Insurance premiums sneaking up - have you heard of this lot?

[Simpo Two]

For some years I've used A-Plan but when the renewal came through this week it was £420 and it dawned on me that's quite a chunk.

So I thought I'd test out Compare the Market dot Meerkat and it found '1st Central' at £279.36 with only a £250 excess. Several others were in the £300-£400 region but with bigger excesses.

Seems to cheap to be true - so I wonder if anyone has had any experience of them?



ETA: 10 minutes after doing the online bit, the phone rang. It was some agent saying that Swintons wanted to to talk to me about a quote, and would I mind giving them the relevant information? 'So you mean I've just tonked all the info into your website but they don't have it? 'No, you'll have to go through it again because the system doesn't pass it on.' 'Oh OK then'. Pause. Bloke from Swintons starts asking me all the questions. He says the internet prices are wrong - which rather negates the whole bloody exercise I'd have thought. We get to the end of it. 'What's the best price you've got' he asked. '£279.36 from 1st Central' I said proudly. 'Sorry, we can't get anywhere near it, and our excess is £900' he says. 'So you just wasted my time then' I told him. 'No, we haven't wasted your time, you rang us' he said. 'No you didn't' I replied, 'somebody rang me up saying Swintons wanted to talk to me about a quote'. I hung up.

Bloody hell, what a waste of time for everybody.

Edited by Simpo Two on Thursday 18th June 15:35

[chrispitman]

Yep some companies are right sh??sters, i had a no fault claim on my TVR and third party paid out. yet when it came around to re do my daily run about focus I notified them of the accident on the other seperate policy and they upped it by £75, yet the company I'm with now even though they were slightly more do penalize for no fault claims. Best to sat away from the real cheap ones as they usually charge for any changes to the policy and can be a right nightmare when it comes to a claim. The best thing to do with the TVR is stick to one of the specialist pref one that has agreed value and alows buy back in case of write off if you have done some mods.

[Barkychoc]

I recently came out of a company car and had to buy my own insurance and found the comparison websites a complete waste of time - there was always some bullst reason why the price quoted was wrong.

[Loubaruch]

Over the years have been insured through many different brokers. As you say recently premiums have been crawling up.

Also found comparison sites completely useless for performance cars.

Have now transfered over to Hagerty, have found them very pleasant to deal with, one of the staff runs a TVR and they are knowledgable. Policys insured through a large respected company and the price was for me unbeatable. I have no connection with them but very pleased with their service, others on here also seem to like them!

[Wildfire]

Yep I've noticed this. My premium, whilst still very low has gone up by £60 this year. Which is the highest it's been since I passed the 25 mark.

Also I had the same thing with Swintons, someone rang me, put me throught to them and they quoted me over £1k!

[chrispitman]

+1 for Haggerty also they give discount for TVR car club members.

[bigdods]

I am the exception to the rule. My Hagerty premium went down this year by ~£50

Edited by bigdods on Friday 19th June 14:47

[LordGrover]

I'm in my third year of TVR ownership and the premium has steadily decreased each time. Admittedly I was stung in my first year but this year I paid £260 for 5,000 miles - bargain. I wouldn't look at a non-specialist performance/classic car insurer though - false economy if the worst happens.

[Simpo Two]

Wildfire said:

Also I had the same thing with Swintons, someone rang me, put me throught to them and they quoted me over £1k!

A friend with experience of the industry tells me that the company responsible is Call Connections. Obviously Swinton pay them for 'leads' and Comparethemarket.com gets paid to sell phone numbers.

It's likely that the Swinton's bloke at the end really did think I'd rung in, when in fact it was completely the opposite. I can't help thinking that insurance would be a lot easier and cheaper if there weren't so many middle-men all trying to make a quick commission. It just puts prices up and wastes time.

After '1st Central' there were 'Quote Mart' and 'Dial Direct', neither of which I've heard of, but Admiral, who I have heard of, next at £327. I think I'll ring up A-Plan and if they can do better.

Thanks folks.

[mrmaggit]

We've got our "fleet" with Jelf Group, I've had a no-fault claim and it was sorted very efficiently. Cheap quotes are one thing, the experience when you have to claim is the real test, I'd recommend them any time.

We've got the Griff, Scorpion, Kia Ceed estate and three motorbikes over 600cc and two drivers/riders, agreed value, fully comp and full europe breakdown for £1400.

[Tavan]

+1 for Jelf group. Very competitive on price and the cover ticked all the right boxes for me.