Is everyone else in the same boat?

[matthias73]

So my insurance went up from 1800 to 2400. I got insured directly after passing my test, on my mums policy. I thought that due to not having crashed and killed 30 people in the last year, they would realise that I am infact a decent driver, and were going to lower my quote. Instead, the disinterested woman on the phone told me that all insurance had gone up lately. And that my no claims bonus only starts this year, as I turned 19.

Obviously I've spent a lot of time looking around for insurance, but I've not had much luck. I dont mind paying 1800 or even 2000 (granted, 3-400 will be for my mum) but 2400 is such a huge increase...
Do insurance companies actually respond to haggling? Could I convince them to drop to 2000?

I also am aware that companies will try and increase prices each time it comes to renewal. If we stopped the policy, and then went to get a brand new policy with them, would they maybe have a diferent price?


Has anyone else had similar experiences recently?

For the record, me and my mum share a peugeot 406. Not exactly the most likely candidate to be driven into the prime minister at a billion miles per hour!

[hornetrider]

Is this the cheapest that the confused meerkats can offer?

[WhoseGeneration]

matthias73 said:

So my insurance went up from 1800 to 2400. I got insured directly after passing my test, on my mums policy. I thought that due to not having crashed and killed 30 people in the last year, they would realise that I am infact a decent driver, and were going to lower my quote. Instead, the disinterested woman on the phone told me that all insurance had gone up lately. And that my no claims bonus only starts this year, as I turned 19.

Obviously I've spent a lot of time looking around for insurance, but I've not had much luck. I dont mind paying 1800 or even 2000 (granted, 3-400 will be for my mum) but 2400 is such a huge increase...
Do insurance companies actually respond to haggling? Could I convince them to drop to 2000?

I also am aware that companies will try and increase prices each time it comes to renewal. If we stopped the policy, and then went to get a brand new policy with them, would they maybe have a diferent price?


Has anyone else had similar experiences recently?

For the record, me and my mum share a peugeot 406. Not exactly the most likely candidate to be driven into the prime minister at a billion miles per hour!

No but I'm really old.
You do have my sympathy because, somehow, down the decades the consequences of insurance claims have become more onerous.
Leading to the levels of premiums, especially for those younger, that we now see.

[choading]

The yoof of today deserves to get stung on insurance. You get easy exams (how many A's did you get at A level?) and iphones, what do you expect?

[mybrainhurts]

If it makes you feel any better, my last three years were £632, £835 and £1425...no claims, same risk.

And I'm an old fart...

[Pommygranite]

I lived in the uk for 4 months end of last year. 34 but due to having moved to oz in 2007 have no ncb. Had a uk license since 17/1993.

For a focus tdci 90bhp, living in safe Bournemouth my quote was £900. Ridiculous.

Back in oz now and drive a 360bhp falcon turbo worth perhaps £25k. Gave me honorary ncb but still only pay £500 pa.

Seems the uk claim culture is making it expensive.

So to the op, no it's not just you.

[matthias73]

choading said:

The yoof of today deserves to get stung on insurance. You get easy exams (how many A's did you get at A level?) and iphones, what do you expect?

Whats an exam?

[Egg Chaser]

choading said:

The yoof of today deserves to get stung on insurance. You get easy exams (how many A's did you get at A level?) and iphones, what do you expect?

Sorry, but why the fk do 'easy exams' and the existance of iPhones mean young people deserve to get arse-raped on insurance? What a retarded thing to say.

[matthias73]

The meerkats offered me 1900 pounds, but I changed a number of things. I gave myself one years no claims, although in reality I dont have a ncb. I didn't mention that my mother was born in germany, because although she's lived here for 40 years, they want to charge her more for it! I also changed the adress to my father's house, as it has a garage and a drive (although he cant drive, lol) and put myself down as the owner and main driver. The later changes are feasable and would not be fraud, as I live with my dad as much as my mum.


This quote was for elephant. Went on the elephant site with the identical figures, and they wanted twice as much....

[Baryonyx]

I'm in my 20's and my insurance goes down every year, though it would stay the same or go up if I didn't look elsewhere come renewal time. I've been lucky as I've upgraded through faster and faster cars, going up in the insurance groups and my MR2 Turbo will set me back around £1000 without a fight come renewal time. That said, some cars still give insane quotes on the comparison websites.

If you're into specialist cars (imported/modified/performance etc etc) then you may find a specialist broker is your best bet. Talking to them over the phone, you can make a good case to them. Particularly useful is your previous car history with these folks, although I appreciate that may be an issue for you.

[Waynester]

Egg Chaser said:

choading said:

The yoof of today deserves to get stung on insurance. You get easy exams (how many A's did you get at A level?) and iphones, what do you expect?

Sorry, but why the fk do 'easy exams' and the existance of iPhones mean young people deserve to get arse-raped on insurance? What a retarded thing to say.

I do believe it was meant just as a little tongue in cheek comment.. its how I read it anyway.


OP: Not just you, prices & quotes have increased for nearly everyone!
I think some of the reasons given is that insurance companies have been paying out on natural global disasters?
I'm sure I heard there had been a big increase in personal injury claims, not helped by the sudden proliferation of 'Where there's blame there's a claim' companies...

Decreases in 'their' profit margin means prices have shot up, & pants pulled down!

[TheEnd]

Egg Chaser said:

choading said:

The yoof of today deserves to get stung on insurance. You get easy exams (how many A's did you get at A level?) and iphones, what do you expect?

Sorry, but why the fk do 'easy exams' and the existance of iPhones mean young people deserve to get arse-raped on insurance? What a retarded thing to say.

It because they crash trying to find the * key for A*'s whilst texting and driving.

[AJI]

My advice is to keep shopping around. Try as many different companies as possible.
Its well known that many insurance companies simply pull a figure out of the hat and see if anybody 'bites'.

I remember my first own fully comp insurance quote on my first performance car was 12,000gbp!
The second search got an 8,000gbp quote and then after 3 hours later I found a quote for the region of 700gbp.

It pays to shop around.

[Nick3point2]

I'm currently 23 and every year my insurance has been a signficant reduction over the previous year's policy. Driving since 17, claim at 17 (£3k write off) and no point or claims since.

Do all the tricks: add a parent as a named driver, limit your mileage (and stick to it, difficult to be proven to exceed it but the last thing you want is problems surrounding breaking the terms of you're insurance) and I always compare comparison sites, there's usually a couple percent between the same companies' quotes on different sites. And finally, keep annoying your current insurers, a call every 3 days asking for why they are not competitive compared to other quotes may get you somewhere.

[Pints]

The moustachio lothario was able to beat my renewal quote by about £150 combined.

I then went directly to the insurer who had the best prices and asked them what they could do if I took 2 policies with them.

They knocked the prices down even further. Savings on renewal and savings on last year.
Getting old does seem to have its benefits.

[Miss D Meanour]

My insurance has been around £200 for the last 2 years. I've 13+ years NCB (don't know if that makes much difference). Even after changing cars this year from an 04 (relatively basic) to a 10 plate (with a few more toys, alloy wheels etc) my insurance only rose by £10.

Guess I must be one of the lucky ones?

[kiethton]

Other way of doing it, are there other cars at the address - if so get a multi-car.

We have been quoted a stupid renewal with them but entering the details on their site as a new customer my insurance will work out to be £680 at 22 on a BMW 335i, brother who is 19 works out to be £720 on a 1.25 fiesta as well which i didn't think was too bad

[TAS1981]

Pommygranite said:

I lived in the uk for 4 months end of last year. 34 but due to having moved to oz in 2007 have no ncb. Had a uk license since 17/1993.

For a focus tdci 90bhp, living in safe Bournemouth my quote was £900. Ridiculous.

Back in oz now and drive a 360bhp falcon turbo worth perhaps £25k. Gave me honorary ncb but still only pay £500 pa.

Seems the uk claim culture is making it expensive.

So to the op, no it's not just you.

Balance out the cost of insurance with how cheap good cars are in the uk right now! Sod the Iphone, yoof today get Fiesta STs etc... Insurance should be more expensive! Even as relatively recent as 13 years ago when I passed my test the cars me and mates had were crap. Had a crash in your mk1 Fiesta/Seat Ibiza? Yeah your car is written off, here is the £500 its worth. The insurance was not as astronomical though as you would take a massive excess and walk away if you crashed!

Now there are much better cars available for less... its not so much of a stretch to buy a Porsche Boxster say at 7-8k or something, similar to what a Corsa would have been 13 years ago (maybe???), or more realistically in OPs case some new Ford Fiesta. More sophisticated cars are cheaper to buy due to depreciation but running and fixing them has not come down as much. Perhaps a factor in insurance premiums as well...

In Aus you would pay a lot more for the car though, even if the insurance is less...so that's swings and roundabouts...

ok so that was all a bit waffley but you get the picture.

[Pommygranite]

TAS1981 said:

Pommygranite said:

I lived in the uk for 4 months end of last year. 34 but due to having moved to oz in 2007 have no ncb. Had a uk license since 17/1993.

For a focus tdci 90bhp, living in safe Bournemouth my quote was £900. Ridiculous.

Back in oz now and drive a 360bhp falcon turbo worth perhaps £25k. Gave me honorary ncb but still only pay £500 pa.

Seems the uk claim culture is making it expensive.

So to the op, no it's not just you.

Balance out the cost of insurance with how cheap good cars are in the uk right now! Sod the Iphone, yoof today get Fiesta STs etc... Insurance should be more expensive! Even as relatively recent as 13 years ago when I passed my test the cars me and mates had were crap. Had a crash in your mk1 Fiesta/Seat Ibiza? Yeah your car is written off, here is the £500 its worth. The insurance was not as astronomical though as you would take a massive excess and walk away if you crashed!

Now there are much better cars available for less... its not so much of a stretch to buy a Porsche Boxster say at 7-8k or something, similar to what a Corsa would have been 13 years ago (maybe???), or more realistically in OPs case some new Ford Fiesta. More sophisticated cars are cheaper to buy due to depreciation but running and fixing them has not come down as much. Perhaps a factor in insurance premiums as well...

In Aus you would pay a lot more for the car though, even if the insurance is less...so that's swings and roundabouts...

ok so that was all a bit waffley but you get the picture.

Great point regards cost of purchase.

I would only add the cost of servicing is way cheaper here and depreciation is way steadier here than the UK.

So UK is a lot cheaper to buy than oz but running costs are less in Oz I would say.

[U T]

matthias73 said:

I thought that due to not having crashed and killed 30 people in the last year, they would realise that I am infact a decent driver

Ahhh...so that's the definition of a decent driver. I've always wondered.
I lost control and hit a minibus head on, and only killed 17. So I'm a decent driver too! These lunatics that kill 30 shouldn't be allowed on the road!