Insurance Rip Off

[Jimota]

I’ve been fairly quiet on the forum for the past few months as my trusty Yaris Cross just keeps getting better and better.  Now, it’s time for a right good moan.  Just renewed my car insurance which has jumped 23% from last year.  That’s on top of a 50% increase of the previous year.  A 73% increase on any goods, services or products in a 2 year period is completely unacceptable.  My circumstances haven’t changed - I still live at the same address in a low crime area, haven’t committed any crimes, no penalty points, no modifications to the car, no medical issues and no accidents or claims. Both my wife and I are still under 70 so age shouldn’t come into the equation.  Some of the quotes were well over 50% from last year but after spending a lovely couple of days on nearly every insurance and comparison sites I settled for the 23% increase.  My car is due for replacement next year but I might replace it with a horse.  Are there any comparison sites for hay and horseshoes?

[Cyker]

Yeah it's been a right PITA since the FCA banned new-policy discounts, inflation went up, EV Battery replacements and general parts shortages all have given insurance companies to jack the prices up.

You just have to keep searching, branching out from the usual companies you use until you find one that provides the services you want at a price that's acceptable.

It is a pain in the proverbial the time you have to waste doing that and I often wish there were companies that would do that all for you, but the traditional kinds of broker who you'd normally use to do it for you don't seem to be returning significantly better pricing...

After years of whittling mine down I'm basically back to what I was paying for the old Fiesta 3 years after I passed my test!

[forkingabout]

Could be worse - you could own a Toyota / Lexus product with the known CAN invader theft issue.

Some of those owners have even been refused cover by there current provider at renewal time.

 

[Mojo1010]

What I have read, very few people got away with a slight increase this year, mine is +27%. 

[PortlandBill]

And you can bet that the cover has been reduced too. Most of my renewal notices for house,  car,  pets, etc has come with a list of things no longer covered or optional at additional cost. 

[Cyker]

Yeah it's important to check the terms and coverage in case they try and pull a fast one like that! That can be a good way to determine if they're a reputable insurer or not too.

[Ralph H]

Mine went up 25% in march when I changed from an excel to a Premier edition in July I got a small refund even though I believe the new one is in a higher group?

[Cyker]

That's really bizarre given how much trouble CPN had getting his Premiere insured in the first place   Maybe it takes into account some extra safety features that come as standard on the Premiere but were options on the Excel...?  

But as I've said, insurance groups are practically meaningless so that part isn't as much of a shock  

 

[Primus1]

I fear a rise in uninsured drivers which will push up prices again, mines gone up nearly £200, it went up last year by £100, I’m seriously leaning towards saga insurance as they will fix for three years, ( mines due next month) ..

[ColinB]

28 minutes ago, Primus1 said:

I fear a rise in uninsured drivers which will push up prices again, mines gone up nearly £200, it went up last year by £100, I’m seriously leaning towards saga insurance as they will fix for three years, ( mines due next month) ..

The last time I checked Saga they were about double what everyone else was charging, although that was a couple of years ago. 

[jthspace]

Insurance doubled when I got a quote to replace my 22 reg Yaris Design with a Yaris Cross Premiere.

Too long to type the whole saga but eventually went with Admiral Multi Policy for house, MX5 and YC with the YC added for 370 days. 365 days at £400 and 5 days free as the additional premium after discount was less than £5.  House is Platinum cover, cars fully comp with max NCB's earned, age 70, no accidents etc.

One thing: on all the stand-alone quotes I received, Toyota Insurance was one of the cheapest.

 

[CPN]

3 minutes ago, jthspace said:

Insurance doubled when I got a quote to replace my 22 reg Yaris Design with a Yaris Cross Premiere.

Too long to type the whole saga but eventually went with >>Admiral<< Multi Policy for house, MX5 and YC with the YC added for 370 days. 365 days at £400 and 5 days free as the additional premium after discount was less than £5.  House is Platinum cover, cars fully comp with max NCB's earned, age 70, no accidents etc.

That's who I ended up with for the cheapest and best cover...

[Cyker]

20 minutes ago, jthspace said:

One thing: on all the stand-alone quotes I received, Toyota Insurance was one of the cheapest.

You know things are messed up when Toyota Insurance provide competitive quotes!!   

Either that or you should buy a lottery ticket this week  

[forkingabout]

25 minutes ago, jthspace said:

One thing: on all the stand-alone quotes I received, Toyota Insurance was one of the cheapest.

I'm in my second year with Toyota insurance.

One of the cheapest at renewal time, a lot of the big name companies where several hundred £s more expensive. 

[ic2]

54 minutes ago, jthspace said:

Insurance doubled when I got a quote to replace my 22 reg Yaris Design with a Yaris Cross Premiere.

Too long to type the whole saga but eventually went with Admiral Multi Policy for house, MX5 and YC with the YC added for 370 days. 365 days at £400 and 5 days free as the additional premium after discount was less than £5.  House is Platinum cover, cars fully comp with max NCB's earned, age 70, no accidents etc.

One thing: on all the stand-alone quotes I received, Toyota Insurance was one of the cheapest.

 

Changed my GR Cross to a Yaris Cross Premiere in July this year. GR was insured with Tesco, went to change to the Premiere this year and "computer says no", spoke to an operator who just said the underwriters are not coming back with a quote. Ended up in the end with Hastings but a £100 more a year than the GR.

 

[Cyker]

All the early adopters had trouble insuring the Yaris Premiere when it first came out as it hadn't been put into the Insurer's database by Toyota, but that should have been sorted out by now, unless they also forgot to do the Cross...!   

[ashmj]

Don't forget to go via a cashback website too. Going to Go-Compare via Top Cashback then there is a £42 cashback at the moment.

My daily Ford Focus has gone up by £30 to £189 this year if I stay, If I shop around it is £147 with Swinton for the same protected NCB cover, cheaper than last year plus an extra £42.00 cashback, Go-Compare also give you a free up to £250 excess cover protection.

Quidco do the same but at £30. It doesn't pay to stay with the same insurer year on year. Any saving or cashback helps. Loyalty means nothing to these companies, if it did then it would offer the better deal at the point of renewal.

My classic/historic Escort RS was £134.40 this year, up a bit from last year admittedly but then factor in the cashback. I hear of some horrendous quotes via the RSOC and other Ford pages.

That said, our 2018 Yaris Hybrid is due soon, time to start shopping around.

 

[anchorman]

Toyota/Lexus/Mazda insurance are underwritten by a Japanese company (Aioi Nissay Dowa) and I’ve been with them for a few years.  The prices have gone up over the years but for a top of the range Lexus UX 250h, I was paying about £540 fully comp protected for 8k miles, social, domestic and commuting.   I changed that car for a new 300h and about 2 months into the policy, I got a £65 rebate (about £78 pro rata).  As the car is noticeably quicker, I presume that’s the safety system 3.0 that is responsible for that.  I disable lane change and speed recognition locally but left them active driving up to north Scotland and I’m very fond of the proactive assist which monitors other traffic and brakes frequently following vehicles ahead.   It sounds invasive but it really isn’t and it keeps a second eye on hazards.  Of course, I got stiffed for £25 policy amendment but it has reset the premium at about £463 which I think is very reasonable.  They also paid me out in less than a week when my Mazda got nicked in 2017.    

[ColinB]

On 8/27/2024 at 10:50 PM, Cyker said:

All the early adopters had trouble insuring the Yaris Premiere when it first came out as it hadn't been put into the Insurer's database by Toyota, but that should have been sorted out by now, unless they also forgot to do the Cross...!   

When I was looking for quotes for my YC Premiere quite a few of the sites didn't recognise this model - including Toyota 🙄

[Haliotis]

Today I renewed my home insurance with Adrian Flux.  They asked if I had a car, and would I like a renewal quote for that?  My car insurance expires on 09/12/2024, so I said yes.   After going through the details, I waited whilst a quote was given.  The agent came back with a premium of £1,803.27.  When I said this was ridiculously high, he simply closed the conversation.

My current insurer is Tesco Bank, and the expiring premium was around £860 - this was an increase of over £300 from the previous year, with no change in circumstances.   I have had one fault claim in over 70 years of driving, and that was a caravan-to-caravan scrape on a seething overflow M-way parking area, back in 2011 - which was covered by my caravan comprehensive insurance, so advising this to my car insurer was a simple formality that cost them nothing.

[Bper]

I remember talking to them a couple of years ago and the car premium quote given was very high. I was told they are more of a specialist insurer.👍

[flash22]

due to your age and the value of the car that puts you in a much higher risk category

AF are better for older, import and modified cars

[Haliotis]

One size does not fit all.  With all the claims made by car insurance companies, and their supposedly actuarial “experience” they could better assess drivers if it suited them. But that would probably be “bad for business” if a professional approach led to more of the experienced drivers earning lower premiums.  They prefer to work on the risk principle that older drivers will  have accidents and charge them up front “in case of”.  How many times have we heard them use the most implausible excuses to raise charges.

The last one I heard (on a comparison site), where the optimum time to obtain a quote was 20 days before renewal date, was that “a driver who searches at the 30 day point is a nervous driver and therefore more liable to have an accident”.  What a load of bull - when it is obvious that he/she is simply giving themselves the maximum time to enquire around before having to commit themselves to a quote.

[Mjolinor]

I wish I had £500k lying about doing nowt. I could drive without insurance then legally.

 

[Eddie G]

9 hours ago, Haliotis said:

Today I renewed my home insurance with Adrian Flux.  They asked if I had a car, and would I like a renewal quote for that?  My car insurance expires on 09/12/2024, so I said yes.   After going through the details, I waited whilst a quote was given.  The agent came back with a premium of £1,803.27.  When I said this was ridiculously high, he simply closed the conversation.

My current insurer is Tesco Bank, and the expiring premium was around £860 - this was an increase of over £300 from the previous year, with no change in circumstances.   I have had one fault claim in over 70 years of driving, and that was a caravan-to-caravan scrape on a seething overflow M-way parking area, back in 2011 - which was covered by my caravan comprehensive insurance, so advising this to my car insurer was a simple formality that cost them nothing.

Also tried Adrian Flux once and it was a lot more than all the others I tried.