Has your insurance gone up?
Discussion
Old Merc said:
We have, luckily, never made a claim with LV=. Is there anyone out there who has? how did you get on?
Done a couple of no-fault claims. One was damage - they were fine, no problem getting franchise dealer to do it and they waived the excess so didn't have the hassle of paying it then recovering.Other was a write off - they low-balled daughter's car that was very easy to accurately value and they messed up their own process for doing it. They offered £5K, should have been £6K. They increased to £5500 without any argument but then absolutely wouldn't budge. Not a massive deal, but left a bad taste.
My daily drive renewal has come through at £598 a quick look on Compare the Market and cheapest quote came in at £321, I picked up an SP30 last week so added that to the quote and the cheapest price came back at £381, my weekend car renewal also came through with an increase of £37 taking it to £335 (not phoned them to add the SP30 yet)
Renewal letter for my '63 Riley just arrived, up from £118 to £168 so quite a percentage hike.
I'll be 75 in November so maybe 'old and doddery' is the reason but that's a sizeable increase so I'll be shopping around before. When I bought the car around 12 years ago the premium was £88.
I'll be 75 in November so maybe 'old and doddery' is the reason but that's a sizeable increase so I'll be shopping around before. When I bought the car around 12 years ago the premium was £88.
Old Merc said:
That`s why we have stayed with LV=. For a start they seem to by the cheapest. You can easily speak to a human, get some off the renewal quote.
Did it with the home policy, will do it again with this one.
We have, luckily, never made a claim with LV=. Is there anyone out there who has? how did you get on?
I had my car stolen off the drive 3 months after picking it up after a long wait for delivery. First call had appeared to have some cynicism in the time of the call handler, but that was to be expected as it was both an expensive car and a fairly new policy. They bought me a brand new car no problem, as per their T&Cs (offered cash payment too if I preferred that to invoice value). They even managed to source it surprisingly quickly which saved me a few months of driving around in a hire car at my own expense. Did it with the home policy, will do it again with this one.
We have, luckily, never made a claim with LV=. Is there anyone out there who has? how did you get on?
A while back I read an article about insurance for trucks, which is also going up a lot. One reason quoted was due to the eye watering cost of repairing electric cars compared to IC ones.
The recent surge in population of electric cars means now higher premiums for everyone, because even a small bump into one can cost insurers several thousands to repair, or even write it off, where it would have been a few hundred for a similar bump in an IC powered car.
The recent surge in population of electric cars means now higher premiums for everyone, because even a small bump into one can cost insurers several thousands to repair, or even write it off, where it would have been a few hundred for a similar bump in an IC powered car.
Chris944_S2 said:
The recent surge in population of electric cars means now higher premiums for everyone, because even a small bump into one can cost insurers several thousands to repair, or even write it off, where it would have been a few hundred for a similar bump in an IC powered car.
I don’t think any insurance claim cost a few hundred. Years ago someone posted up the fantastically detailed quote for a scratch on a Polo door and it was over a grand and I recall a fuss in one of the papers when a little dent in a Merc wing was quoted at £2500. Chris944_S2 said:
A while back I read an article about insurance for trucks, which is also going up a lot. One reason quoted was due to the eye watering cost of repairing electric cars compared to IC ones.
The recent surge in population of electric cars means now higher premiums for everyone, because even a small bump into one can cost insurers several thousands to repair, or even write it off, where it would have been a few hundred for a similar bump in an IC powered car.
Body work is body work, which is the bulk of repair work. The real reason is that when a new car has to be returned to its owner after 2-3 years it has to be returned 'as new' so any minor damage has to be repaired and with the advent of colour coded bumpers etc almost any simple job requires paint work. On top of that the average value of new cars has steadily increased with the rise in purchasing power so you're having to pay more to cover that. The recent surge in population of electric cars means now higher premiums for everyone, because even a small bump into one can cost insurers several thousands to repair, or even write it off, where it would have been a few hundred for a similar bump in an IC powered car.
If the average U.K. fleet reduced in value as people bought less expensive vehicles, didn't have to repair minor dents and scratches, the bumpers weren't colour coded nor lights so fancy then insurance costs would fall.
There's no logic behind the propaganda to blame EVs as there are still very few of them about and few of those are involved in repair needs any different to ICE.
It’s trendy to blame EVs for everything that’s wrong in the car world. Usually there’s no justification, but people will remain entrenched in their opposition and repeat the tropes indefinitely.
To add, I have no doubt that EVs are more expensive to repair, just as Ferraris are. However, I don’t see that they are the sole or primary reason for car insurance costs rising.
To add, I have no doubt that EVs are more expensive to repair, just as Ferraris are. However, I don’t see that they are the sole or primary reason for car insurance costs rising.
LF5335 said:
It’s trendy to blame EVs for everything that’s wrong in the car world. Usually there’s no justification, but people will remain entrenched in their opposition and repeat the tropes indefinitely.
To add, I have no doubt that EVs are more expensive to repair, just as Ferraris are. However, I don’t see that they are the sole or primary reason for car insurance costs rising.
Yup. A new bumper and headlight is agnostic to the powertrain. What you might find is that the EV parts are a little dearer at the bottom end of the market as they aren't yet building millions of the model as they are with the ICE equivalent. And of course the fiasco of Tesla repair times spikes the rental bill. To add, I have no doubt that EVs are more expensive to repair, just as Ferraris are. However, I don’t see that they are the sole or primary reason for car insurance costs rising.
The real problem is just the sheer number of non essential repairs due to the users not being the owners plus, the big jump in number of high end cars on the road which all drivers subsidise to some extent. Ie, the more £100k cars on the road meaning the higher the number of £100k payouts and as payouts are amortised across all customers it just means that element of the cost increases which gets noticed the most by those with the cheapest cars to insure. Also not helping is a lack of competition as the number of underwriters reduced when the easy money days ended and the spike in running costs as salaries have had to be increased along with borrowing costs doubling.
It's going to take time for matters to work through but the market does appear to be stabilising and some firms beginning to pitch for new biz. The renewal on my S4 estate was lower this year.
Sheepshanks said:
I don’t think any insurance claim cost a few hundred. Years ago someone posted up the fantastically detailed quote for a scratch on a Polo door and it was over a grand and I recall a fuss in one of the papers when a little dent in a Merc wing was quoted at £2500.
Someone went into the back of my 2005 BMW 330i last May and the bodyshop suggested by the insurer of the car that hit me manged to pad their estimate to over £2K for this. BMW could supply a bumper cover in primer for just under £650, but Admiral decided it was a Cat N without even seeing the car and 2 weeks before they bothered to tell me. Then they low-balled me on the value.
ETA It gets worse though!
Last week before renewal I told my insurer I'd had a non-fault accident last year. It cost them nothing, but they stuck another £20 on the premium and £50 on the excess. F*ckers.
Edited by Mr Tidy on Sunday 28th April 23:50
Chris944_S2 said:
A while back I read an article about insurance for trucks, which is also going up a lot. One reason quoted was due to the eye watering cost of repairing electric cars compared to IC ones.
The recent surge in population of electric cars means now higher premiums for everyone, because even a small bump into one can cost insurers several thousands to repair, or even write it off, where it would have been a few hundred for a similar bump in an IC powered car.
I’ll wager that the actual repair costs are one driving factor in the increases, but that accident managed hire cars are at least as big a factor. A simple bump on a door and a £20k hire car bill. Pathetic. The recent surge in population of electric cars means now higher premiums for everyone, because even a small bump into one can cost insurers several thousands to repair, or even write it off, where it would have been a few hundred for a similar bump in an IC powered car.
Another one - people expecting a full panel or bumper skin for a bit of a scrape or small dent when back in the day it’d have been a repair. Personally for minor damage I’d rather have it repaired than having panels removed and clips broken off etc. But you see them on PH all the time “oooh I’d want that bumper replacing for that scuff, you don’t know what the damage is underneath” etc.
Just renewed the insurance on my R1 (motorbike), this has gone up a lot in recent years, it had got under £200 at one point, however I got it down to under £300 which was £50 less than last year which was an all time high. It’d have been £270 but I picked up my first ever SP30.
Hopefully that’ll be the last time I’m paying big premiums due to postcode as we are moving to N Yorks and that should see a drop.
T5SOR said:
I think I paid around £145 last year with Esure and they wanted £270 this year (no changes from my side). I went through Quidco and went with the RAC for £197 and then I get £45 back from Quidco in 4-5 months time 
I got House Insurance with Esure when my previous policy doubled in price.Then I had to claim.
Took over 2 years to resolve, many many phonecalls and emails plus different builders not turning up and others only doing half the job, all because they wouldn't accept the quote from my trusted builder.
Must have cost them thousands more in the end plus they kept giving me money to say sorry for the delays.
They also had the cheek to double the cost of the policy for the second year whilst the claim was over a year from being resolved.
Obviously I moved companies.
Now have been with Aviva for two years. 2nd year was actually a wee bit less.
They also quoted me only £325 for my Abarth when my previous company had raised it from £400 to £850.
Declining to repair minor damage that people really ought to revert to being able to live with rather than being encourage to go 'full diva' on would be a considerably help.
Scrape on the bumper? It's a bumper. The clue's in the name, have a couple of hundred quid and jog on.
We have a very self centred, money grabbing and narcissistic consumer society today that has been pandered to as it is extremely profitable. Adult toddlers with money are great business. None more clearly in the insurance market when some fanny demanding new panels, massive paint job and a fancy hire car that will make the neighbours think you're a champion because of a scratch or dent on a car.
The issue is that while offering punters the world on a platter and getting all the other punters to pay for it is fantastic business the amounts that are getting cleared and paid by everyone else is too much and there needs to be a winding back on the practice if people want to see costs come back down and to stop having to pay for so many hire cars for other people and big repair projects.
Don't offer a nice or pleasant hire car, just the most basic of objects barely better than a bicycle but perfectly good for moving people and instead of using the voluntary excess as a means to discourage claims recognise that modern society wants freebies, vouchers, experiences, a photo of themselves with Katie Price or Kerry Katona. Punters will basically FRO if offered the correct utterly worthless free thing and for normals, just offer cash.
But it's getting around light repair costs that is more difficult. But history loves to repeat itself and we've been here before with this particular problem.
'1940-1956: To control chaotic supply problems with unusual headlights, all U.S. cars were required by law to use (2) 7" round sealed beam headlamps with one lamp on each side of the vehicle. more details on - https://www.carid.com/articles/brief-history-of-se...
Having hundreds of manufacturers making tens of different light units and these units needing to go into the bin when damaged and of course, lights being positioned at the four corners so pretty much guaranteed to be first contact, really has reached a point where legislation ought to consider once again reigning in the commercial behaviour of manufacturers. Similar with door mirrors, these are common things to whack but their pricing has gone completely mad in recent years.
There is a comical profiteering among these parts, you know that a car that costs just £10-15k in parts to assemble is categorically not using 4 lights and 2 door mirrors or even a pair of plastic bumpers that account for 25% of that cost.
So a simple legislative cap where these parts can't be sold for more than cost plus P&p would focus the minds of the vendors.
High insurance today is merely a function of having spent 10-20 years allowing the insurance industry to enable detrimental practices elsewhere. No different to how society have allowed local policing to collapse by falling back on the insurance industry for decades. It eventually reaches a point of excess where it becomes prudent to cease using the insurance industry as the fallback to smooth it all out and to revert to addressing the core issues directly.
Scrape on the bumper? It's a bumper. The clue's in the name, have a couple of hundred quid and jog on.
We have a very self centred, money grabbing and narcissistic consumer society today that has been pandered to as it is extremely profitable. Adult toddlers with money are great business. None more clearly in the insurance market when some fanny demanding new panels, massive paint job and a fancy hire car that will make the neighbours think you're a champion because of a scratch or dent on a car.
The issue is that while offering punters the world on a platter and getting all the other punters to pay for it is fantastic business the amounts that are getting cleared and paid by everyone else is too much and there needs to be a winding back on the practice if people want to see costs come back down and to stop having to pay for so many hire cars for other people and big repair projects.
Don't offer a nice or pleasant hire car, just the most basic of objects barely better than a bicycle but perfectly good for moving people and instead of using the voluntary excess as a means to discourage claims recognise that modern society wants freebies, vouchers, experiences, a photo of themselves with Katie Price or Kerry Katona. Punters will basically FRO if offered the correct utterly worthless free thing and for normals, just offer cash.
But it's getting around light repair costs that is more difficult. But history loves to repeat itself and we've been here before with this particular problem.
'1940-1956: To control chaotic supply problems with unusual headlights, all U.S. cars were required by law to use (2) 7" round sealed beam headlamps with one lamp on each side of the vehicle. more details on - https://www.carid.com/articles/brief-history-of-se...
Having hundreds of manufacturers making tens of different light units and these units needing to go into the bin when damaged and of course, lights being positioned at the four corners so pretty much guaranteed to be first contact, really has reached a point where legislation ought to consider once again reigning in the commercial behaviour of manufacturers. Similar with door mirrors, these are common things to whack but their pricing has gone completely mad in recent years.
There is a comical profiteering among these parts, you know that a car that costs just £10-15k in parts to assemble is categorically not using 4 lights and 2 door mirrors or even a pair of plastic bumpers that account for 25% of that cost.
So a simple legislative cap where these parts can't be sold for more than cost plus P&p would focus the minds of the vendors. High insurance today is merely a function of having spent 10-20 years allowing the insurance industry to enable detrimental practices elsewhere. No different to how society have allowed local policing to collapse by falling back on the insurance industry for decades. It eventually reaches a point of excess where it becomes prudent to cease using the insurance industry as the fallback to smooth it all out and to revert to addressing the core issues directly.
Good post and I totally agree.
I had fully comp on my BMW 3 series for 23 years. Never claimed for any of the dents, scrapes or keyings it received in all that time.
Why? because I didn't want my insurance loaded.
Either sorted it myself at far less cost than my excess as I always go for max to keep the premium down, or just left it as it would only happen again.
I stress these events always were caused by a third party usually when I wasn't with the car, not my bad driving
And as you say, the cost of stuff that is easily damaged on a car ie lights and mirrors, is crazy.
When I started driving in the late 70s, many parts on cars where interchangeable so if you broke a mirror on your Renault, a generic one could be bought from the spares shop for a fiver.
Surely a fiver in 1981 can't be the same as £400 today.
Of course mirrors have loads of tech today but they were getting pricey when they were just mirrors.
My neighbour buys cars from CoPart to do them up and sell on.
He bought a Mazda with massive front end damage. The cost of the replacement front lights was gobsmacking.
In 2016 I bought a Mustang GT for £33k new. The windscreen cracked and the replacement was £2000!!
How can that be? That's like 7 percent of the price of the car.
I had fully comp on my BMW 3 series for 23 years. Never claimed for any of the dents, scrapes or keyings it received in all that time.
Why? because I didn't want my insurance loaded.
Either sorted it myself at far less cost than my excess as I always go for max to keep the premium down, or just left it as it would only happen again.
I stress these events always were caused by a third party usually when I wasn't with the car, not my bad driving
And as you say, the cost of stuff that is easily damaged on a car ie lights and mirrors, is crazy.
When I started driving in the late 70s, many parts on cars where interchangeable so if you broke a mirror on your Renault, a generic one could be bought from the spares shop for a fiver.
Surely a fiver in 1981 can't be the same as £400 today.
Of course mirrors have loads of tech today but they were getting pricey when they were just mirrors.
My neighbour buys cars from CoPart to do them up and sell on.
He bought a Mazda with massive front end damage. The cost of the replacement front lights was gobsmacking.
In 2016 I bought a Mustang GT for £33k new. The windscreen cracked and the replacement was £2000!!
How can that be? That's like 7 percent of the price of the car.
Just had my renewal today, it has gone up from £309 last year to £371 this year. I did a renewal quote through Compare the market and the best I am quoted is £274 with eSure, the next cheapest is £289 with 1st Central who I am currently with.
As my policy auto renews I phoned them, told them I didn't want to renew due to price and that I had been quoted £289 via compare the market. I said I was happy to stay with them if they could match their £289 price online.
"Oh no Sir we can't do that, the prices online are cheaper" I replied "No problem, I would like to cancel my renewal please".
I still can't get my head around the fact they would rather lose a sale than match the online price of their own company.
eSure it is then!
As my policy auto renews I phoned them, told them I didn't want to renew due to price and that I had been quoted £289 via compare the market. I said I was happy to stay with them if they could match their £289 price online.
"Oh no Sir we can't do that, the prices online are cheaper" I replied "No problem, I would like to cancel my renewal please".
I still can't get my head around the fact they would rather lose a sale than match the online price of their own company.
eSure it is then!
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