Switching Insurance Companies
Discussion
Hopefully "PistonHeads - InsuranceMatters" can help me out becuase I'm lost with my insurance renewal
Currently with Direct Line who have just quoted me £330 on my N Reg Pug 406LX with 4 years no claims (TPFT), value of car £Market Value, Stereo Cover: £750 and Other items £100, Legal Cover £100,000 and no convictions (both me and Mrs michaeljclark)
Had a look on confused.com who came back with Admiral at £270
now normally I'd say hmm no brainer, but £60 is a hell of a difference and there must be a catch, and if I swap Admiral to fully comp it's still £30 cheaper than Direct Line.
The only differance during the selection process is that Direct Line only go as far as "3 or more years" on the length that the driving license has been held, where as Admiral allow me to enter the actual years (8yr 6months)
Now before I think great, I'll save myself £60 is there anything I should look at
P.S Admiral were cheapest by at least £40 on the overall quotes from confused.com
Cheers all
Currently with Direct Line who have just quoted me £330 on my N Reg Pug 406LX with 4 years no claims (TPFT), value of car £Market Value, Stereo Cover: £750 and Other items £100, Legal Cover £100,000 and no convictions (both me and Mrs michaeljclark)
Had a look on confused.com who came back with Admiral at £270
now normally I'd say hmm no brainer, but £60 is a hell of a difference and there must be a catch, and if I swap Admiral to fully comp it's still £30 cheaper than Direct Line.
The only differance during the selection process is that Direct Line only go as far as "3 or more years" on the length that the driving license has been held, where as Admiral allow me to enter the actual years (8yr 6months)
Now before I think great, I'll save myself £60 is there anything I should look at
P.S Admiral were cheapest by at least £40 on the overall quotes from confused.com
Cheers all
having gone through the confused.com screen scraper did you then take the top 4/5 quotes and try and get a quote direct on their website? sometime you get a better deal that way.
Having said that I've used confused.com last twice and the insurance checker recommended by www.moneysavingexpert.com (*) the time before that and it's always come up trumps for me. Dial Direct last two years, Norwich Union time before that.
(*) I think Martin Lewis now recommends confused.com anyway so maybe you've already got the best answer, but Martin has some good tips, knows his stuff that guy.
Having said that I've used confused.com last twice and the insurance checker recommended by www.moneysavingexpert.com (*) the time before that and it's always come up trumps for me. Dial Direct last two years, Norwich Union time before that.
(*) I think Martin Lewis now recommends confused.com anyway so maybe you've already got the best answer, but Martin has some good tips, knows his stuff that guy.
Edited by Flat in Fifth on Wednesday 17th January 19:43
duart said:
Hi - in insurance who knows exactly how they arrive at the figures and a difference of c. 20% as in your example is very frequent and not at all exceptional.
Agreed, the new car with usual insurer was 50% more than who I ended up with (RAC).
Check out the excess though - and have they both quoted on the same thing (eg is legal cover on both those quotes)
michaeljclark said:
over_the_hill said:
If you are happy with what you have got, why not call Direct Line and ask if they will match the Admiral Quote.
Tried that - £330 is the best they can do - new customers (according to the bloke on the phone) dirrerent discounts!!!!!
I have heard that. I hink they look at their customer profile and if they find they are a bit light in certain areas e.g. married men in 40's, single women in 20's or whatever, offer discounts to get a few extra on the books.
I may be wrong but I think Confused.com is owned by the Admiral group, that is why Admiral group companies always come out well on the site.
That said I was insured with Admiral for a few years and never had any problems, and that included making a claim. My experience was that they gave a good quote when switching from another insurer then started to put the price up once you'd been with them a couple of years.
If Admiral are giving a good quote then it may be worth trying Bell Direct and Elephant.co.uk(both Admiral companies) as I always found them to be cheaper than Admiral itself.
That said I was insured with Admiral for a few years and never had any problems, and that included making a claim. My experience was that they gave a good quote when switching from another insurer then started to put the price up once you'd been with them a couple of years.
If Admiral are giving a good quote then it may be worth trying Bell Direct and Elephant.co.uk(both Admiral companies) as I always found them to be cheaper than Admiral itself.
Edited by M5Dave on Wednesday 17th January 17:12
I would be VERY careful about using Admiral incase you're unlucky enough to have to make a claim.
I was indsured with Admiral a couple of years ago on my old R-reg Clio when a few sc*mbags vandalised it and wrote it off. After Admiral informed me it was a write off, I checked their policy details and found Admiral used Glass valuations for written off cars. So I used the Glass website to get a value of £2,500 for my Clio, and waited for the cheque to arrive.
Now I wasn't expecting exactly this amount (as insurance companies will always try and knock a few quid off), but you can imagine how p!ssed off I was when they sent me a cheque valuing my car at £1,000!!!!!!!
To cut a long story short, it took over 8 months off letters, with them slowly increasing their offers, until they finally agreed that my car should be valued at £2,300. When I queried why they had changed their mind over the value of my car (this was just after I threaten to contact the watchdog) they said they had no idea how the orignal valuation was originally decided upon.
Also, whenever they did slightly increase their offer, they put a caveat in the letter that "unless I contacted them within 7 days of the letter, they would assume I'd accepted the offer". However, all these letters were post marked 7 days or more after the date on the letter so were always going to arrive well after the 7 days. this I found both under hand and deceiptful as I'm sure there are many people who would have fallen for this sort of trick and lost out on money rightly owed to them.
I was indsured with Admiral a couple of years ago on my old R-reg Clio when a few sc*mbags vandalised it and wrote it off. After Admiral informed me it was a write off, I checked their policy details and found Admiral used Glass valuations for written off cars. So I used the Glass website to get a value of £2,500 for my Clio, and waited for the cheque to arrive.
Now I wasn't expecting exactly this amount (as insurance companies will always try and knock a few quid off), but you can imagine how p!ssed off I was when they sent me a cheque valuing my car at £1,000!!!!!!!
To cut a long story short, it took over 8 months off letters, with them slowly increasing their offers, until they finally agreed that my car should be valued at £2,300. When I queried why they had changed their mind over the value of my car (this was just after I threaten to contact the watchdog) they said they had no idea how the orignal valuation was originally decided upon.
Also, whenever they did slightly increase their offer, they put a caveat in the letter that "unless I contacted them within 7 days of the letter, they would assume I'd accepted the offer". However, all these letters were post marked 7 days or more after the date on the letter so were always going to arrive well after the 7 days. this I found both under hand and deceiptful as I'm sure there are many people who would have fallen for this sort of trick and lost out on money rightly owed to them.
My experience of Admiral is slightly different, its from the other end of the claim...
I had my car written off by an Admiral driver and I have to say Admiral were very good about it. I claimed for personal injury (because I was) and they didn't haggle, in fact my solicitor thought they must have made a mistake and advised me to settle before they realised their mistake.
I have since been hit by a Direct Line driver and they are makeing the whole process a PITA. My solicitor put in for *35 for phone calls, letters and general incovienience and they came back with an offer of *5 which I think is disgusting.
I had my car written off by an Admiral driver and I have to say Admiral were very good about it. I claimed for personal injury (because I was) and they didn't haggle, in fact my solicitor thought they must have made a mistake and advised me to settle before they realised their mistake.
I have since been hit by a Direct Line driver and they are makeing the whole process a PITA. My solicitor put in for *35 for phone calls, letters and general incovienience and they came back with an offer of *5 which I think is disgusting.
www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1092813037,41960, is where I'd start to be honest.
Note confused.com does not cover esure or RBS Scotland group which includes Tesco and Direct Line
Note confused.com does not cover esure or RBS Scotland group which includes Tesco and Direct Line
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