URGENT - Cat taken last night

[Kojac]

Friends,

Last night - after 23:00 (& a full 10 yr service two days ago) - my cat was stolen from the driveway. We have CCTV.

I am asking the community to guide as as to what to do. So far I am yet to file a police report (happened at 23:00 ish - work started in early hours of the morn & boss was unforgiving). 
How do these things play out. What are the pitfalls along the way.  Who do I contact - in what order & can someone build me a picture of what lies ahead.

I am where I am with this. 

How should I proceed. Please map it out for me.

K

[Catlover]

Hi Ko, sorry about your incident, did your cctv catch it?  I hope the police are helpful but their record up to now has mostly been appalling. Call them, the best you may get is an incident number (useful if you go through insurance). If the cctv can identify them of what vehicle they were in they may be interested.              
From what I hear from TOC and elsewhere a dealer order to replace could take weeks for a replacement, and they costly, I heard figures of between £1200 and £2000. Non Toyota replacements can be obtained but again reports suggest not as well as Toyota stuff. May get one of an accident/scrap mk1 Auris hybrid from scrapper or eBay.        
Your not the first to report on here, and you won’t be the last. The danger is, the thieves know it will be replaced and so come back again in the future. Have you got a hungry Alsatian or Rottweiler by any chance.

[Cyker]

Basically, report it to the police and your insurance company; The police will give you a crime number but are unlikely to be any help past that unless they get lucky with nabbing the cat thief.

Your insurance company will usually handle the replacement side of things - Make sure they get you a courtesy car, if your policy includes that, and try and get the insurance company to stump up for a catloc to be fitted too when the cat is replaced. Some will do it free if you argue that without it the new cat will just get nicked again and they'll have to pay for another replacement, but others will only contribute part of the cost and some just refuse out right.

The lead time on the replacement cats varies - My work colleague had his fixed within a week and had a catloc put on too, whereas my mate in Chester had to wait over a month for his to get done. The lead times seem to be coming down a bit as Toyota have ramped up cat production to meet demand - they should be a lot shorter than before, but some news places report a new spike in cat thefts so that may increase the lead time.

It occurs to me that reading this out of context could be very confusing for future people if they're not aware that we're talking about catalytic converters and not meow cats 

[Kojac]

For those that went through the insurance company. What were the consequences?

Even if you shopped around - did the renewal skyrocket?

[Cyker]

Work colleague's insurance went up by £30 next year, but not sure if that was the cat as they seem to generally try to increase it by around that much each year.

However, he said his neighbour, who's had his cat nicked 3 times, had his insurance cancelled and was refused further renewal by the original insurer, and apparently also all their sister companies, after the third theft. I'm told he now owns a Tesla Model 3...

 

[Kojac]

I am asking the community for guidance & help - specifically on the following:

Is it economically sensible to go through insurance. I have heard directly of a case, where the insurance went up by £1000 the following year - despite shopping around.

I am in need to good counsel on this. If I go through the insurance company - will it ultimately hurt my family financially next renewal?

[Catlover]

Yes, more then likely your premium will increase. I had to claim in Oct 2019, my fault but total “damage” to two cars was £2880. I had no claims discount protection but the premium still went up on renewal by £100. I just renewed with the same company, LV, and the premium for the next 12 months is just £7 more then the last 12 months. LV handles my claim extremely well, no hassle to me, hire car for the day, an excellent body shop repairer of their choice.                  
My wife also has a car, 2010 Auris hybrid, and I was a named driver on her policy. Because of my claim, the wife’s premium went up, so I took my name off her policy when we renewed. No other penalty.

 I pretty sure there is a chance if you get an hire car and the supply of a cat is going to be weeks then you not going to get a hire car for weeks. Look into your insurance documentation, it’s time like this you got to look at the detail.

re cymers comment re catloc plates. Firstly, having a catloc plate does not stop a cat being stolen. It does take longer for them to remove the cat…. Maybe 2 minutes instead of 1 min without (I am serious). It’s a deterrent, “go away and do another vehicle, it will be quicker). Secondly, Toyota do not make the Catloc plate, an independent engineering company designed and make the plates. Due to demand, they have increased production.

Also, cat thieving is not only from Toyota hybrid cars. ALL cars,  it just hybrids have a legal requirement to have cat converter fitted. It’s the precious metals inside them the thieves are after. At least two of the precious metals are worth now more then gold. Hybrid cars are preferred by the thieves buyers because the precious metals are cleaner.

[Catlover]

2nd sentence, last paragraph should read…..ALL cars have a legal requirement to have a cat converter fitted, not just hybrids.

[TonyHSD]

Just go through the insurance, request a genuine part to be fitted. Renewal will not sky rocket but slightly more expensive, if you shop around can be even cheaper. At the end of the day that’s why we pay for insurance, right. 
 

[Cyker]

It's funny - People always seem to be afraid to claim on insurance because they think their premium will skyrocket.

I find even if you don't claim, your premium is just as likely to skyrocket as not.

I once had 2 claims in as many months - premium went up by £50 the next year; Previous year, no claims, it went up by £170! So I find it hard to correlate price hikes with claims. In both cases, I got them to lower it or jumped ship - Insurance companies don't reward loyalty, so if the price isn't right, shop around until you find one that is - There are so many comparison sites and non-aligned insurance companies now that all you need to do is put in some time.

 

That £1000 increase is sus - I've never heard of an insurance quote going up by so much except once, where the guy didn't have noclaims protection and lost 30 years of no claims bonus.

Even if you don't go through insurance, you are required to tell them it happened - If you don't, and they find out, they can void your insurance - so if your premium was going to be affected, it would either way.

 

Unless you have some specific reason to not go through insurance, then you're better off going through insurance - It will almost always be cheaper than paying for it yourself, and you can insist on genuine parts which will be trace-marked now, and maybe even get the catloc fitted; It is only a deterrent, but just having the stickers in your windscreen will reduce the chance they'll target your car and make them go after easier prey.

I get that it's scary if you've never done it before, but most insurance companies are pretty good at dealing with claims - The good ones will organize almost everything for you, but the less good ones may require you to do some chasing up yourself.

 

[mrpj]

12 hours ago, Catlover said:

2nd sentence, last paragraph should read…..ALL cars have a legal requirement to have a cat converter fitted, not just hybrids.

Depending on their age?

[FROSTYBALLS]

In the UK, cars manufactured from 1993 are legally required to have catalytic converters fitted.

[Catlover]

12 minutes ago, mrpj said:

Depending on their age?

Yes, a long time ago, as FB says 1993, 28 years ago!

There are some people who think cat thefts are only from Toyota hybrid cars, some think only hybrid cars are at risk, some may even think they don’t have a cat.  Compared to the uk car population, there will only be a relatively small number manufactured before 1993.

[Kojac]

Okay,

I'm confused as hell.

Two people who had their cats stolen - told me their insurance skyrocketed.

members on the forum are helping me with their advice - but seem to contradict what my work colleagues are saying.

I'm struggling in what to do & how to do it.

[Cyker]

Ah, decision paralysis - Can't help with that I'm afraid!

But when they say skyrocket, are these the people you were saying their insurance went up by £1000? Ask them if they had no claims bonus protection - If they didn't, then that is why it jumped up so much - Any insurance claim would have made their renewal skyrocket, because your insurance gets reset to like when you just passed your test if you lose all your no claims bonus.

As I said, I've never heard of anyone's insurance jumping up by so much after a claim; Maybe a hundred quid or so tops, and even that can be argued down or just switch providers.

[gezhenry]

I suppose the only other real options you've got apart from going through the insurance is to get an independent garage to fit another cat supplies by themselves or you.

 

Incidentally how generic/universal are cats?

Could you hypothetically fit a second-hand cat that had come from a different model of vehicle as well?

[Cyker]

They're not usually transferable; Pipes won't be the same size, sensors won't be the same and will be in different places, catalyst matrix will be set up for different flow rates and exhaust mixtures etc.

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

2 hours ago, Kojac said:

Two people who had their cats stolen - told me their insurance skyrocketed.

Depends whether they had any or minimal No Claims Discount (NCD).

All NCD does is give you a percentage discount on your insurance premium if you have no insurance claims before renewal. If they already have made recent insurance claims, their NCD may have reduced to 0%.

With my current insurer I have protected NCD for a small additional charge, which won't reduce if I make any number of claims. Yes the premium may increase if I make a claim, but the percentage discount will stay the same.

[Kojac]

I guess that those who have been victims of this - don't know what pathways are available to them - when  they are victims of it for the first time.

Surely some sort of cat replacement must be added. The question is finding out approaches that can be taken.

[TonyHSD]

You have car and you have insurance, accidents or incidents happen, it happened to you, next step is to call your insurance and ask them to step in and fix the car for you., you may also receive a courtesy car too. A theft will be recorded on your policy and it will be noted to the next policy, if the price is going up or down it will depend from where you get your new quote. Think different routes and you get stress yourself. 

[Catlover]

To protect my NCD it costs me just over £34 per year. As I said before, when I made a claim Oct 2019 my 9+ years no claims was protected, they put the premium up around £100. Would have been a lot more if I hadn’t protected the No Claim years I earned.

I always test the market at renewal time and the renewal following the claim I made was no exception. What I found was some companies did not ask about previous claims, and some of those already knew about my claim. Maybe there is some passing on of info, which I think is fair.

[FROSTYBALLS]

23 minutes ago, Catlover said:

Maybe there is some passing on of info, which I think is fair.

The Motor Insurance Database that all UK insurers contribute to, will hold details of previous claims history.

[MyOpinionIsWorthless]

Claim. Take the hit. Get an NCD protect next year

[flash22]

If you have renewed in the last 7-8 months, you may find cat theft isn't covered

work out your excess and the likely premium hike, what's likely to be 10-20% for the next 3-5 years

A replacement cat is in the £3-500 plus fitting - a basic Cat plate is around £40 going up to £300 inc fitting for a CatLoc (insurance will not cover the catloc)

 

Dont forget to allow for the cost of the O2 sensor and wiring repair

 

[Cyker]

Seriously? Any insurers who've added that to their fine-print need to be named and shamed!