Hah! The online sites assumes that you have spent all your pocketmoney in Halfrauds on furry seats and tacky lower than low spoilers.

Even the poor call centre folk in warmer climes will make more sense.

Have you tried "phoning" the NFU. they got a great review in Auto Express a few months ago.

Haven't tried the NFU yet, but had a look at their website last night, took a note of the number & will call them tomorrow.

I did an online quote via Adrian Flux (no price yet?) & will follow it up with a call shortly too.

Direct Line seem competitive enough online to follow up with a call, until I wanted to protected my NCB & reduce the voluntary excess (which they'd set at £350 in addition to the compulsory excess !)...and it went up by another £100 ! & that was will only 4 of the 'mods' listed (that's all there is room for). Presumably the 'credit crunch' hasn't hit the insurers yet!

How far in advance do you normally receive your renewal docs thro'...I am sure it gets later every year, which is no doubt a tactic to give you less time to shop around when you get the increased price through.

Was speaking with my Dad yesterday & he has just saved himself a fortune on his buildings & contents, by taking out a new policy with the same company as he was with already (rather than just renewing with them) it gave him a cheaper starting price, option to pay monthly at no cost (rather than another two quid a month if he'd renewed) & also gave him £55 cash back...no brainer really !

Your dad is correct. We have our hose and wife's Fabia insured with Morethan and she got a great quote for her other car (BMW) from them this year.

NFU is not the cheapest but seemed to be better all round. Worth a call though.

have you tried confused.com or money supermarket to try and look at what sort of quotes you can get? from there you could knock off £50 and use that as a basis to haggle with them.

yes, tried them both & some others direct...but most sites can't deal with the apparently 'modified' car !

I've got a couple of weeks to gather the info & trade one off against the other.

Spoke to one of the Insurers who deal with modified cars & are also a site sponsor, as I'm going to do a few mods ! They were fantastic, clearly knew what I was thinking of doing and gave me a quote that was £12 more than my present renewal (who wouldn't cover me for "any options or modifications") and that was with an agreed valuation! It also allowed for me to make a further planned mod in the new year, without having to add any extra to the premium!

So I'm now properly insured & ready to get my fingers dirty in the next few weeks

I guess that it's always worth going back to the phone & "talking" to specialists. Comparison websites are just "a" starting point!

Just do your research & you will find the type of insurance you need and with any luck it will still competitive!

how on earth can any car with factory fitted options be deemed modified.

It would mean every VW, BMW, Audi on the road would be modified! You're lucky to get seats and a steering wheel on most models ;-)

how on earth can any car with factory fitted options be deemed modified.

It would mean every VW, BMW, Audi on the road would be modified! You're lucky to get seats and a steering wheel on most models ;-)

Know what you mean, but many insurers now state 'modified from the manufacturers spec for that model' so they're clearly covering their asses so they dont have to payout should you have selected a better radio, of god forbid, any safety features such as curtain airbags or Xenons.

Anything to squeeze a few more quid out of us poor motorists I guess ! I'd never heard of this until I bought the Octavia...seems a lot more people know of the potential problem now !

how on earth can any car with factory fitted options be deemed modified.

It would mean every VW, BMW, Audi on the road would be modified! You're lucky to get seats and a steering wheel on most models ;-)

It's to do with anything that increases the "risk" factor. So when I owned a Bora & got the quote (a while ago), they didn't mind the "3rd rear 3 point seatbelt option" or the "winter pack", but were very unhappy with the sports supension & 17" alloys, as these options in their policy "increased the risk" (probably of theft or spirited driving!).

As already discussed it's in the fine print & not always made clear when you purchase your insurance. So some will buy insurance not realising that it may not cover their car, whilst some will "say nothing" and hope that there isn't an issue if they have to claim. In the first case, ignorance is no defence, & the second, not one of the wisest things to do at the very least me thinks!

The usual adage applies, "buyer beware!", however the links above to the FSA etc may be very helpful

I am in the process of speaking to a few of the brokers/companies & agree people have different outlooks on whether it is a potential problem or not. I wouldn't be comfortable knowing I might have problems if I have to make a claim, simply because I haven't declared something, which is why I am not simply taking out an 'online' policy which I know won't fully cover my car.

If that means I pay a few quid extra for the required cover then so be it, but it really is a can of worms...and I don't think anyone (including the insurers) knows the rules !!!!!!

Well it beats me how NFU could be winning any awards...called them twice tonight...it rings for ages & when someone does eventually answer...it's the same story both times, too busy to quote right now...although I was offered a call back.

Well if they are too busy to quote, I am too busy to hang around...maybe they are a victim of their success eh?

Disappointingly I had hoped Flux would call tonight as I'd setup a callback thro' them...but nothing...& the rest of the brokers I planned to call (Chris Knott & Brentacre) were closed by the time I got home.

My wife got her quote from NFU during business hours. It seems that they are only fully staffed during the daytime.

Another suggestion is ecar online insurance. SWMBO insures her motorbike with their m/cycle arm "ebike" and she declared her aftermarket exhaust which is a minor performance modification. No problems at all..... And you can get a quote anytime of the day or night...

I am in the process of speaking to a few of the brokers/companies & agree people have different outlooks on whether it is a potential problem or not. I wouldn't be comfortable knowing I might have problems if I have to make a claim, simply because I haven't declared something, which is why I am not simply taking out an 'online' policy which I know won't fully cover my car.

If that means I pay a few quid extra for the required cover then so be it, but it really is a can of worms...and I don't think anyone (including the insurers) knows the rules !!!!!!

The Insurers should know the rules, but part of the difficulty for us customers is that different Insurers have different approaches to underwriting (indeed that's why different Insurers quote us different premiums of course!).

It is difficult for us Customers to follow though, because while one Insurer might say some non performance enhancing extras are OK at the standard premium another might say the same extras warrant additional premium.

So it's best to answer their questions openly and honestly and don't be shy of double-checking that if the extras were damaged, or part of a total loss claim, the claims settlement would cover the 'standard' items plus the extras.

We are making some progress....spoke with my existing insurers yesterday & established that the renewal will be with me next week...incredibly the overall price has fallen by about a fiver !

Not that that will stop me shopping around & had a call from the folk at Flux last night, so we'll see what they can do for me.

I am more comfortable as most of you say, declaring everything & dealing with people who know about cars...rather than some of the 'direct' companies.

Thanks for all your help.

After getting a decent quote from esure (nearly 400 quid cheaper than my current insurers Zurich) for the Octy VRS im getting soon, I saw the option for 'is a tracker fitted to your car' I tried the quote again with the same answers except the tick for the tracker to see if it would be worth getting one. The quote went up by £15, why would this be, surely its a deterent and a insurance recovery aid? Why would they charge to have it fitted??

Finally renewed with Brentacre (NIG). Adrian Flux had a go at quoting, but I didn't appreciate seeing additional items (that we hadn't discussed) on the quote when it came through, including Extra Personal Insurance & Road Rage Cover !!!! (WTF) I was also a little concerned over some of the charges for mid-term changes etc.

At the end of the day, there wasn't much between them & Brentacre wanted to keep my custom & did that little bit extra to ensure I renewed with them.

Thanks for all the advice on this one. I am happy with the 'brokered' cover as I have the 'like for like' cover I believe I need. I wouldn't like to be fighting one of the comparision site online boys (that will tell you anything !) for a payout to cover xenons etc if I went down that route & needed to make a claim.

Hi,

Keeping in mind all the info gleaned from this thread I made sure that I was totally "up front" with my search for a better quote than the Norwich Union renewal of £325.00.

My wife insures her cars with MoreThan and their online quote came up with £220.00 so i was extremely pleased. They followed it up with a call and I went through it with the guy at the other end. Since we already had cars with them I also qualified for an extra discount and he came back with £196.00.. Fabulous.. I made a point about asking about factory extras and all was fine due to the puchase price of the car including the extras being quoted and premium charged accordingly. All was fine until he stated " you are covered for audio equipment up to £750.00" Damn!! What about the factory fit sat-nav (columbus) ? He said that you are fine if the car is stolen or written off, you will get a new car (with columbus) but they will only stretch to a fraction of the value if some nice crook decides to smash your window and nick your Mfd3. I decided to decline his quote at that point stating that they were ill prepared to accomodate the thousands cars now fitted with pricey systems.

About 30 minutes later he called back and said that he could cover the unit for £2000 for an extra £21.00. Which I accepted.

Sorry for the long post but thanks to this forum (and post) hopefully many of us are now aware of these pitfalls.

Cheers, G.K.

Unfortunately many won't be aware of the pitfalls until they need to make a claim. Of those insured thro' the 'online' big boys...I would imagine a very large % will not be as 'fully covered' as they believe they are...& I wouldn't think there will be much sympathy shown by the companies that were happy to take their cash at renewal time...as they say 'buyer beware'...& I guess when it comes to car insurance...you really do get what you pay for.

And I thought that SKoda Auto Insurance would have done a good deal for insuring a Skoda............

Mike

They give you nowt