likely get nowhere. We're all in this together - well, some of us are.
This sounds very strange. Insurance companies over here are issuing refunds to customers. This is supposed to be directly related to the lock down. Reduced mileage and fewer accidents being the reason for this. I would look around if I were you!
Yup call around, unfortunately @mpllineman, we have a different way of being ripped off, sorry I meant insured over here, it’s mainly the vehicle that gets insured not the person, why I don’t know as you can only drive one at a time but there you go! @Aidan have a look around, my ins co of the last 5 years suddenly decided they couldn’t insure me for my 2 bikes this year so I went on the compare websites and managed to find some that would, varying prices but got a decent quote from Bennett’s, was with Hastings before.
Defo shop around and also get back to them telling them you've a better quote and see what they do. With aunty Carol and after years of happy renewals got a surprising one a couple of years ago - got a few other quotes, rang them up and surprise, surprise, they managed to get back to me with a more reasonable figure! DS
Thanks for the replies. Yes, I had already shopped around, so managed to get quotes £600 cheaper at a stroke (thanks to money comparison sites, but you even need to use three of them to get the best numbers). Carole Nash - they have gone hugely down in my opinion. I told them not to renew last year and found they had actually taken a premium of £800. To be honest, I had so much going on last year that I never checked my credit card at the time it happened. You really have to be careful of this auto-renew thing. Other thing is, Admiral say to call them if you wish to discuss your renewal, but no-one there to answer the calls - I gave up after waiting 45 minutes. So, I have emailed them with the target price to beat and instructions to cancel if they can't. We'll see.
I looked at bemoto when insuring mine and found that although the prices were reasonable the excesses were extortionate. They do seem to vary from week to week though
Update - seems like Bikesure is cheapest for bike, Co-op for the Merc and Tesco for the Fiesta. Saved £700 on bike insurance over CN, and £100 and £300 for Merc and Fiesta respectively. Difference is significant.
As long as it's like for like cover then happy days, the trouble I've found with most comparison quotes is the quote is for the basics but as soon as you add those bits that you would expect on an insurance policy (hire car/bike, protected NC etc) it gets more expensive than the original quote
I agree, it p!sses me off that companies provide the basic cover it quotes and then load up with the so called extra's . The one that winds me up the most is the additional cost for protected no claims. Rant over....
Rant away sir. They also like a bit of disinformation about "protected" NCB. A lot of people think it means that you are never deemed to be at fault. However, the reality is that if you had a claim, you keep your NCB, but your premium increases as a result of the claim. i.e., you will still get, say, 50% of your £500 premium, but the premium has now increased to £700.
That’s still better than losing your no claims bonus and having an increase of premium because you’re deemed to be a higher risk, meaning it then goes up to about £1500
I know what you mean. Some protected NCBs allow up to 3 claims a year (like mine) but as my mum found out, her car ins only allows for 2 claims in a 3 year period before losing it.
Having done a fair bit of research I found Aviva to be best\cheapest for all insurance, car, bike and house. Also, added my partner and just adding her brought the cost down by <>15% bit vague on how much but it was significant!
The protected NCB is also only applicable to the company you are insured with, if you switch to another insurer they will not recognise it,I.e. if you have had a recent claim you will be penalised for it. I think protected NCB is crap really, they just use it to retain your custom...usually at an inflated price.
your no claims bonus is transferable, if you swap insurance companies the company you are leaving must give you in writing how many years no claims bonus you’ve got.
You are correct ,the NCB is if course transferable, it's the protected aspect that is not recognised I.e. you have a claim with your existing company and your NCB is protected, when you change insurers they note you have had a past claim and therefore will not give you a full no claims discount.
Never really understood that. You'd think to a 'logical insurer' mind, doubling the amount of drivers would increase the risk. Always seems to be the way though, I added Mrs BS to the Landy insurance as a named driver and it brought the cost down by about £20 annually. (its only about £100 fully comp to insure... The one benefit of age!)