Car insurance renewal

I’ve just told a poor girl at Hastings direct to shove their policy!
Last year it went up nearly £300 to £750 and my renewal just received £1.153 😱
Did comparisons with several under £700 so I ring Hastings to query if they’ve made a mistake and lo and behold she did some “adjusting” as I’d got comparisons and the new quote was £633 half the quote. After I’d given her a piece of my mind I apologised and told her to pass my outburst up the chain to her bosses I said I don’t want to do business with a company who try to dupe people who aren’t savvy into paying double what they should.
I’m now with RAC for less than I paid last year and I feel better for it.

beware of comparison web sites, we took out contents insurance, good price. When renewal came we stupidly didn't check the fine print assuming Ts&Cs were as before, NO, because we came through a third party our excess was higher and max payout less than if we'd renewed directly with the company. Had to make a claim and found out about the Ts &Cs so cancelled policy there and then

I dread it each year, I hate haggling, got car insurance and breakdown to sort out and I am stressing.

NonGrannyMoll

Amazingly, I've just had my renewal notice and it's actually £30 CHEAPER than last year! The company is Dial Direct and I got the deal online. I haven't passed a milestone birthday or anything, but I don't drive a lot of miles, so maybe that's it. No guarantee that other people will get as good a deal as me, but I just thought I'd mention it.

I will make a note of them for next year. We only do 3000 miles a year but I think post code has an influence on the cost of car insurance too.

Amazingly, I've just had my renewal notice and it's actually £30 CHEAPER than last year! The company is Dial Direct and I got the deal online. I haven't passed a milestone birthday or anything, but I don't drive a lot of miles, so maybe that's it. No guarantee that other people will get as good a deal as me, but I just thought I'd mention it.

Silvertwigs

Your more of a risk on their risk scale.

I suppose statistics give that picture but my DH has been driving since he was 18 and has never had an accident, I have been driving since I was in my 40s and also have never had an accident. We only do about 3000 miles a year but the law of averages applies I suppose.

Well we did several searches on comparison sites and found a policy with the RAC which saved us £170 on the renewal Hastings Direct offered us so we set it up to commence on September 6th when the other one finishes. Before we did this I said to my DH should call Hastings Direct to match the price but he feels they should have offered us a more competitive price from the beginning. Lo and behold today Hastings are trying to contact us to discuss our renewal, we do object to this way of doing business so have blocked the number. One positive we have found during the process is that our car which we bought five years ago at a year old is worth only £1500 less than the price we paid for it. It seems the price of second hand cars has appreciated significantly. I will try to remember everything I have learnt from this thread when we renew next year. We have also added both sons to the policy in case we need them to drive the car in future.

Mine was £174, Skoda, four years old and £253, Kia,
Sport, sixteen years, both fully comp.

I've just had my quote through from Saga and it was £449 which is less than last year.. fully comprehensive.. full no claims discount

The comments on why premiums have risen are very true. Modern cars are meant to ‘crumple’ in accidents (to absorb the impact) and the old days of having panels beaten out is mostly gone - it’s all replaced at considerable cost by the main dealers. I also think cars are more often written off by Insurers, as too expensive to repair.
There’s also personal injury to factor in, with millions of pounds being paid out in claims.

Remember ‘we’ are also paying out for the thousands of drivers who don’t bother with any insurance!

I’d never go for automatic renewal - there’s no reward for loyalty these days - every year is a challenge to find a competitive rate. Usually it’s a case of being lured in by a good price for the new customer, then the price rockets. Thats why it’s best to shop around sooner rather than later.

According to my broker premiums have increased by 50% this year so I thought my renewal last weekend at 10% higher wasn’t too bad after all. Bad enough but not that bad given what I was told. Buildings, contents and travel insurance are the next ones we’ve to contend with so I won’t hold my breathe as to what they’ll work out at.

About the same as mine. I stayed with AXA as they give a loyalty discount and also good customer support on the phone.

I got a new Aygo Xtrend in 2018 and fully comp. with Admiral was around £35 per month. Changed it this year for a year old Aygo Cross and insurance is £44 per month. I've 15 years NCB. I have stayed with them as they seem to be reasonable compared with what I've heard.

Your more of a risk on their risk scale.

The hike in insurance, which we all end up paying for is due to many factors:

delays in getting parts, knock on cost of courtesy cars

High incidence of stolen Range Rovers

Cost of repairing/writing off electric cars involved in any kind of front end shunt which damages the battery

This is all from a friend working in car insurance

I raised the excess a few hundred pounds & it brought the price down considerably.Fingers crossed I don’t need to claim!

We are with Direct Line and have been for about 4 or 5 years. We are 69 and 66. Not sure whether it would make it cheaper if we put one or two of our sons on the policy?

No, young people or new drivers pay very high premiums.

Just on the point of paying less if you pay a month earlier. I am a bit puzzled that when my e-mail came with my insurance reminder a few weeks ago it stated it would be renewed automatically on the date, therefore paying earlier would not have made any difference?

Heard on Radio 4 last week that we, OAPs, have far less accidents than young drivers, but youngsters insurances are a lot less than ours ????

I run an 8 year old petrol-engined Mazda 2. I have full no-claims. My recent renewal was £351.58 with Roadside Recovery and a named driver, with LV. I will keep it going as long as I can, but it's entirely possible that my insurance will go up if I have to replace it. For many reasons, I will be getting another lean-burn petrol car. Modern cars are very expensive to repair, and EVs and hybrids are eye-watering to repair because even quite minor knocks can damage the integrity of the battery, and make them a fire risk. Lithium battery fires are horrific, so the garages have to store cars with possibly damaged batteries away from all their other cars in case the whole lot go up. Furthermore, independent garages are wary of them, and have limited access to parts, so the insurance companies normally specify dealerships. All of this is expensive. My neighbour sold her 17 year old Honda Jazz for a 2 year old hybrid Jazz. Her insurance leapt up from £300 - £1,300 after shopping around. It might be obvious to say so, but insurance companies are businesses, they have to predict risk, and you can see what the financial risk is by looking at comparative premiums. Some make policy decisions to get out of particular vehicles. They may refuse to insure, or else make the premium prohibitive. Caveat emptor!

flappergirl

I insured my Hyundai Getz (1.1 engine, petrol and manual) in February this year for around £400. I've owned the car for 6 years and the cost at each renewal has always been around this mark. Sadly the Getz died in July and I bought a Hyundai i.10 which is the same size as the Getz and almost identical in every respect other than it is 2 years younger.

I phoned my insurance brokers to insure the i.10 expecting a quote of £400 as usual but instead the cheapest they could offer was nearly £900. I've had no accidents, claims, changes in circumstances or anything and I'm only six months older than I was in February!

I queried it naturally as the cars are virtually identical but the broker could offer no reasonable explanation other than premiums have increased. I find it hard to believe they've more than doubled since February.

we have found in the past this is because your company has had a run of claims on Hyundai i.10's in the last year and don't want to insure anymore of them, so price you out of the park so you will go to another company.

I am 83 years of age and trawled the price comparison sites, had really price.

Direct Line reduced my car insurance by almost £100 mainly because I drive locally and only short distances. I have been penalised by other companies for similar.

I paid recently and that will be my last because I am giving up my car. I would prefer to make the decision than have it made for me. I will be 81 next month.

One thing I've learned is to renew it sooner- I always seem to leave it to the last minute and it seems this is costing me.

I also tried tesco- which in the end wasn't cheaper than my present insurers. the young man on the phone was also extrememly rude and cut me off!

Unfortunately, there seems to be no 'discount for loyalty' now in regard to motor insurance. We had both stayed with the same company for some years but once premiums started creeping up we decided to shop around.

We needed two cars as we both worked full time in different places and being named drivers on each others policies did bring the cost down.

Now retired, we only need the one car. We are both insured to drive it and have added two AC's as named drivers which gave us a further discount too.

We shop around every year too.