Hi guys,

To give some background...

Back in February someone decided to turn left on a roundabout whilst alongside my car causing damage to the O/S of the car (annoyingly nothing on their car....damn Volvos!).
Got a few quotes to fix and they came in at about £650. So had that done and paid for by the insurance minus my £90 excess.

Now comes renewal time, here's me thinking the idea of insurance is to pay a small premium so the insurance company will pay out in case of damage/theft of vehicle so that you aren't out of pocket. I had protected NCB too.

Now, the claim is still open as the two companies have only just got round to deciding who's to blame, as usual they are trying to go 50/50 but I'm having none of that as I wasn't doing anything wrong. Looked at a few quotes back in early November (too early to renew, but to give me an idea) and quote for 50/50 came out the same price as at fault, and all about £150 more than I paid last year. Which, fair enough it isn't great but I can understand it a little as i have cost them money as it were.

Come last week when I started quotes in earnest...............all those prices have magically doubled. And my new quotes are around £500 more than I paid last year, and how much did the repair cost the company? £550! So going through the insurance will in the long term cost me more than if I had got it repaired out of my own pocket. To make matters worse, I cant actually afford such a price hike, and no insurance = no car = no job (drive to appointments for work) so pretty knarked to say the least.

By the time the insurance kicks in my 'status' will be :

30 years old
7 years NCB
20k miles a year (15k business)
a total of 300,000 accident free miles up until our volvo friend wanted to know me better
Low risk postcode

Yet looking at £700 plus for insurance on a 2005 1.9 octy estate?! (going by cheapest rates on comparison sites). Is it me or is that just a little bit ridiculous, bearing in mind the M/I/L has the 2.0 tdi with a remap, suspension mods, etc (octavia5's old car) yet only pays £250?

Anopyone else had a similar thing happen to them? Any way round it? an insurer you can recommend?

All I can advise is, if you get a reasonable quote off the comparison site, don't stop there, give them a ring and have a chat. You see once on the phone they may not want you to go without getting some business from you, barter.

 

I did a comparison site quote, ended up after a barter via phone from £446 down to £362, I hardly dare tell you that was for 2 cars. The company, Admiral.

 

Btw I have had no claims and I'm retired, over 60 yes old.

Edited 29 November, 20178 yr by MickA

@robt100 This is no actual help but whilst your present claim is unsettled you have no NCB, and since the C is for Claims you should expect a typical protection racketeer  to reduce the level even for a not at fault claim.

Shopping around hasn't helped. Nothing cheaper. Currently dont have enough money to pay the insurance so looks like I've got to plead poverty on the phone to them and see what they can do. If it is no NCB until settled im pretty sure they wont suddenly refund the price difference once settled!
Two companies I spoke to today said that even with no accident my quote would have been around £600. which sounds bizarre given it was under £400 last year

@robt100 - Again no actual help (maybe) but with LV= my insurance has been within about £15 of the same premium for the last decade, so anyone who "needs" to do a 50% increase is at it IME.

I assume you didn't have protected no claims?

You would think that with those prices but no..........I HAD protected no claims, all 7 years of it.

In the last 3 years my NCB has went up and my mileage down, but the price has went from £320 to £380 to now £750

Edited 2 December, 20178 yr by robt100

If you haven't done so already, use Confused.com to compare. Otherwise ring lots of brokers and play one quote off against the other. They always ask what your best quote has been then they magically undercut it. I have never been asked to provide proof of the best quote. Your steep rise in premium with NCB protection is disgraceful. 

Well, a nice "fun" update. A stone flicked up off the road today and cracked my windscreen, so another thing to claim on the insurance at some point!
Also nice to see our friendly forum sponsors have both ran to assist in getting me a better quote I've not got the plague, though I guess I'm too "high risk" as I've had an accident after 300,000 miles, probably more than a lot of their customers do in a lifetime. But insurance only works in years.......great.

protected NCB is a swizz as awell.

 

If you have a bump you're risk goes up so your insurance goes up as well, NCB doesn't really affect that.

 

I guess it's worth it after a big shunt but having been driving for 23yr and never having had more than a couple of bumps it feels like a swizz.

I've been similarly stiffed in the past with a renewal happening mid claim. My was a no fault, 3rd party admitted blame, excess waved yet I was still treated as a 50/50 because my firm hadn't claimed the excess back from the 3rd party. Until THEY recovered costs I was still at fault.

My daughters renewal for the next 12 months came through, she's had two claims in the last 3 years, one a 50/50 the other hit and run (her car was parked) Both required insurance claims such was the damage (costly) The latest renewal quote came down £300 after a phone call asking them to reconsider the quote, it's still £1200 but why can't they come good with their best quote if they want to keep the business.

She may get a few quotes but not holding her breath.

8 hours ago, Aspman said:

I've been similarly stiffed in the past with a renewal happening mid claim. My was a no fault, 3rd party admitted blame, excess waved yet I was still treated as a 50/50 because my firm hadn't claimed the excess back from the 3rd party. Until THEY recovered costs I was still at fault.

Well, its taken them over 10 months to get to this point..........so I guess next years renewal will probably have this claim still open!

Not a solution found as such, but a better deal for sure. Managed to go with Admiral for £580, which is still £200 more than last year and a 50% increase, but that's better than the 86% increase my current insurer wanted. That is also their "worst case scenario" quote, and if the open claim comes down to 50/50 or not at fault to ring them up and they will refund the difference etc compared to if I had been quoted not at fault originally. which I though was quite good. So still not a great price, but its saved me £150 so far with the potential to save a bit more. bit better than the £750 from CK and £1,250 from Flux too

^^^ I was a bit wary of Admiral but they came good with my daughters first car insurance quote  4 years  ago. Being a new driver she was getting wild quotes some as much as £2k+

Re my above post her insurance increased with the two claims but they shaved some off that after a phone call.

 

As for me, I went ahead and got a quote from them this time around, can't really fault them for customer service, neither can my daughter, I took out a policy with them but I suppose the proof of how good they are is if a claim is made and their renewal prices next time around.