I've been looking for alternative quotes after my broker quoted £842 for one years fully comprehensive on my 2003 Fabia 1.4 16v saloon - last years was £468.

Obtained quotes from Confused.com and I'm amazed at the huge range of prices, £420 to £782. Went to single insurer site, Lloyds TSB and was quoted over £1,000.

I should say that the last three years has been a bit claims rich -

March 2006 - windscreen replaced, claimed £368

October 2006 - tree branch fell on car, claimed £468

June 2007 - grazed Lotus Elise in car park, claimed £1190

Also got 3 points on my licence (SP30) on my licence in March 2006.

I expected the premium offered by my existing broker to go up, but not to double.

I'm also at a loss to understand why some of the premiums quoted on Confused.Com are lower than last year's.

Can anybody explain what's going on ?

Nick

16/02/08

I know. My insurance is due next month

D Line quoted 1400 if I had 0 ncb and they want 800 for 2 years (I paid 700 with Kwik Fit last year)

I have 1 claim from 2005 when I overran a give way in a supermarket and managed to get my Astra written off in a low speed shunt.

And 1 from last year after a foreign truck sideswiped my Felly and almost got written off for panel damage.

Will see what happens next month,

Confused are good to shop around with

Give 'Hastings' a try, just got my renewal quote through £340 fully comp.

Thanks. Tried "Hastings Direct" with the following results.

With 3 claims in the last three years, including the windscreen claim, gives 0 NCB and the premium shoots up to £1,130 (Incl legal cover of £21). Wow !

I think that's where some of the disparity in the range of values in Confused.com quotes may arise - I did not include the windscreen claim when I requested that quote, because I didn't think that it was strictly a claim. My rationale for doing this was that my current broker's renewal document referred to losses in the last 5 years and didn't include the windscreen claim.

The Confused.Com quotation input document did not specifically refer to windscreen claims as a separate category, it was configured so that the person requesting the quote had to decide this issue.

The Hastings quotation input form did state windscreen claims as a recognised category in a drop-down list box.

Consequently, I believe, the Hastings system awarded me 0 NCB whereas Confused.Com system awarded me 1 years NCB !

I have sought direction from Confused.Com as to whether a windscreen claim counts as a claim for the purposes of their quotation system.

If this is what's happening then £710 (£1,130 - £420) does seem an awful lot to pay for the loss of one years NCB given the size of the actual loss ( £368) that would have given rise to the reduction in NCB from 1 to 0.:thumbdwn:

I presume that if one decides to take a Confused.Com claim further with one of the companies listed in their quotation, then you have to re-state the info originally provided in a more detailed and accurate way and in so doing declare the windscreen claim ? This must mean that that your original quotation will be revised - almost certainly upward) ?:thumbdwn:

If this doesn't happen and you contract on the basis of the information originally supplied, then you leave yourself open to having any future claim refused on the grounds that you withheld information ?

This could be an interesting one !

Is there a common industry wide position on the declaration of windscreen claims or does it vary from policy to policy ?

HEEEEEEEELP !!!!!!!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Nick,

17/02/08

Couldn't wait for Confused's E-mail reply, so I revised the quote with the following details:-

Number of claims in last 5 years = 3

. . . . and then listed them as Windscreen claim, storm damage claim, Driver fault accident claim.

The Confused system output NCB = 1 with a range of premium values more or less the same as before i.e. £420 to £797. Euh ?

This is the same as the NCB with my current policy which expires next month - presumably this data is picked-up of the industry wide database.

I have to say that I hadn't realised that previous insurer's declaration of the preceeding periods NCB had such a large influence on current premium value. This means that Confused effectively, when quoting for value, ignore information volunteered by the applicant even if it is to their advantage, until its is formally declared by the previous insurer. That's not to say that they won't use inconsistencies in the information supplied by the applicant when it comes for refusing claims !

Presumably, if I were to obtain a re-quote from Confused.Com after the end date of my current policy, the industry database will have been updated by my current insurer with the current year info and the NCB used in the calculation will have fallen to 0, in which case the premium quoted by Confused will go up. So that if I re-insure before expiry of my current policy i.e. as normal, I will not feel the effect of this year's claim till renewal in 2009 ?

This means that either my current broker is operating at an institutionalised competitive disadvantage when quoting ahead of time for my next period of insurance due to his access to privileged information i.e. the revision of my NCB to 0 due to my claim this year, or he is making a mistake or trying it on by quoting NCB = 0 as of today's date. That can't be right ?

It also appears that some insurers, the very high quoters, have access to this priveleged info because they are operating on the basis that my NCB = 0.

How can there be two standards operating here ?

I am definitely confused now.

Nick,

18/02/08

That's quite funny ! Who ever heard of someone being at a competitive disadvantage because they had access to privileged info ?

Nick,

18/02/08

Cheap loans | mortgages | credit cards | home & car insurance - moneysupermarket.com offer cheaper quotes than confused.com

They quotes go up and down, some insurers have static excess, some offer loan cars in the event of an accident etc. Some don't.

Normally it would be the cheaper ones who offer less benefits.

To insure my Type-R, KwikFit would want £4,890. They do have the benefit of throwing in an MOT though, even though my car is not worthy of an MOT for another year.

Can anybody explain what's going on ?

It's all about risk and the target market for the insurance companies you're looking at would like. Add to that the fact there are loads of introductory offers to attract new business and you have wildy varying renewal quotes.

I tend to ring around as many insurers as I can come renewal time and play the price-matchers off each other. Failing that, you could play brokers off each other. I'm currently insured through Adrian Flux, but used Chris Knott when I had my Fabia as they offered a Brisky discount.

Chris

Try the Post Office. There's a £50 cashback for policies taken out before end of June.

I tried it for my renewals for 2 cars. Were the cheapest by far

Tesco value car insurance! Seriously!

You get almost nothing other that the car being insured, but if you're after cheap then it's the way forward.

Yes I'm with Tesco value - very cheap but high excess - Normal Tesco is fair value and they are doing a £50 cashback if you have their clubcard at the moment I think.

At my work, we refer to motor quotes as "the random number generator".

I found Kwik-fit the cheapest for me, although i'm still gutted that i pay more for insurance than the Impreza i sold it for !

Privilege for me.

05 Octy 2 litre TDI Sport (group 9) £600 full comp.

Changed car to.......

07 Renault Sport Clio 197 (group 15) £600 full comp:confused:

So i'm paying £50 per month, the same as last year.

That's with two claims as well.

No idea how they have worked that out but i'm not going to complian:D:thumbup:

Quotes from confused were from £800-1500:eek: