Have you clocked your car insurance creeping up?

A lot of what you are saying is quite right I get on average 2 calls a week from some cold call company who says ‘I am ringing about the accident you had in your car, they are surfing in the hope you are going to say that you had some form of accident and they will then offer to help on a no win no fee basis. The other thing Car insurers should make it a lot more difficult for the fraudsters and demand concrete evidence to support any claims they are suspicious of. As it is now, they seem to accept and pay out then pile the money on the premiums of decent car drivers. I now do exactly the same with my car insurance renewal as I do with my energy, quite simply search around. Last year the Insurer I was with [no names but there is a dog involved] put my premium up over £100, I had not had any accident or made any claims when I queried the increase they indicated it was down to their policy underwriters, needless to say I shopped around and found good savings with another reliable insurer. The other area where savings can be made is with your Insurer Legal Fee policy most want to charge around £25-£30 for this addition but if you look for a stand alone policy it can offer the same cover at a fraction of the cost your car insurer wants to charge you. in these what I can only describe as ‘rip off times’ the best policy with any type of insurance is not to except your renewal quote until you have shopped around the market place.

This comment was removed at the request of the user

I wonder how much the cost of paying cashback adds to everyone’s policy. Even though I get on average £50-£60 a year back I’d be more than happy if that business was outlawed. If companies want to win new business, then maybe they should focus on offering good service and value for money, instead of cashback.

My car insurance premium for the forthcoming year will be £272.55 including breakdown and recovery cover.

I have changed insurer because of a large price hike. When I called my present insurer to say that I was leaving they said that if I had called back they might have been able to match the price. I told the rep that when I had arranged the insurance I had made it quite clear that (1) that my contact details must not be used by the company or passed to others, and (2) that if they did a price hike at renewal time, they would be informed that I had moved to another insurer.

I’m hoping that my new insurer is not greedy. They have been told that if they do a price hike at renewal, they can say goodbye to my custom.

I always look for cheaper insurance every time by using several comparison sites I always find a cheaper alternative This year when I rang my last year’s provider to say I did not wish to renew they did not even ask why or even said we might be able to reduce the price. They just said OK then That was a top car insurance company

Buying insurance is like buying another product – shop around. Companies will have different attitudes towards different groups. I look each year to check whether I am getting a fair (to me) deal for equivalent cover. I pay in the low £200 s. The insurance on the car I insure myself has increased by 10% in the last 6 years, with the same company. The one I insure through a broker (who charges a fee and only changes company if the premium is lower for the same cover) has increased by 13% in the last 11 years including the tax change.

You cannot generalise, can you? You need to check your own particular needs. One of my sons has used a broker for several years and achieved a good deal financially – double checking on “direct deals” just in case.

Clearly by what everyone is commenting we are all aware of how the Insurance industry seems to operate. It is certainly not loyalty driven and that is the reason why people should be aware and treat the industry with the same contempt as it shows you as an existing customer. It does not matter what you are renewing be it Insurances, Energy, etc. never accept the renewal quote until you have shopped around and compared prices and quotes, even if you have just won the lottery it is the principal of the way the industry treats you as a customer that matters.

I had motor ins with a well known company for years, which I used to renew on-line. Every year I used to receive a postal reminder which always inflated the price by about £50 (approx 16%), so I used to phone them to query it. Their response was always, ‘an on-line reduction does not apply to a postal reminder’. When I pointed out they were in fact sending a renewal notice for a policy that WAS bought on-line they would immediately reduce the charge to a reasonably acceptable level. Was that a try-on hoping I wouldn’t notice the increase, or was it an out and out a con?

This year’s renewal arrived with the usual inflated charge but when I phoned they said they were unable to reduce the cost by phone and I should look on the web-site for any on-line reductions. I went on-line but the price quoted was exactly the same as the postal renewal (to the exact penny) and it had gone up by nearly 20%! So, while on line I did a simple check on other company’s satisfaction results and compared costs, then I bought elsewhere for a couple of quid cheaper than I paid last year. I was a loyal customer but I’m not a loyal mug. We should all veto these companies with smug attitudes.

Car Insurers are still fleecing the public and the whole business appears to be a rotten egg,.I count myself lucky in that Aviva charge me only 80% of the next lowest provider but when getting in my quotes the most expensive was nearly 3 times the quote I accepted;
I found allegedly that Insurers pay no attention to the value of any car under £75000
so if all other factors are the same a car valued at £3000 is given the same quote as one for a car value £74000!That must need investigation