Insurance rant!
Discussion
Doing the olde' paperwork
Had 20+ years without a claim
Last year I went with AA.. turns out when the renewal paperwork came thru they only document up to "9 or more"
So 11 years of claim free driving truncated off my record ?!
I realise insurers only discount up to X many years but it's just annoying to have a great track record wiped out, what's so bloody difficult for an insurer to store a number above 10 on a file? Who benefits by not storing it properly?
Anyway switched to Aviva and I wanted to put 20+ but being Mr Diligent I entered "9+" and when it came to process payment BOOM! they instantly verified that.. so there are systems in place
Now I'm now wondering what would've happened if I'd entered 20+... maybe it would have worked, despite being assured by AA 'there's nothing we can do' ... maybe it's digitally on file anyway
Anybody else sick of the insurance merry go round every year or do you really enjoy it ??
Now I'm sure these insurers make massive profits.. for what??
Who really benefits from all this marketing, advertising, comparison sites, not being able to speak to humans, useless bots and all the associated crap??
Now I'm no communist, but the 'free market' doesn't seem to bring much of anything to the table IMO it's basically ' who is the cheapest this year who isn't shockingly bad ' and the answer is... it's a crap shoot who knows until you put in a claim !?!
So why not a single public sector insurer, perhaps with just private sector for exotics or something?
Surely it would provide honest jobs, could be integrated with tax/police records, save masses of time, bring prices down..
What am I missing here.. ???
Had 20+ years without a claim
Last year I went with AA.. turns out when the renewal paperwork came thru they only document up to "9 or more"
So 11 years of claim free driving truncated off my record ?!
I realise insurers only discount up to X many years but it's just annoying to have a great track record wiped out, what's so bloody difficult for an insurer to store a number above 10 on a file? Who benefits by not storing it properly?
Anyway switched to Aviva and I wanted to put 20+ but being Mr Diligent I entered "9+" and when it came to process payment BOOM! they instantly verified that.. so there are systems in place
Now I'm now wondering what would've happened if I'd entered 20+... maybe it would have worked, despite being assured by AA 'there's nothing we can do' ... maybe it's digitally on file anyway
Anybody else sick of the insurance merry go round every year or do you really enjoy it ??
Now I'm sure these insurers make massive profits.. for what??
Who really benefits from all this marketing, advertising, comparison sites, not being able to speak to humans, useless bots and all the associated crap??
Now I'm no communist, but the 'free market' doesn't seem to bring much of anything to the table IMO it's basically ' who is the cheapest this year who isn't shockingly bad ' and the answer is... it's a crap shoot who knows until you put in a claim !?!
So why not a single public sector insurer, perhaps with just private sector for exotics or something?
Surely it would provide honest jobs, could be integrated with tax/police records, save masses of time, bring prices down..
What am I missing here.. ???
Every company only uses 9 years, whatever they might lead you to believe.
To be fair, your driving could have got worse or better in the other 12 years.
NCB is a bit of an illusion anyway. I am 65 and bought a Fiat Panda. The premium was £165 with zero NCB as my NCB was on another car. Out of interest, I added my "14 years" NCB and it was about 156.
To be fair, your driving could have got worse or better in the other 12 years.
NCB is a bit of an illusion anyway. I am 65 and bought a Fiat Panda. The premium was £165 with zero NCB as my NCB was on another car. Out of interest, I added my "14 years" NCB and it was about 156.
MasteringGuy said:
Doing the olde' paperwork
Had 20+ years without a claim
Last year I went with AA.. turns out when the renewal paperwork came thru they only document up to "9 or more"
So 11 years of claim free driving truncated off my record ?!
I realise insurers only discount up to X many years but it's just annoying to have a great track record wiped out, what's so bloody difficult for an insurer to store a number above 10 on a file? Who benefits by not storing it properly?
Anyway switched to Aviva and I wanted to put 20+ but being Mr Diligent I entered "9+" and when it came to process payment BOOM! they instantly verified that.. so there are systems in place
Now I'm now wondering what would've happened if I'd entered 20+... maybe it would have worked, despite being assured by AA 'there's nothing we can do' ... maybe it's digitally on file anyway
Anybody else sick of the insurance merry go round every year or do you really enjoy it ??
Now I'm sure these insurers make massive profits.. for what??
Who really benefits from all this marketing, advertising, comparison sites, not being able to speak to humans, useless bots and all the associated crap??
Now I'm no communist, but the 'free market' doesn't seem to bring much of anything to the table IMO it's basically ' who is the cheapest this year who isn't shockingly bad ' and the answer is... it's a crap shoot who knows until you put in a claim !?!
So why not a single public sector insurer, perhaps with just private sector for exotics or something?
Surely it would provide honest jobs, could be integrated with tax/police records, save masses of time, bring prices down..
What am I missing here.. ???
Something unimportant maybe?Had 20+ years without a claim
Last year I went with AA.. turns out when the renewal paperwork came thru they only document up to "9 or more"
So 11 years of claim free driving truncated off my record ?!
I realise insurers only discount up to X many years but it's just annoying to have a great track record wiped out, what's so bloody difficult for an insurer to store a number above 10 on a file? Who benefits by not storing it properly?
Anyway switched to Aviva and I wanted to put 20+ but being Mr Diligent I entered "9+" and when it came to process payment BOOM! they instantly verified that.. so there are systems in place
Now I'm now wondering what would've happened if I'd entered 20+... maybe it would have worked, despite being assured by AA 'there's nothing we can do' ... maybe it's digitally on file anyway
Anybody else sick of the insurance merry go round every year or do you really enjoy it ??
Now I'm sure these insurers make massive profits.. for what??
Who really benefits from all this marketing, advertising, comparison sites, not being able to speak to humans, useless bots and all the associated crap??
Now I'm no communist, but the 'free market' doesn't seem to bring much of anything to the table IMO it's basically ' who is the cheapest this year who isn't shockingly bad ' and the answer is... it's a crap shoot who knows until you put in a claim !?!
So why not a single public sector insurer, perhaps with just private sector for exotics or something?
Surely it would provide honest jobs, could be integrated with tax/police records, save masses of time, bring prices down..
What am I missing here.. ???
LuS1fer said:
Every company only uses 9 years, whatever they might lead you to believe.
To be fair, your driving could have got worse or better in the other 12 years.
NCB is a bit of an illusion anyway. I am 65 and bought a Fiat Panda. The premium was £165 with zero NCB as my NCB was on another car. Out of interest, I added my "14 years" NCB and it was about 156.
This. ‘Past performance is no indication of future performance’ - to plagiarise the investment markets trope. Up to a point that is true. This must be a U-shaped curve according to insurance statistics. Insurance is not a scam, it is a hard-nosed, profit-focused, actuarial-driven business.To be fair, your driving could have got worse or better in the other 12 years.
NCB is a bit of an illusion anyway. I am 65 and bought a Fiat Panda. The premium was £165 with zero NCB as my NCB was on another car. Out of interest, I added my "14 years" NCB and it was about 156.
I find the lopping of the NCD history annoying too - I view it as a (arguably pointless) principle that it is my record, why should they be allowed to alter it. I can't just randomly add 5, so why can they remove 10?
I have several times found on comparison sites that using the higher (and evidencable) figure brought in more companies, or saved £20 or so, or meant that the cheapest quote was an org that I've heard of etc. Across 2-3 cars in the family that's £50+ a year my way.
To date I've always managed to get a letter issued confirming the full NCD despite what the website T&Cs etc say. Occasionally a struggle, but last few years have usually been just a quick call.
I've definitely had one from the AA in the last couple of years.
To make things hopefully easier, at the start of a policy I aim to upload or email to a new insurer a copy of latest NCD - especially if they have not asked for it - then at end of policy refer them to the submission that they will have on their file.
Yes it is a faff - although the last few times it has been about 10 minutes to check and call.
I expect that one year I will fail though - however hopefully I can just recycle the letter from the previous year.
I have several times found on comparison sites that using the higher (and evidencable) figure brought in more companies, or saved £20 or so, or meant that the cheapest quote was an org that I've heard of etc. Across 2-3 cars in the family that's £50+ a year my way.
To date I've always managed to get a letter issued confirming the full NCD despite what the website T&Cs etc say. Occasionally a struggle, but last few years have usually been just a quick call.
I've definitely had one from the AA in the last couple of years.
To make things hopefully easier, at the start of a policy I aim to upload or email to a new insurer a copy of latest NCD - especially if they have not asked for it - then at end of policy refer them to the submission that they will have on their file.
Yes it is a faff - although the last few times it has been about 10 minutes to check and call.
I expect that one year I will fail though - however hopefully I can just recycle the letter from the previous year.
Doofus said:
NCD isn't real.
Agreed to a point.However when running quotes on comparison sites the savings sometimes are real - and I'd rather keep whatever small dices that I have available loaded in my favour.
I'm less bothered about the NCD number - I am motivated by keeping more options open and not wasting £ (which I can then chose to waste on something else!)
Edited by C-J on Tuesday 27th August 21:28
C-J said:
Doofus said:
NCD isn't real.
Agreed to a point.However when running quotes on comparison sites the savings sometimes are real - and I'd rather keep whatever small dices that I have available loaded in my favour.
I'm less bothered about the NCD - I am motivated by keeping more options open and not wasting £ (which I can then chose to waste on something else!)
miniman said:
My Discovery was stolen last month. Claim with Admiral was surprisingly painless, apart from the bit where they said “this claim will take 2 years off your no claims bonus and you have 16 years, however we only recognise 5 so you now have 3 left.” 
Could be worse, presumably could have dropped to 0 since there had been a claim?miniman said:
My Discovery was stolen last month. Claim with Admiral was surprisingly painless, apart from the bit where they said “this claim will take 2 years off your no claims bonus and you have 16 years, however we only recognise 5 so you now have 3 left.”
It is possible to pay to protect your ncb.fflump said:
miniman said:
My Discovery was stolen last month. Claim with Admiral was surprisingly painless, apart from the bit where they said “this claim will take 2 years off your no claims bonus and you have 16 years, however we only recognise 5 so you now have 3 left.”
It is possible to pay to protect your ncb.When I worked in that industry in the 80s you got protected NCB for no cost if you had no claims for 7 years, and kept 65% NCB unless you had more than one fault claim within 2 insurance years. Premiums weren't loaded so any increase was only because of inflation.
Now you seem to get a lump stuck on the premium and an increased excess for declaring a non-fault claim that cost your insurer nothing.
MasteringGuy said:
Anybody else sick of the insurance merry go round every year or do you really enjoy it ??
Now I'm sure these insurers make massive profits.. for what??
Who really benefits from all this marketing, advertising, comparison sites, not being able to speak to humans, useless bots and all the associated crap??
Now I'm no communist, but the 'free market' doesn't seem to bring much of anything to the table IMO it's basically ' who is the cheapest this year who isn't shockingly bad ' and the answer is... it's a crap shoot who knows until you put in a claim !?!
So why not a single public sector insurer, perhaps with just private sector for exotics or something?
Surely it would provide honest jobs, could be integrated with tax/police records, save masses of time, bring prices down..
What am I missing here.. ???
Lots. Now I'm sure these insurers make massive profits.. for what??
Who really benefits from all this marketing, advertising, comparison sites, not being able to speak to humans, useless bots and all the associated crap??
Now I'm no communist, but the 'free market' doesn't seem to bring much of anything to the table IMO it's basically ' who is the cheapest this year who isn't shockingly bad ' and the answer is... it's a crap shoot who knows until you put in a claim !?!
So why not a single public sector insurer, perhaps with just private sector for exotics or something?
Surely it would provide honest jobs, could be integrated with tax/police records, save masses of time, bring prices down..
What am I missing here.. ???
If you look at the nett results of Car insurers over the last 3 or 5 or 10 or 20 years ( remembering it is very much a cyclical business ) I doubt the Industry as a whole ever gets out of single digits.
When HMG has looked into previously they have all concluded pretty rapidly that if you try and mandate pricing then some Insurers will leave the market completely thus compounding the issue even more.
When car insurance premiums are set at the outset until day 365 ( and often longer ) Insurers have no idea as to whether either said individual premiums or collectively will actually allow them to make a profit.
Flood Re was set up as a joint initiative between both HMG and Private Insurers as effectively a NPO for those that couldn’t get Flood Insurance elsewhere ie it is an Insurer of “last resort”but that is a very esoteric example.
Motor Insurers work on market share and additionally when they can make good returns on either unearned premiums or the equity investment from such can also both have bearings.
Price comparison sites have paradoxically added to the issue.
People moan about renewal prices ( which the existing Insurer has jacked up because they can do with a captive renewal ) , shop around and find they can find a better price and potentially even cheaper than the previous year and so the hamster wheel continues.
Insurers don’t help the situation obviously and loyalty goes out of the window which cuts both ways.
It’s a vicious circle in many ways.
Whilst this applies largely to the mainstream market it can also happen to the so called specialists and HNW Insurers but the percentage differentials seen then are much lower because the premiums to start with are so much higher albeit so are the physical insured values as well.
I questioned this last week when I was checking quotes. My insurer was showing 9 years NCD and I asked them if I had more, which I thought I had, and they said I had 12. I wanted to make sure I was getting like for like quotes. They are transferring my 12 to the new company.
But as said, it seems to make very little real difference. (BTW got mine down about 25% on the previous year).
But as said, it seems to make very little real difference. (BTW got mine down about 25% on the previous year).
I haven't had a car for a couple of years and have now lost my NCB. I have been insured on my wife's car for the last 10 years though.
I recently bought an old car to get around in and the quotes were the same for 0 NCB versus being a named driver on a policy for 10 years.
My premium was £250, I wonder if my previously lost 9 years NCB would actually have made any difference?
I recently bought an old car to get around in and the quotes were the same for 0 NCB versus being a named driver on a policy for 10 years.
My premium was £250, I wonder if my previously lost 9 years NCB would actually have made any difference?
siovey said:
I haven't had a car for a couple of years and have now lost my NCB. I have been insured on my wife's car for the last 10 years though.
I recently bought an old car to get around in and the quotes were the same for 0 NCB versus being a named driver on a policy for 10 years.
My premium was £250, I wonder if my previously lost 9 years NCB would actually have made any difference?
Interestingly, I bought a Fiat Panda for my partner's use and insured it in my name but with her as the registered keeper, her as the main driver and parked at her address. So all totally legitimate.I recently bought an old car to get around in and the quotes were the same for 0 NCB versus being a named driver on a policy for 10 years.
My premium was £250, I wonder if my previously lost 9 years NCB would actually have made any difference?
No NCB for her or me. I am 65, she is 48.
This was much cheaper than insuring it in her name - the only "variable" and she won't earn NCB but the saving was far more than any NCB she could earn would be worth. I think the difference was another £100 or so.
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