Bell Insurance - Do you pay for what you get?

Barks

Barks

Barks

Soldato
Joined
20 Jul 2008
Posts
4,550
I appreciate Bell Insurance is like a dream come true for younger drivers, especially with little NCB.

However, have any of you had to claim through Bell? If so are they any good? I'd rather pay that little bit extra and go with someone like Direct Line if Bell are useless.

Cheers
 
I've made a claim through Elephant who are pretty much the same people and it was relatively hassle free.

I don't really care about the service. I don't think paying an extra £700 for lesser cover is worth it on the off chance I do have a prang.
 
I made a claim through Admiral nearly 3 years ago now. They told me they wanted to take my car to the 'approved repairer' and supply me with a Ford Ka. I thanked them for this but informed them that BMW Assist had already collected the car and taken it to the main dealer, who would be carrying out the repairs. They said this was fine provided I was happy for them not to supply me with a courtesy car, and that an independant assessor had to view the car first.

I then called BMW and told them they could have the job of repairing the car provided they could sort me a loaner out. I collected my BMW 320i with 7 miles on the clock the next day.

So, a straightforward claim with no issues*

*Well BMW screwed up on multiple occasions but that was no fault of the insurer.
 
Have never had to claim through them but I've had to phone them up on numerous occasions to change policy details/cars etc and have had no problem whatsoever whether it was the welsh or indian call centre I was put to, dealt with quickly and efficiently and no hassle.
 
When you do an online quote, is it literally just a case of clicking "buy" and paying or do they phone you up and go through it with you? I'm only asking because I'm on an extremely tight budget and about to buy a car where I can't really afford anything more than £100 extra on the insurance quote.

Thanks,
 
You can buy it online and as long as the system doesnt detect anything dodgy - ie claims on the MIB database you've not declared - it'll go through. Not being able to afford £100 extra though sounds like things are a bit tight with this purchase, I hope its not something mildly warm :p
 
[TW]Fox;13381924 said:
You can buy it online and as long as the system doesnt detect anything dodgy - ie claims on the MIB database you've not declared - it'll go through. Not being able to afford £100 extra though sounds like things are a bit tight with this purchase, I hope its not something mildly warm :p
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My parents are either buying a Mini Cooper or a 1.4 TSI Scirocco. Obviously being a young lad I would much prefer the latter, even if it is to share with mum when home from uni. Anyway the issue is insurance, which I was always going to pay to have the privilege of sharing the car, but the Scirocco is a lot more to insure than the Cooper.

I guess you can always jack up the Voluntary Excess to reduce the premium.

I have not lied or exaggerated at all on the quote, I'm just worried they might ask why my cousin is on the named drivers. She shares the same surname but reduces the quote by a fair amount!

Many thanks
 
I have always found Bell to be spot on.

I currently insure a Mondeo fully comp for £250 and when I had my MR2, they insured that fully comp for £407.

However, I may be ditching them this year as Priviledge offer good quotes to older drivers.
 
[TW]Fox;13381924 said:
You can buy it online and as long as the system doesnt detect anything dodgy - ie claims on the MIB database you've not declared - it'll go through. Not being able to afford £100 extra though sounds like things are a bit tight with this purchase, I hope its not something mildly warm :p
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Do you have a policy with Bell at the moment? If so what does the online quoter say when you put your details in?

I ask as for me it just says that it cant quote me and that i need to call, as soon as my name and address are put in.
 
You can't get a quote if you are an existing customer. What if your mate, Mr Test, who lives down the road wanted you to run a quote for him though?
 
[TW]Fox;13383243 said:
You can't get a quote if you are an existing customer. What if your mate, Mr Test, who lives down the road wanted you to run a quote for him though?
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Oh its fine with Mr jkhsdfjibfjks jkbhsdfjkbkdj who lives next door :) Just wondered if it did the same for every customer.
 
Haha, you have some funny named neighbours. ;)

Whilst looking for quotes for a 328i I've been sitting on Bell Flexi with DOC and Legal Expenses and they will quote just me for just over £1000. I was then last night looking for temp cover, but also wondering what other insurers would do for me, most came out as around £2100. I then got a call today from one company who passed me around quite a few to see which gave the best quote, ALL of them gave £2100+ quotes.

I like Bell. :D

EDIT: Which are best, 10 or 12 month policies?
 
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For price-per-day coverage, 12 month gives the best deal. The 10 month policies are not 10/12ths the price, they're slightly more.

It's a case of weighing up whether an additional year's NCB is going to save you more than the extra cost over the 10 month period...
 
It would, but to be honest I couldn't care less, I'd rather have the 12 months anyway, just for peace of mind if I change insurers.

Added my sister, made the quote nice and low. :D Now I just need a car. :p
 
They say you've got X NCB, it doesn't state how long it took you to gain it. I've used my Admiral Group NCB with other insurers without any hassles.
 
I had hassle with NU when I had a 10 month one when I first got a car and then changed insurers once it was up. It's not that big a deal, I plan on having a car for the foreseeable future, so 12 month policy is fine. Not sure how much of a change 1NCB would be this time next year anyway. :)
 
The only thing with bell is that you have to pay the full amount up front. If you want to pay monthly it shoots up in price a lot.
 
msm722 said:
The only thing with bell is that you have to pay the full amount up front. If you want to pay monthly it shoots up in price a lot.
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This happens with almost all insurers.

All insurance is to be paid in full, at the start of the policy.

When you pay "Monthly", all you're doing is taking out finance on the full amount, and paying a third party the interest for doing so.
 
Ive always done 10 monthers, until i get a decent amount of NCB i will continue to do so. It is fully transferable.
 
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