Insurance Rip Off!

[edwardio]

I've recently got my car insurance renewal through and thought it was reasonable at first, but decided to have a look around anyway. My old insurance is with Privilege, with 6 years no claims, £200 excess, producing a renew quote of £523.

Not too long ago (1 - 1&1/2 months ago) I got new alloys and decided to wait until my renewal to declare them.

Anyway, I had a look around on comparison websites for my insurance with stock wheels on. I found a cheaper quote with Elephant coming in at £462. So I called Privilege to see if they could match it and the closest they came was £485 (giving me half price on car hire should mine get written off), so though although a little extra I'll stay. Then I noticed that they now start charging £10 for windscreen chip repair as the operator started putting my renewal through. So I also said I 'was going' to get replacement wheels as mine needed repair and was cheaper to buy new.

Privilege then said that it would cost me an extra £280 to my new alloys and put my excess up to £500, as they now classed the car as higher risk. The annoying thing is that, my new rims cost less than those I could get from Mr.T. So I said forget the renewal I'll look elsewhere.

After a number of calls and hearing - ''sorry we don't cover modifications", even though you can add it on their website, I did an online qoute with elephant with my new wheels. It came out as £485 with £100 excess. So I called them to confirm and was told that they cover the cost of the car as if standard should they need to pay out, but the car would be covered with the new wheels. Plus I'd put down I was single, so she changed to to cohabiting as I live with the to-be mrs, as well as changing my voluntary excess from £0 to £150 brought the quote down to...... £398!!!

So Privilege got told to stick it and Elelphant got the deal!! So I saved £125 buy adding my new wheels and paying £50 extra excess!!

Has anybody else had this problem? Or just voice your views as I was shocked, annoyed and stunned at Privilege.

[Hoovie]

Hi edwardio. Sounds they are trying to use lots of different excuses to grab extra cash at every turn.

If you are changing from one set of alloys to another, is that something you actually need to tell them about?? Like-for-like change is it not?

I have noticed recently that companies are starting sneak in new terms - like that £10 excess for chip repair I saw on a Prudential renewal quote for my wife this year - plus an extra £250 excess on top of standard excess when I am driving her car as I had 2 speeding tickets recorded on my licence.

In her case I actually switched it to Privilege as they offered a really good deal - so I guess it goes to show every company has their own quirks to what they like and don't like!

FWIW, I always follow this sequence for renewals:

1) Use confused.com to see which companies are coming up with the best deals

2) Log on to your preferred cash-back site (I use Quidco.com) to see what cashback deals are being offered by which companies

3) Check what your existing insurance company will do to match deals

Then go with the one which does you best :D

Using this method, her Punto this year will cost us approx £70 for fully-comp protected NCD with biz use, and my RAV4 should cost us just under £140 fully-comp with protected NCD and biz use (both with normal level of Excesses)

[Parts-King]

Insurance........pah!...and you call us stealers :lol: at least we smile and give you free coffee :rolleyes:

Kingo

[edwardio]

They were after market alloys Hoovie. They cost me £380 (not including the tyres), but privilege were going to charge me £260 for them on my insurance as they said the car is now a higher risk - what crap!! Even when you ask for a detailed explaination, they don't have one!!

I'm only declaring them in case of a crash, so that I don't get told 'sorry your insurance is void as you didn't declare your modification'!

What's more annoying & funny is that I had quotes (non alloy mod) from £462 all the was up to £1300 or more. How on earth can there be that much difference is prices.

As King says I know we moan about dealer prices (I have) and new car prices, but most of that comes from development. I think we should either have an insurance that covers the person & not the car or a standard insurance in 3 bands. New drivers-3 years experince, 3 experience-70 years old, 70 years old plus. Just becuase we buy a nice/fast car, doesn't mean we are going to be an idiot and race everywhere or drive badly. If know you spent a lot of money on a car (personal views for everyone on what's expensive), then we're going to make sure we look after it!!

[Hoovie]

did get the "after market" bit :D - I just think it is a bit rich that it should make any difference to the insurance (as you also do, I suspect ;) ) - Still wondering if changing from one alloy wheel to another really is a mod

I understand that if you IMPROVE on the safety of a vehicle by say uprating the brake discs you also get penalised

[arh21]

I agree what a rip off, I would have expected a small charge £10 - £20 as the car would be classed as non standard spec. I remember having similar problems with my old car which had optional manufacturer fit alloys. It proves that it pays to shop around. Like Hoovie I would recommend Quidco.com I think they are offering £50 - 75 cash back with some car insurance companies

[marty32]

heres the view from someone that works in the insurance business

after market alloys shouldnt cause an issue maybes 20-30 quid on premium, you right to declare em. some companies load you by 25% cos they dont want the risk incase someone decides they like your new wheels more than you ie they nick em

id be very careful and check there are no hidden excesses on your policy...elephant.co.uk are known for high policy excesses

every insurer has there quirks in general as long as you dont increase wheel rim size massively eg 15 inch to 19 inch rims it shouldnt be a problem

if you looking at comparison sights always ring the company to check the excess as they can be hidden on websites and policy isnt always what you ask for

im 32 with 9 year bonus protected im paying 380 and i looked everywhere

any questions drop me a pm

[Handson29]

interesting thread, i'm 31, gen 6 GT and paid £393 from admiral for uk spec un modified with 6 yrs no claims incld protected no claims, it was a renewal price and no one else got close including admiral on a new quote via confused.com

[edwardio]

It just gets me how much insurance costs.

With privilege, when I mentioned the alloys they said were they valued between £0-£250 or £250-£1000. So after asking for the quote with a £240 set of alloys which increase the policy by £240 and then a £380 set instead, the price increased by £280. Now like a lot of you have said and I thought it as well, I expected a increase of £10-£20. What they could say is that if you don't have locking wheel nuts you pay £260+, if you do then you only pay £20. That I couldn've lived with.

What makes me laugh is when you get a really high quote from someone who can't match what you've already got, they have the worst reasons ever for why it so high. An example of this was when I owned an Escort 1.6 Ghia when I was 18. Most quotes when around the £1100 mark for full comp. One company qouted me over the phone £3k! When I asked why as the car was only worth £1k, they said that they didn't like to 'turn anyone away'! I was so shocked at what they'ed said that I couldn't even produced a comment to say how stupid that company was or thanks for wasting my time. My head head thought it but couldn't send it to my mouth.

The thing is you need to declare any modification to your car that removes it from standard. Even if you change the standard tyre air filter to a washable panel filter, as they say it could add 1BHP to your car.

The bottom line is, that especially now motorists are getting ripped off. We pay a stupid amount on fuel, stunning insurance costs, high parts costs (half to be expected as mentioned early by me) and the now even more ridiculas ROAD TAX!

[arh21]

Everyone's insurance would be much cheaper if there weren’t idiots driving around with no insurance and people making false claims. As for road tax, people who own £30k+ cars can easily afford to pay £300+ for road tax its people who own cars like a Corolla or similar size that suffer the most. I own a 1.6 Corolla Auto next year I will have to pay £270.

[edwardio]

Oh year if you've got a car that's 30k plus you can afford higher road tax, as you can fork out for the servicing cost and up keep costs. If you buy a car under that it's because your likely to be an average Joe and you've bought the best you can for what you can afford.

AS we know though, hardly anything from our road tax is spent on the roads. If it was we'd have the cleanest, free flowing, hole free and even roads anywhere in the world!

[Cardboard]

I may have some good news for you. I've got uprated alloys on my celica, and im with morethan - they don't increase the premiums when you declare them - they just dont cover them should they get nicked/damaged. They will replace with stock wheels if it comes to it. Have a look at their website and look at their eligibility conditions - they say taht they will insure if "the car is a standard model produced for the UK market and has not been modified to increase top speed, performance or acceleration". Like I say, alloys doesn't affect any of those in their view, and so you are allowed them, but just not covered.

You can thank me anytime you like ;)

Let me know how you get on :)

[edwardio]

I changed to Elephant a little while ago as they covered the alloy's like your insurer and got it cheap than my original renewal with Privilege.

[n0z]

have you heard of adrian flux?

http://www.adrianflux.co.uk/

my mate has a starlet and he insured with them and decided he wanted to start modifying it, they tried charging him an extra 100 quid for a timer but after he kicked up HELL and i mean HELL they now let him add loads of stuff for no extra cost!! upgraded hybrid turbo, roll cage lowerd and still orginal price, maybe worth a look??

[kinky_willow]

I am insured with Bell, They are pretty cheap for adding cosmetic stuff.... A new Set of after market alloys cost's about £15, but they DONT replace them if the car gets nicked/written off

But its still better than £280 extra :)