why DO insurers requote so high?

[B'stard Child]

Deva Link said:

One thing to watch, and annoys me about these threads, is when comparing with other people make sure the excess is like for like. I hate excesses and have the minimum (£100) but other people are happy to have £500 and that can make a big difference to the premium.

I took my 98 740 off the road for a year a while back cos I got 4 figure quotes as I'd transfered my NCB to another car I used more - I knew it was going to be expensive but I'm not paying more for insurance than I do on petrol in a year that's just daft!!!

I've been trying for a few years to get it on a classic policy (if it was a 96 I could easily go that way but they don't roll over the qualifying years on an annual basis - more an ad-hoc additions process it appears)

Anyway I started ringing around last year and got insured for £350 on a new policy with zero NCB

Renewal for same policy 12 mths later with a new fresh 1 year NCB (earlier this year) came in at £890 WTF!! (No other changes to risk - no new points or accidents or anything - car and myself are both a year older)

Ring round and best I could get was £500 with a mandatory £100 excess and a voluntary of £200 (£300 total)

Car is worth at best £1800 so I asked what the biggest voluntary excess I could take was (answer was £1000)

So £1100 total excess on a £1800 quid car what was the premium reduction.....

wait for it.......

£27.50 - so well worth it - NOT!

Footman James in the end managed to get me a classic/cherished policy with 3K miles for £380 so I solved my problem and whilst I don't build up any NCB it's not an issue to me compared with insurance cover I can afford.

Edited by B'stard Child on Thursday 7th June 13:40

[s2ooz]

The answer is commission.
a new sale - via a website for example will get the website anything up to £100 per sale.
They make no money on renewals.

some sites pass part of their commissions back into the quote to make it even cheaper.

its estimated 80% of people just pay the renewal.

so as for the massive hikes on renewal - the commissions have probably got better or more is being passed back to the quote.

[NotDave]

blugnu said:

A fairly nice - but not really nice - part of Sheffield.

Hunters bar?

[B'stard Child]

Hmm - first year of insurance back in 1982 was I am pretty sure £260 fully comp on a poverty spec MKI Ford Fiesta worth £2500

Remembering my earnings at the time was £450 per month take home

so £5400 per year - so insurance was 5% of my annual income

That funnily enough is still my self imposed annual spend limit for insurance today as a percentage of my salary

My neice just passed her test and got a stbox french car (wreck with a mot I'd call it) and her first annual premium is 30% of her annual salary

So I think things have changed over the recent years!!!

[P2 DJX]

I just got this years renewal through from SwiftCover for my 08 reg Astra Twintop - £187 for the YEAR fully comp with a named driver , including courtesy car and legal cover - I was going to try and haggle another few quid off - do you think it might be a bit cheeky ?
As a side note my father purchased a 12 reg Hyundai i40 tourer brand new £22k worth and insured it with legal cover , 2 named drivers , protected NCB etc £160 for the year with Churchill - some of the prices you guys are quoting for insurance is scary ! !

[NotDave]

At age 25, I'm paying around 6% per annum for one car.

Add in the other 2 and were on 11% Total


Now, our lass is 24, earns less, no NCB so she was looking at circa 15-20% for insurance on a £1500 Astra

[Tonsko]

Just bought a VW camper, tried to get it insured with the brokers who have my 'main' car. Had a claim last jan, fault, still have 9 yrs NCB (it was protected). They wated 900 quid for a 1.9D. The reason being, despite me having 9 yrs NCB on my other car, they could only give me 1 yrs NCB on this new policy because of the claim. Phoned up AFlux, they were quite happy to take the 9 yrs NCB as read (all details forwarded, made sure that they knew I had the fault claim etc. etc. and asked for current broker's details to confirm) and offered me a policy for 360. Crackers.

[0000]

VinceFox said:

so why do they go in so high?

Profit.

[wormburner]

0000 said:

VinceFox said:

so why do they go in so high?

Profit.

They're happy to scalp the meek, lazy, or (worse) vulnerable. They're happy to discount for those 'brazen' enough to ask. They're happy to see the savvy go elsewhere.

Churn churn churn. Loyalty is a mugs game.

[MissChief]

I've been with Direct line since I got my GTI-6 and they've been consistently the cheapest with their renewal, each renewal has been cheaper than what I'm currently paying and even looking around doesn't give me a cheaper deal.

[CraigMST]

Because they can and they can charge so much too, because they can.
We have to have insurance as a requirement to drive so they could charge us as much as they wanted (which they do in most cases) and stll get away with it.

[PumpkinSteve]

I've had insurers phone me with a ridiculous quote after being with them for a year, and after telling them that I've found another company that is half the price they are offering they refuse to believe it, giving me the old "are you sure?!?! What is the excess?? What annual mileage??". They probably think I'm trying to call their bluff to get them to go lower.

I've had an insurance company give me a high quote (with a car forum discount too, apparently), and after I posted on that particular car forum complaining about how they were miles away from my cheapest quote, they actually phoned me back and said they would beat the cheapest quote. I promptly told them to fk off for trying to take the piss in the first place.

[catman]

I've mentioned on another thread that I've just renewed my insurance.
1.8 Mondeo, 7000 miles per annum. Full NCB, no accidents, convictions, 58 years old etc. I had 1 quote for £370 TPFT.

That was the only quote that I could get this year that wasn't insane! I lost count of the insurers who wouldn't even quote me. I've been told that my postcode is one better than hades, but even so, fk me!

Tim

[VinceFox]

You know what would be awesome? If insurers were legally bound to tell you if another insurer was cheaper. You know, like the edf poo does.

[Zigster]

NotDave said:

Pointy hat boat people were dirt cheap at beginning of multicar policy, but then when it's come to renewal/adding the main car on to the policy, the reaming tool got well used

Exactly my experience with same company. Decided "convenience" of multi car policy was worth somewhat less than £600 pa extra so took my low risk ass elsewhere.

[HereBeMonsters]

Insured last year for £750 for 3 cars - on multicar.

Renewal came through, £1265 for 2 cars. I've sold one since.

20 mins of internet shopping around and both insured for under £500.

So, random call centre monkey, I will not be renewing with you. You're ridiculous. In fact I got a quote from YOUR website over £300 cheaper.

[Calamity James]

I finally hit the acceptable age of 25 last year where I can ditch the Admiral group for insurers that don't make me want to drive my car off a cliff, with me inside.

Sky managed to match Admiral's 10 month quote with a 12 month on my MR2, and didn't charge the earth to pay in 3 instalments. If you ask Admiral to pay monthly, they waive the online discount, and add interest too, usually adds 25-30% to the online quote!

I could rant on all day about Admiral and their poor customer service, and the fact that they treat you like a liar without actually asking you (I got £300 added to my premium via a 'Hunter' referral because they took the date of my accident down wrong so then wanted to add it twice when their system flagged it).

When I passed in 2004, it cost me £1100 with LV to insure a 1.0 K10 Micra to put that in perspective. My postcode was rated C on that postcode DB that's floating around, but I've just had the good fortune to move into a B rating postcode, and it's had a surprising effect on insurance quotes!

[Daston]

When I first got the Tuscan I paid £1200 a year fully comp. Got a renewal through for £980 (I had also turned 25 a few months before). I shopped around and managed to get a quote for £480 with protected NCB and track days.

Phoned my current insurance company up to tell them I wouldnt be renewing only to be told they could match the £480! So they can afford to knock £500 off the policy price but have the cheek of charging me £980!!! Told them where they could stick it as god only knows how much they would try and screw you if you needed to claim.