Insurance premiums

izwozral

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Ever noticed that when you go onto a comparison website the difference in quotes are astronomical? Been looking at home and contents insurance, car insurance and MH insurance, all of which are due in the next two weeks.
Had we gone for the cheapest the total cost would be £453, had we gone for the dearest, the price would be £1780. The difference in cover was quite a lot better at the upper end but there was very little difference overall between the low end to the mid range.
Had we paid the quotes from our existing insurers it would have cost us £889.

We didn't go for the cheapest but still managed to save £354.
 
AIUI, insurers want to 'spread the risk' so they don't expose themselves overly to one segment -- and the partitioning can be surprisingly fine. So they up the quotes of segments that are fuller, shedding the business to other providers and achieving a more even risk portfolio. Since they all do it, they don't actually lose out. However, I always phone my current insurer armed with quotes from comparison sites and almost always the current insurer will price match.
 
I get fed up having to telephone insurers to reduce the new premium to the previous years offer, which they do after a 'discussion'.

For my motorhome, the Caravan Club seem to treat me fairly, this year's increase being less than a couple of pints of beer.
 
Hi Ral, re :- motorhome insurance, i`ve been with Safeguard now for more years now than i care to remember after going through the majority of others out there.

IMHO they offer the best " all in " policy giving me unlimited cover including full breakdown at a very reasonable cost, i`ve tried the comparison sites and rung around until i was going blue in the face but when you started getting the same cover and adding breakdown insurance most of them came in higher than Safeguard unless i considerably lowered the cover.

Slowly but surely their prices has been creeping up, not by huge amounts but steadily year on year to a point where i thought it`s now getting a little high.

When the renewal came in this year which again had increase by only £22 i decided to ring them and tell them that after my umpteen years of loyalty ( the lady was surprised at how many years i`d actually been with them ) i was being forced to leave unless something could be done to get the renewal price down.

She did point out that the increases were partly down to the amount of claims being put in due to overwhelming popularity in motorhome / campervans in particular hired ones, i asked her to look at my account / policy and remind me just how many claims i`d made or been involved with in the double digit years i`d continually been with them ?

She came back and said ............... ah, none sir ................................... precisely i said, so surely something can be done to reduce the quote ?

She went away for nearly 10 minutes allegedly speaking to her " Manager " and came back with a revised quote which was £160 cheaper for exactly the same cover and terms, that brought it down to a price i haven`t seen for many many years.

I was happy with the new quote so i renewed there and then adding another year to my Safeguard loyalty.

You shouldn`t have to do all this but if that what it takes then so be it.
 
Hi Ral, re :- motorhome insurance, i`ve been with Safeguard now for more years now than i care to remember after going through the majority of others out there.

IMHO they offer the best " all in " policy giving me unlimited cover including full breakdown at a very reasonable cost, i`ve tried the comparison sites and rung around until i was going blue in the face but when you started getting the same cover and adding breakdown insurance most of them came in higher than Safeguard unless i considerably lowered the cover.

Slowly but surely their prices has been creeping up, not by huge amounts but steadily year on year to a point where i thought it`s now getting a little high.

When the renewal came in this year which again had increase by only £22 i decided to ring them and tell them that after my umpteen years of loyalty ( the lady was surprised at how many years i`d actually been with them ) i was being forced to leave unless something could be done to get the renewal price down.

She did point out that the increases were partly down to the amount of claims being put in due to overwhelming popularity in motorhome / campervans in particular hired ones, i asked her to look at my account / policy and remind me just how many claims i`d made or been involved with in the double digit years i`d continually been with them ?

She came back and said ............... ah, none sir ................................... precisely i said, so surely something can be done to reduce the quote ?

She went away for nearly 10 minutes allegedly speaking to her " Manager " and came back with a revised quote which was £160 cheaper for exactly the same cover and terms, that brought it down to a price i haven`t seen for many many years.

I was happy with the new quote so i renewed there and then adding another year to my Safeguard loyalty.

You shouldn`t have to do all this but if that what it takes then so be it.
Welcome back Graham, our insurer came in at £33 more than last year so we rang them and said we had a lower quote, after a couple of minutes they dropped the price by £13. We told them they were still £38 higher than the lower quote we had received from another insurer. A few minutes later they dropped the price by £19. "Goodbye" was my response.

I obviously don't have the silky persuasive skills you have, plus I'm a bit of an impatient git when dealing with such people.
 
After a year with AIB my renewal premium went up by 3 figures. Sod that! This was earlier this year when the media was awash with news of premiums dropping due to non use of vehicles etc etc. After shopping around I too went with Safeguard who beat my previous years figure, let alone the proposed increase.

Very efficient too: they posted out the docs just as they said they would...unlike my previous insurerI
 
Welcome back Graham, our insurer came in at £33 more than last year so we rang them and said we had a lower quote, after a couple of minutes they dropped the price by £13. We told them they were still £38 higher than the lower quote we had received from another insurer. A few minutes later they dropped the price by £19. "Goodbye" was my response.

Ral, i`m more than happy to pay a fair price for what i consider to be the best policy out there for my needs but year on year it`s been creeping up.

In the past coming up 20 months we like everyone else have hardly used our motorhome, just 2 short outings when lighter restrictions allowed neither of which we fully enjoyed mainly due to the new breed of motorhomers ( i call them lunatics ) that we have had forced upon us by the staycation situation.

Not far from me is Preston Caravans and Motorhomes ( the old Hymer place ) and we popped in there to get something from the accessory shop and was staggered to see just how little stock they had and i counted 34 cars that had a " Motorhome Rental Vehicle " note in their windscreen and were locked up in their compound overnight some of which were very very expensive top of the range cars.

Apparently they are part of the McRent group https://www.mcrent.co.uk/ and said they were struggling to keep up with demand.

The rest of the time it`s sat on our drive at the side of our house very secure behind 2 sets of gates, i`ve kept it taxed and insured so it was " ready to go " as they say.

Basically Safeguard have had my money for me keeping the motorhome safe and secure at home so to put it up yet again pushed my button.

I was prepared to walk away and would more than likely have gone with Saga but they conceded, reduced their quote so i stayed with them.
 
<snip>

The rest of the time it`s sat on our drive at the side of our house very secure behind 2 sets of gates, i`ve kept it taxed and insured so it was " ready to go " as they say.

<snip>
I keep mine insured year-round, even behind 2 sets of gates, but if I'm not planning on using it for a bit, I SORN it. Easy to do online and easy to renew the tax at a moment's notice (subject to 5 days elapsing from date of SORN IIRC) when I do want to use it.
 
Don't forget to cancel your tv license if going away for a long period of time, you get the full months costs back.
 
For insurance whether vehicle or property I normally find who has the better prices and then go via a cashback site and usually get a further £25 - £70 off that way, but that was not the case with this year's renewals.
The MH insurance renewal price still was still quite good, but AIB pleasantly quoted £209, our cheapest in 4 years of ownership, so we are with them now.
We bought another car this year and I was shocked at the online quotes just for TPF&T. As AIB had been great on the MH I gave them a call and they quoted about £200 less than the best price I had seen online, so we went with that.
Our buildings insurance was due recently and I couldn't better our present insurer's renewal price so was going to go with it. But again I thought it was still worth a call to AIB and they immediately quoted £27 cheaper, so was going with them anyway. But I still asked if they could improve on it further but they said that price was straight off the system and they had added nothing on - well if you don't ask you don't get! 😀
 
I'm interested to hear how far in advance of the expiry date others here are getting their renewal invitations.
I always get the renewals for things like house insurance and the car at least a month before expiry, which allows plenty of time to explore alternatives if I think it necessary. However, I've noticed that when the van insurance is due, AIB always seem to leave it untill the last minute. It's now 3 weeks to go before the van insurance expires, and I have yet to hear from them.
A cynical person might think that its purposely done to allow me less time to make alternative arrangements! It goes without saying that I have obtained other provisional quotes, but they all want me to telephone to arrange a firm quote, which I'm not inclined to do until I know what's on offer from my current broker.
 
I'm interested to hear how far in advance of the expiry date others here are getting their renewal invitations.
I always get the renewals for things like house insurance and the car at least a month before expiry, which allows plenty of time to explore alternatives if I think it necessary. However, I've noticed that when the van insurance is due, AIB always seem to leave it untill the last minute. It's now 3 weeks to go before the van insurance expires, and I have yet to hear from them.
A cynical person might think that its purposely done to allow me less time to make alternative arrangements! It goes without saying that I have obtained other provisional quotes, but they all want me to telephone to arrange a firm quote, which I'm not inclined to do until I know what's on offer from my current broker.
It depends. Adrian Flux have never sent me a renewal invitation -- they post them to my account online but don't bother to let me know they've done so. Other insurers (both home and motor) seem to send an invitation at almost the last minute and so I've set up reminders a month before expiry to prompt me to trawl the comparison sites.
 
Insurance third party and road duty should have been added to fuel, so those who do big mileages and buy high truck like cars pay for it, where as the old lady who only goes to shops church the doctor a few miles a week pays much less, fully comp then should be through a broker.
No requirement to tax a veh then but a £25 transfer fee at any PO or online so police etc know the correct owners be it private or a co.
Everything in this country is set up to milk the working class keeping them on there knees from birth to death.
 
After a year with AIB my renewal premium went up by 3 figures. Sod that! This was earlier this year when the media was awash with news of premiums dropping due to non use of vehicles etc etc. After shopping around I too went with Safeguard who beat my previous years figure, let alone the proposed increase.

Very efficient too: they posted out the docs just as they said they would...unlike my previous insurerI
i was with them and moved. then we will match it.sorry no thanks. so .ok.pj= gwilym
 
Ever noticed that when you go onto a comparison website the difference in quotes are astronomical? Been looking at home and contents insurance, car insurance and MH insurance, all of which are due in the next two weeks.
Had we gone for the cheapest the total cost would be £453, had we gone for the dearest, the price would be £1780. The difference in cover was quite a lot better at the upper end but there was very little difference overall between the low end to the mid range.
Had we paid the quotes from our existing insurers it would have cost us £889.

We didn't go for the cheapest but still managed to save £354.
Ever noticed that when you go onto a comparison website the difference in quotes are astronomical? Been looking at home and contents insurance, car insurance and MH insurance, all of which are due in the next two weeks.
Had we gone for the cheapest the total cost would be £453, had we gone for the dearest, the price would be £1780. The difference in cover was quite a lot better at the upper end but there was very little difference overall between the low end to the mid range.
Had we paid the quotes from our existing insurers it would have cost us £889.

We didn't go for the cheapest but still managed to save £354.
Screenshot_20211124-180752_Facebook.jpg
 

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