Motor insurance, robbing barstewards

Comparison sites are just weird. The cheapest I found this year was £600 but it then rises with other insurers to £4,000. I mean how does that work? Anyway I went for £4,000.

Actually, my current insurer came in just above £600. So I called them and said I get could it cheaper. They asked how much so I came up with £560. They came back with £570. I agreed to that.

A week later they emailed me to confirm I was going to pay £640. A bit annoyed I called them up and told them about the previous quote and asked what ‘we’ were going to do about this (never get confrontational). They had a look around and came back with £540. I paid that. They literally make it up.

 

They're filthy scumbags

 

Just checked mine on a compare website, £269 last year, £280 this year with the company I’m already currently insured with,

 

Same here, Mr Bossman.

Got my renewal quote from RAC Insurance this morning and I'm offered £248 (up from £224 last year). Well happy with that in the current climate as that price includes breakdown cover. I think it helps that I do less than 5k miles a year.

 

The problem is overpriced repairs. Garages (in my opinion) do a ton of overpriced, unnecessary work.

I had a very minor non-fault accident a couple of years back. I was attending my uncles funeral at the Crematorium and a Council worker drove into the side of me with a ride on lawnmower!

Damaged the back door and rear wing of the car, dented and scratched about 5 foot along.

The approved repairer wanted north of £4k to repair, made a big show of lots of photos and teeth sucking.

As the Council would ultimately pay (so us all) said no and took it to a small local body shop - £1.2k and the job done was stunning.

I got chased by my own insurance to use their approved repairer (they'll get a commission of course) and even told that they can't "guarantee" the repair. Promised a hire car because it was a week long job (another commission) it was actually a 2 day job.

The inflated repair market is a nice little earner for insurers it'll pay it's self in the round from claim to claim and the cost can be passed on to policyholders - win, win for them. Boils my blood.

 

Very good post. I think you've nailed it.

 

But isn’t the insurer paying the approved repairer? Thereby cutting even more of their super profits.

The bottom lines is we have to have insurance by law. The insurance companies can pretty much create a team monopoly and charge what they want.

That said, I think the main reason insurance is so high is because whenever there’s an “accident” all parties have “whiplash” and get more paid out than than they got for the car.

The insurance companies will always be significantly in front, so it’s always passed on to the customer.

 

In that non fault example it doesn't cost the insurer as they recover it (from the Council on my case). So they have my premium, plus commission from the repairer plus commission from the Hire car.

In fault cases they get stung by the high costs of other insurers doing the same, but hey ho, that's extra on the premium for us.

 

my daughter moved from Wakefield to Birmingham, her insurance doubled. Having then driven in Birmingham a few times I can now see why - lawless.

 

Spent 18yrs working at Direct Line so seen both side of things. Another big influence on premiums have been the rise in people claiming personal injury following accidents, 10-15 years ago folk would have walked away from a small accident just thankful that it wasn't serious, but the claim culture has risen dramatically, with people going straight in for the PI claims, Whiplash, hurt backs etc. Cost the industry a fortune and there is only one place they were going to recoup the outgoings. Even if no payment is made, the sheer increase in investigating cases to try and filter out all the non genuine claims makes a big difference.

 

I'm with RAC....just checked my renewal quote its up from £434 to £ 638!!....no claims ...no nothing 46% rise!!
Scandalous

 

What's your annual mileage, Mr G?

 

Its around 8000...and has been for about 3 years

 

Hmm. I put down 5k, but actually don't do not much over 3k a year. Can't see that should make much difference if yours is 8k.

 

Thanks orsen....wonder if I alter it to 5k then?...worth a try.
I have put my details into the meerkat and cheapest quote was £502.

 

If it helps , I set my mileage expectation at 4k this summer and the premium went up from £293 to £338.
Since retirement about 7 yrs ago and covid, my mileage decreased by a few thousand but , until this recent renewal, I’d never thought of lessening the annual mileage forecast

 

Do you drive a Lotus?

 

Nope.