GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: Watts on 15 August 2022, 15:24
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So my renewal is due at the end of the month. I'm currently using a broker and last year I renewed at £430. I've been with Direct Line in the past and have been considering going back as they were pretty good with two claims. They quoted the same last year as my renewal was yet this year, £1050!! Wtf?? Got a quote from another insurer which was £950! Any of you clever folk out there got any thoughts as to what's going on?
Had some more reasonable quotes from the Meerkats but Aviva and Axa had a lot of pretty damning reviews. Any experiences with them?
Cheers.
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My experience when looking at the "not on price comparison sites" providers has been much the same - fill out the whole form and then get the quote and wish you hadn't wasted your time!
I'm with Brentacre. Might be worth giving them a call? Have to get a quote over the phone but they have always been a pleasure to deal with, quick to answer the phone, are very mod friendly (only charge extra for power increases over a certain limit, and will cover modifications as well, like-for-like) and their renewal price has gone down each year which is a nice change compared to the usual suspects!!
No affiliation, just happy with the cover and service
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My experience when looking at the "not on price comparison sites" providers has been much the same - fill out the whole form and then get the quote and wish you hadn't wasted your time!
I'm with Brentacre. Might be worth giving them a call? Have to get a quote over the phone but they have always been a pleasure to deal with, quick to answer the phone, are very mod friendly (only charge extra for power increases over a certain limit, and will cover modifications as well, like-for-like) and their renewal price has gone down each year which is a nice change compared to the usual suspects!!
No affiliation, just happy with the cover and service
Cheers, I'll give them a call. DL were good with their quotes, it's just this year.
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Have you tried LV Watts? I’ve found them very competitive. I am in the process of renewing too and it’s £10 more than last year.
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It may be linked to this OP:
https://www.abi.org.uk/products-and-issues/topics-and-issues/important-rule-changes-to-the-pricing-of-home-and-motor-insurance/
Essentially they've clamped down on the big disparity between non savvy people that do not shop around at renewal and the price you get as a new customer.
My renewal price was very close to last year's with an insurer in the same group as DL
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I was with LV, with no change in my full no claims history, last year they told me before the renewal, they would not be able to quote on my car.
I jumped over to AA insurance for under £200 a year with protected Ncb, thanks LV! :)
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Thanks all, I'll try LV and the AA.
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Was with LV too who wanted about £330 IIRC, but got a quote from Flow Insurance with protected NCB, which is part of LV, for £254!!
Factor in the £40 Topcashback, which has payed out, makes it about £214.
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LV declined to quote, wouldn't specify why.
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LV declined to quote, wouldn't specify why.
When I called them to ask why they wouldn't renew my policy, they didn't have a direct answer, the agent suggested it might be down to a relative increase in claims for that model in the area,
Maybe more GTi insured with LV have been crashed or stolen in London postcodes than in Cornwall? :)
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Ive been with Aviva since i bought the car 3+ years ago. Renewed in December at £385.00 and they had no comment to make about the pedal box, new wheels etc.
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Had some more reasonable quotes from the Meerkats but Aviva and Axa had a lot of pretty damning reviews. Any experiences with them?
Cheers.
I have previously been insured with Aviva - no issues with them at all; I left them though because their premiums were too high. My brother was insured with them when he had a claim a few years ago - claims service was excellent and so were repairs (repairer was approved by manufacturer of the car my brother owned at the time).
I’m currently insured with LV; I renewed my policy with them in April and their premium was very competitive for me / my car and £40 less than last year. I tried getting a quote from Aviva but they wouldn’t quote because of my non OEM alloys.
Don’t overlook the fact that the only time you really get any value from your car insurance is if you’re unfortunate enough to have a claim and you need to test how good the claims service is, so although it makes no sense to pay a ridiculously high premium, don’t just go for the company quoting the cheapest price as they might be cheap for a reason - their claims service might be rubbish.
Apologies for my ramblings :grin:, but on the subject of good and bad claims service; many years ago (late 1980’s) I had another driver run into the back of my car. I was insured with Norwich Union (now Aviva) at the time and the other driver was insured (comprehensive policy) with some obscure Lloyds of London syndicate. I experienced great claims service from Norwich Union / Aviva; my car was repaired and back on the road within two weeks. No so good for the other driver though - I needed to contact them 7-8 weeks later as I was having issues recovering the amount of my excess from them, they told me their insurer still hadn’t authorised repairs to their car nearly two months after the incident! :shocked:.
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I need to renew mine in a couple of weeks.
The best I have got so far was £230 fully comp, which is pretty cheap I think as it also includes some business use (Between Different workplaces)
I think that is with Darwin , which is part of Churchill. I am 44YO, full NCD and live in Oxfordshire. 2 claims which were not my fault.
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Got £300 for the mk5 and £400 for the mk7 both over 230bhp but this is where it gets good £640 for a 1.2L tsi 100bhp Seat Leon, makes little sense.
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So my renewal is due at the end of the month. I'm currently using a broker and last year I renewed at £430. I've been with Direct Line in the past and have been considering going back as they were pretty good with two claims. They quoted the same last year as my renewal was yet this year, £1050!! Wtf?? Got a quote from another insurer which was £950! Any of you clever folk out there got any thoughts as to what's going on?
Had some more reasonable quotes from the Meerkats but Aviva and Axa had a lot of pretty damning reviews. Any experiences with them?
Cheers.
Aviva and Axa are two of the biggest insurance companies out there.... they will have a large number of complaints simply by volume. Few people ever write positive reviews of insurance companies - even if their experience is positive.
As for why its jumped.... you haven't hit a significant birthday or about to have you?
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So my renewal is due at the end of the month. I'm currently using a broker and last year I renewed at £430. I've been with Direct Line in the past and have been considering going back as they were pretty good with two claims. They quoted the same last year as my renewal was yet this year, £1050!! Wtf?? Got a quote from another insurer which was £950! Any of you clever folk out there got any thoughts as to what's going on?
Had some more reasonable quotes from the Meerkats but Aviva and Axa had a lot of pretty damning reviews. Any experiences with them?
Cheers.
Aviva and Axa are two of the biggest insurance companies out there.... they will have a large number of complaints simply by volume. Few people ever write positive reviews of insurance companies - even if their experience is positive.
As for why its jumped.... you haven't hit a significant birthday or about to have you?
I'm mid way between significant birthdays. I suspect the really high quotes were just 'we don't want your business' type quotes. Probably the car. Called the AA last night, will see what they come back with and had a call (I couldn't take) from Brentacre this morning, will get a quote later.
With the bad reviews of Aviva and Axa, I do agree that people will more likely vent than praise but the same issues kept cropping up, a recent change to level of service. Perhaps they have cut back on staff to make savings, whatever it is though, I think I'd rather look elsewhere.
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I think it's worth mentioning that Brentacre are a broker, and they have put me with Highway, which is a subsidiary of LV, whom have also been mentioned in this thread
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Need to remember that insurance is more location specific so what I pay in the North East of England will be different to someone in say Cornwall. You can't really compare prices across the country.
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I just paid miles less than last year with Direct Line... quote for renewal in post was £530 and I called them up and asked what their best price was and they immediately reduced that to £420! Always call up and never go with the main quote.
For context I am a 37 year old male, full NCB, never made a claim and live on the outskirts of Merseyside.
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I have one of of my policy's with Aviva. One of the things i liked about it was they let you change things online yourself and don't charge you an admin fee to do so.
This has let me change my car over after 6 months to one of my others and also let me add a private plate all without admin fees or painful phonecalls.
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Need to remember that insurance is more location specific so what I pay in the North East of England will be different to someone in say Cornwall. You can't really compare prices across the country.
Absolutely. I was just querying if anyone had experienced a sudden rise in renewals this year rather than specific amounts quoted. It just seemed odd what I was getting. The link posted by dfm (thanks for doing that) may have a lot to do with it. I'm with Direct Line for my house insurance and my renewal this year was less than half of last year's premium and the lowest I've paid in years, which was nice. Didn't realise they were going to try to claw it all back and then some on car insurance :rolleyes:
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I have one of of my policy's with Aviva. One of the things i liked about it was they let you change things online yourself and don't charge you an admin fee to do so.
This has let me change my car over after 6 months to one of my others and also let me add a private plate all without admin fees or painful phonecalls.
I saw that in the details, the free online amendments. That is indeed a good point and something I've previously enjoyed. All the complaints though about Aviva were in regard to dealing with claims. That is my worry.
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I was with LV, with no change in my full no claims history, last year they told me before the renewal, they would not be able to quote on my car.
I jumped over to AA insurance for under £200 a year with protected Ncb, thanks LV! :)
Bear in mind that AA insurance use a panel of insurance companies to increase their quotability and customer acquisition rates; if one insurer on the panel won’t quote, then there’s a good chance one or more others will. AA are effectively the intermediary / broker, and it’s the panel insurers who underwrite the insurance risk and handle with the claims rather than AA.
Insurance panel arrangements are fairly commonplace with car insurance - other known insurance brands that use a panels that spring to mind are Lloyds bank, M&S, John Lewis, Saga, Budget, Hastings Direct. There will be others too.
The potential downside of insurance panels is that the claims service of the individual insurance companies on the panel is likely to vary from one insurer to another, although there are probably minimum standards that each insurance company have to meet. Customer reviews may also be a little misleading as customers will be commenting on different insurance companies on the panel.
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I was with LV, with no change in my full no claims history, last year they told me before the renewal, they would not be able to quote on my car.
I jumped over to AA insurance for under £200 a year with protected Ncb, thanks LV! :)
Bear in mind that AA insurance use a panel of insurance companies to increase their quotability and customer acquisition rates; if one insurer on the panel won’t quote, then there’s a good chance one or more others will. AA are effectively the intermediary / broker, and it’s the panel insurers who underwrite the insurance risk and handle with the claims rather than AA.
Insurance panel arrangements are fairly commonplace with car insurance - other known insurance brands that use a panels that spring to mind are Lloyds bank, M&S, John Lewis, Saga, Budget, Hastings Direct. There will be others too.
The potential downside of insurance panels is that the claims service of the individual insurance companies on the panel is likely to vary from one insurer to another, although there are probably minimum standards that each insurance company have to meet. Customer reviews may also be a little misleading as customers will be commenting on different insurance companies on the panel.
Sure, it's a minefield out there!
I am not convinced that going with the highest quote neccesarily gurantees the best insurance cover either? :)
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Sure, it's a minefield out there!
I am not convinced that going with the highest quote neccesarily gurantees the best insurance cover either? :)
Absolutely! Most expensive doesn’t necessarily mean the best.
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Sure, it's a minefield out there!
I am not convinced that going with the highest quote neccesarily gurantees the best insurance cover either? :)
Absolutely! Most expensive doesn’t necessarily mean the best.
Definitely. That's what makes it so difficult.
Thanks to sjw for recommending Brentacre. Just had a good chat with them and I liked the cut of their jib. So you can add cosmetic mods at anytime for no charge. They are enthusiasts so know what you are talking about which really helps and saves misunderstandings. No compulsory excess. Not the cheapest but cheaper than my renewal. I will probably go with them.
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Thanks to sjw for recommending Brentacre. Just had a good chat with them and I liked the cut of their jib. So you can add cosmetic mods at anytime for no charge. They are enthusiasts so know what you are talking about which really helps and saves misunderstandings. No compulsory excess. Not the cheapest but cheaper than my renewal. I will probably go with them.
Glad to hear your experience matched mine. I could have renewed cheaper with Admiral this year, but they are a pain in the arse to deal with on the phone. Brentacre, like you say, are enthusiasts and quite enjoy having a chat about your car. Plus, with the exception of once when I phoned them at a lunch time, they've picked up the phone within 5 minutes, so not long on hold at all listening to their campervan message!
Should note as well that they count things like lowering the car etc as cosmetic mods, as far as I can tell. If it doesn't add power, it's free to add to your policy. And in the event of a claim they will replace the mods like-for-like, rather than other companies which will give you the standard part or try and use the mods to get out of paying! I know I said this earlier in the thread but thought I'd reiterate. The like-for-like policy is the reason they give for being slightly more expensive than some of the larger brands, but by more expensive, I'm talking <£50 in my experience. That is good enough for me to know that any mods I make will be covered.
The only downside to them that I've found (never had to make a claim, so can't comment on that) is that there are some cars that, in my case, they just flat out would not insure me on until I'd had the car at least a year, I think it was. This, I was told, included "high-power RWD cars and anything with a BMW badge". I asked about an M2 Comp and the guy basically implied that it wasn't even worth his time to check in the system, he knew it would come back no.
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Use price comparison side, get them to price match the lowest quote or leave. Also cheaper if you do it around 27 days before renewal and the price goes up a bit closer to the date you get
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I'm 60 with a Mk 7.5 GTi, living in W Mids countryside, 20k miles a year. My fully comp etc quote from LV last year was £510. This year they quoted £490, which I was pleased with. I rang them up to ask something (answered after about 2 mins, great) and the girl said she'd see if she could improve the quote - and said it can be all in for £405. So obviously I renewed and can't be bothered to get alternative quotes, especially as LV rates highly if you need to use them.
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I'm 66, 10+ NCD, live in W Sussex, with a 7.5 TCR, 5K a year mileage. I use comparison sites every year and back in January I moved to Flow fully comp for £220, inc legal cover.
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I'm 66, 10+ NCD, live in W Sussex, with a 7.5 TCR, 5K a year mileage. I use comparison sites every year and back in January I moved to Flow fully comp for £220, inc legal cover.
That's really cheap!
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I'm 66, 10+ NCD, live in W Sussex, with a 7.5 TCR, 5K a year mileage. I use comparison sites every year and back in January I moved to Flow fully comp for £220, inc legal cover.
That's really cheap!
Yes, it is. I think Flow is owned by LV and the business model for Flow is a digital, online self service type of model. It doesn’t use a call centre, so Flow’s expense overhead will presumably be lower compared to an insurer that uses a call centre, so those lower expenses can be reflected in the premium.
It’s similar to Aviva’s Quote me Happy brand which also uses a digital online only business model, and arranging insurance through Flow, Quote me Happy or similar might not suit everyone; with no call centre to take referrals, I doubt they’d insure vehicles with modifications.
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I'm 66, 10+ NCD, live in W Sussex, with a 7.5 TCR, 5K a year mileage. I use comparison sites every year and back in January I moved to Flow fully comp for £220, inc legal cover.
That's really cheap!
Yes, it is. I think Flow is owned by LV and the business model for Flow is a digital, online self service type of model. It doesn’t use a call centre, so Flow’s expense overhead will presumably be lower compared to an insurer that uses a call centre, so those lower expenses can be reflected in the premium.
It’s similar to Aviva’s Quote me Happy brand which also uses a digital online only business model, and arranging insurance through Flow, Quote me Happy or similar might not suit everyone; with no call centre to take referrals, I doubt they’d insure vehicles with modifications.
Yes, they're owned by LV. I snapped their hand off to pay when I got the quote. It was like for like against previous cover with £250 compulsory XS and I chose £0 voluntary XS. Perhaps a loss leader maybe, hoping I renew in January without noticing the inevitable uplift.
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I renewed with LV in June for £233 which was £16 more than last year. 47 years old, semi-rural North Wales, 12 years no claims, 8k miles a year, no convictions and the missus as a named driver.
LV seem like a decent company too. A number of years ago I had a car that was written off by driver insured by them, not only did they pay out 20% above book price without any quibble but they also let me keep the car which I drove for another year before finally scrapping it.
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Renewed my insurance today. I liked Brentacre but have stuck with my existing broker, A-Plan. They squeezed another £50 off the quote plus their excess was £100 less. Easy to deal with and very helpful over the phone.