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Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: Jim_mk7.5 on 20 February 2020, 11:59
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Just wanted to get some ideas from others regarding insurance.
We sold our house last year and ended up renting and paid an extra £150 when we moved as we were 'closer to the city centre' and therefore a much higher risk - moved from parking on a drive right next to the road to a well-hidden, gated, CCTV private carpark with no visibility from the street :grin: I even said I'm driving on the same roads but half the distance so surely half the risk?!
We have now found a house to buy. It's 1.9 miles from our old house but in a different postcode. In a very desirable residential area (so estate agents say!) and was just looking at insurance quotes - it jumps from the original £480 up to £750 with the same company, LV who I've been with since I got the GTI in 2018. That's even playing around and reducing the mileage slightly from 10k to 8k. This includes business use. I'm 41 with 5 years NCD, no points or accidents.
Anyone had anything similar? Any tips or help appreciated.
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Try going on the comparison websites, all of them, because certain companies will target certain areas or postcodes and certain cars. For example I've always found LV to be very very expensive for everything. Another alternative is try your bank as mine had a special deal on car insurance for being a customer.
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I had similar in London a few years ago, I think it is down to specific postcodes, if they have had a lot of claims in that postcode in the past, it's a red flag for them, which is stupid, but I guess they don't have anything else to go on.
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IMHO,
Shop around as I believe Insurance companies are all in it together. Some companies are cheap for a few years trying to get the business & hoping for no claims, which probably happens more often that not.
Once they've had you for a couple of years and you've not claimed then of course next year you're going to claim so they'll hike the price up or they'll believe you wont shop around for a year. So they are on a winner either way.
After a couple of years the one's who were expensive won't have had much business, therefore not as many pay outs and can now afford to drop their premiums for a couple of years.
Call me a cynic but this is exactly what happened with me & Priviledge. Cheapest for 2 years then a £200 increase. 2 years later they were the cheapest again.
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Also try Aviva Jim, always seem to be fair for the GTIP and post code scenario. I've just renewed for £287 and they acknowledge the pedalbox as OK.
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Some decent prices getting quoted here I've just had my renewal through and they're after £490 - I've got 10 years NCB, we live in a nice area too. Seems a total lottery.
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We have been with Churchill for years on my wife Audi A1 Sline but decided to switch when they would not budge on a price and saved over 40% for same cover with Direct Line (the strange thing is the paperwork that came through looks 100% identical to Churchill aside from the heading name)
Have to shop around these days on everything - switching my utility provider has become a normal activity over last 10 years.
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Thanks for the input.
Try going on the comparison websites, all of them, because certain companies will target certain areas or postcodes and certain cars. For example I've always found LV to be very very expensive for everything. Another alternative is try your bank as mine had a special deal on car insurance for being a customer.
I do use the comparison sites but I know not all the companies are on there. LV are about the cheapest using Compare the market.
Will try my bank, think First Direct do offer car insurance.
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It does appear to be related to the risk at that particular postcode. My only other thought is some companies may consider you higher risk if you move house often ( I can’t remember, do these comparison sites ask how long you’ve lived at your home address?).
Either way, I’m sure you’ll do better than that with another company
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Definitely keep trying the comparison sites. It can change from week to week etc.
Insurance companies use algorithms to constantly alter their target markets and hence one year they can be the cheapest and the following year the increase is substantial.
Try Sky Insurance too as they’re a broker but have always done me well over the years.
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Its not a general risk insurance companies work on, its their own specific risk values vs a particular product of theirs.
Whilst they might start from some general postcode risk value, it is then altered by all sorts of things including their own historic losses...
So there is no such thing (these days) as a "low insurance postcode".
Try another insurer.
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It does appear to be related to the risk at that particular postcode. My only other thought is some companies may consider you higher risk if you move house often ( I can’t remember, do these comparison sites ask how long you’ve lived at your home address?).
Either way, I’m sure you’ll do better than that with another company
every insurance policy is postcode or location based then obviously what you're trying to insure. Up north and for my particular post code when I moved house my car insurance reduced by quite a lot even though I remained in exactly the same city.
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A note on renewals, DON'T leave it until last minute prices rocket as they know you need it.
Martin Lewis said do it approx 21 days beforehand
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A note on renewals, DON'T leave it until last minute prices rocket as they know you need it.
Martin Lewis said do it approx 21 days beforehand
Yes, I'd seen that was the sweet spot aswell.
I was actually jumping ahead as due to change cars in June, by the time which we should in the new house so wanted to compare current car and then see what something a bit tastier might be. At this rate though, I'll be in an UP! GTI :shocked:
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If you lived in Northern Ireland you would know about getting ripped off thankfully I’m at the age where insurance is probably as low as it will get for my gti pp 290 all in
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My mate is pretty high up in Aviva, lives down south now on £80k a year and a 30% bonus (maybe why insurance is so high!), left school with only 5 GCSEs - why did I go to uni to earn a pittance? :grin:
Anyway, he's tried to tell me about the logic but the algorithms are ridiculously complex - layers upon layers of inter meshing data, some complement each other and some are at odds with each other. Factors like if you've been involved in an accident that wasn't your fault, you are far more likely to cause an accident yourself in the following 6 weeks, then the risk falls off. If your renewal falls in that 6 weeks, expect a hike for a non fault claim that the other side fully paid up for.
Postcode lottery is a part of it. Live at a posh self contained address considered within the bounds of a city, you're more likely to have a higher premium than someone who lives on a rough council estate in a village/new town.
For me, quote me happy has been cheapest for 3 years runnin, overall, for both my car and the wifes'. She's s lot cheaper through them (driving 4 years, 4 years NCD) as part of a multicar policy. I'm marginally dearer than next cheapest through them, but overall, my loss and her gain keep us with them.
Incidentally, me with 15 years NCD and driving for 25 years, but having had 2 people hit my parked car in the last 5 years makes me just a tenner cheaper than her?!?
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Does no one use local insurance brokers any longer?? I do.
I’m with Zurich. Just renewed at 1p cheaper than last year. Yes, 1p cheaper than last year.
£259 with a £100 excess.
But I’m practically prehistoric!
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If going direct, rather than using a comparison site, maybe try going through a cashback site such as Topcashback or Quidco.
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I'm guessing all of you getting sub three hundred prices are insuring for sub average mileage.... Its a lot more expensive when you do 20k...and I'm a duffer too
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£220 I paid last year an 8k miles per year. Naturally though if you are dong 20k miles per year you're classed as more of a risk so your premium will be higher.
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Im in Sheffield Jim,(well 7ish miles out from the city centre but still Sheffield) I paid about £260 for my Gti I have just got rid of.
As a few have mentioned only about 8k miles a year tho. I have run a few quotes for the M135i I get when its ready next month and its about £320 odd so a bit dearer.
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No restriction on mileage on my policy. I can do as little or as many miles as I want 200 pound excess only
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I guess they figure you can't go far in NI 😂
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Prices quoted here makes me :sick:
I'm 36, 13 years of NCD, 18 years driving, never ever claimed or been involved in an accident and paid 760 for my GTI which was cheapest I could find and believe me I do check everywhere.
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Prices quoted here makes me :sick:
I'm 36, 13 years of NCD, 18 years driving, never ever claimed or been involved in an accident and paid 760 for my GTI which was cheapest I could find and believe me I do check everywhere.
Is that for a standard car too?
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Prices quoted here makes me :sick:
I'm 36, 13 years of NCD, 18 years driving, never ever claimed or been involved in an accident and paid 760 for my GTI which was cheapest I could find and believe me I do check everywhere.
Is that for a standard car too?
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May come down once you get over the big 50 lol guess that’s ones of the benefits
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Prices quoted here makes me :sick:
I'm 36, 13 years of NCD, 18 years driving, never ever claimed or been involved in an accident and paid 760 for my GTI which was cheapest I could find and believe me I do check everywhere.
Is that for a standard car too?
It is standard 17 plate GTi, no modifications at all.
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Which area, roughly?
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Halifax, West Yorkshire
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I guess they figure you can't go far in NI 😂
having drove in England much prefer the quieter roads over her at least you are not stuck in traffic most of the time :smiley:
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I guess they figure you can't go far in NI 😂
having drove in England much prefer the quieter roads over her at least you are not stuck in traffic most of the time :smiley:
Never driven in NI... driven in the Republic a bit. Hope your roads are less full of potholes than theirs lol Luckily it wasn't my car getting wrecked.
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May come down once you get over the big 50 lol guess that’s ones of the benefits
But it starts to go back up again when you get much older, as older people in general have slower reaction times so represent a higher risk than a younger person with faster reaction times. However, very old people also tend to drive low annual mileages and they don’t tend to be on the roads at peak times, when the risk of accidents will be higher. So, for very old drivers (I’m not there yet :grin:) that drive a low annual mileage, the loading that insurers will include in their premium calculations for a mature aged person will be offset to some extent by the discount they apply to reflect the low(er) annual mileage driven.
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I found although LV was cheap ish the windscreen cover was something like £175-200 whereas most others were £75
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Figure this one out then, I moved to a nicer area last year and was lucky I ONLY got charged an admin fee of £20 for the change...… great, until I told them it was now being kept in a garage over night instead of on the drive as was before and my premium jumped up £140!!! :shocked: (it's only £290 a year anyway!)
When I spoke to them it was actually cheaper to leave it on the street than in a nice secure garage because apparently when a car is stolen or damaged in a garage the costs of repair/replace are higher and it doesn't matter to them that the car is in a safer place!! :huh:
great algorithm!!
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I found although LV was cheap ish the windscreen cover was something like £175-200 whereas most others were £75
It’s human nature for people to focus on the premium, but quite often, if an insurer’s premium is cheaper than the competition, there’ll be a reason;
- they impose a higher excess.
- things such a a courtesy car might not included in the standard cover.
- there may be lower limits applied to some aspects of the cover provided.
Last year when I received my insurance renewal, I went onto one of the comparison sites and got some alternative insurer’s prices. Some were quite a bit cheaper, but by the time I’d adjusted things like excess levels, courtesy car provision etc. to be (as near as possible) on a like for like basis with the renewal quote my existing insurer had given me, there really wasn’t that much in it; my existing insurer was within £10 of the cheapest well known / reputable competitor’s premium, so I stayed with my existing insurer.
Figure this one out then, I moved to a nicer area last year and was lucky I ONLY got charged an admin fee of £20 for the change...… great, until I told them it was now being kept in a garage over night instead of on the drive as was before and my premium jumped up £140!!! :shocked: (it's only £290 a year anyway!)
When I spoke to them it was actually cheaper to leave it on the street than in a nice secure garage because apparently when a car is stolen or damaged in a garage the costs of repair/replace are higher and it doesn't matter to them that the car is in a safer place!! :huh:
great algorithm!!
Yes, apparently a secure garage makes it easier for a would-be perpetrator to work away on your car without being seen, so it increases the chance they’ll be successful in stealing parts off the car or getting it started and stealing it.
If a car’s parked on the street, it makes it more difficult for a would be thief to steal the keys, or with a keyless car, to intercept the key fob signal with signal amplification equipment because they don’t know which house the key fob / key is in. Parking on the street IMO would increase the risk of someone inflicting mindless, wanton damage on a car though - much easier to key a car’s paintwork when it’s parked on the street that it is if it’s locked away in a garage.
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I was interested to read this about parking, and tried changing from garage to driveway/street on a couple of the comparison sites. Made no difference to the best premium.
On an aside, do people feel protecting a long NCD is worthwhile.
My wife damaged a bumper while parking the family car last week - looks like she’s lost my 20 years NCD as the other party was unwilling to settle without insurance involvement. The NCD will drop to 4 years ( I think) at renewal. I’m pretty sure I had dropped the protection at some point as I figured it was a waste of money- you get pretty much all the discount at 4 or 5 years anyway.
I have 17 years NCD on the golf- protected. Costs about £27 to protect. Though my wife doesn’t have access to this car I think I’ll keep protected given my recent experience!
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I was interested to read this about parking, and tried changing from garage to driveway/street on a couple of the comparison sites. Made no difference to the best premium.
On an aside, do people feel protecting a long NCD is worthwhile.
My wife damaged a bumper while parking the family car last week - looks like she’s lost my 20 years NCD as the other party was unwilling to settle without insurance involvement. The NCD will drop to 4 years ( I think) at renewal. I’m pretty sure I had dropped the protection at some point as I figured it was a waste of money- you get pretty much all the discount at 4 or 5 years anyway.
I have 17 years NCD on the golf- protected. Costs about £27 to protect. Though my wife doesn’t have access to this car I think I’ll keep protected given my recent experience!
Insurers always used to base their NCD on a maximum of 5 years claim free driving, so once you’ve achieved this milestone, they don’t give you extra NCD for each additional year you remain claim free. So in your position, even though you had 20 years claim free driving, your no claims discount would most likely have been based on 5 years. Anyone who doesn’t have protected NCD, if they’re on the maximum (5 years) NCD and then have a claim, their insurer will step the NCD back - my insurer provides a table in the policy document that shows what the effect on NCD years is with and without protected NCD in the event of a claim.
I’ve got protected NCD. Not sure if it’s worth having but it doesn’t add a huge amount to the overall premium. Having protected NCD doesn’t allow you to have an unlimited number of claims and still stay on the maximum discount - there’s usually a limit of either one or two claims in the expiring period of cover; if you’re unlucky enough to exceed this claim limit, then your no claims discount reduces in the same way that it would if you didn’t have protected NCD.
It’s worth bearing in mind that if you’ve got protected NCD and then make a claim, your premium is still likely to increase at the next renewal, but probably not by as much as it would if you didn’t have protected NCD.
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I was interested to read this about parking, and tried changing from garage to driveway/street on a couple of the comparison sites. Made no difference to the best premium.
On an aside, do people feel protecting a long NCD is worthwhile.
My wife damaged a bumper while parking the family car last week - looks like she’s lost my 20 years NCD as the other party was unwilling to settle without insurance involvement. The NCD will drop to 4 years ( I think) at renewal. I’m pretty sure I had dropped the protection at some point as I figured it was a waste of money- you get pretty much all the discount at 4 or 5 years anyway.
I have 17 years NCD on the golf- protected. Costs about £27 to protect. Though my wife doesn’t have access to this car I think I’ll keep protected given my recent experience!
Insurers always used to base their NCD on a maximum of 5 years claim free driving, so once you’ve achieved this milestone, they don’t give you extra NCD for each additional year you remain claim free. So in your position, even though you had 20 years claim free driving, your no claims discount would most likely have been based on 5 years. Anyone who doesn’t have protected NCD, if they’re on the maximum (5 years) NCD and then have a claim, their insurer will step the NCD back - my insurer provides a table in the policy document that shows what the effect on NCD years is with and without protected NCD in the event of a claim.
I’ve got protected NCD. Not sure if it’s worth having but it doesn’t add a huge amount to the overall premium. Having protected NCD doesn’t allow you to have an unlimited number of claims and still stay on the maximum discount - there’s usually a limit of either one or two claims in the expiring period of cover; if you’re unlucky enough to exceed this claim limit, then your no claims discount reduces in the same way that it would if you didn’t have protected NCD.
It’s worth bearing in mind that if you’ve got protected NCD and then make a claim, your premium is still likely to increase at the next renewal, but probably not by as much as it would if you didn’t have protected NCD.
Yes, I think if something like 9 or 10 years, I would protect- as I did for many years. Beyond that, I do get the feeling it's a tactic to increase premiums- by nearly 10 percent at times. As you point out, they still take into account claims history when setting premiums even when NCD is protected, which to me would suggest that it isn't in fact a "protected no claims discount".
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Yes, I think if something like 9 or 10 years, I would protect- as I did for many years. Beyond that, I do get the feeling it's a tactic to increase premiums- by nearly 10 percent at times. As you point out, they still take into account claims history when setting premiums even when NCD is protected, which to me would suggest that it isn't in fact a "protected no claims discount".
I think the discount will still be protected after you’ve had a claim, and the premium calculation algorithms will still apply the maximum no claims discount within the premium calculation. However................there’s very likely a separate risk factor within the calculation for number of claims in the expiring period of cover, and if you’ve had a claim, then that risk factor will apply a loading to the premium.
So technically, you’ve retained your full no claims discount but insurers will have other ways and means of increasing your premium! :angry:
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Yes, I think if something like 9 or 10 years, I would protect- as I did for many years. Beyond that, I do get the feeling it's a tactic to increase premiums- by nearly 10 percent at times. As you point out, they still take into account claims history when setting premiums even when NCD is protected, which to me would suggest that it isn't in fact a "protected no claims discount".
I think the discount will still be protected after you’ve had a claim, and the premium calculation algorithms will still apply the maximum no claims discount within the premium calculation. However................there’s very likely a separate risk factor within the calculation for number of claims in the expiring period of cover, and if you’ve had a claim, then that risk factor will apply a loading to the premium.
So technically, you’ve retained your full no claims discount but insurers will have other ways and means of increasing your premium! :angry:
That was exactly my feeling. It is misrepresentation in my view. Someone should complain!
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Sorry if this has already been said but there's too many replies for me to read though
If you really want to try and get the best deal you need to try all the options. You need to try the at least the top 3 comparison sites and then try a handful of ones that aren't available on comparison sites (like direct line etc), but I've always found them to be more expensive usually. You can switch the voluntary excess on comparisons sites easily and this can vary the prices a little too. For example, when I took out my last insurance my price was strangely a couple of quid cheaper if I put £0 voluntary excess.
If you are happy/had good past experiences with your insurance company and want to stick with them, then find the cheapest quote and then contact them. You current company will more than likely price match or bring the price down as close as possible. They will want you to stay obviously.
The best time to search for new quotes is around 25 days before your insurance is due to renew as this is when prices are likely to be a little lower. As you get very close to your renewal date/the date you want to change insurance they bump up the prices a little.
Sometimes adding other named drivers to your insurance brings the price down a little but I know this is more common for younger/new drivers adding parents on etc. Still worth a try maybe.
Hope this helps
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My tip when using the comparison sites is that you need to follow the link to each quote on the insurers websites because very often you find the amazing price they are offering is not using the quote parameters you gave the comparison site. I'd like to imagine that this is purely some kind of software bug but I suspect it's not and its some fiddle, maybe paid for fiddle.
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Just to add, it’s human nature to find the cheapest price for car insurance. It’s not always the best option to go for the cheapest though; quality of the claims service is an important factor IMO should the worst happen.
Many years ago, I was the innocent victim of being rear-ended while I was taking my car to the garage for it to be serviced. Exchanged insurance details with the other driver (they were insured with some obscure Lloyd’s of London syndicate). Contacted my insurer, and got the garage to provide them with an estimate, which the insurance company approved and repairs were authorised. My car was repaired and ready for me to collect a week later. IMO that was pretty good service - both by the insurer and the repairing garage.
I had to recover my excess from the other party so my NCD could be reinstated, and had some issues doing this so resorted to using AA legal services (I didn’t have the legal expenses optional cover under my motor policy, but was a member of the AA at the time). I received a cheque for the amount of my excess from the other party for the amount of my excess, and I subsequently discovered they were still waiting for authorisation to get their car repaired - from memory, this was 5-6 weeks after the accident!
Apologies for the long-winded story, but the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ also applies to some extent to car insurance. I still shop around each year to see how my current insurer’s renewal invitation premium compares to other insurers’ prices, but I wouldn’t necessarily switch to the insurer quoting the cheapest premium.
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I'd agree not every insurer is equal but equally there is no guarantee that one with a higher premium is any better at swiftly and easily handling claims...Unfortunately.
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I'd agree not every insurer is equal but equally there is no guarantee that one with a higher premium is any better at swiftly and easily handling claims...Unfortunately.
This is partly why I left DL, my accident in Jan 2017 has never been resolved and each time I contacted them (given up now) they were either doing very little or nothing. Never had any correspondence from them or update without my contacting them. Got the impression they weren't all that interested. However in fairness, the second accident I had in the same year (neither was my fault I hasten to add) was sorted quickly without any fuss.