My car insurance has gone mental- any ideas?

[Rave]

The insurance on my two cars has just come up for renewal- and I'm getting quotes that are frankly ludicrous. Two years ago I was paying £300 a year to insure my crappy old Mondeo TPFT- now the cheapest quote I can get is £600. I had a completely non-fault claim last year when a bus (from my own bloody company) hit my car while it was parked up; that seems to have loaded my premium by about 15%. It was all settled without my insurance company having to even get involved, though obviously I informed them. I am 32, I have never had a fault claim, and I have 8 years NCB. I really can't understand why the hell my premium has doubled in two years. It's quite infuriating, TBH.

Really, at that price, I'm very seriously considering selling or scrapping the car, or driving it down to my aunt and uncle's and parking it in their field for a couple of years. I can quite easily afford £600, plus £215 a year tax, plus £50 MOT etc., but you really have to wonder whether it's worth it. It would unfortunately mean taking my other car, a 106 Rallye, off the road, because I insure that on a cheap classic policy on the basis that I have another car- standalone quotes for that one are £500. I could probably SORN it at my in-laws, or maybe lend it back to a certain admin for a couple of years though.

Anyone got any ideas? The Mondeo is 15 years old now, is it possible to get standalone classic insurance on old bangers? I don't think it's the car BTW, I tried getting a quote for a 54 reg Mondeo TDCI and that was a couple of hundred quid more expensive. For some reason, a 32 year old bloke with 8 years NCB isn't seen as a good risk any more I guess (unless it's where I live- SE London ).

I'm not looking forward to having to cycle in to work every day but TBH I'd rather get cold and wet and lose an extra 40 mins out of my day than feel like I'm being laughed at and stolen from by a bloody insurance company.

[kalniel]

Unfortunately it's near universal - if you didn't get hit by premium hikes last year you will this year. There are a few cracks you might be lucky enough to fall through (where some combination of factors meets a premium the company forgot to raise etc.)

Check that comprehensive isn't cheaper, give companies a realistic valuation of the car, and jack up your excess - it'll all reduce the amount they have to pay out before or while declaring write-off. It'll get to the point where comprehensive insurance isn't really any different from TPFT because they'll never actually pay out anything, but the premium might be lower.

[1stRaven]

I tried to insure a 54 plate mondeo 2.0 tdci in march this year. I was 29, had 1 recent at fault claim (put my last car in a ditch in the snow. no-one else involved), 7 years protected no claims and I required business use for 2000 miles per year (yearly mileage was 14000).

Previous car was a volvo c70 T5 GT and cost £450 per year to insure (group 16/17 I think). Mondeo came out at over £890 for the year at the cheapest quote. Most were over a grand. I have brought the mondeo thinking it would be cheaper to insure, even with a claim on my insurance. I had transfered the policy for the volvo across to it so this jump only really hit in march.

In the end, I traded the mondeo in after 6 months of ownership and brought a Merc S320 diesel. Much nicer car but more thirsty etc. Cost of insurance though - £745 fully comp with protected no claims. At that point, I worked out that insurance makes no sense at all!

[Smudger]

I'm under £250 for an 11 year-old Pug 406 diesel, but I've said I'm doing less than 5000 miles a year (which is true - 10 miles a day to station and back, take it in turns between the wife and I whose car we take), and that's fully comp. I think when your motor gets to a certain age, it's actually cheaper to go fully comp...

[g8ina]

My last years cost was about £450 with Kwikfit, this year they wanted £750 plus !

Citroen Xara Picasso, 120k on clock, I do 12000 social and domestic only, no commuting, but only a 4 yr NCB. I used all the comparison jobbies and eventually found one in Quidco that was only £440 inc legal costs, courtesy car and a 250 quid excess.

Im dreading what it will be when I (eventually) get a new car with the settlement money !

[Tumble]

Might have a lot to do with location - you're in London aren't you, quite close to where the riots kicked off? That'll be why it's gone mental. High risk area now (if it wasn't before)

[[GSV]Trig]

They are a bunch of robbing, unregulated bastards, simples..

[roachcoach]

Might have a lot to do with location - you're in London aren't you, quite close to where the riots kicked off? That'll be why it's gone mental. High risk area now (if it wasn't before)

I've heard reports of this too, unsure if it is a hard link or just coincidence.

Hrm.

Let me check a quote for mine....brb


Edit: Cheapest fully comp for me is about £10 less than current cost (same company too), second best is about £20 more but has a lower excess. Lowest of £460, second lowest of £490. Highest is £1300, second top £1000. Pretty decent range spread, not a couple of outliers at top/bottom costs.

I'm north of the border, and its an 07 focus ST (stock) and fully comp.

[abaxas]

Might have a lot to do with location - you're in London aren't you, quite close to where the riots kicked off? That'll be why it's gone mental. High risk area now (if it wasn't before)

Sounds about right. Same think happened to us as we live in the same postcode as an area that got flooded.

Didnt make any difference we were about 100 feet up from the river.

[Rave]

Yes, my location doesn't help much- there were a spate of thefts from cars parked in the side road by our house. I finally got round to phoning my insurance company to tell them that I'd moved house, and it seems that that is responsible for a fair chunk of the increase. In the end my renewal premium is £470. While I consider that extortionate, I was prepared to pay £390 last year and so I have reluctantly concluded that to go without a car at all for the sake of an extra £80 a year would be cutting off my nose to spite my face.

It is ridiculous though- the car is worth, to a first approximation, nothing at all; the £470 is purely to cover my third party risk; I wouldnt dream of claiming if it was stolen or broken into. But Third Party Only insurance always comes out more expensive than TPFT- go figure.

I have yet to try going direct to any of the insurers who don't co-operate with the search engines, like Direct Line, but I'm not hopeful; Admiral or their sister companies like Elephant/Bell etc. have always been the cheapest for me and so I've been with them for the last 8 years.

Just got to hope that the insurance for my Peugeot hasn't had too much of an extortionate increase now. Though I suppose I could SORN it and live without it for a while.

Really, the government needs to do something about all these claims companies encouraging people to put in hopeful claims on a no-win-no-fee basis. Charging them the insurance company's costs if they lose would be a good start. I might write to my MP about it, TBH.

I've also still got the bother of trying to get a new V5C for the Ford after being completely stiched up by my own employer's loss adjuster- but I shall moan about that later- gotta phone the Peugeot's insurer now.

[Butuz]

Insurance has gone much more criminal than usual this year.

The renewal for my GT-R was £700 this year. I was quite happy with that as it is group 50 and an import.

What I wasn't so happy with was the insurance on my 13 year old runaround Mazda thats worth around £500. Cheapest I could get for a year was £560 with a £200 excess . It's genuine daylight robbery.

I'm 30 with 9 years no claims.

My Gramp also had his double.

Bastards.

Butuz

[GoNz0]

phone em and say if they cant do £300 third party only your using a bus and they get nothing.

i paid £230 for a 2.8l bmw fully comp, only 3000 miles a year on the policy mind u.

[stevie lee]

correct me if im wrong but i think that one of the reasons insurance has gone up is because of price comparison sites.
do they take a cut of whats quoted?

If so, that could be why the price has gone up, the insurers are trying to recoup what that ruddy meerkat gets paid.


at least thats what i think. i stand to be corrected though.

[GoNz0]

its nealry always been brokers taking a cut in one form or another.

[jim]

correct me if im wrong but i think that one of the reasons insurance has gone up is because of price comparison sites.
do they take a cut of whats quoted?

If so, that could be why the price has gone up, the insurers are trying to recoup what that ruddy meerkat gets paid.


at least thats what i think. i stand to be corrected though.

According to most of the reports in this thread then, your theory says that Mr Meerkat is taking commission of about 100%.

No wonder the little git looks so smug.

[jackvdbuk]

correct me if im wrong but i think that one of the reasons insurance has gone up is because of price comparison sites.
do they take a cut of whats quoted?

If so, that could be why the price has gone up, the insurers are trying to recoup what that ruddy meerkat gets paid.


at least thats what i think. i stand to be corrected though.

a small amount -for example affiliate sites you can use usually pay out the most on car insurance.

i believe it is to do with the "claim" culture the nation has become and the increase in fraudulent crashes/claims.

and the fact that they can charge whatever they want. (quoted myself with 2 yrs ncb (prov motorbike) on a new DL and a relatively old car... £5000.)