Insurance tossers.

[alecstilleyedye]

co-op don’t have shareholders...

 

[mgs315]

Unless it’s cheaper than last years ...

Even then it’s best to hunt around. I’ve only recently bought my own car after years of company vehicles and got quoted £50 cheaper after a first year of no claims. A quick search using one of the money comparison sites found me an identical cover package that was over £600 cheaper.

 

[subaqua]

Even then it’s best to hunt around. I’ve only recently bought my own car after years of company vehicles and got quoted £50 cheaper after a first year of no claims. A quick search using one of the money comparison sites found me an identical cover package that was over £600 cheaper.

we did. and couldnt get anything equivalent for anywhere near. even with the marker on my insurance record from the twunt who offed me on my bicycle being disregarded. which reminds me . best served cold isnt it...

 

[Drago]

Agree with this. Some companies will not even allow you to demand non-automatic renewal which gets my goat.

IMO it should not be allowed as @Phaeton says, but to prevent people being left accidently uninsured the companies should be forced to renew at the previous years premium (and not a gimmicky penny more) in cases where they have been unable to make contact with the policy holder.

Not even that. If people aren't sharp enough to renew their policies and manage their own affairs, then tough. Im no scientificistist type bloke and I manage mine ok. It's hardly onerous. Once a year is up, the policy should end unless the punter has specifically renewed it.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Customer inertia is the name of the game to maximise profit. They offer you a loss-leader in the first year, then bump up the price come renewal time and hope that you are too busy or lazy to notice what is going on. The RAC play the same game with my car breakdown cover. Every year they try to bump up my renewal by a cheeky amount, and every year I end up ringing them up and getting the renewal done at or close to, last years price. It's a total charade, but there must be enough mugs who just renew without even checking what they are paying, to make it very profitable.
People who moan about the profit-driven nature of insurance, need to understand the history of the modern day insurance industry. It's origins lie in the development of merchant banking and bond issuance and trading. Everyone involved in providing finance and later, insuring against the risk of default on a contract or loss or a ship's cargo at sea, were not in that game out of charitable intent. They did it to earn a profit, and customers who make claims are a higher risk than those who don't.

 

[srw]

if the underwriters get it right 20% of your premium funds the operation and profit of the insurance company, the other 80% goes out in claims.

Only in motor insurance. Other classes with different typical loss ratios are available.

 

[Drago]

Oh, I wont be using RAC car jnsurance again on sheer principle. I transferred the chereished plate onto the Smart car. Updated the insurance online using their app. It was a snip, took all of 30 seconds.

And then it wouldn't let me finalise it unless I paid a £20 admin fee. Why are they charging for admin when they hadn't done any admin? I could have handled a nominal £5 feel to cover the millionth of a pence the movement of electrons in their computer server might have cost, but being charged 20 sheets and having it labelled as admin was taking the liquid waste by product.

I rang them up, asked them if the attempt at fraud was deliberate or merely due to incompetence, and they refunded me. Nevertheless, a dodgy, spurious and unjustified means of extracting cash from a long term, low risk customer. Well, not for much longer I won t be.

 

[screenman]

Of course apart from motor insuraance you could always take the risk yourself, I would rather not though.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Of course apart from motor insuraance you could always take the risk yourself, I would rather not though.

All insurance apart from car insurance which is a legal requirement is a gamble, I've lived in this house for over 35 years, I've had both buildings & contents insurance for the whole period & still do. In all that time I have only every claimed once, a leaking pipe in the loft, total cost was £350 if I had not had any insurance I would be quids in, but there is always a chance.

Car insurance is just legalised theft

 

[srw]

Car insurance is just legalised theft

Come back when a driver has caused you life changing injuries. You might have a different point of view.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Come back when a driver has caused you life changing injuries. You might have a different point of view.

We've had this discussion before, we disagree, neither of us are going to change our minds, car insurance is essential but the current way it is setup in the UK is incestuous & corrupt.

 

[nickyboy]

We've had this discussion before, we disagree, neither of us are going to change our minds, car insurance is essential but the current way it is setup in the UK is incestuous & corrupt.

Go on then, I'll bite. In what way is the UK car insurance industry incestuous and corrupt?

My take on the industry is that the pricing is extremely transparent. The benefits provided by each insurer are transparent. There are a couple of things I don't like;

The detailed targeting based on personal circumstances makes insurance less of a "blanket cover" insurance where the many pay for the few
Auto renewing and hiking premiums to existing customers is crap

 

[Gravity Aided]

I should think that insurance companies, if they want more money, should be doing more to minimize their risk. A case in point: Up until the 1930's, I don't think anyone in the States needed or had a drivers' license, until insurance companies prodded for it. Nowadays, they seem to have their head in the sand about what global warming, the opioid crisis, or many other health and welfare issues currently being neglected in the States and elsewhere are doing to their premium payouts. I realize that with catastrophes they don't actually pay out, they have reinsurance through a company like Munich RE, but their premiums to them could go up as well.

https://www.munichre.com/en/homepage/index.html

 

[mustang1]

Agree with this. Some companies will not even allow you to demand non-automatic renewal which gets my goat.

IMO it should not be allowed as @Phaeton says, but to prevent people being left accidently uninsured the companies should be forced to renew at the previous years premium (and not a gimmicky penny more) in cases where they have been unable to make contact with the policy holder.

I think they shoild renew at a discounted price if no claim has been made .

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Go on then, I'll bite. In what way is the UK car insurance industry incestuous and corrupt?

It's already been discussed at length, but there are many reasons, authorised repairs is one of the biggest, car hire is another, the prices paid for written off cars, cars written off when they are still economically viable for the customer, charges to make changes, auto renewal, cancellation fees, having to insure all cars when customers can only be driving any one car at once.