Car Insurance

[Chris Dance]

My Prius car insurance is due shortly. At the present time I am with "Direct Line". I have had Toyota and "More Than" policies in the past; both increased premiums above "Direct Line" cost.

I had the wing mirror smashed off by a mad driver earlier this year and I thought I may have to make a claim. In the end I did not claim as the cost was not much above my excess. Trouble was the direct line insurance rep stated I would have to take the car to a garage of their choice. After some hassle it was agreed the Prius could go to a Toyota dealer. I only want my Prius to be serviced and repaired by a Toyota dealer.

I would be interested in hearing what insurance other Prius owners have. I realise cheapest is not the best and neither is the dearest. Any recommendations please.

Chris.

[Parts-King]

Chris

This is how the insurance companies operate. The insurance policy is YOUR policy and they CANNOT insist you take it to one of their approved companies, they will certainly tell you that, but legally they cannot make you do it. You have a Toyota and you have the right to take it to any Toyota dealer. You may not get a loan car from the insurance company if you do this, but your dealer should be able to sort you one out.

There are many benefits to Toyota insurance, such as taking it to anyone in the dealer network, the full list can be found HERE

The premiums might be higher but they do offer excellent benefits without the hassle

Kingo

[wizzlon]

At the moment I am with NFU mutual. Had a landrover TD5 before prius. I thought they wouldn't be competitive on Prius- as they used to have an "agricultural" bias- but they were. I have always had excellent service and competitive premiums from them. The most interesting is the fact they will, if insuring a new car, replace with new if the original is written off within 2 years of purchase date. I am sure there will be some conditions attached that would need deeper reading. On renewal day I always spend a few hours ringing round, it can really be worth it.

[fuel miser]

It's interesting that a 'Hybrid Car Insurance' icon suddenly appeared two days ago on my start-up page. My policy is nowhere near due for renewal, on clicking it, it takes me to a website owned by Adrian Flux insurance. I have never had a quote from them, and had no contact whatsoever with them. I have gone into desktop menu and tried every way to get rid of this icon, but it doesn't come up in 'delete' options, so I assume it's stuck there forever. They have a damned cheek doing this :ffs: , has anyone else had this or have any ideas how it got there, or how I can get rid of it?

I just go for the cheapest. I found Swiftcover by far the best value last time (but only by going direct to their website and not through a comparison site), I have maximum no claims, clean license and opted for fully comp with £1000 excess, and pay just £180. They do offer other packages such as personal cover, immediate replacement hire car etc. for an additional premium.

[twohats]

I ended up with Liverpool Victoria earlier this year. Pricewise they were in a different ballpark to everyone else.

I have two named drivers on the policy including one older driver so this may have been a factor.

Robert

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I realise cheapest is not the best and neither is the dearest. Any recommendations please.

Chris.

If only most people out there thought this! I dread to think how many people have tried to arrange the best price on the internet and not realised they've got crap cover and probably with a massive hidden excess. Let alone missing accidents or inputting incorrect data or making wrong assumptions.

You want the best policy for you? Then go to a proper insurance broker and tell them what you need. I know they're not fashionable, but they're qualified and know what they're doing. Yes they earn commission, but so do price comparison sites and Direct Line don't pay commissions but spend the same amount on massive advertising.

Not all insurance is the same - as you found out with a popular insurer insisting on using their repairers!

[Parts-King]

. They have a damned cheek doing this :ffs: , has anyone else had this or have any ideas how it got there, or how I can get rid of it?

You will have been on a website and inadvertantly downloaded this without knowing too much about it. It should be removed as soon as possible

Download Malwarebytes (FREE Version) onto your PC, and scan it, it should pick it up as spyware and delete it for you ;)

Kingo

[Doesn'tExist]

I'm in the cheapest camp, and I bump up my excess as well...it's a risk, but a risk worth taking looking and one that I can afford in the unfortunate event it matures...

tbh if the insurance company pays directly the bill I don't car where I take it...Especially for body work repairs since the majority of the dealers I know off don't do that themselves anyway...

Back to quotes, it really depends on your own circumstances and your vehicle....No two people can really compare each other....Brokers can be good, Adrian Flux is not bad especially if you have a power modified vehicle (like my company van with engine, braking, exhaust mods and 22" wheels....) which others don't touch it is insured in Malta now And I must admit I had a good experience with A-Plan even both for my companies vehicles and my powerboat...They were able to undercut anyone with insurers that weren't directly available...

[Doesn'tExist]

. They have a damned cheek doing this :ffs: , has anyone else had this or have any ideas how it got there, or how I can get rid of it?

You will have been on a website and inadvertantly downloaded this without knowing too much about it. It should be removed as soon as possible

Download Malwarebytes (FREE Version) onto your PC, and scan it, it should pick it up as spyware and delete it for you ;)

Kingo

By a Mac and you have no more such issues....

[Jan&tone]

I ended up with Liverpool Victoria earlier this year. Pricewise they were in a different ballpark to everyone else.

I have two named drivers on the policy including one older driver so this may have been a factor.

Robert

Me too. They were 80 quid cheaper for the wife's Aygo than her old aviva policy with me as a named driver and a MASSIVE 120 cheaper than Toyota for my prius with the wife as named driver on that one, plus a discount as we had two policies, plus a further discount on the household policies 'cos we had the car policies with them ..... Absolute result!

[Jan&tone]

. They have a damned cheek doing this :ffs: , has anyone else had this or have any ideas how it got there, or how I can get rid of it?

You will have been on a website and inadvertantly downloaded this without knowing too much about it. It should be removed as soon as possible

Download Malwarebytes (FREE Version) onto your PC, and scan it, it should pick it up as spyware and delete it for you ;)

Kingo

By a Mac and you have no more such issues....

And you will stay dry too!!! Lol

[Doesn'tExist]

Useful today...

[Chris Dance]

Thanks for your replies. Quite a lot to think about. I only want my car to go to a Toyota dealer for repair & service. A mate took his Prius to a non Toyota dealer and they mucked up the Prius electrics. Mr T sorted it out but at a high cost. I may get a quote from Toyota insurance but last time the price they quoted was a lot higher than other insurance companies for the same cover.

Thanks again for replies.

[Chris Dance]

I thought I would let you know how I got on renewing my Prius insurance. I received a renewal notice from Direct Line Ins. I was not happy with the premium or the fact they had stated I had one claim.(I had cancelled a claim last April no monies were ever involved). I found phoning Direct Line was a frustrating operation it took 20mins plus for someone to answer and I was paying for the call. I was assured the claim would be removed and they would drop the asked for premium by £34.

Two days later I got a letter saying sorry that I had cancelled my insurance with them.????

I then rang Toyota INS and their quote was higher than Direct Line's original quote. They promised to ring back with a reduced quote. I never received any call. So much for Toyota.

I then contacted Direct Line again and after the 20min plus wait got a guy who went through it all again. He assured me the claim was removed and the new stated premium was on the new renewal notice he was sending. He also stated I would get the renewal in two days. I received nothing.

Today I rang Direct Line again. The call got answered in about 10mins. After explaining everything again. I was put on hold,passed from operator to operator and in between all this on the many holds I had to listen to music. About 45mins plus later the final person I spoke to stated the claim could not be removed and if I wanted the lower premium they had offered I had to finalise the transaction there and then. They refused to send a new renewal notice even though I requested that I wanted the new premium in writing. In desperation I kept my cool and concluded the phone call.

I have now fixed up a policy with exactly the same cover as direct line with First Direct but at a much reduced premium. It also covers me for driving in the EU.

Hope you never have to go through all that to get your cars insured.

Chris.

[Ikelos]

I have been with Toyota insurance since my Rav4 days (03 reg) I might have a look around when it runs out, with my 59 Prius they charge £245 that is with two drivers...............not sure if that is good or bad..................

[acetip]

I thought I would let you know how I got on renewing my Prius insurance. I received a renewal notice from Direct Line Ins. I was not happy with the premium or the fact they had stated I had one claim.(I had cancelled a claim last April no monies were ever involved). I found phoning Direct Line was a frustrating operation it took 20mins plus for someone to answer and I was paying for the call. I was assured the claim would be removed and they would drop the asked for premium by £34.

Two days later I got a letter saying sorry that I had cancelled my insurance with them.????

I then rang Toyota INS and their quote was higher than Direct Line's original quote. They promised to ring back with a reduced quote. I never received any call. So much for Toyota.

I then contacted Direct Line again and after the 20min plus wait got a guy who went through it all again. He assured me the claim was removed and the new stated premium was on the new renewal notice he was sending. He also stated I would get the renewal in two days. I received nothing.

Today I rang Direct Line again. The call got answered in about 10mins. After explaining everything again. I was put on hold,passed from operator to operator and in between all this on the many holds I had to listen to music. About 45mins plus later the final person I spoke to stated the claim could not be removed and if I wanted the lower premium they had offered I had to finalise the transaction there and then. They refused to send a new renewal notice even though I requested that I wanted the new premium in writing. In desperation I kept my cool and concluded the phone call.

I have now fixed up a policy with exactly the same cover as direct line with First Direct but at a much reduced premium. It also covers me for driving in the EU.

Hope you never have to go through all that to get your cars insured.

Chris.

hi was talking with a lady advisor in lloyds bank the other day about car insurence

it seems that if you have an accident but dont bother to claim,say its something you can fix yourself without all the hassle of a claim or worried about your no claim bonus etc,then you have to still advise your insurence company.

but the problem is that some insurence companies treat this as a claim,and it goes go on your insurece history and when you say change insursnce company it is treated as a claim and will effect the quote you get.

sneeky lot.

[dwilson]

I thought I would let you know how I got on renewing my Prius insurance. I received a renewal notice from Direct Line Ins. I was not happy with the premium or the fact they had stated I had one claim.(I had cancelled a claim last April no monies were ever involved). I found phoning Direct Line was a frustrating operation it took 20mins plus for someone to answer and I was paying for the call. I was assured the claim would be removed and they would drop the asked for premium by £34.

Two days later I got a letter saying sorry that I had cancelled my insurance with them.????

I then rang Toyota INS and their quote was higher than Direct Line's original quote. They promised to ring back with a reduced quote. I never received any call. So much for Toyota.

I then contacted Direct Line again and after the 20min plus wait got a guy who went through it all again. He assured me the claim was removed and the new stated premium was on the new renewal notice he was sending. He also stated I would get the renewal in two days. I received nothing.

Today I rang Direct Line again. The call got answered in about 10mins. After explaining everything again. I was put on hold,passed from operator to operator and in between all this on the many holds I had to listen to music. About 45mins plus later the final person I spoke to stated the claim could not be removed and if I wanted the lower premium they had offered I had to finalise the transaction there and then. They refused to send a new renewal notice even though I requested that I wanted the new premium in writing. In desperation I kept my cool and concluded the phone call.

I have now fixed up a policy with exactly the same cover as direct line with First Direct but at a much reduced premium. It also covers me for driving in the EU.

Hope you never have to go through all that to get your cars insured.

Chris.

hi was talking with a lady advisor in lloyds bank the other day about car insurence

it seems that if you have an accident but dont bother to claim,say its something you can fix yourself without all the hassle of a claim or worried about your no claim bonus etc,then you have to still advise your insurence company.

but the problem is that some insurence companies treat this as a claim,and it goes go on your insurece history and when you say change insursnce company it is treated as a claim and will effect the quote you get.

sneeky lot.

To be fair to the insurance companies I had a no fault claim and it makes no difference to future quotes. I was parked and not in the car! But I can see why they would want to know about all accidents to evaluate risk.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I thought I would let you know how I got on renewing my Prius insurance. I received a renewal notice from Direct Line Ins. I was not happy with the premium or the fact they had stated I had one claim.(I had cancelled a claim last April no monies were ever involved). I found phoning Direct Line was a frustrating operation it took 20mins plus for someone to answer and I was paying for the call. I was assured the claim would be removed and they would drop the asked for premium by £34.

Two days later I got a letter saying sorry that I had cancelled my insurance with them.????

I then rang Toyota INS and their quote was higher than Direct Line's original quote. They promised to ring back with a reduced quote. I never received any call. So much for Toyota.

I then contacted Direct Line again and after the 20min plus wait got a guy who went through it all again. He assured me the claim was removed and the new stated premium was on the new renewal notice he was sending. He also stated I would get the renewal in two days. I received nothing.

Today I rang Direct Line again. The call got answered in about 10mins. After explaining everything again. I was put on hold,passed from operator to operator and in between all this on the many holds I had to listen to music. About 45mins plus later the final person I spoke to stated the claim could not be removed and if I wanted the lower premium they had offered I had to finalise the transaction there and then. They refused to send a new renewal notice even though I requested that I wanted the new premium in writing. In desperation I kept my cool and concluded the phone call.

I have now fixed up a policy with exactly the same cover as direct line with First Direct but at a much reduced premium. It also covers me for driving in the EU.

Hope you never have to go through all that to get your cars insured.

Chris.

hi was talking with a lady advisor in lloyds bank the other day about car insurence

it seems that if you have an accident but dont bother to claim,say its something you can fix yourself without all the hassle of a claim or worried about your no claim bonus etc,then you have to still advise your insurence company.

but the problem is that some insurence companies treat this as a claim,and it goes go on your insurece history and when you say change insursnce company it is treated as a claim and will effect the quote you get.

sneeky lot.

To be fair to the insurance companies I had a no fault claim and it makes no difference to future quotes. I was parked and not in the car! But I can see why they would want to know about all accidents to evaluate risk.

I hate to disagree, but it does! It depends on your insurer and how they rate their policy. Some policies might not load for a non fault accident, others do. Some might let one non fault claim go unloaded but a second or third might get loaded for. Their argument - do they want to insure an unlucky driver?

Also, drivers with non fault claims are actually more liable to have a fault claim. Imagine 80 year old Doris who drives along a 20 mph causing accidents behind her or hesitating at junctions and causing people to run into her. You know that sooner or later she is going to drive the wrong way down a one way street or run a child over.

Extreme example but I think you get the idea.

[dwilson]

I thought I would let you know how I got on renewing my Prius insurance. I received a renewal notice from Direct Line Ins. I was not happy with the premium or the fact they had stated I had one claim.(I had cancelled a claim last April no monies were ever involved). I found phoning Direct Line was a frustrating operation it took 20mins plus for someone to answer and I was paying for the call. I was assured the claim would be removed and they would drop the asked for premium by £34.

Two days later I got a letter saying sorry that I had cancelled my insurance with them.????

I then rang Toyota INS and their quote was higher than Direct Line's original quote. They promised to ring back with a reduced quote. I never received any call. So much for Toyota.

I then contacted Direct Line again and after the 20min plus wait got a guy who went through it all again. He assured me the claim was removed and the new stated premium was on the new renewal notice he was sending. He also stated I would get the renewal in two days. I received nothing.

Today I rang Direct Line again. The call got answered in about 10mins. After explaining everything again. I was put on hold,passed from operator to operator and in between all this on the many holds I had to listen to music. About 45mins plus later the final person I spoke to stated the claim could not be removed and if I wanted the lower premium they had offered I had to finalise the transaction there and then. They refused to send a new renewal notice even though I requested that I wanted the new premium in writing. In desperation I kept my cool and concluded the phone call.

I have now fixed up a policy with exactly the same cover as direct line with First Direct but at a much reduced premium. It also covers me for driving in the EU.

Hope you never have to go through all that to get your cars insured.

Chris.

hi was talking with a lady advisor in lloyds bank the other day about car insurence

it seems that if you have an accident but dont bother to claim,say its something you can fix yourself without all the hassle of a claim or worried about your no claim bonus etc,then you have to still advise your insurence company.

but the problem is that some insurence companies treat this as a claim,and it goes go on your insurece history and when you say change insursnce company it is treated as a claim and will effect the quote you get.

sneeky lot.

To be fair to the insurance companies I had a no fault claim and it makes no difference to future quotes. I was parked and not in the car! But I can see why they would want to know about all accidents to evaluate risk.

I hate to disagree, but it does! It depends on your insurer and how they rate their policy. Some policies might not load for a non fault accident, others do. Some might let one non fault claim go unloaded but a second or third might get loaded for. Their argument - do they want to insure an unlucky driver?

Also, drivers with non fault claims are actually more liable to have a fault claim. Imagine 80 year old Doris who drives along a 20 mph causing accidents behind her or hesitating at junctions and causing people to run into her. You know that sooner or later she is going to drive the wrong way down a one way street or run a child over.

Extreme example but I think you get the idea.

Fine to disagree but I can only say that my no fault accident did not affect my present insurer's quote or any others that I tried - other people may have different experiences but that was mine.

I agree that a second or third no fault might affect things.

I think that my accident of being in a shop when someone decided to reverse into my properly parked car was an example of being unlucky but not to blame. Not a Doris type event.

[fuel miser]

I can remember about 20 years ago, someone slammed into the back of me whilst I was driving down Park Lane (by coincidence, I was in the only other Toyota I ever owned, a Celica). Although it felt like quite a hard impact, there was no visible damage to my car (quite a lot as I recall to the Escort that hit me). I exchanged details with the other driver who admitted (she couldn't really deny) responsibility, and when I got home I reported the matter to my insurer and explained exactly what had happened and that I was worried there could be damage to my car that I was not aware of. They advised me to take it to a Toyota dealer to be examined, I contacted one who said that they would need to remove the rear bumper to examine behind it for any damage, which of course they would need to make a labour charge for, and require the car to be left for a day. I was very busy at that time running my own business, I needed the car every day and I just never had the time to bother doing anything about it. So no claim was ever made either by me or against me. However, when my insurance renewal came, the premium had jumped. When I phoned to ask them why, they said it was because although no claim had been made, there had still been an incident logged with my car and that had to be reflected in the premium! Utter :censor: :ffs: :censor:

Insurers are just a law unto themselves. Take endorsements for example. If you had a speeding conviction 37 months ago, then as far as the law is concerned, your license is clean because your endorsement expired a month ago. Not your insurer though, they treat it as being relevant for 60 months, and will load your premium accordingly!

Also, they will happily charge a fee to protect your no claims bonus, but if you have a claim, they just rack up the premium regardless. It really is a case of heads they win, tails we lose with them.

[Chris Dance]

Although Direct Line would not remove the one claim on my renewal notice despite 3 of their reps informing me it had been removed, First Direct my new insurer stated they they were ignoring the fact that a claim had been recorded. I think it is so wrong for insurance companies to record claims when no monies have been exchanged. What really got to me is I had been lied to by reps at Direct Line not only about the claim but other matters as well.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Insurers are just a law unto themselves. Take endorsements for example. If you had a speeding conviction 37 months ago, then as far as the law is concerned, your license is clean because your endorsement expired a month ago. Not your insurer though, they treat it as being relevant for 60 months, and will load your premium accordingly!

Also, they will happily charge a fee to protect your no claims bonus, but if you have a claim, they just rack up the premium regardless. It really is a case of heads they win, tails we lose with them.

Insurers are one of those things you love to hate until a drink driver writes your car off and drives off or you run a child over and put them in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives with a multi million pound payout, or worse, you run into the back of a minibus full of lawyers returning from a personal injury conference.

Speeding endorsements are legally declarable upto 5 years even though you can remove them from the licence before this. Just because they're not there doesn't mean they don't apply. A speeding conviction can affect your premium as historically a speeder was more likely to have an accident. Since the introduction of speed cameras more people have got convictions for minor speeding violations, whereas in the old days to get caught speeding more than once you were obviously a nutter :)

Used to be an motor insurance underwriter before I saw the error of my ways and became a cabbie

[Jolly English Gentleman]

When I brought my Prius I had the option to take temporary cover on my old Corolla whilst I was selling it. The first problem I had was adding the Prius to my policy. It is with Aviva and they have to option of doing it all online (indeed its encouraged). I entered the registration No and up popped Toyota Prius Diesel Hybrid. I rang the call centre in India advising them that Toyota have never made a Diesel Hybrid and after about an hour eventually was put through to a Superviser who had trouble understanding what a Hybrid was but accepted that if it ran on petrol there must be something wrong on their database and they would manually change it. I then found I could not set my Corolla as the second car - I even had a Corolla Hybrid insured for a couple of days according to Aviva's website. Yet more phone calls and eventually they understood. Then came the cover notes. Cars and registration numbers mixed up as well as expiry dates. More phone calls and more cover notes all wrong. In the end I sent a collection of cover notes by recorded delivery to Aviva HQ in Norwich informing them that in the event of any incidents I would hold them responsible regardless of what was stated on the cover notes and asking if they could employ people who actually had a command of the English language in their call centres as I felt that was a major problem. Eventually I did receive an apologetic letter saying that they had experienced some difficulties with their call centre and they were reviewing their policy and that they would courier over corrected cover notes from a UK base over to me. Of course by this time the Corrolla had been sold so when I got the cover note for it I just sent it back saying I no longer was responsible for the vehicle from the date I sold it. The main Insurance note for the Prius though was finally correct.

I just hope I don't have to make a claim.....

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I was one of the UK employees who was chucked on the scrap heap when the likes of Norwich Union, Cornhill etc decided that they could employ 10 Indians instead of 1 UK person. I'm sure their thinking was that at least one of the Indians might know what they were doing and just think of the money saved.

Trouble is, most just read from a script and if there's a problem outside of this, they either hang up on you, put you on hold and send you round and round in circles or both. I personally try very hard to avoid any company that uses Indian call centres as they just don't cut it. I changed banks, I even changed from the mobile network '3' because their Indian customer service centre was soo completely useless that you can't possibley believe how bad they were unless you've actually rung them!

One little bit of insurance advice I'd offer is to always ring their claims and/or policy adjustment phone number BEFORE taking out a policy. That way, if it takes you 30 mins to get through to report a claim with you ending up speaking to Mumbai to a chap whose name quite clearly isn't John, then you can consider taking your policy elsewhere.

[Jan&tone]

I collect my Gen3 Prius this weekend (Friday seems to be favorite at the moment) and lookers Rayleigh with Toyota do a 'get you home ' policy, 3 days free cover while you sort your own policy.

However, I called my insurance company yesterday, LV, I got through in 30 seconds, spoke to a nice ENGLISH lady, put the phone down 5 minutes later, 9 pounds lighter and happy.

I've never had a claim, either with them or any one else, so I've no idea how good hey are, but they seem efficient at least!