WTF is with with insurance?!
- Thread starter Justintime
- Start date
And far too many people seem to think that only their car is relevant, i.e. why should they be paying £lol on their 1.1 shed, when that shed is just as capable of writing off a £60k Merc as any other car and that's what they're insuring you against, especially as a new driver.
But "any product or service" does not typically increase in expense by a factor of 2 or more in a year. Keeping track with inflation is certainly expected, but since insurance is based on risk, a years accident free driving clearly reduces that risk.
Perhaps it would be clearer to ask: "Why does an insurance company not want my business for more than one year, despite me having a clean driving record, full NCD, low risk job and a car parked off the street"?
Ok, why am I apparently 5 times more risky for one insurance company to cover than another one? If I (stupidly) buy the policy with the higher premium, am I then 5 times more likely to crash than if I'd have bought the lowest premium?
On a related note, if car insurance companies are providing a fair service to their customers and behaving in an honest manner, why they are facing an investigation from the Competition Commission?
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Your renewal isn't solely based on your last premium and your no claims. Say you're an 18 year old driving a focus in Bristol city centre. If accidents for 18 year olds driving focuses in Bristol went up 3 fold in the past year, of course your premium will increase.
You're 5 times riskier to a company which doesn't specialise in your risk profile, sounds about right to me. Would you blink an eye at a 60 year old woman having a quote of £100 from saga but £500 from a company who specialise in young men in modified cars? Do you expect all companies to offer similar prices to everyone? In which case, the premium would be much higher than the lower quotes on our competitive market!
I'm not standing up for the companies or saying its all fair and lovely - I just don't know why people get so confused when insurance costs appear counter intuitive.
You're 5 times riskier to a company which doesn't specialise in your risk profile, sounds about right to me. Would you blink an eye at a 60 year old woman having a quote of £100 from saga but £500 from a company who specialise in young men in modified cars? Do you expect all companies to offer similar prices to everyone? In which case, the premium would be much higher than the lower quotes on our competitive market!
I'm not standing up for the companies or saying its all fair and lovely - I just don't know why people get so confused when insurance costs appear counter intuitive.
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When I insured my Mazda for a whole year for the first time I was quoted £600 from Admiral. I did a comparison and saw Elephant would do just under £500 so I called Admiral explaining this. They admitted they are the same company and would honour the lower price. I would have been happy with just that but the guy on the phone said he thought he could do better and he did by £50. I paid just over £440 for a year in the end. Needless to say I was very thankful.
got concerned by this and other mentions of insruance going up in the office so just ran a quote for my car - 2009 Type R, 26 year old, will have 5 years NCB come renewal.
Price has gone up up from £550 to £675 so 18% rise despite gaining another years NCB
... still, its not too bad considering the car and age combination. May well be able to beat £675 if actually shopping around and calling specialists etc.
Price has gone up up from £550 to £675 so 18% rise despite gaining another years NCB
... still, its not too bad considering the car and age combination. May well be able to beat £675 if actually shopping around and calling specialists etc.this time last year i had just bought my nissan, swapped my insurance over for £150.
rang them the other day to swap back to the nissan from my winter driver (same car as last year too)
£230.
wont be going with bell next insurance time.
rang them the other day to swap back to the nissan from my winter driver (same car as last year too)
£230.
wont be going with bell next insurance time.
It's not a bad thing per se, but ultimately and however pathetically a company has tried to rip me off, now as you say it takes very little time to find alternative quotes, so why should I give more money to a company that has tried to rip me off?
It's not like many/any insurance companies offer significantly better service, and it's not like insurance companies are often significantly cheaper than their competitors, so why give my money to them?
And it works the other way, there's multiple bike quotes around +/- £10 of the renewal quote I got, but considering it's around the same price as a new quote, and competitive, they'll get my money for another year.
Best renewal I got was a one for closer to £150 for my bike, but when I rang up and said I'd passed my test they wouldn't cover me, next cheapest place I could find was about £200 more, shame I didn't do the quote before I did my test, would have worked out cheaper for me to just do another CBT for £80 to get the cheaper insurance, lol.
I'm waiting for the Dispatchers to go to North Korea and finally prove they're oppressing their people.
Yes, absolutely I would. If an insurance company can't work out which of those represents a lower risk they shouldn't be in business.
The Dispatches investigation was interesting, though a far from unexpected conclusion for me (i.e. they are behaving badly and are hopefully going to get a massive kick up the backside from the Competition Commission).
But they will have no prior data on young male drivers as they've never insured them. Do you think Shareholders would expect them to 'take a gamble' or stick with what they know?
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Insurance is not like other products. When you buy a Washing Machine, the people who made it and sold it know what it cost them. They incur the cost before it gets to you. With insurance the insurance company has no idea how much any one policy will cost them (aside from an admin cost and commission where paid) at the point at which it is sold. They make a prediction based on the best combination of factors they can based on their own experience and the information supplied, but it just that - a prediction. The only other industry like this is the bookmaker.
That said, everyone should shop around at renewal. I know that at least one company factors in a reverse loyalty 'bonus'. That is if you have renewed more than once before they will increase the price.
This is an open and competitive market though - nothing means you have to renew with anyone.
That said, everyone should shop around at renewal. I know that at least one company factors in a reverse loyalty 'bonus'. That is if you have renewed more than once before they will increase the price.
This is an open and competitive market though - nothing means you have to renew with anyone.
Seriously? You're doing it on purpose now, surely. I'm going to go teach my cat MDX now, I'd probably have to repeat things less
Lets try a different approach. Tescos are a successful company selling a wide range of products. They are the admiral and aviva - selling every day products to average people. Overclockers are also a successful business, much smaller than tesco but they make their money selling more specialised products to a smaller audience - they are probably more akin to Adrian flux.
You wouldn't walk into tesco and expect to buy an i7 CPU for a decent price. Sure, their procurement departments could probably source them, but it wouldn't be economically viable to sell it at the same price as ocuk. Likewise, I'm sure OcUK could sort you out with baked beans and hovis, but would they be able to sell it at the same price as tescos and still make a profit? Of course not.
What you're doing is getting irate because OcUK won't sell you bread or dared to ask for £4 a loaf.
I always thought insurance companies would share data like this
OcUK could partner with Hovis.
They probably shouldn't be in business if they can't sell hovis at less than a quid I guess
They probably shouldn't be in business if they can't sell hovis at less than a quid I guess
Loss leader to get people onto the website, np.