Significant Insurance Premium Increase

[Roy124]

6 minutes ago, Yugguy1970 said:

Moved from Ford to Admiral this year as Admiral were cheaper.  Bizarrely though, they are both underwritten by LV.  After I'd signed up with Admiral they said "actually we are both LV" and they put me through direct to Ford to cancel the old policy.

Like Badge engineering, you have no idea who you are dealing with.  DSG offered my 3 different makes of wine fridges to replace a broken one.  All 3 differed in only one detail.  The maker's name label was different. 

[Rhymes with Paris]

1 hour ago, Roy124 said:

Spooky, just got an email from LV offering me a 10% discount on home and car insurance of they cover both risks. 

Aye Roy, I have been with LV for a few years now, and got the 10% from the start on both policies.

I went to them after NFU started talking nonsense and shot the premium up,at the same time as telling me that it was to my advantage and they were giving me a huge discount,as they are a mutual.

 

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

2 hours ago, Yugguy1970 said:

Bizarrely though, they are both underwritten by LV.  After I'd signed up with Admiral they said "actually we are both LV" and they put me through direct to Ford to cancel the old policy.

Admiral are a trading name of EUI Ltd, and according to their policy wording - "EUI Limited arranges the sale of motor and home insurance policies on behalf of other insurers." 

So they're effectively brokers rather than insurers.

[nlee]

I'm with Flow, which is basically an online only part of LV. I did a comparison on a couple of sites when I got my renewal. There were only 2 coming in cheaper and the cheapest was only £30 cheaper than my renewal quote and that was someone I'd never heard of and only had 3* review. Interestingly Flow was coming in a little more expensive than my renewal with them so maybe there is some loyalty.

[Cyker]

That's interesting, I didn't know LV were a broker. I've tended to shy away from them as friends have had bad experiences with them in the past, but if they're a broker it's harder to tell as it would depend on who's underwriting the policy...?

7 hours ago, nlee said:

Inflation is high and the average for the rolling 12 months is around 9% at the moment. I'd expect a couple of percent reduction for an additional years no claims but not much when up around the 10 year mark, possibly a small reduction in market value being a year older by hardly significant. But a 34% increase must relate to some other factors.

I'm convinced it's nothing to do with inflation or the increased risk of the RAV4, but all due to this new rule saying they're not allowed to give new customers a discount; Women saw a similar spike when the rule about giving them a discount came into force.

 

5 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Obviously that option still exists, so no different to before January 2022.

The option technically exists, but only in the sense a politician would use - I don't know if you read the part of my post that said the increases were no longer limited to renewals but were across all insurers - It makes it very difficult to vote with your wallet if the whole industry has been effectively given permission to collude and increase the premiums as a whole. Where, in the past, it would be fairly easy to find someone cheaper if your renewal got hit with a £200 hike, it's become much much harder now that they're *all* doing it.

Can't really vote with your wallet if they're all increasing to the same price!

 

4 hours ago, Roy124 said:

It is surely more efficient, and less costly, retaining an existing customer rather than processing new applications? 

You'd think so but all evidence says otherwise: Many many industries and companies seem to work in this fashion - Virgin Media are one I had a particularly egregious experience with; They are the first company I had a direct debit with, and have now put me off direct debit for life: I was with them for many years but didn't notice they kept slowly bringing the charges up until it was near double that of a new customer over time!! I had thought Direct Debit was similar to a Standing Charge and they'd have to notify and get authorization to change the amount they were taking, but it turns out DD effectively gives a company the power to take out as much money out of your account as they want, whenever they want! When I complained about this they refused to lower it saying this was standard industry practise and not shady at all, and it wasn't until I was at the final stage of cancelling my connection with them, when they'd gotten through all the fear mongering abut how I'd be without internet for a while etc., that retensions offered to put it back to new customer levels. For 6 months.

It would literally be at least 50% cheaper if I kept changing my internet provider every 6-12 months because they all do stuff like this!

Mobile companies are also very guilty of this with their contracts, as are credit cards, roadside recovery, any kind of insurance, so many I can' even think!!

I knew many people at university who changed credit cards every 6-12 months because the terms were *so* much more favourable than if you stuck with said credit card provider (It's almost like they *want* you to change as you're effectively punished for sticking with them beyond the 'honeymoon period'!)

The 'loyalty tax' is still a very real thing...

 

[TonyHSD]

You can try Adrian Flux and quote you are member of the forum and you will get some discount. They offer good deals if you agree at the time of your call. Look around beforehand and be ready with best quotes from online shopping then they might even beat that. 
Good luck 👍

[Cyker]

Funnily enough I am with Adrian Flux!

They are a weird broker as they don't get all their quotes - Initial quotes were just as terrible, but I called back a few days later n the agent's suggestion and a much more reasonable one had come through.

I have to say their telephone team is very good - Good manner, well trained, not the script reading robot types I'm used to, but they're still harder to deal with than normal companies as they rely completely on the phone; Even after initially filling in the form on their website, I had to go through all of it again every time I called up! Because of that a few things were missed out or slipped through that I didn't realize until I got the insurance certificate (e.g. Club membership, ability to drive other cars and they put my steel rims down as alloy change as they were going to confirm if they should just note it down or not, but assured me alloy change would cover it just to be on the safe side), and it'd likely cost me more in admin fees to have them amended now than I'd save!

I've had to note it down for next year to add the club membership and see if extra-declaring the AEB and Parking sensors and putting my mum back on will bring down the premium. It's just more painful to do it over the phone as I feel like I'm wasting the agent's time whereas with automated systems I can try as many combinations as I like!

 

[Hayzee]

2 hours ago, nlee said:

I'm with Flow, which is basically an online only part of LV. I did a comparison on a couple of sites when I got my renewal. There were only 2 coming in cheaper and the cheapest was only £30 cheaper than my renewal quote and that was someone I'd never heard of and only had 3* review. Interestingly Flow was coming in a little more expensive than my renewal with them so maybe there is some loyalty.

I'm with Flow too....even with the huge increase they're still cheaper than all the other quotes 

[Nick72]

Thankfully I'm covered on a blanket company policy for work and pleasure.  Sounds like Toyota's lack of security in design is manifest in insurance premium increase. Passing the problem onto its customers.

[Rigsby]

10 minutes ago, Nick72 said:

Thankfully I'm covered on a blanket company policy for work and pleasure.  Sounds like Toyota's lack of security in design is manifest in insurance premium increase. Passing the problem onto its customers.

I think some insurance companies are just trying it on, my wife has a Mercedes A Class, she’s had the car from new, now 5 years old, no claims, no changes to the policy and when her renewal came through it had gone up by 30%.

Spoke with them and said that I’d give them one chance to review the price otherwise I would be going elsewhere, came back with an amended increase that equated to about 7%.

[Flatcoat]

Every insurance policy gets reviewed every year at renewal whatever it is for. I never cease to be surprised at the number of people who accept renewal quotes at face value. Same applies to mobile phone, broadband contracts, car breakdown etc etc 

As for the reason for the rise all our car and house and contents premiums rose last year at renewal (nothing to do with an alleged demand for RAV’s by thieving toe rags) and although shopping around got a better car premium, the reduction wasn’t great. If you read websites such as moneysavingexpert you will find some good tips on where to search and also warnings of impending price rises. Just be thankful you are not insuring a Defender or Range Rover which are stolen with high frequency and in London almost impossible to insure. 

[Talshia]

I have been with LV for many years, and have a multi car policy. My RAV4 renewal has increased 32% this year, interestingly my Mitsubishi insurance has only increased by 17%, quite a shock.

 

Paul

[ROCKETRON]

I have also been with lv for a few years but for the last few years my premium has gone up by around 25% at renewal. A few years ago it was often possible to get them to come down if you could show lv on confused showing a lower premium. The last couple of years the renewal premium seems higher for all companies and less likely for you to get a reduction in premium and I wouldn’t change if the savings weren’t worthwhile. I don’t consider I am a bigger risk thisyear( no claims/accidents or convictions) but I am now 73 so don’t know if age has anything to do with. I also live in London which I don’t suppose helps. This years premium for 2019 Rav4 is £820, whereas I was only paying 400 a couple of years ago. I will obviously have to look at what else is out there but am not willing to change to a lesser company for only a small saving, but realise that if nobody changes to another company the big ones will give big increases every year.

[NASY]

Not sure if the risk side of car insurance is increasing but the costs based on a static risk will have certainly increased substantially as overheads have increased as has the value of used cars. 

[TonyHSD]

Since the lockdown times everything went up sky high and seems like the insurance policies are  just following. 

[Mikw]

On 2/28/2023 at 8:33 AM, Cyker said:

That was the claim and justification of the new rule, but I haven't seen any real world evidence of that, especially now - Now existing and new customers are both being charged high rates; I don't know a single person whose insurance renewal has gone down as a result of this change, even ones who do tend to stick with the same insurer.

Previously, you had the option of 'voting with your wallet' - If an existing customer wasn't happy with their renewal, then change insurers - Every driver who isn't e.g. funded by the bank of mum and dad learns to do this very quickly. Even I do this and I am quite lazy - If they could get within say £50 of my cheapest quote I'd stick, but £100-£200 hike, they can smeg off.

But that £100-200 hike is now what I'm seeing in new quotes AND renewal quotes across the board. If what they say was true, the renewal quote should be similar or lower to the original quote, yet nobody I know has experienced this, and I bet if you paid that £200 hike it'd still go up again next year, which is why I'm calling BS on it.

It's just the same as the male/female difference change - Some men also approved of that rule change, as they thought why should they subsidise cheaper womens premiums, thinking theirs would go down. Not only did theirs not go down, it went up, and womens insurance instead went up to match. This is just the same - there will be no saving as a result of that rule, everybody looses except for the insurance companies.

 

Another thing to factor in is the state of the economy. Mine has always leapt up when there's a big economic "jolt", like the global credit crunch - and we've got the unholy trinity of the Ukraine War, Covid, and Brexit all on top of each other. It's almost as if some companies charge extra to get themselves through it.

[Nick72]

On 2/28/2023 at 10:26 PM, Rigsby said:

I think some insurance companies are just trying it on, my wife has a Mercedes A Class, she’s had the car from new, now 5 years old, no claims, no changes to the policy and when her renewal came through it had gone up by 30%.

Spoke with them and said that I’d give them one chance to review the price otherwise I would be going elsewhere, came back with an amended increase that equated to about 7%.

Definitely trying it on. I think this just seems to be what you have to do. Hard ball. Folks are getting tired of it though I bet.

[FROSTYBALLS]

We've also been with LV for a number of years and have a discount due to having motor, house and travel insurance with them. Our motor insurance renewal increased by £42. After comparing other policies, and taking into account our free legal protection with LV, swapping made no appreciable difference in cost. Also they're the top Which? Recommended Provider for motor insurance for 2023.

[Rigsby]

9 hours ago, Nick72 said:

Definitely trying it on. I think this just seems to be what you have to do. Hard ball. Folks are getting tired of it though I bet.

Loyal / existing customers being asked to stomp up large increases while potential new customers being lured in with attractive premiums and “special offers” seems to be the way that some big companies operate, Sky being the prime example.

[Ravirules]

I use Aviva for my RAV4 ins, and it only increased by 4% in Oct 2022. I pay less than £200 for fully comprehensive cover, with 15yrs NCD..age mid 50’s, and park on drive in suburbs of Sheffield…maybe worth looking at them!

[PMW]

I has just received a 21% increase renewal quote from Aviva for my RAV4

[nlee]

On 3/5/2023 at 9:47 AM, Ravirules said:

I use Aviva for my RAV4 ins, and it only increased by 4% in Oct 2022. I pay less than £200 for fully comprehensive cover, with 15yrs NCD..age mid 50’s, and park on drive in suburbs of Sheffield…maybe worth looking at them!

Almost the same circumstances to you but rural North Wales instead of Sheffield. No recent claims or convictions but Aviva wouldn't even give an online quote.

[Ravirules]

3 hours ago, PMW said:

I has just received a 21% increase renewal quote from Aviva for my RAV4

Looks like I’m in for an unpleasant surprise next year! 

[Nick72]

On 3/5/2023 at 9:32 AM, Rigsby said:

Loyal / existing customers being asked to stomp up large increases while potential new customers being lured in with attractive premiums and “special offers” seems to be the way that some big companies operate, Sky being the prime example.

Virgin also. Had that battle with broadband. Told them to stick it. Got a call back ten minutes later with the brand new customers only offer. I said too late, you blew it. Unless... Got a great deal in the end. 

[ROCKETRON]

As my premium with lv has gone up again by22% decided to look on confused.com. Surprisingly most were up towards the £811 that my renewal was with lv. I noticed the cheapest was “insure the box” which I have never heard of. Am I right that you have to have a black box to monitor driving? They were the only company that was 200 cheaper than lv, all the others were similar so perhaps that is the real cost. Anyone used insure the box as I assume they come out on top of a lot of peoples list on confused.