Insurance premiums...
Discussion
I know this has been done to death here, but I was just looking for some that confirmation I'm not going crazy.
Usual stuff: I'm mid 30s, married, decent postcode, no points, good driving record. Licence since 17, IAM for last 6 years, owned cars continuously for the last 11 years, 11 years NCD on one policy, 4 on the other.
Only blot was a stupid stupid low speed fender bender in March, I touched the car in front which needed a new bumper and some paint. Guy unfortunately wanted to go through insurance.
I'm looking into changing the MX-5 for a TVR S series (on the 4 yr NCB policy).
Rang up my broker for a quote. They raised eyebrows straight away - pretty patronising asking if I'd driven powerful cars before. Given that it's only 30-40 more bhp than the Mazda and my other car that I've had for 6 years is more powerful (not to mention several 200+bhp cars that I've driven regularly).
Anyway, the current insurer wouldn't quote me on it, and due to the claim still being unresolved (no idea why, I admitted liability, the guy had no injuries and his insurer were picking up the car the next day so it must be fixed by now) they won't refund any of the premium. It's unlikely that I'll get anything back anyway because of the cost of the claim.
So, the only way I can change car is by writing off the £450 premium (of course, I only just renewed!).
So, I got him to requote and he just got back to me. Asked him to quote with business use (which I have on all my cars).
He got back to me just now - without business use, £293 which seems OK even after having wasted £450 insuring the Mx-5. With business use, a staggering £5237!
Can anybody tell me why the huge disparity? It's not a problem on my other cars, business use makes little difference. Is it the "type" of car? Are you not allowed to drive TVRs to work or something? Is it the little bump? In which case does that mean come renewal time everything the fun side of a 1.0 Micra will cost £2k to insure? Or is it because the claim is unresolved?
Please tell me the latter, because failing that it looks like the only way to get into a TVR is to get a new career
:depressed:
Usual stuff: I'm mid 30s, married, decent postcode, no points, good driving record. Licence since 17, IAM for last 6 years, owned cars continuously for the last 11 years, 11 years NCD on one policy, 4 on the other.
Only blot was a stupid stupid low speed fender bender in March, I touched the car in front which needed a new bumper and some paint. Guy unfortunately wanted to go through insurance.
I'm looking into changing the MX-5 for a TVR S series (on the 4 yr NCB policy).
Rang up my broker for a quote. They raised eyebrows straight away - pretty patronising asking if I'd driven powerful cars before. Given that it's only 30-40 more bhp than the Mazda and my other car that I've had for 6 years is more powerful (not to mention several 200+bhp cars that I've driven regularly).
Anyway, the current insurer wouldn't quote me on it, and due to the claim still being unresolved (no idea why, I admitted liability, the guy had no injuries and his insurer were picking up the car the next day so it must be fixed by now) they won't refund any of the premium. It's unlikely that I'll get anything back anyway because of the cost of the claim.
So, the only way I can change car is by writing off the £450 premium (of course, I only just renewed!).
So, I got him to requote and he just got back to me. Asked him to quote with business use (which I have on all my cars).
He got back to me just now - without business use, £293 which seems OK even after having wasted £450 insuring the Mx-5. With business use, a staggering £5237!
Can anybody tell me why the huge disparity? It's not a problem on my other cars, business use makes little difference. Is it the "type" of car? Are you not allowed to drive TVRs to work or something? Is it the little bump? In which case does that mean come renewal time everything the fun side of a 1.0 Micra will cost £2k to insure? Or is it because the claim is unresolved?
Please tell me the latter, because failing that it looks like the only way to get into a TVR is to get a new career
:depressed:
ZOLLAR said:
Perhaps the broker doesn't have any insurers on file that want to cover business use so they are trying to get you to go elsewhere.
The MX-5 is currently insured through that broker and has business use. My other car was with them last year and had business cover. In fact I have used them on and off for 4 years and always had business cover, never had a policy without it.Check which class of business use they are quoting. IIRC there is commuting (not classed as business use). Then there is travelling on business (which I have and costs a few quid a year) , then there is business use e.g. you are delivering things in your car or using it as a tool of your business as opposed to just going to different places to meet people/do work.
That price is just silly, you may have to go elsewhere.
That price is just silly, you may have to go elsewhere.
NiceCupOfTea said:
ZOLLAR said:
Perhaps the broker doesn't have any insurers on file that want to cover business use so they are trying to get you to go elsewhere.
The MX-5 is currently insured through that broker and has business use. My other car was with them last year and had business cover. In fact I have used them on and off for 4 years and always had business cover, never had a policy without it.ZOLLAR said:
NiceCupOfTea said:
ZOLLAR said:
Perhaps the broker doesn't have any insurers on file that want to cover business use so they are trying to get you to go elsewhere.
The MX-5 is currently insured through that broker and has business use. My other car was with them last year and had business cover. In fact I have used them on and off for 4 years and always had business cover, never had a policy without it.I can understand the insurer saying that, but the broker? And they're OK with SDP but not business (and it is business not commuting BTW).
Is it going to be more reasonably when the claim is settled? Waiting for a call back to confirm.
I could ring other insurers but the amount of complication is crazy - open claim, have NCB but on another car, can I use the 4years NCB on the policy that is on the policy that I want to cancel but can't?
NiceCupOfTea said:
The broker or the insurer?
I can understand the insurer saying that, but the broker? And they're OK with SDP but not business (and it is business not commuting BTW).
Is it going to be more reasonably when the claim is settled? Waiting for a call back to confirm.
I could ring other insurers but the amount of complication is crazy - open claim, have NCB but on another car, can I use the 4years NCB on the policy that is on the policy that I want to cancel but can't?
Probably the insurer, The broker may not have any insurers on its books that want to cover TVRs on business use, its a long shot but it is plausible.I can understand the insurer saying that, but the broker? And they're OK with SDP but not business (and it is business not commuting BTW).
Is it going to be more reasonably when the claim is settled? Waiting for a call back to confirm.
I could ring other insurers but the amount of complication is crazy - open claim, have NCB but on another car, can I use the 4years NCB on the policy that is on the policy that I want to cancel but can't?
Just has a long talk with the guy at the broker, nice guy & a petrolhead to boot.
Their classic/business friendly insurers don't want to know with a claim within the last 12 months. Apparently many insurers won't view classic sports cars as classics as they can still be driven hard.
It's crazy. The quote was for an S2 but he said he found a quote for an 87 S (basically the same bloody car) for £400 including business use.
Punched the lot into Comparethemarket for a laugh and the best quote is still over £700 with Admiral (but that's with the 4yr NCB which I'm not sure if I could take from the other car - if I can't get a refund I might as well not cancel the policy and keep the car for a while). Still too much anyway.
So my options are:
- don't get business cover (but I am freelance and most of my fun drives are on runs to workplaces)
- get a different car
- wait a year
Not very happy about any of them to be honest.
It was good to hear that it won't make any difference when my claim is resolved and it wouldn't make any difference to the premiums if the claim had been for £20 or £20M. All for the sake of a scrape on the bumper of an A-class.
Their classic/business friendly insurers don't want to know with a claim within the last 12 months. Apparently many insurers won't view classic sports cars as classics as they can still be driven hard.
It's crazy. The quote was for an S2 but he said he found a quote for an 87 S (basically the same bloody car) for £400 including business use.
Punched the lot into Comparethemarket for a laugh and the best quote is still over £700 with Admiral (but that's with the 4yr NCB which I'm not sure if I could take from the other car - if I can't get a refund I might as well not cancel the policy and keep the car for a while). Still too much anyway.
So my options are:
- don't get business cover (but I am freelance and most of my fun drives are on runs to workplaces)
- get a different car
- wait a year
Not very happy about any of them to be honest.
It was good to hear that it won't make any difference when my claim is resolved and it wouldn't make any difference to the premiums if the claim had been for £20 or £20M. All for the sake of a scrape on the bumper of an A-class.
Haribo Man said:
How much was thew claim for the A Class?
Is it worth your while reimbursing the claim costs in light of the potential loss?
Reimbursing to the insurance company? Can I do that? I did ask the guy at the time but he wanted to go through the insurance - fair enough.Is it worth your while reimbursing the claim costs in light of the potential loss?
It's not settled yet but he didn't seem keen on the fake personal injury thing. Still, his insurance company will have found somebody nice and expensive and a few hundred quid spray job will probably end up being a £2k Merc main dealer job...
You can but obviously only worthwhile if it works out cheaper than anything which you can overpay.
Insurance engineers will negotiate on hourly rate and offer in line with the rates paid to their own approved repairers if someone else is used but parts will be from main dealers like you say. Again if PI involved then forget it. Always worth a call though.
Insurance engineers will negotiate on hourly rate and offer in line with the rates paid to their own approved repairers if someone else is used but parts will be from main dealers like you say. Again if PI involved then forget it. Always worth a call though.
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