Dirct line insurance...are they trying it on?

[Octygone]

Had my renewal notice from Direct line ...

[tdirob]

personally I'd go with someone else, I had similar problems with Direct Line. My renewal price was an extra

[mannyo]

Try privelege, an offshoot of directline. My mondeo was insured with them and unlike directline my quote went down each time.

[expostmanpat]

I found direct line to be cheap for the first year and then they banged it up, a lot of people will just renew without checking I suppose. IMHO go with the lowest quote if all other factors are the same.

edit in response to mannyo, I didn't realise privelage were direct line, that is who I am currently with and agree my renewal this year is slightly less than last but excess as gone up by

[Octygone]

privelege is

[darius]

I had the same problem - I just renew online - saved well over

[ScoobyChris]

Seems to be the way of all insurance companies and I always shop around at each renewal and get the lowest quote (for the same level of cover). If they show no loyalty to their customers then I show no loyalty to them

Chris

[xeman]

going for the cheapest isn't always a good idea unless you have experiance of the company, my wife has just started a new policy she got off that website that gets 100's of qoutes and the customer service is the worst I have ever heard of.

They have taken 2 months worth of payments at once then sent a defualt of payment notice, all inside 2 weeks

[VRStu]

Try this place - Quidco - Finance - Life & Auto (26) there are some great cashback deals on insurance. It's a fully kosha site, I've so far had

[VWD]

Seems to be the slogan these days " brand new customers only - certainly the big ones - try HSBC --- i'm an old git with 9 ncb - paying around

[heresmo]

Not Direct Line, but I have a 9-year guaranteed no-claims, but I have made claims. As I understand it, if I change policy or insurer, my no-claims drops to date of last claim. I could renew elsewhere cheaper, but it wouldn't be guaranteed any more.

Regards

Mo

[storm monkey]

I had protected no claims, and claimed. Still transfered my complete no claims amount though when I moved to CIS.

As for direct line, I have had 2 dealings with them. First, one of their drivers hit me, admitted fault, no grounds for dispute, but they still took nearly a year to finally pay, and we had to threaten them with court. Thankfully my insurance provided solicitors did all that for me. Second time, I was ensured with them, and got hit. They repeatedly wrote to me telling me to settle 50/50, despite a mountin of evidence im my favour. It went to court and the appointed solicitor screwed up the paperwork, and sent details to the wrong court, so I turned up with no case. The oposition were aware of this, and aware that the judge could rule in their favour, without considering the evidence direct lines solicitor hadn't posted. Thankfully the judge was kind, and decided to hold a hearing to decide if we could re-present my case. They allowed a second hearing, but the oposition caved before it went to court. All in all, Direct lines handling of the case was initiall to just give in, then to assign me a useless council. I shan't be using them again!

Phil

[KenONeill]

I agree with Chris about the "shopping around" thing, although I find it's only worthwhile (money saved more than time money spent) every second or third year. Last time I did it I'd been with Budget, got a quote that was way cheaper than their renewal, accepted it, phoned them to cancel, was asked and told them why, and they didn't even offer to try and match it (which impressed me where an offer to match or beat it wouldn't have).

And Mo, when I did that I transferred a protected NCD with 2 "current" claims on it (second one falls off later this month ).

[Schern]

Direct Line have some quite good extra's built into the policy. I've had a read through their policy booklet and if you get hit by an un-insured driver, but the accident isn't your fault then it won't affect your ncd. And that named drivers build up NCD which is something that not all companies offer. Its always worth having a read through any policy details you can find as its amazing what can differ from policy to policy.

[ScoobyChris]

if you get hit by an un-insured driver, but the accident isn't your fault then it won't affect your ncd

Has anyone on here ever tested this? Knowing insurance companies, it may not affect your NCD, but it will affect your premium loading and insurance companies are out to make a profit!

Chris (cynical hat on today)

[KenONeill]

. And that named drivers build up NCD which is something that not all companies offer.

Is that a properly recognised NCD, or does it lock the named driver into Direct Line for a year or 2 in order that they can actually get a recognised NCD bsed on experience?

[ZootyRS]

Is that a properly recognised NCD, or does it lock the named driver into Direct Line for a year or 2 in order that they can actually get a recognised NCD bsed on experience?

The named driver NCD can only be carried into a full Direct Line policy for that person. Presumably after a year they get a renewal notice with X years NCD and can then transfer to another insurer....

We nearly got to try this out as my wife has been a named driver on my DL policy for years. Unfortunately the named driver NCD scheme only started six months before my wife got a policy in her own name. DL do also offer a discount to second car owners in the same household. So if hubby and wife both insure with DL then the second one will get an annual discount as long as the first one stays with DL.

[KenONeill]

I thought as much. As for the "second policy" discount, that surely gives Singles a reason for not insuring with a company which offers it?

[David Norrish]

Direct Line..........i also was being charged more on renewal........so i went online and got online quote and reference number.........then i rung them with my existing renewal and quoted the online reference to them and got the reduction !

[Joff]

Try this place - Quidco - Finance - Life & Auto (26) there are some great cashback deals on insurance. It's a fully kosha site, I've so far had

[Joff]

Has anyone on here ever tested this?

You'll probably need to make sure you report the incident to Police and hope the other driver doesn't give false details (good luck if it's an immigrant).

[ZootyRS]

I thought as much. As for the "second policy" discount, that surely gives Singles a reason for not insuring with a company which offers it?

Only if they subsidise the discount by charging the first policy holders more. In which case singles would have got cheaper quotes from other providers anyway. Depends how they're loading/unloading the premiums.

[cheezemonkhai]

Has anyone on here ever tested this? Knowing insurance companies, it may not affect your NCD, but it will affect your premium loading and insurance companies are out to make a profit!

Chris (cynical hat on today)

As you know i was hit by a suspected uninsured driver, who then drove off.

I lost a few days less than 4 years NCD.

I was pretty much told it wouldn't have made any difference if they had stopped or not as no insurance means i pay.

Non Fault doesn't mean non fault it means your insurance company doesn't pay out!

[KenONeill]

Only if they subsidise the discount by charging the first policy holders more. In which case singles would have got cheaper quotes from other providers anyway. Depends how they're loading/unloading the premiums.

Insurers are in business to make money. Other than by loading premiums somewhere, just how do you think they're finding savings? I'm pretty sure it's not a cost reduction, cos it's too high since they are separate policies, and there's no way it's a difference in risk.

[ZootyRS]

Insurers are in business to make money. Other than by loading premiums somewhere, just how do you think they're finding savings?

Maybe by banging on