What is it with insurers?

maison

maison

Joined
Oct 7, 2013
Posts
6,231
Likes collected
39,633
Location
South Wales
Funster No
28,463
MH
Swift Escape Compact
Exp
Since 1988
Today was the day for the annual ring around to obtain quotes for the motorhome.

Firstly, there was over £800 difference between the lowest and highest quotes for essentially the same cover.

Secondly, I rang the Caravan and Motorhome Club Insurance line who gave me a quote which was £140 more than my renewal quote with Safeguard. When I told them this they mentioned their promise to “beat your renewal quotation by at least £25.” I gave them my renewal figure and they were immediately ready to knock £165 off their original quote. Why can’t they simply do that in the first place?

I eventually went with Comfort who quoted almost £70 less than the C&MHC’s revised quote. (y)
 
Each insurer will have a different profile of customer they would prefer to insure. If you don't fit the profile they want, they will quote you a high price just in case. If they turned round and said " we're not going to quote you because we don't like your profile..." there would be outrage, so they just quote high instead

The insurance industry works on a bait and hook model. Many people buy on price, so to compete they discount new customer quotes, with the idea that come renewal, only a proportion will shop around and they will make some of the lost profit back.

There is an argument to go flat pricing - trouble is, if you set an insurance firm to do that, I suspect you'd never win any new business and go bust.

In the end, the most important fact you highlighted about your final choice of policy, was the price. Not the Defacto rating for how well they pay out, or the level of cover, or their customer satisfaction scores, or their financial stability etc etc etc Its a very competitive market?
 
Ernesto
I accept your comment re profile fit etc but was surprised that the two “Members Clubs” ie C&CC and C&MHC were happy to accept my “profile” as a member for the last 20+ years but were among the highest initial quotes.:madder:

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maison renewed with AIB Southampton. It's the same underlying Aviva policy as comfort and they were a lot cheaper.
Worth giving them a call. Thete is a cooling off period I think on your new policy.
 
I renewed one of the cars a few weeks ago .. old insurer (Direst Line) quoted +50 % from the previous year with no changes / claims .. new insurer quoted lower than DL had the previous year. It pays to shop around !
 
Theonlysue said:
maison renewed with AIB Southampton. It's the same underlying Aviva policy as comfort and they were a lot cheaper.
Worth giving them a call. Thete is a cooling off period I think on your new policy.
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I had been with AIB for a few years prior to last renewal and the quote was higher than the year before so I rang round and the best quote was Comfort by £50 , I told AIB and they said they had given me there best price ,so went with Comfort as you say its the same underlying Aviva policy

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The difference was about £500 from the big clubs and comfort. You only know how good insurance/service is when you need to make a claim. I have returned to Directline for the car/house/travel recently because I have found the quotes competitive and the once I needed to claim when some kind person stole my 2 year old, just paid for car they were really great helpful and efficient. I am keeping my finger crossed that I will not need their services.....
 
Another vote for AIB. Been with them for five years... and have 3 vehicles with them (y)
 
maison said:
Would you like to give a reason Jim?
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Just personal. No reason that should stop anyone else using them.

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

No discount with Comfort insurance by being a member of this group!

I just had a good quote from Comfort for my new MH, and asked about the discount for being in this group as mentioned by other members. (5%) Bailey (the assistant) reeled off a list of at least 6 clubs that were eligible, but stated repeatedly that this was not one of them. Perhaps things have...
www.motorhomefun.co.uk www.motorhomefun.co.uk
 
I have been insuring my beloved Cavalier with Churchill for over 20 years. Last year paid £189.
I knew it would need some work for the MOT so transferred over to an Audi A3 57 plate.
That was a couple of weeks ago, insurance is due 23rd Feb and quote in post today was £361.76 o_O
Went online, £252, rang, and it has been accepted as the new price, hold on she said, I can make that £202.72.
That's a saving of £170.96 !!!! A drop of 44% for making a 'phone call and I used the 0800 number instead of 0345 as well.

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I got a quote from a insurance company for having my MH stored on the drive at home, then when I said when not in long period of use I'd store it in my local Army Camp where I work they added £120 to the quote! Must be the armed guards, CCTV, patrol dogs, Infra red senors and live on site caretakers and guard force that makes it so insecure!
 
Sianna said:
I got a quote from a insurance company for having my MH stored on the drive at home, then when I said when not in long period of use I'd store it in my local Army Camp where I work they added £120 to the quote! Must be the armed guards, CCTV, patrol dogs, Infra red senors and live on site caretakers and guard force that makes it so insecure!
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No of course not! It's because anything identifiably connected to the Armed Forces, attracts 'dodgy' types intent on committing crimes. Thereby automatically considered a higher risk address than eg 23 Railway Cuttings.
 
trophychap said:
No of course not! It's because anything identifiably connected to the Armed Forces, attracts 'dodgy' types intent on committing crimes. Thereby automatically considered a higher risk address than eg 23 Railway Cuttings.
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Did Tony Hancock have a Motorhome ::bigsmile:
 
Why do most people just go for the lowest premium? There are some underwriters who I wouldn't trust with anything, let alone a high value motorhome. Look at Staveley head and the poor rated underwriters they used. There were financial warnings online for a couple of years yet people still took out policies.
 
Well - even if he had which seems doubtful to me, unless it was a converted eg Commer possibly - Devon etc didn't start converting VWs until the 1960s, ish -he'd most likely have had to park it elsewhere as I doubt a street called Railway Cuttings would have had a great deal of parking, if any! So maybe he'd have been more sympathetic?

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I do wonder how insurance companies calculate their pricing. When we picked up our new Rapido a couple of weeks ago it came with 14 days free insurance from Caravan Guard, but as part of this they quote you for a year's cover.......with an annual premium of £1365 :whatthe:

Called up Comfort to change our policy from the Bailey (worth about £30k, annual premium £296) to the Rapido (just over 60k) - no extra premium required (y) just had to pay the admin fee of £20 for a policy amendment, but that's to be expected. How can Caravan Guard justify charging more than £1k more? The mind boggles.
 
Son No.2 discovered something whilst applying for Insurance and in this case could probably apply to motorhomes.

He bought a car when he arrived back in the country.

Instead of ringing for immediate cover, he bought 'Specific Time' insurance in order to get the car home. (I didn't know but you can buy, '2 hour insurance)
He then rang around the Co.s for his annual cover but, instead of asking for cover to start, 'Tomorrow', he asked for it to start in a fortnight. The difference was astounding.
Apparently Ins. Co.s have been stung too many times by peeps taking out immediate cover when in actuality the accident has already occured.

By insuring the car from a time, say in a week/fortnights time, the price came down remarkably.
 
All my insurances are higher because I live within a military camp, car & van higher, life higher apparently it’s because of the amount of accidents reported from within the military, load of cobblers me thinks.
Locked inside a building that I alone have access to as well.
 
Ironside said:
Locked inside a building that I alone have access to as well.
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But your insurance company will not know that. It will be under the general post code of the camp, that as you advise is an otherwise higher risk.
 
Looking into next year's insurance at moment, currently with Comfort. Their renewal premium has gone up by £30. Contacted AIB and they are £40 cheaper than Comfort with same underwriters, Aviva

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I just had my renewal in from Sureguard Insurance and the price has gone up by .......... drum roll.......a crazy 43%!

What planet are they on??

I called them and they said.....”Ah.....not sure why the increase is so big.....but that’s the best we can do”.

I’ve done a few quick comparisons and I can probably get the same cover for circa £350 vs the £600 that Sureguard wanted.

Any top tips and suggestions for good cover at a good price?
 
ShaKen said:
I just had my renewal in from Sureguard Insurance and the price has gone up by .......... drum roll.......a crazy 43%!

What planet are they on??

I called them and they said.....”Ah.....not sure why the increase is so big.....but that’s the best we can do”.

I’ve done a few quick comparisons and I can probably get the same cover for circa £350 vs the £600 that Sureguard wanted.

Any top tips and suggestions for good cover at a good price?
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Yes.

Whatever company you are currently with ring around. The likelihood is that you will get a much better quote. Then you can argue with your current company or leave.

It shouldn’t be like that but, unfortunately,it is.
 
I asked Safeguard for a quote just today initially it was £1371 their alternative company wouldn't even quote without a Thatcham tracker fitted. Back to Comfort then and around £400.
I wanted 10K mileage up from 8k and they want a further £40+ for the extra 2K miles.
 
ShaKen said:
I just had my renewal in from Sureguard Insurance and the price has gone up by .......... drum roll.......a crazy 43%!

What planet are they on??

I called them and they said.....”Ah.....not sure why the increase is so big.....but that’s the best we can do”.

I’ve done a few quick comparisons and I can probably get the same cover for circa £350 vs the £600 that Sureguard wanted.

Any top tips and suggestions for good cover at a good price?
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Did the same to me, I got a much better deal from caravanguard
 
Stealaway said:
I asked Safeguard for a quote just today initially it was £1371 their alternative company wouldn't even quote without a Thatcham tracker fitted. Back to Comfort then and around £400.
I wanted 10K mileage up from 8k and they want a further £40+ for the extra 2K miles.
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Weird because comfort want £1785 per year for my van with 10000 limited mileage maximum of 90 days in europe and only £1500 glass cover....and no breakdown

For £620 safeguard gives me 365 continuous european cover , breakdown home and europe wide , unlimited Miles and unlimited glass.

They replaced my windscreen last November at £1590 so 2 years insurance already covered

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