Car insurance - ripoffs

Convenience - it makes it so much easier for me when I've got most of my expected costs coming out monthly - for a relatively small amount it isn't worth the extra effort I have to go to otherwise managing it.

Maybe just coincidence but I've also never had any huge price increases either paying monthly - whether that is just coincidence or not another matter but I'm not inclined to rock the boat - my last 4 years for instance on one vehicle:

2018 - 516.83
2019 - 462.62
2020 - 453.87
2021 - 465.77



I find it amusing - my pickup costs me like £380/year, an average runabout hatchback like £500.
Pay me the 80 quid in interest you're paying and I'll make sure the bill is gift wrapped too.
 
Pay me the 80 quid in interest you're paying and I'll make sure the bill is gift wrapped too.

I'm not one to throw money around for the sake of it but the way I have everything setup it is zero effort finances *shrugs* there isn't anything I can spend that £80 on which would improve my life over having to pay more attention to my finances. (Though it is probably more like £180/year over everything I pay monthly with a credit charge - I also pay my car tax that way as well - but same story).
 
I'm not one to throw money around for the sake of it but the way I have everything setup it is zero effort finances *shrugs* there isn't anything I can spend that £80 on which would improve my life over having to pay more attention to my finances.
Your first sentence is a total contradiction. You've posted 4 years of values so it's already ~£320. I'd strongly suggest you take a look, as I presume you work hard for your money. Investing time into your finances isn't a bad thing. I also advise anyone else reading this to take a serious look. Money doesn't grow on trees and if you have no reason to finance such low predictable cost, then don't.
 
Your first sentence is a total contradiction. You've posted 4 years of values so it's already ~£320. I'd strongly suggest you take a look, as I presume you work hard for your money. Investing time into your finances isn't a bad thing. I also advise anyone else reading this to take a serious look. Money doesn't grow on trees and if you have no reason to finance such low predictable cost, then don't.

The sake of it in this case is my finances just work - for various reasons having expected costs going out as lump sums spread out over the year means paying a lot more attention to my finances - it would have to be well into the 100s a year before it was worth it to me to bother.
 
The sake of it in this case is my finances just work - for various reasons having expected costs going out as lump sums spread out over the year means paying a lot more attention to my finances - it would have to be well into the 100s a year before it was worth it to me to bother.

The flipside to this is you've said your insurance doesn't change much from one year to the next. So you know it will typically be about £500 and always due on the same date. It doesn't take hardly any effort at all to manage your finances that way; if you are in a position where you can't handle a recurring bill of only £500 once a year, then that's probably even more reason to spend a modicum of effort on sorting it out as you'll then have more money to handle such things. In other words, if your finances really 'just worked', you wouldn't bat an eyelid at a £500 bill, even if you'd somehow managed to forget about it.

Obviously it's your choice how you run things but I would strongly recommend moving away from using expensive finance unnecessarily. I also worry about people who run everything on monthly budgets in terms of what happens when they get surprises i.e. the genuine surprises that aren't recurring bills or covered by insurance.
 
The flipside to this is you've said your insurance doesn't change much from one year to the next. So you know it will typically be about £500 and always due on the same date. It doesn't take hardly any effort at all to manage your finances that way; if you are in a position where you can't handle a recurring bill of only £500 once a year, then that's probably even more reason to spend a modicum of effort on sorting it out as you'll then have more money to handle such things. In other words, if your finances really 'just worked', you wouldn't bat an eyelid at a £500 bill, even if you'd somehow managed to forget about it.

Obviously it's your choice how you run things but I would strongly recommend moving away from using expensive finance unnecessarily. I also worry about people who run everything on monthly budgets in terms of what happens when they get surprises i.e. the genuine surprises that aren't recurring bills or covered by insurance.

Not to put too fine a point on it but just had unexpected £1429 bill on my pickup (rear drum brakes rebuilt, ujs replaced, etc.) and that didn't go on finance. £500 unexpected bill I wouldn't bat an eyelid but it just makes my life so much easier when expected costs are a constant, even, flow over the course of the year.

EDIT: It might seem an odd contradiction but I don't go crazy with my money but I like to think about money as little as possible as well.

Seems far too many people I know either spend hours on end fiddling in a spreadsheet maximising their finances or juggling credit cards because they aren't on top of it while this way just works for me - I stay within my means and spend minimal time managing it.
 
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Personally I don't see how 1 payment a year makes you think about money any more than 12 payments a year though. I mean you'd have less bills clogging up monthly finances etc so arguably even less effort required each month to look at finances.

When it comes to smoothing costs over the year, whilst I don't really subscribe to that school of thought if it's really that much of a game-changer for you it would be pretty trivial to emulate, just put a standing order for ~£40/month into a savings account and use that to pay the renewal or something. Barely any hassle at all, set it up once and forget about it.

I appreciate it's a bit of a weird 'argument' trying to persuade someone to run their finances differently and if this was a conversation with a stranger in a pub it would just be left alone, but I can't help be a bit evangelical over stuff like this where people are literally throwing money away.
 
just put a standing order for ~£40/month into a savings account and use that to pay the renewal or something.

Possibly one way of doing it which I admit I'd not thought of. But end of the day this just works for me and the overheads aren't enough they'd have any impact on my quality of life.
 
Personally I don't see how 1 payment a year makes you think about money any more than 12 payments a year though. I mean you'd have less bills clogging up monthly finances etc so arguably even less effort required each month to look at finances.

When it comes to smoothing costs over the year, whilst I don't really subscribe to that school of thought if it's really that much of a game-changer for you it would be pretty trivial to emulate, just put a standing order for ~£40/month into a savings account and use that to pay the renewal or something. Barely any hassle at all, set it up once and forget about it.

I appreciate it's a bit of a weird 'argument' trying to persuade someone to run their finances differently and if this was a conversation with a stranger in a pub it would just be left alone, but I can't help be a bit evangelical over stuff like this where people are literally throwing money away.

Given that around 40% of people in the UK have savings of £200 or less, wouldn't be able to pay an unexpected bill of £400 or more and live paycheck to paycheck, your assertation that simply managing your finances better means a £500 yearly cost is easily absorbed is very presumptuous.

For him to put £40 a month into another account in order to pay his currently monthly insurance means his insurance cost for the year effectively doubles for that year. I, and he are well aware of the additional costs in paying monthly, we choose to do so because it makes things easier to afford. Millions could never afford a new iPhone at £1,000 for a 11 Max, but millions can afford £40pm to have one.
 
He's effectively said it's not about affordability though, he doesn't bat eyelids at £500 bills etc. So he can afford to pay the up front cost.

As for effectively doubling the cost of insurance in year 1, it's not like the money is going to vanish. Worst case scenario, he can take it back out of savings and pay monthly on renewal if he really needs/wants to.
 
Supposedly some insurers only offer up-front payment, so arguably people who insist on monthly are potentially restricting their options for insurance. That said, I doubt there are many cases where an annual-only insurer is going to top the price comparisons. Not heard of it the other way round though, normally premiums are calculated annually and then the monthly packages are just derived from that.
 
He's effectively said it's not about affordability though, he doesn't bat eyelids at £500 bills etc. So he can afford to pay the up front cost.

As for effectively doubling the cost of insurance in year 1, it's not like the money is going to vanish. Worst case scenario, he can take it back out of savings and pay monthly on renewal if he really needs/wants to.
He's completely aware of the extra costs and chooses to pay this way for ease of use or ease of budgeting. I say let him be!

I may be able to move to paying annually this year as I've had a few other debts come off but we'll see. My Insurance is due again in May, I wonder of Ageas will try and ramp up the price for my renewal?
 
Like I said, can't let it lie on t'internet! At least I've given him an option to budget monthly for annual payment he hadn't considered before.

Renewal likely to be hiked because they may have offered you a loss-leader new business premium. I researched Ageas a couple of years ago and they have/had ambitious market share goals for the UK market so I suspect they've been pricing as such for NB.
 
He's effectively said it's not about affordability though, he doesn't bat eyelids at £500 bills etc. So he can afford to pay the up front cost.

As for effectively doubling the cost of insurance in year 1, it's not like the money is going to vanish. Worst case scenario, he can take it back out of savings and pay monthly on renewal if he really needs/wants to.

I'd probably look at this very differently if I had a family and/or other responsibilities. While it might seem a bit of a contradiction as long as I'm not careless with my money in general I can live this way comfortably within my means without having to put any thought into managing my money and I like it that way.

EDIT: I'm not unappreciative of the thoughts either - you've given me something to think about I'd not considered before.
 
I don't find it that contradictory; it might surprise you that whilst I like thinking about ways to save money, I don't actually budget for anything either. I just know it will work out at a high level because I don't go crazy with spending and try to make choices to minimise waste like avoiding paying interest on anything, always seeking out the best price for things I buy (hunting down vouchers etc), meal deals when shopping etc. Where we differ though is on monthly consistency, my monthly expenditure is super-erratic. So I guess what I'm saying is you don't need to spend the hours in spreadsheets you mentioned above to tackle some simple things like annual being better than monthly unless its 0% interest etc. These are the low-hanging fruit you can pluck fairly easily and then what you find is because you are making savings, it actually reduces the pressures elsewhere because your total annual spend has gone down and again that builds up a buffer of cash meaning you can possibly be even more lax with the amount of thought you put into it.
 
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