Insurance renewal time again

[Norfolk Jim]

Well as far as I'm concerned the whole lot need a good kicking to get their act together so 2000 cartridges may not be enough! Ha ha

[Audax]

Honestly, I don't think politics should have a place on this forum (with the exception of how GM managed SAAB maybe) and if it does it should be in off topic anyway.

[Steve McF]

Oh lads, come on.

I was only interested in if you had a big no claims bonus

[collywobble]

We have maximum NCB....

[Geoff1951]

Max NCB here.

[carrera]

Here too, actually 42 years total NCB on my last renewal (multiple cars)

[Oldcolner]

My experience may be helpful
I insured my new to me Saab with LV by adding it to my main car policy. I added my daughter who has a clean licence and found this reduced the premium, so did it to the main car too. Overall adding her to both policies saved me around £60 on both cars, whilst adding a dash cam saved another £8 on each. My Saab policy eventually cost around £220 for 3000 miles with no NCB.
This was done by speaking to a person who was very helpful. On line comparison sites were quoting £400 or more for the Saab.

[Norfolk Jim]

I'm with LV and found them extremely helpful.

When I had my X Trail remapped earlier this year I did a quick comparison and LV came up being only £18 more than I was then paying without remap. I called them and they said that's fine we'll use that quote and went over it all to make sure. Told them car had gone from 173 hp to now 221 hp and they confirmed only £18 rise in premium!!!!

[TomPaine]

I've also been pleased with LV. They are the only insurer of any sort I've ever had whose annual premium goes down (if only a little) instead of up.

[Geoff1951]

I've been with LV a few times on and off in recent years. Last time I left two years back, the renewal was nearly £100 higher, with absolutely zero changes to car, driver, address, etc, etc. When I phoned to query, their answer was basically take it or leave it. The woman I spoke to started her side of the conversation with, and I quote, "we're not prepared to negotiate, so don't ask." Really? Fair enough. Goodbye.

I've been with IAM Surety for two years. Very helpful phone service, based in Belfast. (I'm not, I'm in Cheshire.) If any of you are IAM members and haven't considered them, it's worth a phone call at least. (Though they wouldn't cover my 9-5 when I Hirsched it, that was over 12 years ago and I think they're more amenable these days.)

There are always minor differences between companies on comparison sites - I always give them all a go every year. Courtesy car cost, legal cover, protected NCD, voluntary excess etc. will vary their effect on the final figure as we all (should) know.

One company that's always been consistent is Direct Line. I've always had a good record, clean licence, mainstream cars, very good postcodes and job descriptions, and since at least 1990 they've never offered anything remotely like a competitive premium.

[Norfolk Jim]

That's odd Geoff. I've been with them now for about 5 years and always been fine. My campervan is insured under their company Highway and likewise good service.

Hmmmm.... Direct Line is who my wife's car is under and they've been pretty good as well. How different they can be with customers.............? It's cos you're in Cheshire Geoff while I'm in sleepy Naarfolk!

[Geoff1951]

Hi NJ, good to hear from you.

My OH was with LV for two years, but last August we switched back to Saga  for her VW Up, for £125.43. Full and protected NCD, etc, etc,.
LV's price was £219 in 2016, £175 in 2017 and wanted £178 last year, so even at this quite low risk end of the market there's still room for manoeuvre. It's due again in early August so we'll see.
What also gets my goat is the 12% tax.


(Off topic - I've a caravanning pal who recently bought an early X-Trail, but with many miles on it and a very patchy service record. He paid about £3k and it's just cost him £800+ to fix various engine issues. He's a great bloke but clueless about motors.)

[Norfolk Jim]

Good to hear from you too Geoff.

Sounds like he has one of the early engines which had issues. Mine is a 2011 facelift where they tweaked engine etc and minor bodywork enhancements like the big LED rear lights before they changed to the latest shape. Mines is the 2.0 dCi (in red - important like the Saab letter colours) which is the joint Renault/Nissan engine which gets the praise. I've done 9k since December so it's now on 163k and engine seat as a nut and much quieter than my TTiD was and does an impressive 48 mpg. Pulling power is awesome at 2200kg. Ironically it is exactly the same length as my TTiD estate was but wider and taller and huge load area where I can get a door in - something I missed on my 9-3 from my 9-5 estates. Overall so far all I've replaced is the battery which was original so just 8 years old.

Insurance is really a mugs game. DO you go cheap and hope no accident and dire claims system or buy reasonable and get a proper aftercare service. Bit like AA & RAC... I have a Nationwide bank account which comes with phone cover, holiday insurance for family and full breakdown cover. Breakdown uses local garages and having used about 4 times over the last 3 years they always arrived within 30 mins and each time properly sorted. My wife's was covered by RAC and when she needed them on way to a home visit (community nurse) RAC took over an hour and then didn't sort it.

[Steve McF]

Thought I'd give an update one year on!!! Insurance for Jet came round again, £300 vs £320 last year. So I did the usual comparison site search, and what did I find? Hastings Direct (who I am with) doing the same policy for £235!!!!! Result!!!

So I rang them, and spoke to an incredibly helpful lady, who was able to call up my quote vs the online quote. She found they were the same cover/excesses etc, and so they honoured the cheaper quote.

I've had the car 2 years, have limited the mileage to 4000 a year, have 2 years NCB (on this car), no voluntary excess at all, and now insured for £234 for the next year

[Norfolk Jim]

Pretty good Steve.

Mine was quite interesting as I did exactly the same with LV who I'm insured with and it got better.....using their multi vehicle and adding my wifes Golf brought it down even further - interestingly they also matched my comparison site check. While I was talking to them I asked them to do a simple side by side quote between my 07VW T5 camper and a full VW California  a year younger; I also asked for them both having business use purely as I'm doing less business miles and only use camper twice a year so selling that and my Xtrail to fund the more expensive Cali.

Result was my T5 camper would cost £427 but only cover for SDP as usual whereas the Cali for business use would be £346!!!! I asked why and she said to consider if either were involved in accident which damaged the living areas they can easily get the Cali priced up from VW but on conversion they have no idea on how to cost the interior............................you can guess what I'm going to do........................I've now found a very nice deep metallic blue 2014 Cali with 180 engine and 4motion with 43k and full history. Ok it's £37k but they are the highest value retaining production line vehicle on the roads at present and most sell for what they'd been bought for............