New insurance scam

[Foss62]

I was quite shocked by this one to be honest. Mrs Foss was cancelling a policy due to selling her car, and getting a quote for its replacement. During the call the agent discovered that we also had home insurance with his company. He persuaded Mrs F that it would be cheaper and easier if all policies were to start and expire at the same time and with the same insurer.

So all OK so far. Mrs F got a reasonable quote for the new car on a pro-rata basis to end at the same time as our home insurance. Unnecessary in my opinion, but there you go…

In producing the quote, he worked out that I also had a car. Mrs Foss passed the phone to me. After interminable questioning, mainly about things he of course already knew (bizarre) he came up with a plan whereby they would insure my car for three months after my current policy expired, to align with the other two and great benefits would result.

Starting to lose the will to live I summoned up the energy to ask him to give me the actual price for those three months. Multiplied by four, I discovered that this worked out at more than twice the cost of my current policy!

Now we are not talking about any unusual factors here. I am an over sixty, with no recent claims and a clean driving record. The car is a mid market estate, and it’s current insurer is a large and well known company, that I selected from a long list of broadly similar quotes.

I can only conclude that this company (named after a senior Naval rank), has found a new way of trying to bamboozle people into paying (significantly) more for their insurance.

[sixor8]

IME, multicar, or combined car and house insurance have never been cheaper than keeping them separate. You'd have a pricey policy and any claim would likely be expensive at renewal. They'd of course encourage monthly payments at a premium.

[Pica-Pica]

sixor8 said:

IME, multicar, or combined car and house insurance have never been cheaper than keeping them separate. You'd have a pricey policy and any claim would likely be expensive at renewal. They'd of course encourage monthly payments at a premium.

Our house policy is the same annual amount whether monthly or yearly - Lloyds Bank. I have not found combined policies cheaper for some years now.

[Doesitdrive]

The selling of convenience again, at a price of course, so many buy into it , for the convenience like.

Once they monopolise you and laziness has set in, then they go for the bank account.

[Sheepshanks]

The insurance company mentioned (and its related brands) has always seemed whiffy to me and I've avoided them for mine and wife's cars and other insurances.

I did use them for both of our "kids" from 21-25 but it was always a mightly battle to get a resonable renewal price, but they did generally end uo about the cheapest of names you''ve never heard of. Thankfully the kids never had any claims so didn't have to get involved with their practice of using their tame AMC or repaired cars with used parts.

[davek_964]

Hardly a 'scam'.

We have multi car with them, they are massively cheaper than anywhere else for at least one of the cars - and they paid out quickly and generously when I had an accident a few years ago.

Different insurers work for different people, but 'scam' is an exaggeration

[Mr Tidy]

I'd never insure with that company after the terrible claims experience my nephew had with them.

I've tried multi-car policies a couple of times, but have never got a competitive quote for both cars so I don't bother trying any more.

[Foss62]

davek_964 said:

Hardly a 'scam'.

We have multi car with them, they are massively cheaper than anywhere else for at least one of the cars - and they paid out quickly and generously when I had an accident a few years ago.

Different insurers work for different people, but 'scam' is an exaggeration

The choice of words was influenced by the extraordinary price they came up with for my vehicle - I fully expect that if I were to seek a quote independently from that company, they would come up with something broadly in line with the market rates (I can’t see why not…).
In my opinion they were using a supposedly beneficial scenario, combined with a ridiculously exhaustive (and exhausting) questioning process to divert attention from an extortionate price for something I didn’t want in the first place.