14 replies to this topic

[carts60]

So, i turned 21 yesterday and this afternoon/evening iv been fishing around for some competetive quotes for my mini. I didnt bother re-insuring my mini for a month until my bday because i thought prices would drop when i turned 21, but how wrong i was...

When i was 20, i was with Footman James on a TPTF policy, all mods declared, 6000 miles, agreed valuation of £3500 which cost me an excellent £430.

Now, they called me when my policy expired about renewing it, and was told in confidence that if i waited til i turned 21, i would save a decent amount of money because its one of the insurance milestones. 25 is the next.

I did what they said and waited until today and gave them a call.

Now, i'v had 3 years without any claims with them and the best proce they gave me was £890!! what the hell???

The only reason they gave me for this was that at 21, they no longer offer TPFT and only fully comp, which was what i asked for anyway this time around.

How on earth do they come up with these prices? Thats over double my premium of last year when i was 20 but on TPFT?

So i rang around and literally everywhere was the same, or said i was too young to insure with them.

About 3 insurers dont do under 25's and an insurer called Peter James doesnt insure under 30's?? - How do they even make any money when they exclude such a large group of people!!

So i eventually got talking to Adrian Flux after waiting for literally 25 minutes for the phone to be picked up (lucky its a free phone number). They gave me the best quote so far, of £759. I said great, but i just needed to call a couple of other companies to see if anyone else was cheaper, which was fine with them.

No-one else was close so i called back to accept the quote, and the guy on the other end asks about my no claims, which i confirm is 3 years without a claim on a classic car policy. The bloke on the other end, just goes, why didnt you tell us this earlier, that doesnt count as 3 years no claims. Well i told them this explicitly the first time around and th original guy took about 10 minutes to go and check with his boss that they could accept it as no claims, so i told him and he got all eggy saying if he hadnt realised i would have been insuring with the knowledge it was illegal and would have been fined when they found out etc etc

So i asked what the quote would be the new quote taking into account my 3 years without a claim driving. The quote rocketed to £865?

Im absolutely fuming! How dare he accuse me of trying to insure my car illegally. I clearly told the guy before about not specifically no claims and he said it was fine, so how on earth does this other fella decide its not OK?

What a ruddy plonker (i cant actually asy how im feeling right now because id most likely be banned)

Anyway, the other quotes i got were:

Lancaster insurance quoted £780
Sureterm quoted £2680?
HIC quoted £870


Can someone PLEASE give me a few companies who insure (relitively) young drivers at decent rates, because if these are the prices im being charged, its honestly going to be cheaper for me to buy and insure a new car.

My housemate has a 1.4 modded clio which costs him £900 to insure. For the extra £100 i would rather have airbags and the comfort and relative luxury of a modern car.

Thanks

Dave, quickly losing faith in the world

[Bungle]

under the data protection act you can ask for a copy of that phone call

[Zoobie]

Hi carts60 sounds like a right pain.Im just about to start looking for insurance for my son who ,fingers crossed ,will pass his test in the next coulpe of weeks,but I think Ill be getting higher quotes than you!!!!.i was just looking at your other thread about setting up a database,which is a great idea,but noticed in a reply that Alicetheauto had a quote from Footman James which was TPFT and hes aged 24,so it looks like they will quote over 21s without having to go fully comp.Might be worth another phone call

[wardyxxx]

try endsleigh

[shorty]

try flux direct, they are part of the HIC group but when i rand them up they gave me a cheaper quote than adrain flux did

[Ethel]

Your insurance broker is employed by you and is duty bound to put your interests before their own (a fiduciary duty) , if they gave you bad advice then you have a case. Of course, you'd have to prove it & I'm not sure where it would get you if you are being asked more for a different cover. It's still worth a punt though.

[Hannioli]

Insurance prices have goen up in the past year, my premium this year is about £30 higher than last year and plenty of people have told me their premiums have gone up (not just on minis).

If you're just looking for standard car insurance, have you tried the comparison sites? Find the cheapest ones on there and then call them up for a proper quote where you can give them full details.

I tried the classic and mini specialist insurers thinking ooh i've got 3 years ncb, am female, am over 21, car has alarm and is garaged, should be cheap yeah, right...they all quoted me more than £200 more than the cheapest quote from elsewhere.

[maggies_minder]

try flux direct, they are part of the HIC group but when i rand them up they gave me a cheaper quote than adrain flux did

Ditto, im with them,
they are a sister company to adrian flux and in my case were about £500 cheaper, they obviously aim for a different risk group (different insurers aim for different areas of the market)

as some have pointed out insurance is on the rise,
the average policy is £40 more expensive this year, the reason the companies give, "the number of uninsured drivers on the road".

its always worth saying to your current insurer, your leaving as you've found a cheaper quote, low and behold they can suddenly do you a cracking deal!

[Topaz]

an insurer called Peter James doesnt insure under 30's?? -

Yes they do

Running a standard 1979 998cc £5000 valuation, 6000 miles limit and have been with Footman James for 2 years since we got the car. In my name only fully comp it has been £100 a year.

Asked Footman James for a quote at Stafford in January for my son aged 19 to have the policy in his name with me as named driver and was quoted £750. Went to Peter James who also had a stand at Stafford and was quoted exactly the same. Two weeks ago the renewal papers came from Footman James and my policy had gone from £100 to £130. Phoned up to add my son as he was now 20 and been driving for 2 years. Footman James wanted nearly £900 this time - an increase of £150 but Peter James reduced their quote to £650. Agreed to that and paid over the phone so he was driving his car for the first time 5 minutes later.

Sorry to hear about your problems and I hope you get it sorted - I just wanted to correct your quote above - it must be the type of car, modifications or claims that made them decline your business

Topaz

[carts60]

Well, it seems blatent to me that insurance companies are a law unto themselves. They quote a brilliant price one minute and then change it after half an hour.

Anyway, iv eventually sorted myself out insurance, which cost me £773 fully comp, agreed valuation of £3.5k, and 5000 miles, and its with Lancaster.

Now, that was the cheapest i could find anywhere, lliterally tried all the insurance companies under the sun. Classic insurers, and normal insurers.

However, i found out a number of other frustrating things when i was phoning around yesterday trying to get it all sorted.

It turned out that the cheapest quote i could find was with Elephant.co.uk who quoted £640 which i thought was brilliant for fully comp but when i was listening to all the things that the policy offers, i wasn't happy at all.
First of all, they don't even consider offering an agreed valuation which i wasnt happy about.
And second of all, if in the event of a crash in which the car was repairable, the car would only be repaired to standard as quotes by the manufacturer. As such, they told me that any modifications made to the car wouldn't be covered, or replaced.
With a mini being such a customisable car that didnt suit me either.

HIC did exactly the same thing as Adrian Flux did to me the first time. Offered me one quote (accepting my 3 years no claims on a classic policy), then turned around the next time i called them to accept the quote, saying they couldnt accept it as no claims. Who makes these decisions?

Sureterm Direct (when i was phoning around the first time a month or so ago) quoted me a ridiculous £2300, but then dropped it to £800 yesterday. How does the premium change so much in the matter of one month?

Last thing that happened was that Lancaster said one minute that their comp policies allow you to drive other cars on a 3rd party basis, given permission. Anyway, i still needed to phone around so i said thanks and got a reference number to call them back.
Phoned around and eventually went back to them to finish it all up to find they'd changed their mind about driving other cars so that wouldnt be included in the policy anymore.

Topaz - i think if you talk to a sound person who works for an insurance company, they'll get you a good deal, accepting no claims and the like, or insuring you below a certain age, but if you talk to an ars3hole you dont get anywhere.

I tried Peter James again only to be told i was too young - AGAIN. My dad has 4 cars with them on a multi-car policy which i told them but that STILL didnt get me anywhere.

Oh, and another thing, if you've got a quote from: A)Adrian Flux B)Flux Direct C)HIC, (there are probably others too) and they ask you if you've got any quotes already, DO NOT mention you've got one from either of the other two. This is because they are all owned by a single underwriter who gives them all their prices, and as such they are not allowed to quote against one of their partner companies.

Ethel - i dont really follow what you mean. Whats worth a punt - im not taking anyone to court over getting eggy on the phone!

All in all, my main gripe is that i was quoted £620 by HIC in August for when i turned 21 to insure with them, but when i actually turned 21 (5th sept) and called them to insure, the price had risen over £250 to £890. All in the space of less than 30 days...

[Topaz]

Topaz - i think if you talk to a sound person who works for an insurance company, they'll get you a good deal, accepting no claims and the like, or insuring you below a certain age, but if you talk to an ars3hole you dont get anywhere.

I tried Peter James again only to be told i was too young - AGAIN. My dad has 4 cars with them on a multi-car policy which i told them but that STILL didnt get me anywhere.

Really confused by this and cannot understand why they processed mine only two weeks ago with a 20 year old driver and me as the second named driver. As I said earlier the first quote was £750 in January when he was 19 and the second quote was £650 now he's 20 - and he's had a claim from Direct Line when his old Escort went up in smoke and was a total wreck - they paid out a very reasonable amount in only a few days. All my children have started with Direct Line as we found them to be cheaper than all the comparison sites for young inexperienced drivers. Tried them for the Mini but the car was too old - not the driver !!

Glad you got it sorted - good luck for next year

Topaz

[carts60]

Direct Line were quite reasonable too, i found.

Yeah, im glad iv finally got insurance sorted, but it could just be so much simpler, especially with classic cars.

It cant be that hard to do a compare the (classic) market website kind of thing can it surely?

I think insurance is just hassle anyways. Its a toss up between whether the individual can be bothered to go out there for two straight days sifting through all the companies trying to find the best deals, before being told they're no longer available etc, or jut sucking up and taking the renewal quote as somewhere near competetive and paying that with no hassle at all.

Oh, and just one more thing. I i head somewhere to try and barter a bit with insurance, but having only just tried it, i won't bother again. The people on the other end of the line just end up getting annoyed because they're stuck in a dead end job anyway and you're pestering them on top.

[Ethel]

My point is they gave you bad advice when they have a duty to act in your best interests. I'm not suggesting you should take them to court - Courts are supposed to be the last resort,we're expected to try and follow the law in the first place. Tell them they've failed in their duty as your agents and ask them what they are going to do put it right.

[Topaz]

Phoned Peter James to try and understand why we got insurance and you did not. It would appear to be because of the age of the car - they will only take younger drivers on their 'Classic' policy which is for vehicles that are over 20 years old.

Topaz

[carts60]

Oh, cool, well that means i might be able to get insurance with them next year, as my minis a 91.