To be shocked that my insurance premium has TREBLED?

[AmyStake]

I took out my car insurance policy this time last year. I drive a 2005 Ford Ka. I was living in a different city, my insurance premium was £500.

Just got my renewal quote for this year. £1200!!! All I have done is change address. That is it. No accidents, no change in circumstances, nothing. My car is in a private car park in a quiet part of Manchester.

So I phoned the insurance company to say what the hell is this? They check my post code, details etc and tell me they had the wrong postcode in for me and my insurance premium would actually be £1500. I got pretty pissed off and spoke to the loyalty team who did a really shit job, I asked the guy to justify the large increase in price. His answers were "you changed address" and "insurance prices have gone up". Dick. I asked him to clarify how moving address put my insurance policy up £1000 and he wouldn't expand, just kept repeating prices have gone up and I changed address.

I'm really fucked off and shocked.. to be honest now this is the final straw. I'm seriously considering getting rid of my car. Its only worth about £2k anyway! I just can't afford £130 a month. That is ridiculous.

If it is a public car park you cannot leave it there uninsured and declare a SORN sorry .

If it is not a public road than yes. There is a bit on your tax renewal form that tells you how to do it if you can find one. I am sure there will be somthing online at dvla if you don't (-:

It's another hit the easy target and look like you are doing something serious that governments think we are too stupid to realise.

We were rear ended at a traffic light and called the police because the guys tax was out of date. Rather than come out they were like oh just swop details....

We ended up losing our no claims as we were given a false name, address and the car license didn't match. If the police got of their butts and came out they would have known that there and then.

That is too much hard work though when someone can just push a button on a database and fine someone for being forgetful or late when their car is off the road safe at home and no chance of harming the general population.

Sorry for the rant

Mine just nearly doubled as well. I rang to ask and check the details - they had me down for fewer years NCB, car worth more etc...and then they corrected it and.....it went UP!

I have actually just sold it. Not worth it any more to me, I'm lucky enough to be able to get around without it.

My friend was quoted £18,500 for a year for a 15 year old merc.

The whole industry is a con.

Midoriway insurance firms in the UK have been gearing up to Solvency II for at least the past 5 years, at that point I worked on the ICA for the company I worked for then, which was the FSAs forerunner to solvency II. If the FSA didn't agree with a firms assessment of how much capital they needed then they implemented capital add ons, so I don't agree with what you're saying about them having no teeth. I now work on Solvency II for a different company currently restating the QIS 5 exercise. Solvency II is more about standardising solvency across Europe, the FSA took action years ago to make sure UK companies could meet their liabilities.

Firms probably will need to hold a bit more capital or more likely like my company re-jig some stuff, but saying that in 2012 there's going to be a massive shock to insurance premiums is rubbish as insurers have been working up to this and sorting out their capital years and years in advance.

Try going direct rather than using the comparison sites. My policy went up £100 to £450 with existing provider- even though no changes and one more claim free year. I tried all of the comparison sites and got it down to £350. I then went direct to aviva who gave me three months free and the final price was £250. Well worth an hours work!