Car insurance

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Discussion

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

61 months

Wednesday 11th July 2012
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Anyone got a good car insurance guy? I am getting absolutely absurd quotes on my girlfriends really basic VW Jetta 1.4tsi. Trying to sort it out today if possible because she wants to collect it tomorrow.

By absurd, I mean 1800chf...

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

61 months

Wednesday 11th July 2012
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I know... insurance is starting to become a theme of my threads on here...

UltimaCH

3,163 posts

196 months

Wednesday 11th July 2012
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Jeez, that sound's ridiculous! Did she just receive her driving licence yesterday perhaps?

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

61 months

Wednesday 11th July 2012
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Nope... she's had it for 7 years. It's ridiculous. I have found someone now who has been recommended by a few people. I will let you know how I get on and see what he says.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

61 months

Wednesday 11th July 2012
quotequote all
I just asked one guy why his quote was 1669chf. "Can you just explain to me why this car is so expensive to insure? It is not desirable in any way and has a 1.4litre engine, she has been driving for nearly 7 years without any accidents etc…"

His response was "This car is expensive to cover because all the covers are included and your girlfriend has less than 12 years of driving licence".

12 years of driving before it gets cheaper? Anyone else got an idea?

Lyons

133 posts

291 months

Thursday 12th July 2012
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Have you tried cutting out the broker and using comparis.ch? I got a quote for 1k on a new Fiat 500 1.4 with my GF as main driver (9 years driving). I thought that was expensive!

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

61 months

Thursday 12th July 2012
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I tried with comparis, but for the same cover it was actually more expensive.

This whole market is just a joke.

Schnellmann

1,893 posts

211 months

Thursday 12th July 2012
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Car insurance here is very expensive (but what isn't?)

I managed to get a slightly better price for my wife's car by using Comparis and then pushing my existing insurer to give me a discount. Still, I think it was CHF 1200 for a Polo GTi and my wife has never had an accident (in 30 years of driving), never claimed, car is parked in underground garage, only does 3000 km a year. So risk premium could hardly be less.

You might be able to get some reduction in premium by increasing your excess or by eliminating some cover. Unlike the UK here they cover and price all the different risks separately, so you could, as an example, exclude parking damage from your risks and the costs will go down.

My insurance broker has been fairly good to me (within the limits of what is possible in Switzerland!). If you want his details send me a PM. Of course, no guarantee he will be able to give you a better price!

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

61 months

Thursday 12th July 2012
quotequote all
Thanks for that, I will bear it in mind for next year...

I wanted to collect the car for her today as a surprise so she can have it when she is back tomorrow so I just ended up taking the insurance from the first guy I spoke to. I wasted an entire afternoon yesterday getting quotes and stuff and saved a paltry 50chf.

Still, some invoices were paid to me yesterday so at least it't Money In Money Out rather than just Money Out.

Ridiculous.

Schnellmann

1,893 posts

211 months

Thursday 12th July 2012
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bulldong said:
Thanks for that, I will bear it in mind for next year...

.
Your policy might be different but normally in Switzerland once you sign up it lasts more than one year. You can't then swap to a cheaper, alternative policy when it comes up for renewal. There will be some valid reasons you can terminate the contract (like dying!). I found that out when I did the Comparis search because we were changing one of the two cars on the policy (I was running the wife's car and my 993 on the same plates) and then found that I couldn't get out of the policy! Fortunately my existing broker gave me a reduction to bring me sort of in line with the better prices I had found.

AndrewD

7,592 posts

291 months

Thursday 12th July 2012
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I think you can switch policies if you sell the car and buy another.
I'm sure that's what I did with 5 Lambos, 1 Porsche, 1 BMW, and 2 Ferraris in 5 years

Schnellmann

1,893 posts

211 months

Thursday 12th July 2012
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AndrewD said:
I think you can switch policies if you sell the car and buy another.
I'm sure that's what I did with 5 Lambos, 1 Porsche, 1 BMW, and 2 Ferraris in 5 years
If only my wife knew you she would realize how reasonable my car-buying habit is!

If you sell a car you can close the policy (leaving you free to get a new policy with the next car). Unfortunately we got caught as we had two cars on the same number plate and policy and therefore would have had to sell both.

The Swiss seem to like such anti-competition approaches (like the new carbon tax on imported cars that accidentally makes it uneconomic for individuals or small dealers to do parallel imports).

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

61 months

Thursday 12th July 2012
quotequote all
My experience with this has been quite irritating on the whole. I spent yesterday afternoon getting various people to quote, and speaking to different companies, to save a grand total of 58chf. In the end I just went for the guy who quoted me first who was recommended by the garage. I figured that at least if the garage owner who I am friends with knew the guy then it would give me some leverage if something went wrong... yeah right.

I find it totally absurd that you have to insure all the different things that could possibly go wrong.

On one policy quote I received, if you crashed, you could only take it to one garage in the whole of switzerland and before I took the contract they couldn't tell me which garage it was that I could take it to. Vandalism and parking damage wasn't covered at all, that was extra... but an aircraft crashing into it when its parked on the street is covered as long as you pay 300chf excess.

I also asked one chap why his quote was 1669chf. "Can you just explain to me why this car is so expensive to insure? It is not desirable in any way and has a 1.4litre engine, she has been driving for nearly 7 years without any accidents etc…"

His response was "This car is expensive to cover because all the covers are included and your girlfriend has less than 12 years of driving licence" - 12 fkING YEARS?!!!! WHAAATTTT!?

The whole experience was a total waste of time and very irritating as there are so many things to compare even between companies and quotes.

Classic insurance cover... Covered fully for every event, except in the event of a claim.

Collected the car today.

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 12th July 21:47