Another insurance rip off

[Specialone]

Just had my van insurance renewal, last year £280 fully comp, last years policy not available (apparently) so cheapest is £467 if paid in full.
Just been on go compare and the cheapest on there was £560.

Insurance companies are raping us and there is feck all we can do about it, i hate them with a passion.
In the next 4 months i will have van tax to pay, 2 bike policies and my car policy which basically only gets used on a weekend (13k in 3.5 years since new)
Expensive times ahead people, seems not to matter if you're a experinced driver and a low risk.

[husky03]

feckin rip off mate-i'd be trying to get everything done with the one company on a type of multi vehicle type policy.Might end up screwing up your no claims though if you had a bump in one vehicle.

[danf1234]

Dreading when my Audi A6 policy is up for renewal next year.

Like you I hate them with a passion, espcially seeing as we are forced to buy insurance by law. It's one big protection racket!

[andrewsmith]

Just had my van insurance renewal, last year £280 fully comp, last years policy not available (apparently) so cheapest is £467 if paid in full.
Just been on go compare and the cheapest on there was £560.

Insurance companies are raping us and there is feck all we can do about it, i hate them with a passion.
In the next 4 months i will have van tax to pay, 2 bike policies and my car policy which basically only gets used on a weekend (13k in 3.5 years since new)
Expensive times ahead people, seems not to matter if you're a experinced driver and a low risk.

Ouch!!! That is a big jump in anyones book! Plus £250 van tax makes it worse

Dare I suggest getting rid of the car!!

[busasean]

my pick up truck went from £320 up to £713 and they wouldnt budge - I tried all the comparison websites with the cheapest being about £450. In the end I got recommended to Adrian Flux who insured me for £378. give them a go...

[husky03]

can see more people going third party and forgetting about fully comp

[busasean]

Its actually cheaper to go fully comp half of the time..

[Dicky Ticker]

ATTENTION LAW ENFORCEMENT TYPES-------------------
there used to be a thing under some old traffic law that if you lodged £10k,or maybe £100k with the government you were exempt from insuring a vehicle,a distant memory from police training school-----------------is this still in existence?
Possibly only applies to people like local governments,or London Transport

[G]

Someone drove into the back of Kerrys mini, didn't go through insurance but notified them... It doubled this year.

[thefallenangel]

They want to charge me £72 for having my car converted to LPG. Basically don't drive unless it's a company vehicle. Just by being in work it saves me a fortune in insurance and fuel and vehicle running costs.

[Dicky Ticker]

I did mention the LPG thing ----extra insurance and annual test in another thread

[G]

ATTENTION LAW ENFORCEMENT TYPES-------------------
there used to be a thing under some old traffic law that if you lodged £10k,or maybe £100k with the government you were exempt from insuring a vehicle,a distant memory from police training school-----------------is this still in existence?
Possibly only applies to people like local governments,or London Transport

This is definitely still the case, you have to have considerably more than £100k though, it's essentially self insuring and you need to have enough disposable cash to cover crashing into a bus with 40 people onboard who may all die and then expect compo.

I know of a chap in Nottingham that has an incredible collection of cars including a £1m reventon coupe, £2m reventon roadster, £400k CLK DTM amongst a load of other cars each worth well over £100k and he does it. He describe it as owning his own personnel insurance company for him and his family.

[Dicky Ticker]

Bit out of my league then;)

[Jordy]

Yeah it takes the ****. I swear they do it because us the customer has no choice, it's like they all got together and said 'hey lets all raise our premiums together... Mwuuhahaha'. lol

They increased my car insurance renewal by £100 that's with an extra years NCB ('cus of the snow last year apparently, so brace yourself for an increase again from this current snow/ice) :rolleyes:

They increased my bike insurance because I put it in a garage! WTF... They couldn't even give me a reason for this, and she agreed it was a bit Irish.

[Ed]

I've just sent the following email to the Office of Fair Trading:

Dear OFT

Motor Insurance rip-offs

I write to suggest that you hold a review into the motor insurance industry. Generally it's perceived as a complete rip off, see for example this thred on a web forum that I post on:

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=160749

And if you visit any other bike forum, you'll find a lot of similar complaints.

When I renewed my bike cover, Adelaide Insurqance (Belfast) assured me that they had scoured the market and the quote was the best they could do. A few minutes on the internet and I had a quote for £50 less, I told Adelaide and surprise they could match the quote, even though the earlier quote was apparently the best they could do.

The whole thing is a statutory monopoly. No claims bonus can rarely be used on another vehicle - why??? But if you have an accident in one vehicle, eg your car, the other insurer eg bike will load the premium. Is this in the consumer interest or is it blatantly anti-competitive? Nobody understands the dark art of insurance underwriting, it seems like a complete con. All seems very cosy,

Regards

Ed Austin

[yorkie_chris]

Blame "claims4u" and a million w*nkers and the garages who look the other way getting their sheds fixed to better than pre-accident condition.

In NZ I believe they just have to buy a (slightly more expensive) road tax which covers 3rd party liability claims and is government run to prevent ambulance chasing c**ts from claiming £10k from the "bad neck" that someone got from a crash at 1mph.

[Iansv II]

Indeed

Compensation culture is to blame for all these increases unfortunately, Personal injury claims are through the roof on motor thanks to the criminal gangs faking crashes every day

[G]

Indeed

Compensation culture is to blame for all these increases unfortunately, Personal injury claims are through the roof on motor thanks to the criminal gangs faking crashes every day

Technically true, insurance companies have always made a loss on premiums, they now payout £130 in claims for every £100 in premiums if you believe the papers, but that is only a small part of it, the 'real reason' is apparently.... (drumroll)... The banks. Insurance companies usually invest people premiums getting a great rate of return to make profit, and now they don't as returns are so small on investment... Or over the past year or two even significant losses.

[andrewsmith]

Blame "claims4u" and a million w*nkers and the garages who look the other way getting their sheds fixed to better than pre-accident condition.

In NZ I believe they just have to buy a (slightly more expensive) road tax which covers 3rd party liability claims and is government run to prevent ambulance chasing c**ts from claiming £10k from the "bad neck" that someone got from a crash at 1mph.

Yep blame the ambulance chasing A***holes.

and NZ does have that on the road tax! Plus alot of other mandatory things that would stop a lot of 'Unfit to drive, but you can have a licence anyway' being allowed on the roads

[Biker Biggles]

Road policing in New Zealand is very strict,but its a low crime society too so the police have little else to do.If this was NZ I can think of certain roads in the Peak District that would be saturated with hair dryer wielding plods hiding behind every other tree.
Ooops derail over.

[Bluefish]

Just renewed ours, they said that it was going to go from about 650 last year to 1550 this year, no claim in the last year, i said it wasn't and got it for 670.

[Ed]

Just renewed ours, they said that it was going to go from about 650 last year to 1550 this year, no claim in the last year, i said it wasn't and got it for 670.

Another example of the insurance con. Glad you stuffed em.

[sloppy joe]

[QUOTE=yorkie_chris;2443895]Blame "claims4u" and a million w*nkers and the garages who look the other way getting their sheds fixed to better than pre-accident condition.
QUOTE]

True.

However, if the economy is poo, premiums go up. Insurers invest your premiums. Good economy means they can make an underwriting loss (i.e. pay out say £101 for every £100 received in premiums) but still balance out a profit from returns on the invested money. Poo economy means they need to make an underwriting profit because they can't make an investment profit. Also, big claims for things that you think may be unrelated to your bike insurance will knock the overall underwriting and insurance capacity. So premiums go up. There is an element of rip-off to some, but it is also connected to other stuff they don't have control of.

But as said earlier, it pays to shop around.

I've finished. You can all wake up now.

[yorkie_chris]

It will take far more than an excuse from the insurance industry that it's linked to investments for me to see a £3000 quote for a slow motor as anything but a rip off ;)

[Specialone]

They make money, they just get peed off when they dont make as much as they would like.

In one year i wonder how many people of a percentage make a claim on their policies???
I estimate 10%, so by my reckoning for every 1000 policies averaging £500 a pop = £500,000.
10% make a claim averaging £500-1000 per claim only equates to £100,000 at worst, they make money .

Disclaimer, i totally fabricated these figures based on my what i believe they do.

[Jordy]

They make money, they just get peed off when they dont make as much as they would like.

In one year i wonder how many people of a percentage make a claim on their policies???
I estimate 10%, so by my reckoning for every 1000 policies averaging £500 a pop = £500,000.
10% make a claim averaging £500-1000 per claim only equates to £100,000 at worst, they make money .

Disclaimer, i totally fabricated these figures based on my what i believe they do.

Agreed. But to be fair some of the accidents will be total write offs, not just £500 bumper repair jobbys. Then theres other stuff like lamposts/railings/walls/human lives to pay out for?

[ethariel]

Then of course those that really cant afford the extra 200 or 300 quid on top of the 200 to 300 rise the last couple of years just decide to help with the basic problem.

They just don't bother with insurance, sell off the good family car, biy a rust bucket for 200 quid and go drive it.

If they get nicked then its loose the car (not worth getting back), points on the licence (but you knew that and anyhow it would just make insurance cost more anyhow) and a couple of hundred as a fine....

Hang on, a couple of hundred quid as a fine? 1/10th of the quote i have seen friends get recentley.

See a pattern here?

[sloppy joe]

They make money, they just get peed off when they dont make as much as they would like.

In one year i wonder how many people of a percentage make a claim on their policies???
I estimate 10%, so by my reckoning for every 1000 policies averaging £500 a pop = £500,000.
10% make a claim averaging £500-1000 per claim only equates to £100,000 at worst, they make money .

Disclaimer, i totally fabricated these figures based on my what i believe they do.

When I used to deal with brokers and insurers, a GOOD loss ratio was in the 90% mark (i.e. paying out over 90% of what is received in premiums). Often loss ratios would run over 100% for some types of business.

Not making excuses for them, and I don't work for an insurer, just trying to provide background.

In terms of when you see those £3,500 quote from one company, and £500 from another, the ones quoting high don't want the business - its not their market, its not that they really expect someone to pay that amount. And if someone does, let me know where they live, I've got some expensive left handed screwdrivers I need to sell.

[ravingdavis]

I looked at getting a cheap £500 Polo last week just as a glorified shopping trolley and something to use for generally running around when the weather is crap and the bike garaged. I'm 22, have 1 years no claims, my license for 5 years. No accidents or claims but 3 points. Only wanted basic third party and I was quoted £1100 on go compare. 220% the value of the car? seriously?

[yorkie_chris]

It's really taking the p*ss too when people like us have another higher risk vehicle insured that actually has some performance behind it... not like you're going to drive a 50bhp shopping trolley like a c**t when you've got a bike with 500+bhp/ton at home is there.

[TSM]

Blame "claims4u" and a million w*nkers and the garages who look the other way getting their sheds fixed to better than pre-accident condition.

In NZ I believe they just have to buy a (slightly more expensive) road tax which covers 3rd party liability claims and is government run to prevent ambulance chasing c**ts from claiming £10k from the "bad neck" that someone got from a crash at 1mph.

i spoke to someone when returning from spain, they are hiking up the cost of the road tax for bikers masivley due to the added risk they have

[TSM]

I looked at getting a cheap £500 Polo last week just as a glorified shopping trolley and something to use for generally running around when the weather is crap and the bike garaged. I'm 22, have 1 years no claims, my license for 5 years. No accidents or claims but 3 points. Only wanted basic third party and I was quoted £1100 on go compare. 220% the value of the car? seriously?

yeeeouch
try direct with some insurers like Admiral as somtimes they dont seem to quote on the compare sites even though they are listed

I pay abt 900 for a A3 TDI 2005, im 28, not cheep but i do live in peckham, its all a rip off but you need to start somewhere as its never just going to drop realy low without NCBs.

[peterco]

Just to add to things.
Insurance Premium Tax is being increased by 1% to 6% from 4th January.
One of the minor increases from the buget that don't get headline news.

pete

[Owenski]

if I could hi-five this country then I would, its soooooo super freaking awsome.

[MisterTommyH]

Strange, how is it that my car insurance went up even though I got to 4 years no claims and my bike insurance has halved even though I've only reached 1 year?