Page 1 of Car insurance - Shop around! (And blimey some companies are useless)

Every year my insurance doesn`t go down significantly, I shop around a tiny bit. Not a lot, but I`ve been swapping almost every 2 years now between Esure and Admiral, yet everytime I swap neither seems bothered in keeping my custom.

This year I was with Admiral, renewal quote roughly £350, which I`m sure is more than last year despite being older, my car being worth less, etc. Anyway checking Esure, I get an online quote for £275, so that`s instantly £75 saved.

And then I try Privilege, cos well I am a bit posh you knows, and they not only give me a quote for £245, but I can pay with monthly Direct Debit instalments at 0% APR! Whole thing done over the net, not as with previous renewals I`ve done where you fill a load of stuff in, and then you get a quote, and then you get rung up and have to go through most of it again before you are insured.

After that, I ring up Admiral, who seem much keener this year to keep my custom than in previous ones, and are offering to try and better their offer. Which mainly involves in my incredibly high mileage of 4,000 a year going up to 6,000 and that somehow meaning they want to INCREASE (yes you read that right) my insurance quote to £375.

Following that, and with a talk with the manager, they can then offer me an amazing new deal of £335. Wow, yes, of course I`ll stay with you and cost myself £90 more doe. I preferred it when they used to just not even try to stop me leaving rather than wasting 10 minutes on a pointless offer.

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It`s a total lottery. I got incredibly frustrated getting insurance a couple of months back. I`m in my thirties, no accidents and nowt on my license now, but my insurance is more than my Mrs on an identical car, in spite of the fact that she has had multiple accidents and has three points. Load of arse.

I went with Fortis in the end (through the post Office cause they don`t do direct deals). I had to pay extra for the luxury of paying by instalments (why?) and the price went up considerably when I told them I might (only might) be doing up to 10K a year, which is still less than average. Truth be told I probably do half of that, but that`s only cause I`ve been working locally for the last two years. They were still the cheapest by a fair way though. Some of the `big` names wanted over £600 to insure me on a 1.0 litre Yaris FFS.

Privilege were more expensive for me. The problem this year was that I had just bought a new car, so couldn`t go for any of that `we guarantee to be your renewal price` stuff, cause I got shot of my rusty old Escort which was only insured TPFF. Next year needs to be closer to £200 than the £275 I`m paying now. I have 9 years no claims as well!

I`ve yet to have an in-place insurance company match what I`ve been offered elsewhere.
As you say,they`ll go through all the rigmarole though. >:(

If you don`t do a lot of mileage and want a cheap policy try Norwich Union pay as you drive.

I recently took out a policy with them , estimated £141 per year full comp with 3 years NCB ( I was on 9 years but had 1 claim in February that is still unsettled ) on a group 13 car and 4500 miles a year.

It`s based on how many miles you actually drive each month and the time of the day you drive.

They fit this GPS tracker / sat nav system to your car , it will log all your driving over a month and you`ll get a bill for those miles added to the fixed monthly premium.

I know it might be "cheap" but it`s legal.

This item was edited on Thursday, 2nd August 2007, 15:56

For me with max NCB nil points - TR7 Unlimited miles, breakdown cover, business cover & THO as named driver £138 via Footman James.

For THO 1 years NCB nil points - Cavalier 1600L 6000 miles pa IIRC, business cover for her charity work & me when Serenity is poorly, me as named driver 10 months (NCB booster & breaks up paying double whammy of premiums on same day) cover. £150 via Admiral.

Esure wanted £160 IIRC for me, no breakdown cover (the only "normal" co that would touch it) & £190 for THO (which was the average quote).

Funnily enough I was looking to replace the Cavalier with a Vectra in the run up & the quotes for THO were £20 cheaper for the same details! :/




I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

I hate answering the phone at work - It disturbs my sleep.

This item was edited on Thursday, 2nd August 2007, 16:33

How the hell do you people get your insurance so cheap? I rang around twenty places, spent ages on the phone and the net and I still couldn`t get near the £200 mark (let alone under) for my piddling 1.0 group 3 car...

I used the link to the search engine via MSE initially & played with the quotes options online & then in THO`s case I tried Admiral.

In Serenity`s case, its via specialist classic car insurers.

Other factors.

Off road parking (soon to be covered carport), THO full licence 15 years. Reasonably low crime area.




I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

I hate answering the phone at work - It disturbs my sleep.

This item was edited on Thursday, 2nd August 2007, 18:36

just try the post office... in insure all three cars and the house and contents with them!



`i am going to live forever or die trying`

Brand loyalty means diddly squat with insurance companies. Especially when they offer new customers substantial discounts (usually subsidised by their regular customers)

So change regularly and often.

Got insurance with the AA last year at around £350 fully comp on a Peugeot 406. This year it wasn`t as bad as other companies, but it still went up around $40, but I changed my car to an Accord, and that would have been around the £500 mark.

Did one of those price comparison websites and the cheapest came to £260, and that`s cos of an online 30% discount for new customers. You can bet I`ll have to change again next year.

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Changing isn`t the big deal it used to be though.
You used to have to send copies of all your past documents etc.etc.
Real pain in the ass. :(
All you do now is quote the name of your existing company and the new one does everything for you. 8)