insurance costs

Hugo Nebula

Active Member
Dec 7, 2007
290
0
Manchester
Hmm alot of factors go into it. Search on Internet for insurance post code areas, shows you which rating your area is and is very interesting. I know a guy who is 19 has 1 year no claims and drive a Astra VXR and pays £650 just because he's in a A rates area. It's madness.

Do you mean that's very low? Because compared to a 40+ male driving for over 20 years with no points & 2 years NCB (2no. claims in past five yrs) paying £560 for a diesel automatic hatchback it is. Last year I was paying £900+.
 

jmc1976

Active Member
Jan 8, 2013
2,364
3
wakefield, west yorks
thanks everyone for your input , I am going to have a bit of a ring round over the weekend ill post back how i get on , feel free to comment who your cover is with if you've got a good deal.
 
Jun 27, 2012
1,049
0
Belfast
Go on gocompare.com then ring the best priced quote and tell them you can get it cheaper at another company and see if they'll beat it :)
 

jonkwright

Guest
I'm a marketing manager for an insurance company, and it's incredibly interesting how it all works. Here's some general advice from my 8 years experience in the industry:

1. Some people may be able to get cheaper by calling, but 99% will not. The reality is, its cheaper for insurance companies to set up policies online, so most companies will always put their best deal through this channel. They don't actually want you to phone in as this costs them resource time and money. Also, 80% of insurance companies you speak to are not the insurer, but just a broker for the product (Asda, Kwik Fit and Pets at Home, do not know how to write and administer insurance!). The price is set by the insurer, this means that the person you're speaking to has no influence over the price. That being said, they may be able to help you flex it by changing the level of cover or what add on's you have included.

2. If you do want to call and talk to someone, my advice is call as early in the day as you can (also better earlier in the month). Typically sales teams have targets of volume (number of policies sold) not money. Volume is key in insurance as this opens up the door to cross-sell (add on's and other insurance products like home insurance), this is where insurers really make their money. Because of this you're far more likely to catch a call handler willing to work hard and help you find the right price if they haven't hit their target yet.

3. As everyone knows, insurance costs are based on your 'risk profile', but who is cheapest to buy from is based on each individual insurance underwriters appetite to risk. You need to find the insurance product which best suits your profile. As a company which is cheap for you, won't be cheap for someone else. There is no such thing as a 'cheap insurer'.

Love them or hate them, the best way to do this is the aggregators (price comparison sites). Aggregators have come such a long way in the last 7years that they're now better at matching you to a relevant product than the insurers are (we now go to the aggregators to learn about our own customers!).

My best advice for finding the best price is this:
The aggregators, but not just one. Each aggregator has a slightly different panel of insurers, so you should try a few of them. Try 3 or 4 aggregators and get the cheapest price from each, then phone Aviva and Direct Line (who aren't on aggs and only deal direct). Tell them you've already done the price comparison and wanted to see if they could better it.

Then just go with the cheapest you've found. Once you have done that, I pretty much guarantee you will not be able to find a better price for yourself.

Hope that helps people out?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

jmc1976

Active Member
Jan 8, 2013
2,364
3
wakefield, west yorks
I'm a marketing manager for an insurance company, and it's incredibly interesting how it all works. Here's some general advice from my 8 years experience in the industry:

1. Some people may be able to get cheaper by calling, but 99% will not. The reality is, its cheaper for insurance companies to set up policies online, so most companies will always put their best deal through this channel. They don't actually want you to phone in as this costs them resource time and money. Also, 80% of insurance companies you speak to are not the insurer, but just a broker for the product (Asda, Kwik Fit and Pets at Home, do not know how to write and administer insurance!). The price is set by the insurer, this means that the person you're speaking to has no influence over the price. That being said, they may be able to help you flex it by changing the level of cover or what add on's you have included.

2. If you do want to call and talk to someone, my advice is call as early in the day as you can (also better earlier in the month). Typically sales teams have targets of volume (number of policies sold) not money. Volume is key in insurance as this opens up the door to cross-sell (add on's and other insurance products like home insurance), this is where insurers really make their money. Because of this you're far more likely to catch a call handler willing to work hard and help you find the right price if they haven't hit their target yet.

3. As everyone knows, insurance costs are based on your 'risk profile', but who is cheapest to buy from is based on each individual insurance underwriters appetite to risk. You need to find the insurance product which best suits your profile. As a company which is cheap for you, won't be cheap for someone else. There is no such thing as a 'cheap insurer'.

Love them or hate them, the best way to do this is the aggregators (price comparison sites). Aggregators have come such a long way in the last 7years that they're now better at matching you to a relevant product than the insurers are (we now go to the aggregators to learn about our own customers!).

My best advice for finding the best price is this:
The aggregators, but not just one. Each aggregator has a slightly different panel of insurers, so you should try a few of them. Try 3 or 4 aggregators and get the cheapest price from each, then phone Aviva and Direct Line (who aren't on aggs and only deal direct). Tell them you've already done the price comparison and wanted to see if they could better it.

Then just go with the cheapest you've found. Once you have done that, I pretty much guarantee you will not be able to find a better price for yourself.

Hope that helps people out?

Thanks jon for taking the time to post this ,my insurance is not due till the 3rd so i will take your advice and see how i get on . Thanks
 

Noel<>leoN

Active Member
Oct 5, 2007
56
0
After reading this I checked out the difference between insuring in different areas- just picked addresses in my family as examples. Using exactly the same details on moneysupermarket (other than changing the address) I got quotes varying from £260 in Wiltshire, through £330 where I am in Oxford, to £490 in London (nearly double the lowest price). Shows how big an effect location is on premium- and I'm sure there'd be more extreme examples, these are just a few places I picked.

I'm not advocating lying about where you are for insurance, that's stupid- just providing this in case anyone else is interested.

For reference, I'm a 32 year old FR TFSI driver with intact no claims bonus, no accidents, no points etc for the last 5 years+
 

AndyG_TSi

Active Member
Nov 1, 2011
1,174
6
East Manchester
Age: 40
NCD: 11 years + (protected)
Points: 3 (caught doing 35 in a 30 zone)
Area: Manchester

Car parked on the road

Paying £800 fully comp on a 1.4Tsi Sport.

Had one claim in 2007, which went as a fault claim against me, despite it not being my fault.

Basically I had a car written off while it was parked up outside my house, as I was watching TV in the house.
My insurance paid me out, but because my insurer couldn't claim their losses back from the 3rd party (uninsured driver), the claim was deemed 'my fault' as my insurer paid me out against my policy.

So I got bent over and shafted for someone elses stupidity
 
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jmc1976

Active Member
Jan 8, 2013
2,364
3
wakefield, west yorks
Age: 40
NCD: 11 years + (protected)
Points: 3 (caught doing 35 in a 30 zone)
Area: Manchester

Car parked on the road

Paying £800 fully comp on a 1.4Tsi Sport.

Had one claim in 2007, which went as a fault claim against me, despite it not being my fault.

Basically I had a car written off while it was parked up outside my house, as I was watching TV in the house.
My insurance paid me out, but because my insurer couldn't claim their losses back from the 3rd party (uninsured driver), the claim was deemed 'my fault' as my insurer paid me out against my policy.
So I got bent over and shafted for someone elses stupidity

wow even with a claim that does seem very expensive , at least the claim should now be 5 years old so shouldn't count this year
 

jmc1976

Active Member
Jan 8, 2013
2,364
3
wakefield, west yorks
After reading this I checked out the difference between insuring in different areas- just picked addresses in my family as examples. Using exactly the same details on moneysupermarket (other than changing the address) I got quotes varying from £260 in Wiltshire, through £330 where I am in Oxford, to £490 in London (nearly double the lowest price). Shows how big an effect location is on premium- and I'm sure there'd be more extreme examples, these are just a few places I picked.

I'm not advocating lying about where you are for insurance, that's stupid- just providing this in case anyone else is interested.

For reference, I'm a 32 year old FR TFSI driver with intact no claims bonus, no accidents, no points etc for the last 5 years+

i might try this after i set up my policy and see what the difference is to an area they rate a would be interesting to see
 

AndyG_TSi

Active Member
Nov 1, 2011
1,174
6
East Manchester
wow even with a claim that does seem very expensive , at least the claim should now be 5 years old so shouldn't count this year

Yeah, the 'accident' was in Feb 2008, so the 5 years will have expired when i come to renew in December this year.

The car that was written off was an insurance group 12 rated car. (old ratings system)

I replaced it with an insurance Group 8 rated car

However, due to the claim, i didn't get the relevant reduction in premium for getting a 'lower' rated car (I replaced a Ford Puma with a Ford Focus before I got the Leon)

So I ended up with higher premiums that were over inflated for the actual insurance group.
Its the same with the Leon.

It's how you are 'punished' by the insurance company
 
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jmc1976

Active Member
Jan 8, 2013
2,364
3
wakefield, west yorks
Yeah, the 'accident' was in Feb 2008, so the 5 years will have expired when i come to renew in December this year.

The car that was written off was an insurance group 12 rated car. (old ratings system)

I replaced it with an insurance Group 8 rated car

However, due to the claim, i didn't get the relevant reduction in premium for getting a 'lower' rated car (I replaced a Ford Puma with a Ford Focus before I got the Leon)

So I ended up with higher premiums that were over inflated for the actual insurance group.
Its the same with the Leon.

It's how you are 'punished' by the insurance company

True , i have taken johnkwright advice and have got mine down quite a bit i always shopped around anyway but i never realy took much notice of the comparison sites but it has made a difference so far ,got some more to try though
 
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