Peter Best insurance broker

[mycar]

Perzackly.

[Mick Cliff]

Ah, insurance comes around all too quickly doesn't it?
I had my everyday car insured through Direct Line and this year the premium increased by 20% for no apparent reason other than a general increase all round.
So the annual search began and I ended up with 'By Miles', underwritten by AXA. An annual flat fee (£170 for me) then every driven mile chargeable (3.9p in my case) should see me 'saving' circa £300!
So the flat fee is for being parked up.
Now I do very few miles a year (less than 5,000) and you need to plug in a transponder into the OBD2 socket to record the miles, so will not suit older/classic cars. However may be useful for your everyday vehicle.
PM me if you go down this route as I think there's 'bonus' to be had (some free miles?)

[Bruce M]

I've had a two car policy with Admiral for 7 or eight years. Every year at renewal the premium has increased, generally by £50 or so and I've kept going thinking that generally things get more expensive and why shouldn't motor insurance be any different.

A month ago Admiral wrote to inform me renewal was due and the premium would increase once again, this time to £980. Having a bit more time on my hands than usual I sat for a morning to see what my Go Compare a Meercat option would be.

AA offered the same cover for £520. I called Admiral to cancel my policy and the gent on the other end offered me a £180 discount to renew. I explained that I had insured with another company and all I needed him to do was terminate my policy... and he offered me £210 discount.

These people just make it up as they go along.

Total ditto.
I have seen renewal creep from Admiral over a few years but other than a bit of light haggling just paid up as I was happy enough with service.
This year they were so far off market norms it was frankly insulting. So did a money supermarket search, skipped the “who?” brands and picked LV at a huge saving (less than 1/2 the cost).
Did this for two cars this spring and just cancelled my admiral policies. The CS rep offered a discount (noting that I was a very long standing customer) but it still wasn’t close.

[Nine One One]

Car insurance companies (as well as home insurance) are being investigated by the FCA frequently

They share a common data base, and the FCA’s main concern is how they ‘rip off’ their loyal customers every year, who they know just renew instead of searching for deals, believing falsely they are being treated well. New customers who the insurance believe on face value, get a much better deal, than customers that have been with them for years.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ty-penalty

[neilbardsley]

I agree we are using our cars less so the policy premium should reduce but unfortunately the price of risk in the financial mkts has dramatically increased. This gets pasted onto the buyer. Unfortunately the S&P going down, credit spreads widening and VIX going up increases the underwriting cost

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[one-two]

Neil, I might be more sympathetic to that argument if my premium had gone down when the S&P had gone up. But it didn't

[Sam]

I agree we are using our cars less so the policy premium should reduce but unfortunately the price of risk in the financial mkts has dramatically increased. This gets pasted onto the buyer. Unfortunately the S&P going down, credit spreads widening and VIX going up increases the underwriting cost

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Ah. Because money. Fair enough then.

[neilbardsley]

Neil, I might be more sympathetic to that argument if my premium had gone down when the S&P had gone up. But it didn't

I'm not an underwriter but never putting insurance premiums down and drifting them higher is the oldest trick in the book

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[Hugo 356]

The way motor insurance is marketed the annual shop-around is an unfortunate necessity. Current situation excluded, insurers typically make a loss on their on their standard motor policies for new customers (premiums less claims and other expenses), but make huge mark-ups on add-ons such as legal cover, personal accident cover, reduced excess and protected no claims.

Insurance is by nature never going to be good value for money as we're paying for bad and dangerous drivers, fraudsters and the costs of running the insurance industry on top. Classic car insurance looks good value when compared with our daily drivers but is actually much more profitable for the insurers who operate in this niche, the claims costs being much lower.

[one-two]

I get all that, and I understand they are exposed to volatility, but they are charging us the same for not using our cars as they do for using them. That can't be right, can it?

[jwhillracer]

Insurance makes very little sense these days. My storage and transit insurance on the hillclimb 911 was up recently, and I said that I wouldn't need the transit element, as it doesn't look as though I'll be competing this year. It was covered for 15 weekends a year, travelling all over, from Somerset to Scotland and Yorkshire, as well as the Midlands. The reduction? £2 on £358! That cannot be an accurate reflection of the risk involved doing thousands of miles on a trailer behind the motorhome, compared with sitting safely in a secure garage. Take it or leave it Sir!

Grrrrrrrr

JW

[Hugo 356]

I get all that, and I understand they are exposed to volatility, but they are charging us the same for not using our cars as they do for using them. That can't be right, can it?

I would think motor insurers are experiencing very low claims at the moment so some sort of rebate seems reasonable and right. No-doubt insurance contracts are watertight enough though to leave this at the insurer's discretion. Presumably Admiral consider the cost of their rebate worth the marketing generated.

During the 2nd World War there was (at least) one black marketeer profiting from the crisis for every soldier fighting the Nazis on the front line...

[gridgway]

Got my renewal through from Lancaster and it's gone up to £379 from £305.

I insure the rest of the bangers with Admiral multi-car and actually quite enjoy the annual 'discounts' phone call. I phone up and say "we do this every year, please discount the premium to last year's figure and I will renew". Then they go through the discounts and we have to do two rounds and lo and behold back to last year. It's probably time for another go around looking at comparisons, but it's a huge faff with 5 cars! And actually I find Admiral do a really good job. They allowed me to declare that that one of the cars has permanently moved to leeds with Miss Ridgway who is no longer a student with a very small increase. Even a claim was handled well. Wouldn't give them anything where I needed special stuff like agreed valuation, but for the bangers it's fine,

I tried the same thing with Lancaster. Asked them why it had gone up. Insurance has got more expensive apparently. I said nonsense, Admiral are giving money back as claims have fallen through the floor. They had a half-hearted effort, but didn't get there. I might give in and pay or I might go round again with the names mentioned on here. I might need to get a new valuation done which might be painful with the virus and with the depressed market.

Hey ho.

Graham