Car insurance!! Ripping people off!!

[Ariesburn]

Hi,

Just need some advice so I had a car insurance renewal a week ago and it had gone down alot so it was £44 a month but then realised they had my old address down, I moved into this new address last year and know damn well I rang them and changed it, called them up and they realised it was their fuck up on their end so they changed it but now the renewal price has gone from £44 a month to £81!!!!!!!!! Like what the actual fuck? Because of a change of address can these robbing bastards actually do this? Can I fight this and demand I have the same price as quoted because it's not my fault that the address was not changed even though I rang them? Also the new house has its own off road parking and private drive it's a cul de sack so I don't get how it's can go up so much I've also got a 6 year no claims bonus.

I'm fuming!!!! Like literally mad 😡😡

I had my car stolen, found and written off last year, and they paid out over what it was worth on Parkers car guide. I was able to buy a replacement outright a week later.

For brand new leases etc, you need gap insurance.

Hmmm. 🤔

You was very lucky then. Glad you've had a better experience than some.

It's also a very competitive market, so there is no scope for monopoly over-pricing. Every factor goes into the algorithms, not just age, driving history, etc. The age and make/model of car, your locality, your mileage, etc., are all just as important. Basically everything they ask for on the proposal form is asked for a reason and feeds into the risk/charging algorithm. Even accidents that aren't your fault "can" be a factor as their systems will show locations, vehicle types, etc., more or less likely to be involved with no fault accidents, i.e. if you have a dangerous junction close to where you live.

So the quote you've got now would probably be higher for example if you've had claims

Age/past claims/length driving are still considered.

But pricing models are dynamic and trends far higher up the chain will impact them. So at population or company level, an increase to the average cost of claims will cause increases. So will data showing a 5% increase in reported car crime in X area (even if that area is still low-crime overall).

Data showing that in the past year the length of time driving affected number of claims less than in the previous year would make that factor less important to your quote...so you benefit less from that long licence than you did last year.

Or literally 100's of other things. And that's before they adjust those prices up to become profit-bearing.

There's no one formula anyone will be able to explain or justify to you, so it's pointless trying to get them to tbph. You can just take it or leave it, like us all.

@purpleme12 I've not had any claims.

@BlumminFreezin my car has 56k on the clock it's a 2015 model focus. I do about 9k a year, I've had no claims, I've been driving since 2016 and I'm nearly 34. It's a eco boost 1litre engine, not been modified in any way.

Yes I know but you said mmm like you were skeptical of what I was saying. So I just said for example if you had had claims then your current quote would probably be higher than it is now

Each insurer is going to make there own judgement on risk and their current exposure to an area, the algorithms are much more sophisticated than looking at crime stats you can't work it out yourself

But, I've remembered that years ago I had a similar experience with moving house and the difference in premium just didn't make sense, I had no choice but to pay but I persisted in asking them to justify the increase and eventually I got through to someone who realised that I had some kind of discount on my premium that had been missed when calculating the new amount and I got all my money back so absolutely keep on at them you never know

Don't use shouty caps though 😀

Not an isolated case. My neighbour wrote off my antiquated 15 year old car that I'd only have got £1k for if I'd sold on "we buy any car" or part exchanged it. The insurance firm paid me £2,500 for it after a bit of haggling as I found very similar cars on the open market between £2k and £3k. They initially offered the £2k but I haggled them up because it had full service history, low mileage, mint condition, etc.

If your car is 10 years old have you considered just having third party insurance? Sometimes it makes little difference on an older car, but sometimes it does help.
Also, pay annually if you can as it's cheaper.
£88/month is £1056 per year which seems a lot for a small old car in a safe area and a safe driver. Mine is £150 per year in similar circs (though max no claims bonus and probably cheapest area of UK).

The thing is, I also loathed paying insurance. But when you have a massive claim and it’s settled almost immediately and you can get on with your life, you understand why you needed it.

But like my post said, those things are just a small part of the overall picture.

There will be things affecting the price that have been fed into algorithms based on national data, County data, company data.

All things which affect YOUR price, all outside of your control.

My friends used to have two cars. The renewal premium came in and it was really high. He phoned
to say we only have one car now. They came back with a higher quotation.
The excuse was that if you have one car in your drive there is a higher risk they will steal that one car.

LOL what a shit excuse for the price to be higher!! Like what is the logic for that one? What a joke. 🤦🏼‍♀️

I will look into this! Thank you.

Do you get wound up about the price of bread & milk going up OP?

Insurance companies are a business, not a charity. They price according to risk, and that's entirely their decision. They are also highly regulated and are not allowed to 'rip people off.'

No I don't. No need for that really. As I've said it's insurance companies that piss me off because it's a joke. That's my personal opinion though which I'm entitled to.

I don't know what's 'a joke' about it. You can't seem to understand that insurance companies charge a price based on their assessment of the risk.

Ok.

I moved into my new flat at the same time as insurance renewal was due. I had already been sent the quote and I contacted them to inform of upcoming change of address. The new location is literally 5 mins away from where I had lived, no other changes apart from the post code.
This forced the cost to double! I was shocked but there was nothing I could do.
I cancelled this one and searched for a more acceptable quote but yeah, it showed me that little details can make a big difference to the price.

Thing is for most of them you have to put a down payment down don't you? I don't have that kind of money to do that. I'm sure with this insurance company when I first signed up to them they wanted like £220 or something to sign up to them and then I paid monthly instalments.

Not a down payment in my case but defo admin fee and to renew as well but I have never had to pay hat kind of money to sign up, i pay monthly too.
Go on Compare the Market and find a better option insurance wise I reckon, I do that every year.

Do you mean payment of the first months premium? A down payment isn't a thing that I've ever come across in decades of buying insurance