Insurance renewal

[Ozzie Osmond]

I have a family member who's been with Direct Line for 5 years. As a result of a car park scrape 18 months ago Direct Line shafted his premium up to £1,000 last year and have come in asking £900 for this year's renewal.

Just clicked on Confused.com for the first time in my life and premiums are showing from about £370 and upwards - which is one hell of a lot cheaper!

The insurance companies they are offering at this price include Elephant, Admiral and Diamond with identical excesses and cover. Any suggestions as to whether these insurers are fit to deal with and how to choose between them?

OzOs

[Loplop]

Elephant are owned by Admiral I think and I know numerous people who've dealt with Admiral and really liked them, I plan on going with them myself in the summer!

[Diablos-666]

Try more than one comparison website.

I tried 3, I put in the exact same details all 3 times and although the same 3 were the cheapest (Admiral, Elephant, Diamond) I got 3 different prices.

The moneysupermarket was cheapest for me by £200+!

[Loplop]

quotezone.co.uk have always turned up cheapest for me, but they do spam my inbox.

[McSam]

The Admiral Group run Elephant and Diamond as well, so no surprises there

For that group, Confused gives the best prices and also sometimes gives cheaper results than going directly to their website - if you note down the Admiral quote reference from the Confused results, they'll match the price when you call to take out a policy.

I've been using them for years - with multiple car changes and an accident a while back - and can't really fault them.

[Ki3r]

Loplop said:

Elephant are owned by Admiral I think and I know numerous people who've dealt with Admiral and really liked them, I plan on going with them myself in the summer!

Lucky. I've had nothing but trouble when I was claiming with Elephant.

Admiral are the same, wanted to charge me £92 for business use, if I got it when I got my insurance, it would have cost me £5. Tossers.

[matt-ITR]

Confused.com is also part of Admiral. No surprise that they are cheapest.

[Diablos-666]

Ki3r said:

Lucky. I've had nothing but trouble when I was claiming with Elephant.

Admiral are the same, wanted to charge me £92 for business use, if I got it when I got my insurance, it would have cost me £5. Tossers.

They charged me an extra £6 for business use, even though I commute by train it's a no brainer, just in case I fancied driving in on a Friday.

I have no doubts they would try and charge through the nose if you wanted to add that after you bought the policy.

[nosittap]

I'm with Admiral just because they are the cheapest by far, never had a problem with them, I've changed cars, added drivers, changed occupation all mid policy and it's been hassle free. Staff seem friendly and competent enough, but I've luckily never had to make a claim yet, and hopefully never will.

[peter8171]

Been using Admiral, Elephant and Bell direct for years now. All are Admiral and are the same call centre too. Never had any issues, but you always need to get a new quote each year to maintain the low price. Generally they match each other, but can check the other's quote. Have told them about a non standard exhaust and it made no difference to quote either.

[Conor D]

Got similar quotes from Admiral etc. £619 on my MX5 Import.. 22 with 2 years NCB. Loving it!

[scottdd]

I have been with Admiral for a few years now and they have been very good and easy to use. Just renewed with them again tonight.

Also they seem to drop my renewal every year, which is a nice surprise seeing a other insurere have tried to shaft me on renewal in the past.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Thanks for the tips! I'm on it.