Insurance

[lincsyokel2]

You have to stand your ground with insurance companies.

I have a quad bike, the insurance renewal came through. £220.

Wait a minute, it was £180 last year, and thats because I had no no claims discount (becaue you have t otake a separate insurance out, and cant use your car no claims). Ive driven round for a year, no accidents,  i was expecting 30% NCD, which means I reckon I should have been paying £140 ish.

I rang them up.

When i asked where my no claims discount had gone, she said I have been given 30% NCD but the policy had gone up 40%. I exalained ive now sorned it, cos im not riding round in the winter on it, and since it'll be sorned for about 4 months, thats £100 im going to pay for nothing, effectively. I told her if that was the case, ill let the policy expire and  insure it in March or April, only this time ill have a look round on GoCompare and MoneySupermarket.com

The girly went off and after about 10 minutes came back. Now they were talking £160. Much better. Even insurance companies realise that  half of what u wanted is btter than nothing, and since it wasnt my primary vehicle, there was every liikelyhood i wouldnt insure it if they didnt get the price down, and in 4 months i might end up someone elses customer.

Bunch of greedy crooks, come the revolution they will be there up against the wall, along with bankers, estate agents, traffic wardens and the people who persist in continually writing more scripts for Emmerdale.

[lincsyokel2]

[ceres]

Sometimes they won't budge though.  My car renewal last year came through going from @£150 to over £800.  Same car, same driver, same address, same mileage, no accidents/claims, same cover, 70% NCD.  I called them and they just weren't even interested in discussing it.  Claimed it was due to the high levels of personal injury claims in my area.  I took it to mean they weren't interested in my type of business or in keeping me as a customer and went elsewhere. 

[BarriedaleNick]

My wife managed to get ours down.  I had a small "coming together" with another car which meant we had an open claim just when we were about to renew.  This, according to them, meant a 20% hike to £800 despite them having just sent us a quote for the lesser amount.  OH merely mentioned us going elsewhere and they did the whole "put you on hold while I speak to my supervisor" thing and suddenly we got our original quote reinstated.  Pretty good reall as if we had tried to go elsewhere with an outstanding claim I am not sure we would have done better..

[tonybloke]

don't all vehicles have to be insured, even if they are 'sorned'?

[lincsyokel2]

don't all vehicles have to be insured, even if they are 'sorned'?

No it has to be either sorned or taxed and insured now. The point was some people were not insuring the vehicle and keeping it parked off road, then driving it around, neither sorned nor insured. So now, you either insure it, or you sorn it. Then if you drive it they do you for both and sieze the vehicle, or you keep it off the road.


in the words of the DVLA:


When to make a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification)

Every vehicle registered in Great Britain must be taxed if used or kept on a public road. Your vehicle must have a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification) in force and be kept off-road if it's not taxed. You will face enforcement action if you have not made a SORN.
When SORN is needed

SORN applies to all tax classes including those where no duty is payable, such as historic and disabled tax classes.

You must make a SORN if one of the following applies:

   if you don't renew your vehicle tax and you are keeping the vehicle off the road
   if you are applying for a refund of vehicle tax and keeping the vehicle off the road
   if you buy an untaxed vehicle and do not tax it
   if the vehicle has no valid insurance in place
   if you are cancelling the insurance and keeping the vehicle off the road
   every 12 months if you continue to keep your vehicle off the road
   in advance if your vehicle is to be kept off the road in the UK when you are abroad

[lincsyokel2]

Sometimes they won't budge though.  My car renewal last year came through going from @£150 to over £800.  Same car, same driver, same address, same mileage, no accidents/claims, same cover, 70% NCD.  I called them and they just weren't even interested in discussing it.  Claimed it was due to the high levels of personal injury claims in my area.  I took it to mean they weren't interested in my type of business or in keeping me as a customer and went elsewhere. 

yea, if they know its your primary vehicle they will figure you will give up and pay, since you probably cant do without it and cant be arsed to look round, they figure they have you over a barrel. They know the odds, or so they think, and yes, they probably didnt want business in that postcode (all insurance is lumped into postcodes. if you live in  a high crime area, you get penalised). In my case it wasnt my primary vehicle, and i was highly likely not to pay anything if they didnt cave, so i had them over a barrel for a change.

[dtw]

my car insurance went up by a whopping 25% just because I moved less than 2 miles.

[theothermarg]

I changed my insurence on a compare site but said there were no accidents because there were non that were my fault.  then I heard that you should declare all accidents even if they hadn't effected your N/C if you didn't the company wouldn't pay out
I called the old company and of the 2 there had been only the one that I'd claimed through the company showed up! it cost the company £0 but there was a glass repair at £40 as well
I informed the new company and was charged a further £60+ and because I,d already paid for the year I had to pay up. I heard they could have cancelled the policy because I hadn't declared it when I applied
I also felt I had poor understanding with the helpline as he didn't speak good english and intend to go back to my old company next year as I didn't save anything by changing
marg

[lincsyokel2]

I changed my insurence on a compare site but said there were no accidents because there were non that were my fault.  then I heard that you should declare all accidents even if they hadn't effected your N/C if you didn't the company wouldn't pay out
I called the old company and of the 2 there had been only the one that I'd claimed through the company showed up! it cost the company £0 but there was a glass repair at £40 as well
I informed the new company and was charged a further £60+ and because I,d already paid for the year I had to pay up. I heard they could have cancelled the policy because I hadn't declared it when I applied
I also felt I had poor understanding with the helpline as he didn't speak good english and intend to go back to my old company next year as I didn't save anything by changing
marg

Insurance companies are a law unto themselves, and its only because you have to have vehicle insurance by law. If it wasnt compulsory, how many people do you think would bother? I would bet 80% of there current customers would say no thank you. However because the insurance companies know they have you over a barrel, they think they can do as they like.

It not just vehicles either. Theres a saying that what insurance companies do is lend you an umbrella then ask for it back when it starts raining, and its spot on.  The mistake people make is to think insurance companies are in the business of paying out money, which of course they arent, they are primarily in the business of taking money and giving as little of it back as is possible. Therfore, when it comes to shelling out they wriggle and squirm and look for every and any possible loophole - "Ah but you didnt declare your great grandmother had a mole on here left thigh in 1897, so you health insurance isnt valid" isnt too far from the truth. Ergo I have no problem is lying to insurance companies to get insurance  because they lie to me to get my money.

One of the worst was the payment protection insurance scam the banks pulled on us. I actually had this on a loan, and found my self out of work for 3 months. I tried to claim on this policy, and found out that in fact the criteria you had to fulfill to get them to pay out was so restricted and obscure, the chances of anyone ever claiming anything was virtually nil.

Ill tell you another blatant one - PC World computer insurance.  If you ever  buy a PC from them, they will try and sell you extended insurnce. Now what you dont realise , if you dont read the small print VERY carefully, is that its only HARDWARE  insurnce, even though they push it as 'Oh if you PC breaks down we'll fix it free'. Having worked 20+ years in IT installing servers, workstations, PC's and networks, i can tell you 90% of  ALL pc faults are software related, hardware is very relaible, and also covered by both statutaory UK g'tee for one year and EY g'tee for up to six years. SO when your PC dies, it will almost certainly be software related , and when you then ring  PC World for them to come fix it under there worthless g'tee, you'll get a nasty suprise when they point out the getout clause in the fine print and demand £100 to fix it. Dont ever waste your money on PC insurance.

[lorna]

I have SORN on my vehicle which I took off the road due to eye surgery however I have kept the valid insurance to protect me in case the vehicle was stolen from the garage. Knowing insurance companies will try to find a loop hole to avoid paying any claim I recently also informed them that due to my drive being re surfaced my car would be left in the road overnight for 4/5 nights as  the policy stated that it was kept in a locked garage overnight. At least they acknowledged .

[Digeroo]

My car has been adapted to have clamps for my daughters wheelchair.  It is registered in her name with me as the registered keeper.  It is almost impossible to find a company who will insure it at all.

[louise stella]

Bunch of greedy crooks, come the revolution they will be there up against the wall, along with bankers, estate agents, traffic wardens and the people who persist in continually writing more scripts for Emmerdale.


;D

[gp.girl]

My car has been adapted to have clamps for my daughters wheelchair.  It is registered in her name with me as the registered keeper.  It is almost impossible to find a company who will insure it at all.

Now thats harsh, my car has uprated brakes, engine mods, tow bar and they even kept it on a classic policy even though I won't insure an every day vehicle this year (sharing no claims discount with OH). Is the registry causing the problem or the modifications?