Bye bye G T I...

[Jim_mk7.5]

Just got reamed for insurance though. On the comparison websites, my current insurer "quotemehappy" comes in at around £440 vs £280 paid for the Polo to November. With that in mind, was thinking that i'd have to put in about £50. They have decided that annual policy would be £632, so they want £129 off me to Nov. No reason for the huge disparity and other insurers coming in at about £380 so i'll kick quotemehappy into touch at renewal time.

Ended up with QMH for the Beemer as they were cheapest but tried to change the start date due to a slight delay getting the car and it was almost impossible to do and had to resort to a Tweet to get a response!

They really have you over a barrel with any changes mid policy, it's one of the things that makes me hate almost all insurances companies no matter what it is you are trying to insure. I was with LV for 2 years on the GTI. We moved house and it jumped up by £150 (On a £450 policy) but to be fair, we had moved closer to the city centre. I tried to argue that the risk must be lower as the car was more secure overnight and I was doing fewer miles but it's a pointless exercise.

The only company I've had a positive experience with is Hastings for my Ducati. They are the cheapest I can find and 2 years on the trot now their renewal has come in cheaper than the current year. Just renewing now and their price was even cheaper than their own price on Compare the market which never happens!

[monkeyhanger]

^ The insurance companies are going to make bumper profits this year as most drivers mileage has been slashed with COVID-19. I've only seen 1 car accident in the last 3 months, I used to see one 2 or 3 times a week. Hopefully (hugely optimistic) they'll reflect that in reasonable premiums on next renewal.

[Jim_mk7.5]

^ The insurance companies are going to make bumper profits this year as most drivers mileage has been slashed with COVID-19. I've only seen 1 car accident in the last 3 months, I used to see one 2 or 3 times a week. Hopefully (hugely optimistic) they'll reflect that in reasonable premiums on next renewal.

You'd hope there would be a lot fewer accidents but with more people come back onto the roads, some of the driving I've seen is really bad. Not picking on delivery drivers especially but lots of small old cars been driven around with almost zero driving ability. One turned in front me to pull park on my side of the road outside a pizza shop the other week when I was riding my bike up the main road. I was only doing 30 and had brake to avoid him as he did it last minute after the car in front had passed him. 

[Sootchucker]

My good friend and neighbour is an insurance assessor for one of the bigger UK car insurance companies (who shall remain nameless) and he told me a week or so ago that they were creaming it in, and their Q2 profits were the best that had ever been seen. Obviously as MH says, they have you over a barrel as unless you SORN your car, you must have insurance for it, even if over the last 4 months people have hardly used them. When I sarcastically said to him would they be lowering their premiums them, he just looked at me with a rye smile and said "what do you think"

Interestingly as well he told me that during the middle of the pandemic, due to all the body shops being closed, there were a far greater amount of customers vehicles being written off and paid out on (even though in normal times they were more than economical repair costs), due to not being able to get them repaired or get parts. He said that means a lot of his body-shops and their holding centres, will be having a lot of lightly damaged, repairable cars entering the used car market in the weeks and months to come, as Cat C or D write offs. 

[barrym381]

My good friend and neighbour is an insurance assessor for one of the bigger UK car insurance companies (who shall remain nameless) and he told me a week or so ago that they were creaming it in, and their Q2 profits were the best that had ever been seen. Obviously as MH says, they have you over a barrel as unless you SORN your car, you must have insurance for it, even if over the last 4 months people have hardly used them. When I sarcastically said to him would they be lowering their premiums them, he just looked at me with a rye smile and said "what do you think"

Interestingly as well he told me that during the middle of the pandemic, due to all the body shops being closed, there were a far greater amount of customers vehicles being written off and paid out on (even though in normal times they were more than economical repair costs), due to not being able to get them repaired or get parts. He said that means a lot of his body-shops and their holding centres, will be having a lot of lightly damaged, repairable cars entering the used car market in the weeks and months to come, as Cat C or D write offs.

Not one of the body shops I’ve worked in take anything to do with selling salvage cars they all go to the insurers preferred salvage company i.e copart  or northern salvage and I’ve seen stuff written off for the smallest of bumps it’s a cost driven business

[fredgroves]

The annoying thing with writeoffs is that the repair cost they compare to the (under) book value to make the decision includes all sorts of numbers.

If you imagine that a bodyshop is paid £2500 for a scraped plastic colour matched bumper you are living in a dream world.

The "cost" includes a massive backhander to the insurance company itself. Basically the bodyshop pays to be an insurer approved agent with every repair they do.

Which is why car insurance is so expensive.

[barrym381]

The annoying thing with writeoffs is that the repair cost they compare to the (under) book value to make the decision includes all sorts of numbers.

If you imagine that a bodyshop is paid £2500 for a scraped plastic colour matched bumper you are living in a dream world.

The "cost" includes a massive backhander to the insurance company itself. Basically the bodyshop pays to be an insurer approved agent with every repair they do.

Which is why car insurance is so expensive.

If the body shops paying the insurance company then who’s paying the body shop 

[fredgroves]

The insurer.... the fee is built into the quote and the bodyshop receives the money minus the fee which is withheld.

[SRGTD]

My good friend and neighbour is an insurance assessor for one of the bigger UK car insurance companies (who shall remain nameless) and he told me a week or so ago that they were creaming it in, and their Q2 profits were the best that had ever been seen. Obviously as MH says, they have you over a barrel as unless you SORN your car, you must have insurance for it, even if over the last 4 months people have hardly used them. When I sarcastically said to him would they be lowering their premiums them, he just looked at me with a rye smile and said "what do you think"

Even if you SORN your car, you still need to insure it (laid up cover). A SORN car is still at risk of being stolen, and there’s a legal requirement to have insurance against the risk of it causing injury or damage to third parties or their property - e.g.

• potential injury claim if someone with impaired eyesight happens to walk into a SORN car while it’s parked up
• potential property damage claim if a SORN car is parked up on a slope, the parking brake fails and the car rolls into another person’s property

On the subject of partial premium refunds for people who weren’t using their cars at the height of lockdown (like Admiral did), I have a contact in one of the major insurance companies (who shall also remain nameless) and I asked them if that company were considering following Admiral’s approach. They told me they weren’t, but ‘premium rates would increase less than normal next year‘. Yeh, and pigs might fly..............
[/list]

[monkeyhanger]

Even if you SORN your car, you still need to insure it (laid up cover). A SORN car is still at risk of being stolen, and there’s a legal requirement to have insurance against the risk of it causing injury or damage to third parties or their property - e.g.

• potential injury claim if someone with impaired eyesight happens to walk into a SORN car while it’s parked up
• potential property damage claim if a SORN car is parked up on a slope, the parking brake fails and the car rolls into another person’s property

If the car's SORNed, surely it has to be sat on private land? If it's on a public road or kerbside, it needs to be taxed. With that in mind, i'd expect insurance to be optional if you own the car (if it's leased or PCPed its not really yours and they require you to insure it) and it's on your land.

With that in mind, i'd be a bit miffed if a short sighted trespasser or burglar scaled my fence and tripped up over my car on the way to breaking into the house!