Tuesday 29th May 2001
Insurance
Is there ever any good news about insurance?
Discussion
Ever since I had a sports car my insurance has just gone up and up - I thought it fair to pay 1600 pounds when I first had an elise seeing as I was 23 and had only one years no claims- I now have three years no claims and have to pay 2000 pounds - The only thing I have done wrong in this time is get 3 points for speeding - work that one out???
I note the concerns fellow PistonHeads have regarding Insurance. If you stay with the same Insurance company they are likely to put your premiums up, after all they are trying to make more money. My advice is shop around and keep going back telling them that you now have a cheaper quote, often they will come back with a more competitive offer. Sunninghill wanted to put up our premium, however after shoping around I found a cheaper deal. I went back to Sunnghill and they have lowered the premium by over £100. The car is my wife's (4.0L Chim)we are both over 30, the car is garaged over night, limited to 6,000 miles cost = £630 (£250 excess). Overall I've been very impressed with Sunninghill.
Cheers - Adrian
Cheers - Adrian
Something Clarkson said in Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago: "It's common knowledge than all forms of insurance are legalised fraud."
It does annoy me because you have to have car insurance and the rising premiums are because of a number of possible factors:
1) Increasing numbers of scrotes damaging/stealing/joyriding/burning cars.
2) Increasing numbers of scrotes defrauding insurance companies on personal injury claims. (Claims Direct, bent GPs writing injury letters etc)
3) Insurance premium tax of 2.5% (IIRC)
4) Minor damage must be much more expensive to repair on modern cars what with moulded bumpers, big halogen light clusters, crumple zones, deformable wings, extremely thin metal etc...
5) The government will never discourage the trend because higher IPT means more taxes levied and equally, the more people are forced off the road or into smaller cars, the happier Meacher and such foliage-frottagers will be.
It does annoy me because you have to have car insurance and the rising premiums are because of a number of possible factors:
1) Increasing numbers of scrotes damaging/stealing/joyriding/burning cars.
2) Increasing numbers of scrotes defrauding insurance companies on personal injury claims. (Claims Direct, bent GPs writing injury letters etc)
3) Insurance premium tax of 2.5% (IIRC)
4) Minor damage must be much more expensive to repair on modern cars what with moulded bumpers, big halogen light clusters, crumple zones, deformable wings, extremely thin metal etc...
5) The government will never discourage the trend because higher IPT means more taxes levied and equally, the more people are forced off the road or into smaller cars, the happier Meacher and such foliage-frottagers will be.
Surely larger premiums simply mean more profit for the insurance companies and not neccesarily better payment for panel beaters/sprayers etc?
If they want more money then they should compete as is the general concept for business.
Why is the man in the street being taxed (as thats effectively what it is) for uncompetitive business practice?
Matt.
If they want more money then they should compete as is the general concept for business.
Why is the man in the street being taxed (as thats effectively what it is) for uncompetitive business practice?
Matt.
This is bullsh!t. I recently had my car damaged and had to pay the repairs myself, not done through insurance. I went round about a dozen garages getting quotes. Some were one man back street jobs, others were massive places with courtesy cars, coffee in the waiting rooms, pretty blonde receptionists etc. The difference in prices was staggering. Cheapest quote was £200 plus VAT. Highest was £1400 plus VAT! No prizes for guessing which quote came from the big garage.
Inspecting the quote a bit I discovered the £1400 garage wanted to do as much work as they could. Replacing panels that were undamaged, new light when all that was needed was a new adjuster clip, new bonnet badge for 10 bloody quid plus £10 labour etc etc. The other garage have done the job as economically as possible and you'd never know anything had been done to the car in the first place. BUT when someone crashes into youwhere does your car get fixed? Answer... the expensive place because it gets sorted out for you, you get a nice courtesy car and its so much more convenient. Therefore places like that know they can take the pi55 and still gets loads of work.
Thats why insurance costs are sky high. (And feckin Claims Direct
) The people that own these place must be making a mint and the panel beaters not very much. If insurance goes up I bet the bosses will make even more and the ordinary guys will hardly see a difference. It all smells of a big pile of b@llocks to extract even more money from our already pretty thin wallets. (Well mine's pretty thin anyway!)
Inspecting the quote a bit I discovered the £1400 garage wanted to do as much work as they could. Replacing panels that were undamaged, new light when all that was needed was a new adjuster clip, new bonnet badge for 10 bloody quid plus £10 labour etc etc. The other garage have done the job as economically as possible and you'd never know anything had been done to the car in the first place. BUT when someone crashes into youwhere does your car get fixed? Answer... the expensive place because it gets sorted out for you, you get a nice courtesy car and its so much more convenient. Therefore places like that know they can take the pi55 and still gets loads of work.
Thats why insurance costs are sky high. (And feckin Claims Direct
) The people that own these place must be making a mint and the panel beaters not very much. If insurance goes up I bet the bosses will make even more and the ordinary guys will hardly see a difference. It all smells of a big pile of b@llocks to extract even more money from our already pretty thin wallets. (Well mine's pretty thin anyway!)Its all a Pi$$ take these days.. In the last 9 years I've paid out over £5000 to insure cheap cars (6 years with only a VW Beetle@£1000) living in the Back end of Beyond (Cornwall then Herefordshire).
And the NCB system is a farce anyway as reasonable premiums only seem to exist if you have 5yrs NCB and anyone else with less gets exploited. Also why does the system stop at 5 yrs? slightly unfair if you ask me.. why not 10yrs NCB giving you more discount..?
Maybe its just me. Quick rant over now
Cheers
Matt.
And the NCB system is a farce anyway as reasonable premiums only seem to exist if you have 5yrs NCB and anyone else with less gets exploited. Also why does the system stop at 5 yrs? slightly unfair if you ask me.. why not 10yrs NCB giving you more discount..?
Maybe its just me. Quick rant over now
Cheers
Matt.
Not to forget mattjbatch that when you get a repair done on the insurance, your insurer insists you take your car to one of their approved garages, not like you could find the best quote anyway!!! And they don't always do a good job - the approved repairer for my GF's car made a complete pig's ear of replacing a door a couple of years back, tookl many phone calls to insurance co before they even sent someone else out to look at the car! (To be fair, the bloke sent out took one look at it and said "What a F*cking mess, we'll have it all put right ASAP" and they did too..)
quote:
Ever since I had a sports car my insurance has just gone up and up - I thought it fair to pay 1600 pounds when I first had an elise seeing as I was 23 and had only one years no claims- I now have three years no claims and have to pay 2000 pounds - The only thing I have done wrong in this time is get 3 points for speeding - work that one out???
Well think about this I ran my TVR S1 for three years as my only car, I was 28 when I purchased it, full protected NCB, garaged, limited milage etc and I paid around £400 a year.
I sold the S1 and bought a BMW 325i Touring and they want £520 when I asked for a renewal on the S they quoted £420. Aparently this is because the S was in a cherished scheme and the BMW falls into a higher group rating for GTi type cars.
So an estate car with a smaller engine is more expensive to insure that a soft top sports car, go figure
But I agree that with this litigous society the insurance companies are having to pay out more in claims for personal injury and they are getting higher all the time, with the likes of claims direct and the insurance companies now having to foot the bill for the emergency services attendinding road accidents.
All these costs have to go somewhere and it all comes down to the customer.
Paul
g bI got my Elise S2 insured through Tesco of all people this year! Titter ye not... £619 FC with £250XS. They beat all the others, esp. the "Performance Specialists" by around £200. When you actually get the policy through, the penny drops that the actual insurance company, e.g. Lloyds, is the same, regardless of the broker. People like Tesco are apparently good at the moment, because they want to expand the Financial Services sides to their business, and are big enough to be able to afford to cut prices in order get market share, and then market all their other financial products to the customer. Clever buggers!
I must be the voice of dissent against the general tide here. I work for an Insurer in the City and think you guys need a bit of education.
There are very few motor insurers who have made any money for the last three - four years. Basically, an average motor insurer has been paying out £1.20 for every £1.00 they get in premium. You can't sustain that when running a business, needless to say.
Increased physical injury payouts are partly to blame but the main reason has been that competition for market share has been so intense that stupid Underwriters wrote business for income and market share rather than profit. It's daft but it has happened before and will likely do so again.
That benefits the consumer in the short-term as you have frankly been getting a bargain for the last three years. If the insurer is making a loss how can you acuse them of ripping you off ??
Premiums have had to rise to the level they were supposed to be in the first place. I'm sorry, but there's no getting away from it. Believe me, if you shop around for your car insurance the cheapest quote will be a good deal. It may not be cheap, but if the insurance company is making hardly any money out of you, you just haven't got a reason to complain.
Alternatively buy a classic like mine with a huge engine and tyre-shredding performance and pay less than £200 fully comp p.a. (and I'm under 30).
Captain Insurance
There are very few motor insurers who have made any money for the last three - four years. Basically, an average motor insurer has been paying out £1.20 for every £1.00 they get in premium. You can't sustain that when running a business, needless to say.
Increased physical injury payouts are partly to blame but the main reason has been that competition for market share has been so intense that stupid Underwriters wrote business for income and market share rather than profit. It's daft but it has happened before and will likely do so again.
That benefits the consumer in the short-term as you have frankly been getting a bargain for the last three years. If the insurer is making a loss how can you acuse them of ripping you off ??
Premiums have had to rise to the level they were supposed to be in the first place. I'm sorry, but there's no getting away from it. Believe me, if you shop around for your car insurance the cheapest quote will be a good deal. It may not be cheap, but if the insurance company is making hardly any money out of you, you just haven't got a reason to complain.
Alternatively buy a classic like mine with a huge engine and tyre-shredding performance and pay less than £200 fully comp p.a. (and I'm under 30).
Captain Insurance
Sorry Captain but I don't believe Insurance companies are making no money. In all the cases I've know people that have had to make a claim they have effectively paid off the repair in 3 years (myself included). That means anyone with protected NCB (like myself) ie 5 years min. Have paid for people with lots of claims. Also people with lost of claims have their premiums jacked up higher.
In my experience insurance is about 10% the value of the car. So in other words for a complete right off you need 10 people to have insured a similar car, assuming you pay back the full value of the car (yeah right
). We know that the vast majority of accidents are not right-offs and the accident rate is lower than 10%. So none of this B***sh*t of "we're not making any money"
I believe Direct Line seem to be doing rather well in their profits.
In my experience insurance is about 10% the value of the car. So in other words for a complete right off you need 10 people to have insured a similar car, assuming you pay back the full value of the car (yeah right
). We know that the vast majority of accidents are not right-offs and the accident rate is lower than 10%. So none of this B***sh*t of "we're not making any money" I believe Direct Line seem to be doing rather well in their profits.
My rather elderly Audi is worth probably £800. I am 29 and have never had a claim. All six of my points have expired from my licence and I have been with my insurer for many years. This year my insurance has increased by 30%. Even shopping around I have been unable to find a cheaper quote. Direct Line even asked about my alarm/immobiliser! It'd cost more to fit one than the car's worth...
I had decided to buy a lateish Golf VR6 in the summer, but average quotes of £800 have put me off for the time being.
I have paid for the tiny value of my 14 year old car many times over, consequently I am thoroughly pissed off.
I had decided to buy a lateish Golf VR6 in the summer, but average quotes of £800 have put me off for the time being.
I have paid for the tiny value of my 14 year old car many times over, consequently I am thoroughly pissed off.
I think you're paying the price for Audis high spare parts prices there. It costs my wife the same to insure her 15 year old Audi Coupe as I pay to insure a much newer S4. Figure that one out...
I beleive it's also true that, historically, insurers made a good proportion of their profits from other investments - in other words using our premiums to make them more money, which in turn helped them to keep premiums low. Sustained low interest rates and a faltering economy have knocked the investment revenue stream on the head somewhat.
I beleive it's also true that, historically, insurers made a good proportion of their profits from other investments - in other words using our premiums to make them more money, which in turn helped them to keep premiums low. Sustained low interest rates and a faltering economy have knocked the investment revenue stream on the head somewhat.
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