Insurance
 

Its Insurance Renewal time of the year, is it me or are Insurance companies there to take the p!!!!!!!. I know as you get older there is a possibility the premium could go up, I am 78. I contacted my current company ( saga) to see what the new premium would be ( I don't normally do that ) , last year I paid £349 , new quote £425 , I could hold a new quote for 3 years £ 475 !!!!!.Saga said one of the reasons could be the age of the car + no parts available !!!!, I was polite when I said that wasn't the case.
I decided to look around , went onto Compare the market.com £ 394 with Lloyds bank , decided to accept, set it up paid , on top of that was a £25 admin charge !!!! . Next day received an email from Confused , premiums from £304 up to £600+ , I selected a Sainsbury's quote of £321 + (£25 arrangement
fee) total £ 345. Went back to Lloyds to cancel , told there was a cancelation fee of £ 20, Lloyds made £45 . Ended up paying £5 less than last year & I have the same 5***** cover Is it just me .

Martyn

I'd insured through M&S for past 4 years who were quite competitive, just over £300 to include UK & European breakdown cover. This year (Feb) they jacked it up by over £100 and wouldn't budge so I switched to LV and pay just over £300 again to include breakdown. In hindsight european breakdown was a mistake given the covid situation it wont be needed.
I follow a Martyn Lewis tip that you should shop around about 3 weeks prior to renewal for best deals presumably the logic being that insurers have to be competitive to attract your business, but the nearer you get to renewal you are 'over a barrel' so they can stick out for top rates knowing you are running out of time.

I always used to insure with Saga, cars and house, but found that after they went public their rates kept continually rising. I now have everything with LV and have found them to be excellent but still watch renewal prices closely.

You haven't put a timeline on how long it took to sort out your insurance but, as far as I'm aware (someone will correct me if I'm wrong), you have a 14 day cooling off period after taking out a policy. With that in mind, if you dumped Lloyds within that period then they have no right to charge you a cancellation fee. If it was me I'd be on the phone threatening a small claims court action if they didn't return my money.

That's not correct. You can be charged a colling off period cancellation fee, it will be I'm their terms. I know it seems a bit tight and not all insurers charge it.

+1 for following Martin Lewis's advice and shopping around for insurance.

My ZT & Volvo 740 have been insured with Elephant for the last few years as multicar, this year the quote for the two came to just over £700. By using the compare sites and comparing comparison sites, I ended up insuring both cars with different insurers and saved around £300 for the pair.

I spoke with Elephant when I got the quotes but they were unable to match them.

When my insurance was to be renewed this year with Hastings direct my quote was up by £125 on last year. After calling to stop the renewal and chatting it over and discussing lower miles came away with £100 discount on last year and still kept my UK and European breakdown with the 5***** fully comp so all good as i was in France at the time. £295

After trying Saga a few years ago as they are supposed to be the specialists for the over 50's, never again, yes they are specialists alright specialists in ripping off the elderly they quoted me £900 with no breakdown!!!!! guess you know my answer to that lot.

I'm surprised at the cost and the only recommendation I can give is to try diamond.co.uk. originally advertised at a female audience years ago, however the EU ruling that came in regarding gender based car insurance brokers etc, having tried diamond when this ruling came from the European courts, I found them to be the cheapest.
I've stayed with diamond for years, now have a multicar policy.

I'm 28 with 9 years NCB, insuring a 2005 mini one (£378 fully comp protected NCB ).
Recently added rover 75 Connie se V6 at £267 again fully comp and kindly mirrored my NCB from the mini to the rover to bring the premium down until renewal. Otherwise without mirroring would have been £321.

We then also have my wife's car (been driving for just over two years) over 25 driving a ford sportka se again fully comprehensive with me added as an additional driver on her car with her as the policy holder to bring the price on this car down. Hers is £503 for the year.
All cars insured to cover 8000 miles per year, all fully comprehensive. No modifications, parked on driveway.

We have shopped around but can't beat them on price and a quick haggle come renewal time always gets the price down a little further.

Could be worth a try, just remember to add motor legal protection as this isn't added as standard.

Rob

Insurance
 

Many thanks to all who replied to my post. It is also good to hear how different members go about getting a new quote.
I have made a note, for next year.

Martyn

One thing to consider with insurance is that as we get older the insurance companies consider us as an increased risk so up the premiums. As many of us are now getting on we may see this happening to our premiums.

I always look at renewal prices about 4 weeks before they are due as most hold their quotes for 30 days. This means that you are armed when the renewal comes through. But be careful, a lower price can mean lower cover and you may not get what you want or need.

This year I did all of this for my Volvo insurance. 18 months ago it was written off by an uninsured driver and given a class N code. This has to be mentioned when getting quotes, and was. I received loads of quotes under last years cost but some with much reduced cover. When my renewal came through it had risen from £368.00 to £459.00 but I had a comparison quote for the same company at £337.00. Made a call to them and they had a look. The reason for the increase over last year was inflation, the getting to the bottom of the claim was still on going due to the complexity of the car that hit mine being foreign registered. Although they accepted it was not my fault, it was registered by them as my fault because they could not yet get the money paid out back from anyone else. The MIB was on the case but struggling. And my age was also a consideration.

I then dropped the bombshell of them giving all that info yet quoted £337.00 on Compare the Markets. They had another look and said the quote was valid but gave slightly less cover than I had. They then said for a further £19.00 it would be the same. So in total £356.00 still cheaper than the year before, and for the cover I wanted the most competitive. So we agreed the deal.

On Saturday they emailed to say they had now finalised my claim as after 18 months the police had at last sent them the proof and admissions that the car went through a red light and was uninsured. 18 months FFS. They further informed me they were refunding the £250.00 excess and reinstating my no claims bonus, which was protected, and removing the at fault record which should see a reduced loading for next year. We will see.