GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: king monkey on 18 July 2020, 13:04
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Hi,
Anyone noticed a huge jump in premiums this year?
I was paying £350 for my R. Quotes now starting from £500 With most sitting around £900.
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I've yet to have that nugget of joy in my life this year. The only positive I've got is that an accident I had three years ago this year got changed from partial to no fault so that should at least help. You'd have thought with so few people being out the risk would've gone down. I shall definitely reduce my insured miles this year, it all helps.
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Greedy Bastards.
I used to see an accident every other day before lickdown, it's about 2 a month since lickdown for me. They must be saving a fortune on claims.
Perhaps everyone is reducing their mileage to save and they're counteracting that?
Perhaps some have been needing to renew during lockdown and SORNed their cars instead and didn't bother to renew?
Maybe they've had a taste of record profits with 3 months of hugely reduced vehicular activity and want to keep that going by hiking insurance?
Hopefully if there's absolutely no justifiable reason for it, an ombudsnan or the Government will step in
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https://uk.motor1.com/news/431271/10m-drivers-insurance-increase-lockdown/
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https://uk.motor1.com/news/431271/10m-drivers-insurance-increase-lockdown/
So basically the 4 amazing months they've had are a gift and they anticipate fewer people risking the bus/metro/tube to get to work.
I do think a lot of companies will have realised that working from home needn't affect productivity and a fair few people (like myself) who've worked right through from home will continue to work from home for a high proportion of the week
With that in mind, I don't think we'll see a huge rise in road traffic. If people were getting public transport to work before, it'll be mostly due to cost. Asking people to stump up for a car and all the running costs when they couldn't or wouldn't do so before is a big ask.
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Greedy Bastards.
I used to see an accident every other day before lickdown, it's about 2 a month since lickdown for me. They must be saving a fortune on claims.
Perhaps everyone is reducing their mileage to save and they're counteracting that?
Perhaps some have been needing to renew during lockdown and SORNed their cars instead and didn't bother to renew?
Maybe they've had a taste of record profits with 3 months of hugely reduced vehicular activity and want to keep that going by hiking insurance?
Hopefully if there's absolutely no justifiable reason for it, an ombudsnan or the Government will step in
What’s Lickdown ??!!
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Using public transport isn't always about whether people can afford to own a car, it is also about convenience. Many railway station car parks and park & ride car parks prior to lockdown were often full during Mon to Fri. These are people that already own a car but still made use of public transport. At the moment convenience is not the biggest priority for most people, they are putting health and safety first. Roads are getting busier by the week, even though some lockdown measures are still in place. Boris's recent return to work message will only increase traffic from where it is now.
Also most insurance companies don't only offer car insurance. They also do travel insurance, health insurance, business insurance etc. It may be a case of having to pass some losses in certain areas of their business onto others. Have a look at the share price graphs for most of the major insurance companies and see how much of a gift the last four months has actually been.
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Using public transport isn't always about whether people can afford to own a car, it is also about convenience. Many railway station car parks and park & ride car parks prior to lockdown were often full during Mon to Fri. These are people that already own a car but still made use of public transport. At the moment convenience is not the biggest priority for most people, they are putting health and safety first. Roads are getting busier by the week, even though some lockdown measures are still in place. Boris's recent return to work message will only increase traffic from where it is now.
Also most insurance companies don't only offer car insurance. They also do travel insurance, health insurance, business insurance etc. It may be a case of having to pass some losses in certain areas of their business onto others. Have a look at the share price graphs for most of the major insurance companies and see how much of a gift the last four months has actually been.
Also, I dare say insurance companies look at more than just the last three-four month period when they review their car insurance portfolio and set their premium rates. I seem to remember that certain parts of the UK have been badly affected by some quite extreme weather (heavy rain and flooding) during the last 12 months. There’ll have been lots of cars irreparably damaged by flood water that will have been automatically written off. Incidents such as this could actually mean insurance companies see an increase in their claims costs for the last 12 months compared to previous years, even in spite of less ‘road activity’ because of the lockdown.
On lockdown specifically, although there should have been fewer accident related claims because people will have been driving their cars less during lockdown, the frequency of some types of claims may have actually increased - malicious damage claims (cars being keyed and dented while parked up and not being used). The incidence of theft claims might also have been on the increase during lockdown as some less honest sectors of the community fall on hard times and look for a quick and easy way to ‘earn’ a dishonest pound or two :shocked:; they may see car theft might as one such way they achieve this.
I’m not defending the insurance industry, nor do I have an affiliation with any insurance company. I also hate it when my premium increases for no apparent reason. Just saying that there will be a number of factors that could affect why premiums increase. It always pays to shop around at renewal, and never ever let your insurance auto-renew as there’s likely to be another insurance company out there offering a better price.
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there was an admission of sorts that car insurers would be in clover due to lockdown lack of car usage - Admiral giving all their customers £25.
Speculating about incidents like keying possibly going up...have you any basis for that? If your car is staying at home because you are (lockdown), chances are it's on your driveway or right outside your house. Fewer people wandering the streets (because of lockdown) with the opportunity to have a go at your car without getting caught are much lower. How many people would claim on their insurance and risk losing NCD unless someone has keyed 3 or more panels?
Far more people working from home or off through furlough gives far fewer opportunities for burglary, bringing down house insurance liabilities, lack of opportunity to travel is a boon for those travel insurance providers too (I have an annual policy that is likely to have had 6 days coverage for actual foreign travel before it runs out as our holiday this year was cancelled).
I can only imagine life insurance and private health insurance for COVID-19 vulnerable individuals being more likely to pay out.
A mate of mine is reasonably high up at Aviva and his annual bonus is bigger than my salary most years. He's expecting his bonus to be up 40% this year.
There's some serious price gouging going on for car insurance right now and those insurers don't seem to have a justifiable cause.
Obviously, shopping around is as important as ever because loyalty pays nothing these days.
I've felt the effects of recent price gouging. Swapping my Polo GTI+ for an A4 Avant saw me need to pay an additional £130ish out for the last 5 months of my annual policy with "quote me happy". Their justification was that the A4 would attract an annual premium of £619 vs £320 for the Polo. I did a fresh quote for the A4 and "quote me happy" came in at £414 for the year. Not quite worth binning current policy and starting again, clearly they took the piss. Based on that £414 quote, I was expecting to pay an extra £50-60 for the remainder of my policy.
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Good to hear other people’s stories. It’s obviously an issue at the moment.
I hadn’t thought about the reduced cars on the road and the impact that would have on insurance company profits. Sounds like nothing but the usual case of pure greed as expected. Super.
A nugget of joy made me laugh at least. :grin:
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@monkeyhanger; Yes, it’s speculation on my part - I did say incidences of vandalism and theft may increase - not that they would. Just throwing some possibles out there that might account for or contribute to increases in premium levels - and also that other non-lockdown factors such as winter floods may have influenced insurers rating actions as well.
At the end of the day, insurance companies are in business to make money and deliver profits for their members or their shareholders (and - so it seems from what you’ve said - if it’s Aviva, to meet the bonus expectations of their senior managers / directors :huh:), so they’ll continue to increase premiums year on year whether we like it or not. For anyone who’s unhappy with premium their current insurer is asking for at renewal, then they’re free to vote with their feet and shop the market via price comparison websites or even use the services of a traditional insurance broker to get a better (cheaper) premium.
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Read a report a few weeks back that insurance companies have pocketed £1bn over the last 4 months due to the reduction in insurance claims during lockdown. It's obvious that same companies are manipulating data to justify increases, they will always find some excuse to increase your premium. Always shop around because loyalty is a dirty word to these parasites.
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Read a report a few weeks back that insurance companies have pocketed £1bn over the last 4 months due to the reduction in insurance claims during lockdown. It's obvious that same companies are manipulating data to justify increases, they will always find some excuse to increase your premium. Always shop around because loyalty is a dirty word to these parasites.
The worry is that the insurance companies and their share holders get normalised to this level of income, rather than seeing it as a one time windfall.
Hopefully if their profit levels do step up significantly, the government (or the EU, before we leave properly) or an ombudsman will take them to task on the matter.
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Read a report a few weeks back that insurance companies have pocketed £1bn over the last 4 months due to the reduction in insurance claims during lockdown. It's obvious that same companies are manipulating data to justify increases, they will always find some excuse to increase your premium. Always shop around because loyalty is a dirty word to these parasites.
The worry is that the insurance companies and their share holders get normalised to this level of income, rather than seeing it as a one time windfall.
Hopefully if their profit levels do step up significantly, the government (or the EU, before we leave properly) or an ombudsman will take them to task on the matter.
In fairness to shareholders, most of them have had NO income this year. The BoE has already seen to that
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52214789?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cdl8n2edxj7t/aviva&link_location=live-reporting-story
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Read a report a few weeks back that insurance companies have pocketed £1bn over the last 4 months due to the reduction in insurance claims during lockdown. It's obvious that same companies are manipulating data to justify increases, they will always find some excuse to increase your premium. Always shop around because loyalty is a dirty word to these parasites.
The worry is that the insurance companies and their share holders get normalised to this level of income, rather than seeing it as a one time windfall.
Hopefully if their profit levels do step up significantly, the government (or the EU, before we leave properly) or an ombudsman will take them to task on the matter.
In fairness to shareholders, most of them have had NO income this year. The BoE has already seen to that
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52214789?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cdl8n2edxj7t/aviva&link_location=live-reporting-story
They'll get double next year if there are no unforeseen knock-ons. I think that the government/BoE just wanted to avoid the insurance companies paying out on dividends and then pleading poverty and potentially sticking its hands in the Governments pockets by furloughing staff and scoring for 80% of their wage bill from the government in the short term when they're financially stable.
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Withholding dividend payments is to retain capital and protect their solvency from unknown risks that lie ahead. That's not the same as being 'in clover'.
As i'm sure you know, insurance premiums aren't simply set based on what was paid out in the last year, they also look ahead to potential risks in the next 12 months. It cannot be straightforward identifying risk in an unprecedented situation.
Insurance companies have already said they have seen increases in claims from business interruption and travel policies. Not everyone buys their travel policy annually, they are often bought at the time a holiday is booked. No bookings = less policy sales. So i don't buy your argument that insurers are doing well out of travel insurance.
Fortunately most insurance companies are run prudently, as modern regulations dictate that they must be. As we saw back in 2008, nobody benefits from financial institutions that overstretch themselves. Hence they will probably cope better with this crisis than they did in the last one. But even if shareholders do get 'double next year', that still only puts them back to square one.
Is your mate at Aviva a senior manager? If so i hope he wasn't counting on that big bonus
https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/breaking-news/aviva-reveals-pay-freeze-for-bosses-219918.aspx
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Withholding dividend payments is to retain capital and protect their solvency from unknown risks that lie ahead. That's not the same as being 'in clover'.
As i'm sure you know, insurance premiums aren't simply set based on what was paid out in the last year, they also look ahead to potential risks in the next 12 months. It cannot be straightforward identifying risk in an unprecedented situation.
Insurance companies have already said they have seen increases in claims from business interruption and travel policies. Not everyone buys their travel policy annually, they are often bought at the time a holiday is booked. No bookings = less policy sales. So i don't buy your argument that insurers are doing well out of travel insurance.
Fortunately most insurance companies are run prudently, as modern regulations dictate that they must be. As we saw back in 2008, nobody benefits from financial institutions that overstretch themselves. Hence they will probably cope better with this crisis than they did in the last one. But even if shareholders do get 'double next year', that still only puts them back to square one.
Is your mate at Aviva a senior manager? If so i hope he wasn't counting on that big bonus
https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/breaking-news/aviva-reveals-pay-freeze-for-bosses-219918.aspx
I would say he's upper middle management on site (not company wide) and on about £85k plus a bonus that generally approaches 50% of this salary. Not bad for someone who never went to college/Uni (I went and got a Chemistry degree instead, what a mug!).
The renumeration he's on for the level he's at would be ridiculous in almost any other industry. Still don't think insurance companies are raking it on to support wages like that?
If he misses out on his bonus this year, he'll have to retire at 56 instead of 55, what a hardship for Nige! He puts the full £40k allowance into his pension fund every year.
With all that money, you'd think he'd be first to buy a round when he usually pulls in more from his bonus than his mates earn all in? :grin:
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Just had my renewal and it's come in at only a £4 increase. First time in living memory the renewal is actually sensible and I might renew with the same insurer (I also ran a comparison site search and renewal was cheaper than the comparison site).
A-Plan insurance broker. I think they said generally increases were 12% in the industry but they'd managed to keep cost increases down with their underwriter
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Just received my renewal through from LV and the increase equates to 4% so very happy after reading the recent posts.
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I've just changed over insurance to new TCR for Wednesday and had to pay £17.91 on top of the £200 odd quid I paid back in March.
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I've just changed over insurance to new TCR for Wednesday and had to pay £17.91 on top of the £200 odd quid I paid back in March.
At last! Hope the handover goes well :smiley:
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I've just changed over insurance to new TCR for Wednesday and had to pay £17.91 on top of the £200 odd quid I paid back in March.
It's actually at the dealership?
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I've just changed over insurance to new TCR for Wednesday and had to pay £17.91 on top of the £200 odd quid I paid back in March.
It's actually at the dealership?
was delivered on Friday, picking up Wednesday.
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I've just changed over insurance to new TCR for Wednesday and had to pay £17.91 on top of the £200 odd quid I paid back in March.
At last! Hope the handover goes well :smiley:
cheers, so do I 👍
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Well hallelujah.
After the long wait you've had, hopefully everything is as it should be :smiley:
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Well hallelujah.
After the long wait you've had, hopefully everything is as it should be :smiley:
👍👍
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Renewed my insurance on the GTI, right at the end of May with Direct Line, and to be fair it had only increased by £12 from last year. Went on the usual comparison websites and TBH there was nothing in it like for like (certainly not enough to get me to change).
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I've just changed over insurance to new TCR for Wednesday and had to pay £17.91 on top of the £200 odd quid I paid back in March.
Really pleased for you. Fantastic news that you finally get that TCR. Enjoy!!
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I've just changed over insurance to new TCR for Wednesday and had to pay £17.91 on top of the £200 odd quid I paid back in March.
It's actually at the dealership?
was delivered on Friday, picking up Wednesday.
NIIICE! when is it going into DDB? our two could be in there together.
I'm looking at paying an extra 100-150 quid on the quote I had back in April. and the dealership/DVLA have been super slow at registering the car so the REG doesn't come up as valid for me to get it insured
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I just put the registration in and then the car details and went through the screens on my insurer. They know it's a brand new car from the date of change I've said. I even did it twice to make sure I hadn't made a mistake :grin:
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Think I might have sorted mine now for £400. Honestly no competitive quotes at all. Nightmare this year.
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£400 to insure an R doesn't seem too bad to me. I pay that for my GTD! That said, I do pay for quite a few add-ons. Not all insurance is equal.
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£400 to insure an R doesn't seem too bad to me. I pay that for my GTD! That said, I do pay for quite a few add-ons. Not all insurance is equal.
My R was £11 a year cheaper to insure than my GTD, with the same insurer.
For some people, the GTD is the quicker car - you can completely rag it and still get 40mpg whereas some people will nurse an R to get 32mpg.
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£400 to insure an R doesn't seem too bad to me. I pay that for my GTD! That said, I do pay for quite a few add-ons. Not all insurance is equal.
My R was £11 a year cheaper to insure than my GTD, with the same insurer.
For some people, the GTD is the quicker car - you can completely rag it and still get 40mpg whereas some people will nurse an R to get 32mpg.
That may well be true, although i'd expect the R to be more attractive to the light-fingered brigade. And they won't care about nursing it to get 32mpg.
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£400 to insure an R doesn't seem too bad to me. I pay that for my GTD! That said, I do pay for quite a few add-ons. Not all insurance is equal.
My R was £11 a year cheaper to insure than my GTD, with the same insurer.
For some people, the GTD is the quicker car - you can completely rag it and still get 40mpg whereas some people will nurse an R to get 32mpg.
I’m not complaining at £400 but normally there’s a few similar offers. Not this time though. Insurance includes courtesy car, legal cover, no claims protection, 9k miles per year but £500 compulsory excess.
The GTD is definitely the quicker car. :laugh:
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Pleasantly surprised only a jump of 10quid from last year 325 with 200quid voluntary excess
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No pleasant surprises for me so far, mine is due at the end of the month and quotes so far are pretty high, about double in 5 years. Haven't had my renewal yet, a phone conversation on that will be had tomorrow.
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As a retired insurance broker, I try to keep off comments about insurance. However, I noticed today that Direct Line are granting a special dividend to investors due to the reduced claims exposure resulting from Covid.
This won’t be the last such action from motor insurers. I find it utterly reprehensible that the pain is shared by the punters and the cream is shared by the fat cats.
There, Ive broken my own omertà and gone and done it!
Two other things....I still use a local broker to get me the best deal and echoing an earlier post “ not all insurance is the same”.
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Just had my renewal quote in from LV, up from £582 to £627. I know that the stage 1 remap and suspension changes to the car put the premium up by around £100. This is based on 15000 miles a year and covers it for business as well as SDP. I also get Euro cover on it so good value as far as I am concerned even if the rise is more than I would like. Having said that the premium actually went down the previous year so if I average the rise in insurance over the life of the car then not a big change. I've been with the same insurer for a few years now as no one has gotten close for me on like for like cover with modifications even though I do always check on renewal.
In reality the cost is going to go down for me this year as there will be no way that I am doing 15000 a year anymore. So lowering the miles to 9000 a year and putting a £100 voluntary excess on it (£400 total excess) has got the cost down to £520 a year for me. Would have been £565 without lowering the excess. I generally don't crash my cars so happy with upping this slightly.
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Finalised negotiations now, existing insurer (via a broker) started off at £180 increase on last year (admittedly I did change my car half way through) but after a few minor adjustments and some other quotes being considered I'm at £536, about £60 up on last year. In 2015 when I bought my PP it was around £300....
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Well it's that time of year again. LV who used to be fairly mod friendly have upped my quote to over £600... however, Esure who didn't use to be mod friendly have covered me for £430 including business use and euro cover and a lower excess. Fairly happy with that.
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Renewal quote in today 315all in including business use snapped it up as soon as I could AXA insurance
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Mine doesn't renew for a while. But last year they tried to put mine up £100 as I change4d from a Fiesta ST to the GTi. Called them up, the helpful woman put my details through as a new quote, said it would be £50 cheaper. So technically saved myself £150 for a quick 10 min phone call. Always check comparison website and get them to price match or leave
Also, best quotes usually come in around 28 day before renewal. I did that last year and checked again a couple of weeks later. It certainly does go up!
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Definitely, Esure mailed me with a £400 renewal quote. After a quick call I got it for £280 including declaring the mods I'm planning in the coming year.
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Mine is due shortly. On the upward trend now because of age! so dreading the quote for the two cars. Any insurers more age friendly than others?
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I just renewed mine last Friday, using the classic 21 days in advance saving method
I've got a 2018 7.5 R wagon with Revo stg1 / Revo Intake / Eibach springs & spacers = £359 inc total loss from Adrian Flux.
I had got it down to £324 with Admiral but that didn't inc total loss/Gap which was £100 extra.
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Just renewed mine - £220.
46 year old, with 3 points - 2019 GTI PP, no mods.
The caveat being my annual mileage pre-Covid was 12k (mostly commuting) but is now a mere 3k.