Car insurance rocketing

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Both our cars are up in the next two weeks, both have gone down, in spite of Frau Bahn picking up another 3 speeding points, followed just 2 weeks later by a speed awareness course (the 2nd offence happened 3 years and a week after her last course, she was convinced it would be another 3 points)...

 

[Looby]

Is it fairly new?

Car insurance has increased a lot indeed — it’s had to just to try to break even. The cost of cars has increased about 30-40% since the pandemic, for example, and injury claims get more frequent and more severe by the year. But having more than one claim in the last five years will definitely multiply it further, sadly. Were the claims fairly sizeable? If so, at least you got your money’s worth…

2021, hybrid.

Not really, the biggest claim was no fault for me as they drove into me on a roundabout.

The other was fairly minor but my fault.

I’ll be leasing next so by the time I need to insure my own car again they’ll have dropped off.

 

[Looby]

I have a crv too, and mine's aroubd 1k. 12 year old car, actually maybe 13 now, no accidents, live on a busy road in Birmingham that people speed down. I stayed with mine as the slightly less monthly cost meant I couldn't be arsed changing it (crap exec function).

Yeah, ditto. Much easier to stick!

 

[Spymaster]

Both our cars are up in the next two weeks, both have gone down, in spite of Frau Bahn picking up another 3 speeding points, followed just 2 weeks later by a speed awareness course (the 2nd offence happened 3 years and a week after her last course, she was convinced it would be another 3 points)...


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Mine went down this year too.

Also AXA (which interestingly, is not an acronym but was chosen because it can be pronounced easily regardless of what language people speak).

 

[kabbes]

I don’t know what is the obsession that insurers (including my company) have with serif typefaces, by the way. It’s well-established that they are more difficult for people to read. But that AXA quote is particularly ugly, with its mix of serif and sans serif.

 

[hash tag]

To keep your premiums down perhaps you should refer to your self as being a graphic designer.

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/tax-insurance-and-warranties/2024-07/car-insurance-scandal-as-care-workers-hit-with-highest-annual-premiums/

 

[Puddy_Tat]

(i changed cars in december, hence the not quite so simple comparison)

i can feel an outbreak of shopping round coming on...

 

[kalmatthew]

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(i changed cars in december, hence the not quite so simple comparison)

i can feel an outbreak of shopping round coming on...

I had something similar and was "amused" when I phoned Admiral to cancel as I'd. Found someone offering cover at my old price that they said they could match it by removing various extras I wanted including a second driver. I pointed out that since that was all included in the competitors quote it wasn't exactly a price match and they seemed confused I was leaving....

 

[Spymaster]

I had something similar and was "amused" when I phoned Admiral to cancel as I'd. Found someone offering cover at my old price that they said they could match it by removing various extras I wanted including a second driver. I pointed out that since that was all included in the competitors quote it wasn't exactly a price match and they seemed confused I was leaving....

I had once a few years ago where my existing insurer first sent my a silly renewal price, then undercut my best new quote by a tenner when I went to cancel.

I cancelled anyway and paid the extra £10 out of annoyance that they didn't give me their best price in the first place.

 

[teuchter]

Owning cars makes people prone to irrational and emotionally driven decision-making.

Everyone knows that some haggling is normal when it comes to renewal of things like insurance.

As I think I previously pointed out, if your insurer engages in these tactics, you should be grateful to them, because all the people that don't question the renewal price subsidise your lower price.

 

[Looby]

Owning cars makes people prone to irrational and emotionally driven decision-making.

Everyone knows that some haggling is normal when it comes to renewal of things like insurance.

As I think I previously pointed out, if your insurer engages in these tactics, you should be grateful to them, because all the people that don't question the renewal price subsidise your lower price.

My renewal price was not changed when I haggled. It’s fixed and that’s it.

 

[Looby]

I’m extra pissed off this year because I’ve had to renew knowing I’m selling the car so I also have to find out how badly I’ll get fucked over when I cancel, especially if I’ve had to claim in the meantime.

Don’t even get me started on the pet insurance doubling.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

View attachment 436104



(i changed cars in december, hence the not quite so simple comparison)

i can feel an outbreak of shopping round coming on...

i've now reached the 20-ish days stage so am doing the shopping around thing.

quotes so far range from £ 774 (john lewis, who i did insure with some years ago) and that doesn't include breakdown cover - downwards.

So far, £ 414 (with LV, with discount for Unison membership) for about the same thing, and with breakdown cover via Britannia (I'm not going with the RAC again) is the best.

I got my first car insurance through whatever they were calling themselves at the time (with what was then NALGO membership) - can't remember why or when I moved away from them, may have been when I changed jobs / union and alternatives were better at the time.

Aviva and Co-op also fairly good.

Heck, this is dull. And why don't they all ask the same questions?

 

[Spymaster]

i've now reached the 20-ish days stage so am doing the shopping around thing.

quotes so far range from £ 774 (john lewis, who i did insure with some years ago) and that doesn't include breakdown cover - downwards.

So far, £ 414 (with LV, with discount for Unison membership) for about the same thing, and with breakdown cover via Britannia (I'm not going with the RAC again) is the best.

I got my first car insurance through whatever they were calling themselves at the time (with what was then NALGO membership) - can't remember why or when I moved away from them, may have been when I changed jobs / union and alternatives were better at the time.

Aviva and Co-op also fairly good.

Heck, this is dull. And why don't they all ask the same questions?

Why don’t you just use a comparison site?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Why don’t you just use a comparison site?

i have done comparison site as well as going direct to some.

not all insurers are on all / any comparison sites, and some 'comparison sites' only compare the brands / subsidiaries of one holding company.

the offer with LV isn't on a comparison site. Aviva (which is currently second best) was through a comparison site.

 

[pogofish]

That's my renewal in today - £340. £55 dearer than last year.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

That's my renewal in today - £340. £55 dearer than last year.

that's not too bad compared to how most insurers seem to be going...

 

[hash tag]

Is this why insurance is rocketing or, why bother with insurance.
Bless.
BBC News - More than 60 supercars worth £6m seized in London

Westminster: More than 60 supercars worth £6m seized in Met operation

Supercars including a McLaren, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Ferrari and Lamborghini are seized by the force.

www.bbc.com

 

[planetgeli]

They aren't rocketing anymore (at the moment), they're coming down. Last year's just asked me for a tenner more, MoneySupermarket got me one £50 cheaper than last year. And that was one held for 28 days (price) - a lot of them give you 24 hours these days.

 

[hash tag]

My insurance has gone up by about 12%. It went up another £6 because I now work for a housing association as opposed to a local authority and I got it down £60 for reducing the mileage. Bottom line is, the premium is little different to last year's premium.

 

[T & P]

This is not about the general cost of car insurance but a general car insurance question/ observation about how easily it seems one can total a car nowadays.

Incident no. 1 (Spain): Niece and her boyfriend had a Hyundai i30, which the poor sod loved and had just paid the last instalment of. They were returning from a weekend away recently in heavy yet moving motorway traffic when a chain of sudden braking he didn’t react quickly enough to caused him to rear end the car in front at relatively low speed. I was sent a pic of the damage to their car and to one’s eye it looks pretty minor and non-structural critical. But he’s been told it’s a total, apparently because the cost of resetting the airbags is so high (2k euros they told him) it sent the overall repair cost over the threshold.

Incident no. 2 (Bristol): can’t remember the car’s model but your typical reliable Japanese unassuming type about 6-8 years old though not sure. Think Honda Jazz or similar level anyway. My friend clipped a parked car at low city speed (20-odd) and his car’s front wheel took the brunt of the hit. Again I was sent a picture of the damage and again it didn’t look like a write-off from the outside. But the insurers decided otherwise; luckily my mate had comprehensive insurance and has just been sent a cheque for just under 6K.

What mad world do we live in whereby a reliable not that old a car gets written off for a front axle hit? Even more shocked about my niece and her bf in Spain. Surely the cost of repairing/ resetting deployed airbags cannot be that much?

 

[hash tag]

Part of the reason for some cars is there are so many bits of electrics and computers in them. A bumper isn't just a piece of chrome anymore. These days they wrap around the front of a car and might well have lights and parking sensors in them. Wing mirrors are no longer a bit of mirror in a plastic case ( or bit of chrome ). The can fold, dip, be moved from within the car, have alert signals in them to warn of nearby cars and heaters.
That's modern tech for you. The more sophisticated it becomes the more expensive it is to repair.
There can be huge delays getting replacements, pushing up the cost of car hire. It all adds up.

 

[BoatieBird]

Yes, this was me back in November.
Mine went from £350 to just over £600 and no amount of shopping around brought it down by much more than £10 so I let it auto renew.

I've just renewed again, and it's gone down to £442
I wasn't expecting that.

This is with Aviva - I did all the comparison stuff and could only get it down to £432 so I let it auto renew.

 

[Chz]

In a newer car, it's not just a pair of airbags. If I'm carrying a passenger, no less than six airbags can go off, depending on how the car is hit. Vehicles might cost a lot to repair, but it's peanuts next to medical bills for injured meatbags. Modern cars will halfway self-destruct to protect the occupants. Sacrificial crumple zones, the engine is designed to drop out of the car, etc.

 

[T & P]

In a newer car, it's not just a pair of airbags. If I'm carrying a passenger, no less than six airbags can go off, depending on how the car is hit. Vehicles might cost a lot to repair, but it's peanuts next to medical bills for injured meatbags. Modern cars will halfway self-destruct to protect the occupants. Sacrificial crumple zones, the engine is designed to drop out of the car, etc.

I guess the lesson is, unless you have an old banger, never be tempted to insure your car third party, fire & theft only to save money on the annual premium, because one relatively minor and you’re fucked

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I guess the lesson is, unless you have an old banger, never be tempted to insure your car third party, fire & theft only to save money on the annual premium, because one relatively minor and you’re fucked

although if you go comprehensive, they are equally likely to write it off for a relatively minor accident.

with last but one car, i had minor damage to the front nearside door because some twunt tried to crowbar it open then buggered off when the window broke.

insurers wanted to send car (which must have been in its teens by then) to a fancy approved workshop who would have made it 'good as new' and they would have given me a hire car (that i didn't really need that week) while they did it. the cost of all that was in the 'write off' territory.

i was allowed to withdraw the claim (rather than buy back the write off, which generates a lot of faff and future insurance difficulties) and got it repaired with a second hand window off a scrap car (it didn't have fancy electric windows) for £ 40 all in at my then garage of choice (must have been about 15 years ago)

you could still see a bit of a dent, but meh