Laughable insurance renewal

[frankman]

Friends,

I thought Skoda were normal cars for normal people!

Since I joined here ( after ordering my Octavia MPI Estate ), I get to hear about all these mods and engine mapping - whatever that is.

The insurance for my Skoda is with Aviva. who are difficult to deal with, but they gave me the better price. After I agreed to transfer my no claims bonuus from the current Fiat Doblo to my new Skoda. I was peed off that Adrian Flux couldn't give me a better price.

At the end of the day, I was 53 at the time ( 54 today ), and was offered a £200 quote! Thank you 'guv - job done!

Frank.

[jrw]

Aviva are coming out the same as Axa once i have reduced the excess and put courtesy car and NCD protection on....

[rainbowsend]

I just renewed my insurance last month, previous year was £265 renewal was £380 via admiral. Done the usual comparison surfingand got nowhere cheaper. Phoned them up and got a loyalty discount taking it back to £315 so proof that they can help out a bit. Standard vrs tdi 2007 plate, me 34yr old max ncb no points, wife 32 3 points for cd10 she's got a touran sport and that was only £250 to renew but pretty much same as last year.

I also use Admiral and found when renewing to ring them for a better deal ! ( Also seem 'friendly' when declaring mods)

[Wardy]

Friends,

I thought Skoda were normal cars for normal people!

They can be, it's all down to personal preference.

And it's also possible for a normal person to have a modified car

[frankman]

Hello Wardy,

now that I've bought an OCtavia estate, I'm back to normality!

Having always bought Fiat through my life, driving my Skoda is a revelation. I recently had a compliment from a friend who has a Mercedes estate costing at least double the price that I paid!

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy my Doblo. A great workhorse for taking stuff to the dump. In past few months I've spent a couple hundred on it. Both wiper motors went, it also needed new front discs and brake pads. I didn't pay Fiat prices though. My son works for a Fiat dealer near Cardiff, so gets staff discount. My brother will then fit on the parts. The dealer my son works for, also sell Skoda, so I'll get a better deal next time.

Frank.

[wilson323f]

Try rsa there a basic insurer but cheap if its only cover you want in 23 with no points all my mods declared and i pay £120

[Evening Star]

£455 for a 1,8TSi DSG Elegance. (Privilege)

It's gone up £80, but £50 of that is because I'm paying by instalments this year, as I've got too much on my credit cards.

I've got 8yrs protected NCB, but one claim 2 years ago, so I suppose it's not that bad, considering I did about £12k of damage thanks to damp trainers.

[flinflon]

If you're getting outrageous quotes you should read the car insurance rackets exposed in today's Times article by Jack Straw. For example, claims for whiplash £2billion, cost to NHS to treat whiplash £8 million. Everybody seems to be on some wheeze or other. As my boss long ago used to say "It's screw or be screwed"; now where did I toss that claims company phone number? Damn I got to search through the rubbish bin.

[weyland]

One of the reasons that insurance has rocketed is because of the number of injury claims being lodged at the time of accidents. Many brokers and insurance companies now appoint their own solicitors and have processes setup to provide you with courtesy cars etc (again maybe provide by comopanies that they own or have partnered with). The insurance companies earn a fortune from this as they charge a high price for these services which they look to settle through the third parties insurance. The problem is this is a viscous circle as each company is doing it to every other company, so as legal bills and compensation payouts go up the premiums do as well to compensate. I worked for the largest personal lines/intermedary/broker in the country a few years ago and tbh what they get up to is shocking.

Adding a female driver currently lowers the risk which is why people are finding it cheaper to have the wife on the policy even if she doesn't drive the car. This of course will all be changing shortly.

Postcodes are based upon historical risk so the post code lottery does actually have some fact behind it (even if you think it doesn't apply to you).

Renewal systems profile people and work out how much they are likely to pay for their insurance. I've seen instances whereby people have been charged 300-400% more if it is deemed the customer will pay, equally I've seen instances whereby people have been sold insurance at cost or less than cost price if it is deemed liklely that they will accept a renewal at a much higher price.

It pays to shop around.

[flinflon]

So, Jack Straw is right, the car insurance game is run by a bunch of crooks. It's a wonder the Mafia aren't involved. So much for (self) regulation.

[Evening Star]

So, Jack Straw is right, the car insurance game is run by a bunch of crooks. It's a wonder the Mafia aren't involved. So much for (self) regulation.

The whole private sector is run by crooks, that's not just insurance, but water, gas, transport & of course then there's the biggest bunch of crooks...

Who've been caught fiddling their expenses... :evil:

[fluffmeister]

I don't suppose you can use compare sites for non standard cars, can you?

LV surprised me this year by sending me a renewal almost exactly the same as compare site "new business" - about £230 for a 1.8TSi - no remaps though!!

It wasn't worth me changing companies - first time for about 10 years that I've renewed.

LV did the same on my wife's car. No matter where I shopped around I could not beat their price to renew. It looks like they may be one of the few insurance companies that punt out their "best price" for renewals rather than try and take you for a ride.

My MX-5 is with LV as well, and again, shopping around their price to renew, so far, seems to be the best quote. One of the worst was More Than wanting £680 for the MX-5, LV are £266.

Skoda insurance quoted me as a follow on for their driveaway cover on the new Superb, they wanted £658 on a 1.8 TSi SE Plus, it's cost me £12 increase on my current LV policy and if I was renewing today, would be £328.

I have had to make a claim on my LV home insurance and it was fuss free and efficient, so let's hope the car side is should the need ever arise.

[DionJ]

Evening all,

Got home to find my insurance renewal waiting for me from Chris Knott. Opened it up to find they want £989 from me for the vRS - £1087 if you pay monthly (almost £100 credit charge!).

That's for a 30 yr old with 8 years PCNB and with the wife (who's 3 years older) on there too as a named driver. Last time I paid money like that to insure a car I was 21 and driving a BMW, not 30 driving a Skoda......

The insurance is actually through Highway, a subsiduary of Liverpool Victoria. Can anyone suggest a viable alternative? I might try LV directly, or any others before I go back to Chris Knott and laugh at them. Considering they're a broker I think they should actually try to get you a better deal as opposed to just sending through stupidly high renewals like that, but perhaps I'm not being realistic. :(

Needs to be relatively modification friendly as I have declared the map and will continue to do so with the replacement insurer.

Also, as per some good advice I got from MoneySavingExpert I've got myself a Tesco 15 months interest free card so will be paying for the insurance outright on that and saving myself the stupid credit fees they all seem to want.

Thanks in advance,

Chris.

Highway did the same to me quote was over £1200 (I'm 38), I called the AA and they insured me for £550 and that included monthly direct debit, Protected No Claims, Legal Cover, Stay Mobile, Courtesty car etc etc

Highway's excuse for such an expensive quote was because there were so many uninsured drivers in Birmingham.... I'm in Redditch B98 which is 16 miles outside of Birmingham! They are rip off artists.

[DionJ]

Another excuse Highway insurance gave me - 2 years in a row was high claims due to the snow and the policy has gone up to cover that.

I explained that I did not claim but was told "but we would have paid out had you been involved in an accident" - what a joke, I asked why I bothered insuring and was abruptly told "it's the law" at which point I put the phone down...

[VRSDanny]

I went with elephant.co.uk - 23 with 5 years NCB no points or accidents. mum and dad as names drivers and i paid just under 1k...... :'( would have hoped you could get it cheaper tbff!

[jrw]

It is about time they regulated these bunch of crooks. The personal claims thing was in the news last night and a few have been taken to court over it and for also inflating the repair costs of vehicles.

ie someone goes into the back of you, you phone your insurance (company a). They send it to a bodyshop, bill is say £2k. company a will then pay the bodyshop/hirecar company. Company a will then send an invoice to Company b (other persons insurance) for say £4k. Someone at my works claim has gone to court over this issue and i think it made the nationals as his claim was one of many from this certain company being investigated

[Chrispy]

Well I called Sky today and was delighted to be quoted £770 compared to the £1000 Highway wanted and £860 LV wanted, with a lower excess too. It's the same price it was with Highway before the remap and before the renewal which is good. Almost inflation busting if you will.

Nice and easy too with a helpful knowledgable chap on the phone (Luke). Recommended.

[ednmra]

I guess you just have to be 66 and have forgotten what the accelerator does?

[jrw]

Just thought i would update on this. Had my renewal come through at £574, phoned them up and they got it down to £562. Still £112 more than last year with an extra years NCB but the cheapest price by far.

It is with IAM Surety and the cover provided by Lloyds KGM

[lfc958]

I have been with LV for about 8 years, up to 2 years ago my renewals always came though with a hike of no more than £20, so what i do now is call them as soon as i get my renewal, and see if they can better it but they werent prepared to budge, so i asked to be put through to new business, hey presto i managed to pay the same as the previous year + £10, so a repeat of this process last year resulted in the same thing.

This year am going to do the same, see if they can do any better , otherwise see what new business price is.

[ednmra]

I have been with LV for about 8 years, up to 2 years ago my renewals always came though with a hike of no more than £20, so what i do now is call them as soon as i get my renewal, and see if they can better it but they werent prepared to budge, so i asked to be put through to new business, hey presto i managed to pay the same as the previous year + £10, so a repeat of this process last year resulted in the same thing.

This year am going to do the same, see if they can do any better , otherwise see what new business price is.

How much higher was their "old business" renewal demand this year? Mine was only £5 or so.

[john1280]

I was with Zurich for 2 years until they hiked my renewal to over 500 quid .I switched to AXA for the same package at 330 which is less than i paid last year .pays to shop around .

[HWMBO - Mark]

I was with Zurich for 2 years until they hiked my renewal to over 500 quid .I switched to AXA for the same package at 330 which is less than i paid last year .pays to shop around .

Same here I swopped from Tesco to Axa when I changed cars & it went to £310. I feel really lucky looking at what some people have to suffer with. Robbing bar stewards

[Grizzle]

We are £336 with 8yrs PNCB, 29yrs old, wife named driver zero accident with BMW Insurance the benefits are outstanding it also includes key cover

[HotRod]

Went with Octagon Insurance for the first year of ownership of the Octy - this was between 600 - 700 fully comp..

I found these on a price comparison site, one of the big 2 (meerkat or idiot with the moustache) - and they seemed reasonable.

It's now renewal time and, again, I've done some comparisons - ALL of the big players that promise upto x% discount came in at £1K+ - similarly all the cheap ones (Tesco Value) came in at £900 - £1000.

Octagon were prepared to offer me a "modest increase, in line with the current financial market" of just over £800. (quite how they can say this with another years no claims- no idea).

We even tried Admiral Multicar - adding SWMBO's on there - but this came in at £1,800 for both.

Finally I gave in to advertising (thanks Briskoda) and called Sky - My jaw hit the floor when they quoted me not much over £400 fully comp and allowed for mods..

My monthly expenditure on car insurance is now about £40.

Seriously - I can't recommend them enough.

Thanks Kevin and all the gang at Sky - Sod those other idiots that quoted me happy (with laughter) - you guys and girls and have really made my year.