Car insurance - How much for my renewal!!

[Dos_Box]

It's that time of year and my insurers (Privilege) have sent me my renewal notice which is almost £100 up on last year! In the past could of years my premium has doubled from £240 to £485 fully comp. Considering I have full no claims and a clean license I think this is getting silly, so it's time to move on.

I've been having a look around and the best I can find on a price comparison web site is Hastings at £400 for the year, but I'm wondering whether there are some better/smaller companies out there. I tried a couple (who I won't name) but a quote of £1400 from one of them and £950 from the other makes me think that it would be simpler to ask you guys. Bearing in mind I'm over 40 and there are companies that specilise in reducing premiums for my age bracket (Privilege used to!) can anyone recommend a company to swap to?

[mac_shinobi]

Me and the better half normally use confused.com , one of my friends uses comparethemarket.com ( but I found using this site was frustrating me ) as it kept forgetting stuff and I had to keep re entering the same details to get quotes on different cars etc. I'm coming up to having 3 years no claims this year and I've only claimed once because I had some dippy woman drive into the back of me ( not my fault ). Will find out how much it costs but the area I live in is high with regards to car insurance and also find the things you include in the cover can effect the overall cost ie how much legal cover if any if you have it, wind screen cover and all the other cover they have with ref to public cover, insuring your stereo up to x amount etc

[Jay_Jay]

I usually end up using the comparison sites, the Tesco one has always been very good for me, good way to boost those club card points as well.

[difinity]

A certain company that uses a red telephone wanted just over £1500 from me last year, I got a quote of under £500 using gocompare. I tried confused and the meerkats and they still beat them.

[tommej]

I tend to bounce elephant and admiral off each other as they're sister companies or something. Cut £150 off my £850 quote

[sippo]

Think the key phrase is to 'shop around'. Yes its tedious speaking/searching but worth it in the end. I always ring around, then ring my orginal insurer and they always bring it down. The other way I try is using a search engine such as meerkats, then ringing the insurer direct.

 

End of the day its not about loyalty its about getting the best deal.

[teejay]

Elephant here, when they were slightly dearer than someone else on renewal, so I phoned them and they dropped the price cheaper than the other quote and threw in a load of extras. Maybe worth giving Privelege a call and seeing if they will give you a better deal.

[RTFM]

I'm another with Co-Op, used to be with Direct Line but they got quite expensive.

[DJ-Jonesy]

if you got a patner/spouse why not try admiral multi car we are saving on 2 young drivers nearly £1000 between us.

[EduTech]

I generally use GoCompare when I am looking for a quote, but i'm younger than you ;-) so I don't get a quote like that anyway (dreaming!)

 

[Dos_Box]

The devil is in the detail here. I have got some cheaper quotes, but once you check out the 'extras' I end up paying more than I currently am. The extras include breakdown/recovery, excess, named drivers etc. and other little things which push up the cheaper quotes to way beyond what I'm currently paying

[Oaktech]

swift cover was cheapest by over £200 (still £586) for my girlfriend (11years driving, clean licence, full no claims) on a seat leon 1.9tdi 110. But aviva were cheapest for me (also driving 11 years, full no claims but 3 points) on my landrover 110 tdi van, at £260. I'll admit i was dubious about getting a quote from them as they have been truly outrageous everytime i'd tried them before.

 

Also, what car is it, because often owners clubs can get you preferential deals on insurance, my mum has her modified MX5 insured through the mx5 owners club by adrian flux and it is £150 cheaper this year than last, and almost £300 cheaper than anything on compare the meerkat...

[shenley]

I was confused.com, so I compared the meekat, gocompared, uswitched and a whole host of other similar sites. All gave me prices which varied from £250 to £1450 on a one litre Kia Picanto, with 15+ years no claims. What I found bizarre is that the same insurance company would sometimes come out at a different price on different web sites. Finally, using a device called the telephone, I asked my current insurance company (John Lewis) if they would beat their own renewal price, which was lower by £8 than the lowest on the comparison sites (which was Sainsburys). They knocked another tenner off, so I stuck with them.

[featured_spectre]

The mrs is with the Co-Op. I am a learner driver and I am on the policy and she pays (for the year) £680 fully comp, with European breakdown, protected no claims etc (A Hyundai Lantra Estate)

 

If I was not on the policy it would go down to around £320 for the year. Co Op have also been fantastic when she had an accident and got her a large wedge of cash.

 

My mum also changed over and her and my stepdad (both over 45) pay £210 combined for the year for 3 cars (2x Mitsubishi Pajero's for when they are off roading, and a Vauxhall Vectra)

[jinnantonnixx]

A few words on the extras. I once opted for a high excess, and sod's law I made a claim. I recovered the loss, but I would have been significantly out of pocket if I had no third party to claim against.

 

The uninsured loss cover is an interesting one. As far as I can tell, it's just a no-win no fee outfit working on your behalf. The insurance company charges you £25 or so, and just gives them your details when you claim. If there's no hope of a successful outcome, they won't pursue the claim anyway. It's such a profitable business, Google for loss recovery insurance, and you can get it for £1 or even free.

 

Breakdown cover- I use AutoAid; spouse + all cars covered for £37. It's an insurance scheme, you claim back the cost of recovery. I've used them twice and they were excellent.

[andydis]

ive ALWAYS been with admiral, the multicar insurance for me and wife is always at least £500 cheaper than getting insured individualy, if have 2 cars in the household i'd recommend them!

[Sirbendy]

As I recall, I'm paying £300ish on my 1.6 Astra fully comp (34, max NCB), and my missus who only passed her test a few months back has just paid £700 fully comp on her own car, a W reg Fabia 1.4mpi. I was quite surprised..I expected worse!

[Dos_Box]

Bah! Tried all of the smaller companies recommended and still it's many hundreds more than my renewal.

*sigh*

[glennda]

I tend to bounce elephant and admiral off each other as they're sister companies or something. Cut £150 off my £850 quote

 

They are the same company with different trading names (they have about 3/4 names)/

 

Mine was 480 this year for Fully Comp (on a 10 month policy). I'm 20 and Drive a 1.6 litre Coupe

[Earthling]

one of my friends uses comparethemarket.com ( but I found using this site was frustrating me )

 

But hey, you get a free meerkat doll.....toy.....thing.

 

As someone else said, Swiftcover were cheapest for me for the first couple of years, but even they've been slowly creeping up last year and the year before and I'll bet it increases this year, too.

 

I can't be a***d to do it, but I wonder if the cheapest way is to change insurers every 2 years, to get the new customer discounts and all the other discounts that go with it.....a bit like changing energy suppliers every year.

[sonofsanta]

Another for Admiral multicar here, well worthwhile if you have more than two. They'll insure the other car for $remainingPeriodOfYear to bring both renewals into line.

 

Only annoyance is that every year they send my renewal through at +50%, I get a web quote again and the price is back down to what it should be. Then I have to ring up and ask them to match their own price. Bloody waste of time!

[36Degrees]

I often find that a particular company will beat everyone hands down for a few years and then suddenly become very expensive. I was with Admiral for a few years then moved to Swiftcover. After about 4 years my renewal suddenly rocketed despite not making any claims and they weren't at all interested that I was getting cheaper quotes.

 

Then Admiral offered the multicar option and although it made no difference to my wife's policy it reduced mine considerably. Last year I made a claim because someone wrote my car off but left the scene so I changed car. At renewal it was no cheaper for me to move but it was actually cheaper for my wife to stay!

[woodham]

whats the car? and i know is a little bit naughty but have you rang them up and asked for a new quote dont tell them you have a renewal with them just that you want a quote as it usually comes back even cheaper..

[timzim]

I have to stick my oar in here - for the last few years I've followed the guide on Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert website and have always managed to get a brilliant quote. He recommends a combination of sites (currently GoCompare, Confused.com, MoneySupermarket and then TescoCompare) to cover roughly 94% of the market, then adds a few smaller ones (if you've got plenty time on your hands) to cover virtually 100%. Read the full guide for loads of other tips to lower your premium - e.g. change your job title and you can drop £20 off the cost.

[Arthur]

Chris Knott are very good, particularly if you have a hot hatch.

 

It also might be worth trying a broker like A-Plan.