Anyone else had this unpleasent insurance suprise?
Discussion
Roughly one third of the way through my yearly car insurance period,my 2004 car which is in group 11 is coming to the end of its life,so I decide that its going to the scrapyard and I go and do a deal on some thing smaller and a few years younger which is only in insurance group 5,i call my insurers to notify them on the change of vehicle on the policy,the worst case scenario iam expecting is the £40 admin charge but iam hoping that also they will give me a partial refund on the yearly premium that I paid in full at the last renewal due to the new car being in a much lower group and consequently a lower risk than my present car.
Apparently not so!
The robbing bstd's have actually CHARGED ME an extra £89 premium on top of the admin charge
wtf is going on?,their risk has decreased so why am I being charged more? ,I couldn't make head nor tail of what their Asian call centre operator was trying to explain to me to justify the charge,so ive lodged a complaint and iam expecting to hear back from a supervisor within 48hrs.
I normally would have told them to go f
k themselves,and cancelled the policy there and then and just went elsewhere for my insurance,but they've got me by the bks - my current car needs extensive and prohibitive repairs for its mot and also the turbo has given up and the tax is out at the end of this month so theres no alternative but to scrap it,and ive also already paid a substantial deposit on the new car.
A further complication is that my motorbike is also insured on the same policy as the car,so cancelling the policy and going elsewhere for insurance is not viable,
they've well and truly got me by the balls.
Anyone else had this expierence before?
Apparently not so!
The robbing bstd's have actually CHARGED ME an extra £89 premium on top of the admin charge
wtf is going on?,their risk has decreased so why am I being charged more? ,I couldn't make head nor tail of what their Asian call centre operator was trying to explain to me to justify the charge,so ive lodged a complaint and iam expecting to hear back from a supervisor within 48hrs.
I normally would have told them to go f
k themselves,and cancelled the policy there and then and just went elsewhere for my insurance,but they've got me by the bks - my current car needs extensive and prohibitive repairs for its mot and also the turbo has given up and the tax is out at the end of this month so theres no alternative but to scrap it,and ive also already paid a substantial deposit on the new car.A further complication is that my motorbike is also insured on the same policy as the car,so cancelling the policy and going elsewhere for insurance is not viable,
they've well and truly got me by the balls.
Anyone else had this expierence before?
They have certainly got by the wotsits because as you say you cant go anywhere else and they know it . I suppose the new car is worth 30 or 40 times the scrap value of the old one which would account for the risk ?
I never liked the linked policys so bike with Bemoto who are fantastic and cars with Direct line which the comparison sites still cant match ! Get your own back at renewal in 8 months only after you have got your proof of NCB .
I never liked the linked policys so bike with Bemoto who are fantastic and cars with Direct line which the comparison sites still cant match ! Get your own back at renewal in 8 months only after you have got your proof of NCB .
wildone63 said:
Roughly one third of the way through my yearly car insurance period,my 2004 car which is in group 11 is coming to the end of its life,so I decide that its going to the scrapyard and I go and do a deal on some thing smaller and a few years younger which is only in insurance group 5,i call my insurers to notify them on the change of vehicle on the policy,the worst case scenario iam expecting is the £40 admin charge but iam hoping that also they will give me a partial refund on the yearly premium that I paid in full at the last renewal due to the new car being in a much lower group and consequently a lower risk than my present car.
Apparently not so!
The robbing bstd's have actually CHARGED ME an extra £89 premium on top of the admin charge
wtf is going on?,their risk has decreased so why am I being charged more? ,I couldn't make head nor tail of what their Asian call centre operator was trying to explain to me to justify the charge,so ive lodged a complaint and iam expecting to hear back from a supervisor within 48hrs.
I normally would have told them to go fk themselves,and cancelled the policy there and then and just went elsewhere for my insurance,but they've got me by the bks - my current car needs extensive and prohibitive repairs for its mot and also the turbo has given up and the tax is out at the end of this month so theres no alternative but to scrap it,and ive also already paid a substantial deposit on the new car.
A further complication is that my motorbike is also insured on the same policy as the car,so cancelling the policy and going elsewhere for insurance is not viable,
they've well and truly got me by the balls.
Anyone else had this expierence before?
The most likely reason for the increase is that the new car has a much riskier claims profile than your old car.Apparently not so!
The robbing bstd's have actually CHARGED ME an extra £89 premium on top of the admin charge
wtf is going on?,their risk has decreased so why am I being charged more? ,I couldn't make head nor tail of what their Asian call centre operator was trying to explain to me to justify the charge,so ive lodged a complaint and iam expecting to hear back from a supervisor within 48hrs.
I normally would have told them to go f
k themselves,and cancelled the policy there and then and just went elsewhere for my insurance,but they've got me by the bks - my current car needs extensive and prohibitive repairs for its mot and also the turbo has given up and the tax is out at the end of this month so theres no alternative but to scrap it,and ive also already paid a substantial deposit on the new car.A further complication is that my motorbike is also insured on the same policy as the car,so cancelling the policy and going elsewhere for insurance is not viable,
they've well and truly got me by the balls.
Anyone else had this expierence before?
You don't day what the 2 cars are, but I would assume that the newer, lower group car is a popular type with new and/or young drivers, hence being placed in a higher claims risk profile group.
Depends.
At one point, i had a shed vectra, rs4 and boxster. The hed vauxhall was the most expensive to insure.
I am guessing their algorithms identified higher claims in 1500 quid bangers than 20k RS's. No idea what the insurance groups were but that classification doesn't mean much these days.
At one point, i had a shed vectra, rs4 and boxster. The hed vauxhall was the most expensive to insure.
I am guessing their algorithms identified higher claims in 1500 quid bangers than 20k RS's. No idea what the insurance groups were but that classification doesn't mean much these days.
A couple of years ago I replaced a Citroen C4 VTS that was Cat C, modded with wheels, suspension, exhaust and induction with another C4 VTS that was standard. It cost me nearly £100 extra six months into the insurance. I asked about cancelling the policy, but that was nearly as dear so I changed my insurer when the renual was up. Much cheaper!
Stop using major insurance companies, they are all algorithms and will never consider logic.
I switched to a local broker (who have a shop in my home town), they reduced my premium by over £200 annually (compared to any price comparison website). On top of that, they are very understanding of situations like these and will actually work to reduce your premium when it happens.
I switched to a local broker (who have a shop in my home town), they reduced my premium by over £200 annually (compared to any price comparison website). On top of that, they are very understanding of situations like these and will actually work to reduce your premium when it happens.
Mandat said:
The most likely reason for the increase is that the new car has a much riskier claims profile than your old car.
You don't day what the 2 cars are, but I would assume that the newer, lower group car is a popular type with new and/or young drivers, hence being placed in a higher claims risk profile group.
then why would the new car be in a much lower group then?You don't day what the 2 cars are, but I would assume that the newer, lower group car is a popular type with new and/or young drivers, hence being placed in a higher claims risk profile group.
old car is a 2004 focus diesel estate,new car is a 2008 corsa 1300 diesel,
while a 2008 corsa would generally be worth a bit more than a 2004 focus (maybe a few hundred quid) the corsas much lower group should offset its increased value to some extent maybe?
I could very well change insurers at renewal time,and have the bike and car on separate policies,but wont be able to use my ncd on both vehicles
777GE90 said:
Stop using major insurance companies, they are all algorithms and will never consider logic.
I switched to a local broker (who have a shop in my home town), they reduced my premium by over £200 annually (compared to any price comparison website). On top of that, they are very understanding of situations like these and will actually work to reduce your premium when it happens.
But who does your local broker then use as I tried this in my home town a few years back and they were just shopping all the major insurance houses and ended up at prices that were way higher than me just going direct as there was a middle man premium?!I switched to a local broker (who have a shop in my home town), they reduced my premium by over £200 annually (compared to any price comparison website). On top of that, they are very understanding of situations like these and will actually work to reduce your premium when it happens.
777GE90 said:
Stop using major insurance companies, they are all algorithms and will never consider logic.
I switched to a local broker (who have a shop in my home town), they reduced my premium by over £200 annually (compared to any price comparison website). On top of that, they are very understanding of situations like these and will actually work to reduce your premium when it happens.
If they can get £200 off mine I'd be well impressed, paying me 40 quid a year sounds a bargain.I switched to a local broker (who have a shop in my home town), they reduced my premium by over £200 annually (compared to any price comparison website). On top of that, they are very understanding of situations like these and will actually work to reduce your premium when it happens.
May well be a lower group than your previous car but the Corsa is often the weapon of choice for young drivers & consequently more likely to feature in collisions & bad driving.
Been the case for a long time that those cars popular with young drivers were often highly priced by insurers & that was certainly the case when my two started driving in the early noughties. Insured in their own names from the get go. Anything with a Ford or Vauxhall badge was silly money whereas small Renaults & Peugeots were much cheaper so we had a string of 205 1.4 petrols.
This might be of interest:
www.telegraph.co.uk/insurance/car/the-five-cheapes...
Been the case for a long time that those cars popular with young drivers were often highly priced by insurers & that was certainly the case when my two started driving in the early noughties. Insured in their own names from the get go. Anything with a Ford or Vauxhall badge was silly money whereas small Renaults & Peugeots were much cheaper so we had a string of 205 1.4 petrols.
This might be of interest:
www.telegraph.co.uk/insurance/car/the-five-cheapes...
Not at all. It's entirely based on claims experience, including when buying through a broker (they're just a middle man, the underwriters will still use the claims experience to price the policy in a hugely competitive market). Not sure why the OP can't switch nor what's so shocking about admin fees unless they were hidden and in which case he won't have a problem having them waived.
It's hardly news that it costs to get out of a contract early (which you are). Also you have no idea whether the car you've changed to is a higher risk for them or not. I've never worked for an insurance company and have had the same situation as you before but I do try to understand the other side of the issue.
Privilidge were pretty good.
I sold my previous MR2 Roadster, and bought another one which is a year newer but had Air Conditioning (yes, that's the only reason for changing haha) - anyway, I phoned up and they quoted £40 to make the change. I said something along the lines of but it's basically the SAME car, so that doesn't seem fair. She went away for a few minutes, came back and said that's fine...no charge at all.
So it's definitely worth arguing the toss with them.
I sold my previous MR2 Roadster, and bought another one which is a year newer but had Air Conditioning (yes, that's the only reason for changing haha) - anyway, I phoned up and they quoted £40 to make the change. I said something along the lines of but it's basically the SAME car, so that doesn't seem fair. She went away for a few minutes, came back and said that's fine...no charge at all.
So it's definitely worth arguing the toss with them.
LeoSayer - iam due to get the new car in two days,,haven't really got the time at the mo to spend evenings on the computer getting quotes for car and bike seperatley,as I posted earlier I also wouldn't be able to use ncb on two separate new policies,it was probably cheaper at the moment to begrudgingly pay present insurers the extra £89,but rest assured i'll be looking to leave them at renewal time.
I would also stand to lose out heavily in cancellation costs of current insurance.
Paintman - yes the Corsa may be a 'weapon of choice' to some young tearaway drivers and boy racers,but does me being in my mid fifties put me in that category?
something else I cant fathom out - two years ago when I acquired my present focus est.,it was in a much higher group and and probably 2-3 times the value of my then current 21 year old Peugeot 106 diesel,but on that occasion the same insurer only charged me the admin cost for a change of vehicle on the policy and no extra premium ,totally weird if you ask me
I would also stand to lose out heavily in cancellation costs of current insurance.
Paintman - yes the Corsa may be a 'weapon of choice' to some young tearaway drivers and boy racers,but does me being in my mid fifties put me in that category?
something else I cant fathom out - two years ago when I acquired my present focus est.,it was in a much higher group and and probably 2-3 times the value of my then current 21 year old Peugeot 106 diesel,but on that occasion the same insurer only charged me the admin cost for a change of vehicle on the policy and no extra premium ,totally weird if you ask me
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