To think that insurance companies are scam artists

[whatdoidonowffs]

How can they possibly raise my car insurance from £560 last year to £2868 this year when nothing’s changed 😡😡
I know I’ve already done comparison sites and got it cheaper but ye gods why such a massive raise

I think a friend of mine summed it up when we were motor customer service operators "if you went in one shop and mars bars were £1 but down the road they were 50p...you'd go down the road...you wouldn't go in the first shop and moan...so why are you phoning me to moan"

There's a huge number of factors why that companies premiums have jumped...after 20 years working for what was the country's biggest motor insurer...who now don't do motor insurance...I'll give you some of my favourites....

1. their actuaries are shite....ours put house premiums up 40% one year because they were convinced crime would rise...it fell...we lost £100 million in revenue in my section
2. they are pulling out of motor insurance
3. they personally have had a bad experience of that make and model 're claim numbers and cost
4. it's a high performance/luxury motor and they are target the more average market
5. you've added a young driver...but not on the new policy (had an hour complaint when they realised this and tried to add junior...we didn't insure under 21s)

You've got a better price so all in all

Are you serious? I used to say I sell the only product in the UK where I tell people how to complain about it before they buy it, I tell them when they buy it, I tell them after they bought it, I tell them when they renew it and when they have any other interaction!
insurance is a business, it's not a charity. It's designed to make money. Therefore if the risk is too great, your not getting cover.

DS was given a quote of £8000 (well a few pounds over) on a car that cost us £7499 - that I don’t understand.
In general I understand that repair prices/fraudulent claims/car theft and uninsured drivers have all increased meaning companies need to charge more for the same service.

I heard it was due to all the electric cars, which get a ding and then cost mega bucks to repair.

I wonder how true it is...

Do you live somewhere dodgy? ….I live in a NW market down….with a drive…..I have a 19 plate golf and my insurance was 420 quid….for me and my partner as named drivers

The rise in insurance prices in the past couple years is absolutely NOT something companies want to be doing.

To a certain extent I'm sure that's true. On the other hand car insurers absolutely take the piss.

Last year I paid Insurer A about £350. This year Insurer A came up with a renewal quote of over £600 for the same cover. I shopped around and found Insurer B offering pretty much identical cover for £450.

I then called Insurer A to tell them I'm not renewing with them, and mirabile dictu within minutes Insurer A's renewal quote magically went down to £430. I didn't renew with them because, frankly, that's predatory behaviour and they can get fucked. But that kind of behaviour doesn't tend to make me feel that insurance companies are being honest.

Renewals are automatically generated, based on the risk factors that company takes into consideration. You will always get access to the deals by ringing in. This is the same with many different businesses in many different sectors. Even the same if you bought something in the market for example, if you haggle you get a better deal. Obviously to a different magnitude!

Like I said I'm a customer too, I get it. My car insurance last year went up a massive amount and I hadn't even claimed! But it's not as black and white as people like to imply.

Agree.

m we pay all of this money - a young girl reversed into me - and I made my first ever claim in nay 12 years of driving, the damage is repairable and they want to write- off my car. They don’t even want to pay a tow company so that I can get a quote.

What am I paying for! We give them thousands of pounds and they raise it when they want but they don’t help when you need them.

I am dreading next years fee!

It’s why we end up with more and more uninsured drivers which ironically insurance companies then go well that’s exactly why we have to put it up. Pushing more people to play fast and loose. Need a car to work but your insurance has doubled now your fucked. Do you risk it and hope.. or don’t quit your job wait can’t do that UC wont pay… can’t walk an hour to work down the side of an A road with no path and no busses run to that area. Wait to get fired I guess.

People not all but some genuinely need cars.
if people can’t say get to warehouses which don’t pay great all the time and are often in bum fuck knowhere when it comes to public transport. Nobody is getting anything. Not Tesco or Amazon or any other company you like to shop with. So what’s the solution…

When your at home careers cannot afford insurance for the terrible pay they get then what? When nurses and midwifes can’t get in for their night shift because ding ding public transport either isn’t running at those times or the area isn’t safe to walk though then what.

The Law states you need insurance then there should be some type of policy that anyone and everyone can afford.

But a random like you on MN does..... lol!

None of what i said is wrong though is it?

Compulsory product, no pricing regulation...

4 or 5 large players running the industry....

Licence to print money.

Labour have already said (pre election) they will launch an inquiry into out of control car insurance costs, especially needed as we now have the lowest car and personal injury claims on record.

@thefireplace yeah I do actually. It's literally my job. And there is absolutely pricing regulation around insurance. I take it you've heard of the FCA?

FCA does not set premiums or control prices, are you really sure you work in the industry?

Yes, the renewal prices are auto-generated. But so is the "special deal" price, isn't it? The bloke I spoke to on the phone simply tapped the numbers into the computer and it came up with a new number. It's not like there was a bunch of brokers and actuaries sat round a table negotiating that new price specifically for me. It's all algorithm.

There was, presumably, enough profit at the £430 price for them to be comfortable offering it. So the £600 price was simply them being thieving rob-dogs, as my old nan used to say.

Your comparison to market traders is disingenuous. If you go to a market you know you're going to get dodgy behaviour. But an insurance company is supposed to be offering a professional service that I am legally required to have. And they still try to rip me off to a contemptible degree.

I'd have a lot more sympathy with insurance company's claims regarding increased costs if they didn't perpetrate such blatantly shady behaviour at every opportunity.

The UK isn't special, why can our friends in Europe insure their car for a 1/3rd of what i have pay?

Why is dentistry in Germany (hardly a cheap economy) cheaper than in the UK? and when you look at Spain and Portugal, the differences are even greater.

We are mugs thats why.

Hence that saying "there's nothing so expensive as cheap insurance".

Going with the lowest premium and assuming all cover is the same is a mistake. It's always worth looking at the claims payout data and the claims handling satisfaction info.

I work for a home insurer. Sometimes we are staggeringly more expensive than other companies. But we consistently pay out on 95-97% of our claims and our average payout is over £20k. Most home insurers average payout is £10k.

In terms of 'why has my premium gone up if I've not claimed' - insurance is about pooling and sharing risk with others. Your premiums aren't going into a pot and ringfenced for your use - that's a savings account. Your premiums are in the pot to help pay everyone's claims. So if there are more claims being made overall, and / or the claims are more expensive to settle, than your premium will go up.

Car parts are more expensive. Labour costs more because mechanics etc have had pay rises. Everything that your insurer will have to pay for in the event of a claim now costs more than last year, or the year before. I have also heard about the electric car thing mentioned by a pp. A minor ding on an EV can necessitate the replacing of the battery because it may have done damage that can't be seen but could result in an explosion down the line. So those claims are hugely expensive and as more and more cars on the road are EV, the cost of insuring any car will go up, because a) you could hit an EV, and b) the shared pot.

That underwriter doesn't want you, you have fallen out of their criteria, but someone else will. Go on to a comparable site and put in your details

UK financial services are amongst the most heavily regulated in the world. I've been in the business for over 30 years. So many small brokers are shutting up shop because compliance with the FCA rules is so complex and burdensome for a small outfit.

A lot of the premium rises are because of liability claims. That teenage son you're complaining about ridiculous insurance premiums for? It's not paying out for his £4k Corsa they're pricing for. It's the 3 mates he leaves in a vegetative state that will get millions of pounds in a personal injury claim.

Say "not my kid" all you like, then Google "teenage driver car accident killed" and see how many cars full of teenagers are killed and seriously injured by young, inexperienced drivers.

The premiums of the many pay for the claims of the few and some of those claims are eye-watering.

It will be something to do with your risk level. Mine actually went down when it renewed this month.

Has there been a lot of thefts or uninsured motorists in your area?

Insurance doesn't just cover the cost of the car, more importantly it also covers your legal liability for damage caused to others property and injury and death caused to others. This is the legally required part of motor insurance and the payout is unlimited.

Your DS could easily cause life changing injuries to multiple people with his car. If it was his fault then his insurer will be liable to pay medical costs, long term care costs, loss of earnings, adaptations to someone's home etc etc. It can run into millions of pounds.

Or he might just hit a car worth a lot more than his. Or damage a building.

Or do all of the above at once.

That's something most people don't consider.

What did you manage to get it for in the end, OP?

@thefireplace you're right, they don't. But they do impose some very strict and clear regulations around how insurers can price their products, and what constitutes fair value to customers.

But so could I or you and mine isn’t in the thousands.
In fact I would argue I would cause more damage in my much larger much more powerful car should I have a lapse of concentration.
Also I think as an experienced driver that is more likely due to complacency.

It's because if your DS has a momentary lapse of concentration when giving his mate a lift home one night his car insurer could end up paying twenty million quid in personal injury claims. You can give somebody a catastrophic brain injury just as easily in a cheap car as an expensive one.

X posted. Yes anyone could cause that sort of injury, but nineteen year olds do it much more often, and they're much more likely to be giving lifts to other very expensive nineteen year olds.

As I’ve just said above - so could I or you so why isn’t everyone’s in the thousands?

£680 so much better than £2686 😂😂 to be honest if I probably wouldn’t bother claiming for anything on my car if it’s worth £500 I’d be lucky
I literally use it to go 18 miles a day to work and back
if public transport worked around my shift times I probably wouldn’t bother with it