crap
I drive a 1.9 diesel Peurgeot 306. Hardly a speed machine and not by any stretch of the imagination new. The cunts at the insurance racketeers office have just quoted me 1100 quid to insure it with full no claims and off road parking.
I asked the disinterested goon on the phone if someone had inadvertently changed my address to Basra city centre or my name to Mr R Hammond or even if my age had been reset to 17 in some sort of twisted time travelling accident involving a Delorean, Christopher Lloyd and a stick of Doctor Whos celery but apparently not.
My insurance has sky rocketed according to the company policy spouting phone monkey because of all the claims being made by OTHER people. I wouldn't mind so much if i hadn't been with the same company for 12 years. Customer loyalty means sod all these days too it seems.

I will therefore be saving money by moving to another bunch of robbing twats. Fuck you Direct Line! I hope that your head office building burns down and your managing director catches syphilitic aids.
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 11:32, 24 replies)

Insurance is a nightmare
at the moment.

It's worse than you think. When they say it's becuase of other peoples claims, they're half right.

What is actually happening is that these oily scumbucket injury lawyers have turned the UK into another USA. Every clumsy bastard that trips over their own shoelace is now claiming compensation.

No fees? Wrong. Of course they charge fees. Who pays? Insurance companies. Where do the get the money from? Your £1,100 premium.

Very regrettable.
(username failed moderation, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 11:51, closed)

^This is true, but also...
...if you are seen as too high a risk by the insurance company, rather than telling you "go away, we don't want to insure you", the insurance company will give you a quote that will make you take your business elsewhere.

The insurance company gets rid of a risk they don't want and you get to give an honest answer when asked "Have you ever been refused insurance?"
(Mork, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 11:57, closed)

I wouldnt see
Why i was high risk though. I live in a decent neighbourhood. The car is parked on a drive and i have had a grand total of three points on my license in 19 years of driving (due to a place in Howden where the road goes from a 60 to a 30 for 100 yards). Its not a sports car and i am past the age where i feel i have to drive like a maniac.
It just seems they want to bend me over and shove there fists up my arse dry repeatedly to shake as much money from my carcass as possible because they know that if you want to drive you have no bloody choice but to get insurance.
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 12:02, closed)

It's also to do with the car
maybe Peugeots have suddenly become expensive to repair.

The other killer is if your car sudeenly becomes popular with idiots. You may be the most sensible driver on the road, but if the 1.9 diesel Peugeot tends to be driven by 19 year old cruisers, you're fucked.
(username failed moderation, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 12:08, closed)

" if you want to drive you have no bloody choice but to get insurance"
This is true, but the law requires a minimum 'third party only' insurance.

That's a money saving tip in itself. Although I am the paranoid sort who believes that my car will spontaneously combust if I don't have insurance cover for it...
(Frample Tromwibbler climbs an obstacle like old people fuck, Sun 13 Nov 2011, 17:12, closed)

Oily scumbucket injury lawyers AND greedy people with no sense of responsibiliy/an inflated sense of entitlement.
Otherwise, yes.
That, and the fact that insurers are all money grabbing bastards.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 11:59, closed)

There's a stand in my local shopping centre for a claims company.
Every time I walk past I feel like tripping over it, just so I can sue them.
(anonymousreality tickled your fancy on, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 12:01, closed)

I really like this.

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 12:47, closed)

So do I

( user_names_suck, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 20:32, closed)

Agree with you.
The average rise is 40% in ONE year and the companies admit to passing on our details to Sue, Grabbit and Run immediately we have an accident. So the insurance companies are making money by selling our details to these sharks then putting our premiums up to pay for the costs that the lawyers add to the claim.
Recently Mrs Jogs was gently rear-ended (Ooh matron) and within hours a vulture was on the phone trying to get her to claim for whiplash. She responded, thinking the guy was connected to her insurance company but he wasn't so she blew him out.
I insure 3 vehicles (2 for work) and I've noticed that the company that was cheapest on the comparison site when you take out the policy is rarely the cheapest the following year. One renewal sent to me this year was £40 more than the same company was quoting for a new policy on a comparison site. I shop around at every renewal. It could take an hour to stick your details on half a dozen sites but if you save £100 it's a good rate of pay for your work. Also when you find the cheapest don't order it on line. Use their free phone number and haggle. There's always £30 or more built in to the price for this. Oh and don't leave a real phone number on a website. you'll be pestered for days.
( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Fri 11 Nov 2011, 13:14, closed)

I did this with my house insurance from Tesco. They hiked it by a hundred quid so I shopped round and got a better deal with direct line saving 50 odd quid. Called rescission to cancel and then went through the "customer retention" bit. Managed to get then to drop it to almost the same as last year and give me 20 quid in gift cards. Worth haggling and asking what they can throw in extra if they can't drop the price. Oh, and double clubcard points too!
(Beaverman Opulence, I has it., Fri 11 Nov 2011, 13:43, closed)

Tesco. Pah.
Some years ago when I moved house I had my car insurance with them - when I told them about the move they hiked the fees due to the relocation so I told them I would shop around, and found a substantially cheaper offer elsewhere.

Phoned Tesco to cancel - oh, I can't do that as the thieving twunts have already taken the extra, despite me not authorising the payment. Took four weeks of phonecalls to get the money back, and spent several years avoiding their stores at all costs... sadly now they are so ubiquitous that is nigh on impossible.
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 18:59, closed)

I switched....
to LV from 'Privilege' last year after 8 years,and my premium is over 25% cheaper - maybe worth giving them a ring for a quote...
(nappy rash, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 15:07, closed)

My bike insurance is up for renewal
next week. I got a renewal notice from Hastings, for just over £600.

I went to Gocompare, cheapest is about £420. The thing that's annoying though is Hastings are quoting just over £500 on that site. More than £100 less than they sent on the renewal notice.

Even if they offered to match the lowest quote, I'm more inclined to tell them to bugger off. These games are very irritating.
(username failed moderation, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 15:22, closed)

You're comments kinda scare me a bit. I'm with Direct Line and my insurance is due for renewal in February. It'll be eight years no claims by then, I've never had any points or endorsements on my license and I drive an unfashionable, economic car (a Citroen ZX 1.9TD Estate).

Sounds like a scary February awaits for my renewal then: did you go with anyone else for your renewal?
(paulplex erm, hi..., Fri 11 Nov 2011, 15:24, closed)

you can get a quote online now.
It's almost certainly going up.
(username failed moderation, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 15:29, closed)

I renewed my insurance in February
and it's the first time since 1997 that I have stayed with the same company (Admiral). My renewal with 9 years no claims, even though I drove the Mrs' car into Bambi last year causing £1800 worth of damage, was a mere £240. How come people are being quoted such vast sums?
( M3rx likes the Asian ladies, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 15:52, closed)

Comparison sites
Always, always try the comparison sites, (as well as the bigger companies that don't use them). I very rarely stay with the same company for home or car insurance 2 years in a row. This year was the only year I did that, and that was only because I phoned my existing car insurance company, told them my renewal price was more than I could get elsewhere, and they knocked a hefty chunk off my price.

Don't ever be scared to play off these insurance companies against each other. Worst they can say is "no" and then you've still got piss loads to choose from.
( Mike Fishcake teamfishcake.co.uk - better than your mum's face, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 16:19, closed)

I got a quote from a comparison website last year.
Then thought I'd try Direct Line, since their ads stated they were cheaper because they weren't on said websites. Their quote was £250 more than the cheapest on on Comparethemarket.

Fuck you, Direct Line.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Fri 11 Nov 2011, 19:44, closed)

once you've got your quote, buy the insurance directly from the insurer's website via a cashback site like Quidco
You can usually get about £40 cashback per policy
( h3donist tryin' to play me out as if my name is Sega.., Sun 13 Nov 2011, 16:19, closed)

People, for fuck's sake
Don't stay with the same company. They usually work on the 'We've got you so you're fucked' principle. We've been with It's4me for a few years without checking other companies, until Swinton took them over and charged me £35 because a payment of £37 didn't go out of my bank. They quoted £600 for a new policy, even though I'd told them that I'd rather fucking walk than be insured with them again. We're now with Hastings for £330 for the year. Renewal time, I'll shop around again. You'll get a better deal from a new company because you're new business for them.

And watch out for this 'well you need to cancel at the latest 30 days before your renewal date or we take it that you're staying with us' bollocks...
( His Popiness the Hole Invaded Poland on, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 23:21, closed)

Same happend to me.
Insured with Shitcover, they hiked the price up by 250 this year. So I shopped around with about 6 weeks to go before the renewal, Loads of reasonable (for car insurace) prices.
Had to wait to 3 weeks before the renewal date (payday ect), went insure, found out some of the companies had rocketed.

Now in the meantime I walked into a high street insurace brokers-just to see if they could beat the online quotes (silly me). Whether they passed my details around or I was on some kind of database as being a pleb off the street I dunno.

TBH buying a car seems like a waste of moeny to me, I'm considering leasing one next year.
(Gru being trolled since 1998, Sat 12 Nov 2011, 0:12, closed)

I was looking for another car recently, so ended up checking a lot of different insurance prices for various different cars. Turns out that economical, environmentally friendly(ish), smaller cars are waaaaay more expensive for me to insure than more powerful, larger engined and/or sporty jobbies.

I'm with AA Insurance at the moment - Direct Line were nearly £200 per year more.
(Freakmandu, Sat 12 Nov 2011, 5:18, closed)

I recently moved house
from a fairly grim area with only street parking, to a nicer area with off-road parking and a lockable garage.

My premium went up. I asked what'd happen if I promised to keep the car in the garage overnight. The premium would have gone up further.

The explanation offered was that a driveway or garage provides shelter, and so makes it a bit easier to nick a car. Arse.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Sun 13 Nov 2011, 21:56, closed)