Any experiences with Bell/Admiral car insurance?

[JPreston]

Renewal time for me, and I want to change my insurer because after getting three points last year my current insurers Elephant - who were excellent when I claimed for a non-fault accident (about six years ago) - are coming up quite expensive.

Having been on a couple of comparison websites the company that is coming up the cheapest is Bell Insurance, who I've never heard of, and Admiral is a close-ish second. I was wondering if any members have any experiences of Bell Insurance, what are they like to deal with when you have to make a claim? I've got ten years no-claims and don't consider myself likely to have either an accident or break-in, but you do hear horror stories about particular insurers being extremely awkward*. As far as I can tell, Bell are underwritten by Admiral (and IIRC so are Elephant, as it happens).


*here's a good one. My housemate's car was broken into and her insurer told her over the phone to use a particular repairer to replace her window, giving her a contact number. Then when she submitted her receipt her insurer denied that the company they told her to use was ever an approved repairer and refused to pay for several months...

[Guy]

Iirc Bell/Admiral/Elephant are all the same company?

[JPreston]

They have the same underwriter (as I said ) but the different brokers (if that's the right name for them) are different companies with different call centres, procedures, small print, reputations and prices - there's £130 difference between Bell's and Elephant's quotes for me

[Guy]

They have the same call centres, so I was always under the assumption that they were one and the same.

[GoNz0]

admiral are ok until you need to change the policy then they screw you over.

[kalniel]

I know Admiral and Elephant are practically identical - to the point where when we got a better quote from Admiral we just rang Elephant up - they checked the Admiral quote on their systems and discovered a small error in their own quote so offered the same thing.

[GoNz0]

small error my ass

some commissions better than none

[digit]

admiral are ok until you need to change the policy then they screw you over.

Yep thats for sure! £200 to change my policy to my new car with only 4 months of the policy remaining

[oolon]

Admiral are ok my insurance is with them. They are however quite sharp operators as I expect all are, when my car was involved in an accident, they very quickly just wrote it off. They also because the insurance would not then be on a valid car, where going to cancel it, it had 11 months to run, and they will not return a penny to me for canceling it! Fortunately I managed to transfer the insurance to another car in time. If you think you can get away with paying monthly to avoid this, you can't because you pay the insurance in one go and your monthly payments are to a finance company which puts up the full premium up front. So you still have to pay all the remaining months.

[Rave]

Admiral are ok my insurance is with them. They are however quite sharp operators as I expect all are, when my car was involved in an accident, they very quickly just wrote it off. They also because the insurance would not then be on a valid car, where going to cancel it, it had 11 months to run, and they will not return a penny to me for canceling it! Fortunately I managed to transfer the insurance to another car in time. If you think you can get away with paying monthly to avoid this, you can't because you pay the insurance in one go and your monthly payments are to a finance company which puts up the full premium up front. So you still have to pay all the remaining months.

I thought this was standard TBH. You're insuring your car against loss. If it's lost and they pay out, then they've fulfilled their side of the obligation. I don't see why it matters whether the car is written off in the first month of the 11th.

Admiral or Elephant usually come up cheapest for me in the search engines, so I've been with them for years. Never had to make a claim though, so can't comment on that.

[kalniel]

small error my ass

some commissions better than none

Hehe normally I'd say you were right, but they did get the registration and import dates mixed up or something like that (just can't remember now)

[oolon]

I thought this was standard TBH. You're insuring your car against loss. If it's lost and they pay out, then they've fulfilled their side of the obligation. I don't see why it matters whether the car is written off in the first month of the 11th.

Not really, I could see you argument for that for the "comprehensive" part of a policy, however if you insure a car third party, you are in fact insuring damage to other cars not your car. Plus when they decided my car was worthless, then the excess was removed they have me £150! My car was definitely in better condition than that. The tires resently cost more than that, and it cost me £180 to transfer it to another car, and the fact I could transfer it to another car proves that your wrong. That's a bit like saying you house gets robbed everything stolen, then when you have new stuff everything gets stolen again they don't have to pay out again, which they do.

[JPreston]

I thought this was standard TBH. You're insuring your car against loss. If it's lost and they pay out, then they've fulfilled their side of the obligation. I don't see why it matters whether the car is written off in the first month of the 11th.

Yes that's right, you can't have your premium refunded once you have made a claim! Bit like taking a pot of paint back to B&Q after you have used it all up, and asking for a refund because you only bought it yesterday

I'll bear in mind to ask about admin fees should I need to change my car, or more likely address. Elephant are pretty good (comparatively speaking) about that IIRC, something like £15 to make a change. I'm leaning towards the cheapest insurer and thinking of adopting that as a general rule in life, chances are I won't have to speak to them again anyway, touch wood.

[oolon]

Yes that's right, you can't have your premium refunded once you have made a claim! Bit like taking a pot of paint back to B&Q after you have used it all up, and asking for a refund because you only bought it yesterday

Its more like using 1/10 of the pot of your paint and then being told by B&Q because you have painted the wall you originally bought the paint for that your no longer allowed to use the rest of the paint. Seeing as that was my first claim for more than years, I hardly think its gaming the system! After all I don't refunds for all those years I didn't use any of the "paint".

[Howard]

I thought this was standard TBH. You're insuring your car against loss. If it's lost and they pay out, then they've fulfilled their side of the obligation. I don't see why it matters whether the car is written off in the first month of the 11th.

Admiral or Elephant usually come up cheapest for me in the search engines, so I've been with them for years. Never had to make a claim though, so can't comment on that.

What he said


And I've been with Admiral for a few years now, got nothing against them

[Arthran]

admiral are ok until you need to change the policy then they screw you over.

exactly, used them for 6 months+ they messed my direct debit arround, when i called to find out why they sent me a default notice when i had previously asked them to change the date, they told me they had no record of me asking and couldnt find any phone record either. Admiral are extremely quick to jump on you for "non-Payment" (take the money when i asked you too and there would be no problem!)
Ended up having to go for a new insurer and now have admiral's parent company (edi ltd) chasing me. Fun Fun