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Car Insurance and the will to live

Passion, instruction, buying, care, maintenance and more, any form of vehicle discussion is welcome here
PhaseThree

Car Insurance and the will to live

#459699

Postby PhaseThree » November 20th, 2021, 8:05 pm

Last year I switched my car insurance and that of Mrs P3 to Directline - got what I thought was a reasonable deal with a reasonable company.
Role forward a year and I get renewal notices for both of us today. My renewal premium is 3% higher than last year, Mrs P3 is 14% higher with no change in details for either of us. I also noticed we were both signed up for "automatic renewal" despite not asking for or being previous notified of this feature of the policy.

Not happy but thought that I''d phone them and discuss the renewal quotes. I called the renewal number on the website.
I waited on hold for 25 minutes
.....Someone answered
She couldn't help because my renewal was for a 10 digit policy numbers and she could only deal with 8 digit policy numbers. The good news was that she could transfer me to the correct department.
I waited on hold for another 20 minutes (45mins total)
.... Someone answered
Following a terse exchange of information and views (I know, I know it;s not the tele-operators fault) I asked why Mrs P3's premium was so much higher ? .
...... Hmm ? let me see what we can do....How about a 10p reduction on last years premium......
What had caused the 14% price increased - No comment.
If "no change" was their best price why were we quoted 14% extra ? - No Comment

I removed auto-renewal from both policies and hung-up, -F***em, to me this looks a lot like inertia marketing, you have got to be willing to stay on hold for 50 minutes or bend over and take your increase without complaint. If this is how they treat customers who want to give them money God knows what happens when you need to make a claim. I won't deal with such companies.

I have tried multiple sites today with the cheapest being 0.7x times Directline with the most expensive being 2.5X from a local Northern Ireland company. Neither seem to be well thought of.

So can anyone recommend a reliable and responsive insurance company, not looking for the cheapest but competence would be plus.

sloth
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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459742

Postby sloth » November 21st, 2021, 1:11 am


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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459750

Postby AF62 » November 21st, 2021, 6:31 am

sloth wrote:NFU Mutual.

https://www.nfumutual.co.uk/


it seems somewhat dubious that they collect all your information online, but their system cannot give an online quote but they need to call you to discuss it.

Is their IT system that outdated and poor it can’t give a quote like every other car insurance company in 2021, or do they know that their quote will be far too expensive so they have to call and give you the strong arm hard sell?

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459751

Postby todthedog » November 21st, 2021, 6:53 am

NFU Mutual or LV.

The former are staffed by humans, the latter cheaper in our case (in our 60's). Both score well with 'Which'

I do agree with with your view that you can loose the will to live!

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459755

Postby Dod101 » November 21st, 2021, 8:06 am

PhaseThree wrote:Last year I switched my car insurance and that of Mrs P3 to Directline - got what I thought was a reasonable deal with a reasonable company.
Role forward a year and I get renewal notices for both of us today. My renewal premium is 3% higher than last year, Mrs P3 is 14% higher with no change in details for either of us. I also noticed we were both signed up for "automatic renewal" despite not asking for or being previous notified of this feature of the policy.

Not happy but thought that I''d phone them and discuss the renewal quotes. I called the renewal number on the website.
I waited on hold for 25 minutes
.....Someone answered
She couldn't help because my renewal was for a 10 digit policy numbers and she could only deal with 8 digit policy numbers. The good news was that she could transfer me to the correct department.
I waited on hold for another 20 minutes (45mins total)
.... Someone answered
Following a terse exchange of information and views (I know, I know it;s not the tele-operators fault) I asked why Mrs P3's premium was so much higher ? .
...... Hmm ? let me see what we can do....How about a 10p reduction on last years premium......
What had caused the 14% price increased - No comment.
If "no change" was their best price why were we quoted 14% extra ? - No Comment

I removed auto-renewal from both policies and hung-up, -F***em, to me this looks a lot like inertia marketing, you have got to be willing to stay on hold for 50 minutes or bend over and take your increase without complaint. If this is how they treat customers who want to give them money God knows what happens when you need to make a claim. I won't deal with such companies.

I have tried multiple sites today with the cheapest being 0.7x times Directline with the most expensive being 2.5X from a local Northern Ireland company. Neither seem to be well thought of.

So can anyone recommend a reliable and responsive insurance company, not looking for the cheapest but competence would be plus.


Direct Line. I have found them to be good and reliable with decent pricing. Saturday may not be the best time to deal with them I do not know. And during the shutdown last year they voluntarily returned about 10% of my annual premium direct to the card that I used to pay the annual premium. I have checked around from time to time and decided that better the devil you know......

Dod

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459758

Postby scrumpyjack » November 21st, 2021, 8:28 am

I have stayed with Admiral for much the same reasons Dod is with Direct Line.
When someone backed into my car, Admiral dealt with the repairs etc very well.

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459762

Postby pje16 » November 21st, 2021, 8:34 am

I had the same issue with DL and the auto renewal that they snuck in, as I NEVER opt to do that
I must have go them a goo day as when I called they answered immedialtely and took that option of on the spot
They wouldnt' budge on the premium, so as usual the next years inursance was with a new provider - Aviva this time as they were best pricewise

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459770

Postby chas49 » November 21st, 2021, 9:38 am

From 1 January, insurers have to offer the same rate to new and existing customers. So the switching market is going to be a bit different. Presumably new customers will end up paying more rather than existing customers paying less.....

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459775

Postby redsturgeon » November 21st, 2021, 9:48 am

Another vote here for LV. I always check prices with others at renewal, LV is the one that has consistently been the most attractive. Probably 75% of our 15 policies over the last five years have been with LV.

Admiral has also featured once or twice with occasional others being necessary for reasonable cover for my son and daughter when they were new drivers.

John

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459787

Postby pje16 » November 21st, 2021, 11:10 am

chas49 wrote:From 1 January, insurers have to offer the same rate to new and existing customers. So the switching market is going to be a bit different. Presumably new customers will end up paying more rather than existing customers paying less.....

It would be too much to hope for for it to go the other way :roll:

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459800

Postby sg31 » November 21st, 2021, 11:47 am

LV or any Aviva group company are good to deal with. LV are generally competetive, Aviva seem to be competetive every other year.

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459811

Postby MaraMan » November 21st, 2021, 12:22 pm

I have been happy with the NFU for the past four years. I had a simple claim before that that was a nightmare with Direct Line and vowed never to use them again. Their repair facility was just dreadful.

MM

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459864

Postby quelquod » November 21st, 2021, 4:05 pm

sg31 wrote:LV or any Aviva group company are good to deal with. LV are generally competetive, Aviva seem to be competetive every other year.


I was with LV for 6 years - competitive enough not to bother changing until I had to report that someone had bashed my wing mirror while parked. I didn’t claim but despite that the next year’s premium was an eye-watering increase. So I went to Direct Line who didn’t weight my costs for it. I chose Aviva this year on price despite them (and their other online brands) having pretty poor reviews for customer service. Loyalty buys nowt.

PhaseThree

Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459879

Postby PhaseThree » November 21st, 2021, 5:21 pm

Thanks for all the replies and thoughts......As a result I have
- Contacted NFU Mutual, I hadn't considered them for car insurance, but they are very big in home and farm insurance in these rural parts, Will talk to them tomorrow,
- Contacted Aviva and got a very competitive quote, possibly as a result of Mrs P3 having a pension with them already.

Personally I am not convinced by LV=. Their imminent demutualisation and sale to a private equity outfit doesn't fill me confidence that current customer service levels will be maintained. (Yes I know it's not a done deal but ...)

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#459889

Postby 9873210 » November 21st, 2021, 6:04 pm

chas49 wrote:From 1 January, insurers have to offer the same rate to new and existing customers. So the switching market is going to be a bit different. Presumably new customers will end up paying more rather than existing customers paying less.....


It may change, but it won't get any better. Probably won't change how much individuals pay or hate their insurance companies.

The market differentiation is those willing to suffer inconvenience get lower rates and those who don't pay more. This extracts maximum cash from people who have more money than time, and some cash from people with more time than money. Switching is an implementation detail. The inconvenience will simply move, perhaps you only get the lower rate if you're willing to hold for an hour or spend an hour at the truly awful website℠ instead of the more expensive sister site that works properly.

P3 may still lose the will to live.

PhaseThree

Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#460157

Postby PhaseThree » November 22nd, 2021, 6:41 pm

9873210 wrote:
chas49 wrote:... P3 may still lose the will to live.


Entirely possible, however today I have been pleasantly surprised by the positive approach of NFU Mutual.
A competitive price including, RAC breakdown and legal cover AND a local office in the nearest town - Ticks most of the boxes for me.

I'm now a customer (Thanks again for all the help and suggestions)

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#460287

Postby brightncheerful » November 23rd, 2021, 11:45 am

I'm with LV. But LV are currently embroiled in a take-over bid by a USA company so things may/will change.

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#460366

Postby Lanark » November 23rd, 2021, 5:54 pm

brightncheerful wrote:I'm with LV. But LV are currently embroiled in a take-over bid by a USA company so things may/will change.

A private equity group so yes it that gets voted through by the members expect rates to go up.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... goes-ahead

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Re: Car Insurance and the will to live

#460863

Postby tsr2 » November 25th, 2021, 2:40 pm

brightncheerful wrote:I'm with LV. But LV are currently embroiled in a take-over bid by a USA company so things may/will change.


According to Wikipedia the general insurance business, which will handle car insurance, has already been sold to Allianz. If Wikipedia is correct then Bain are only buying the life and pensions business.


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