Car Insurance Charge

[BobbyBobBob]

Hi

I took out Car insurance with Direct Line around this time last year. My quote was £335 and I have just received a letter for next years insurance which has been valued at £447. Thats over £100 increase when I have had no accidents and no claims in the past year (touch wood). I had to change my vehicle part way through the insurance and was charged an extra £50 for that which I thought fair enough as it was a slightly bigger engine than my previous car. When I say bigger engine it was still only a 1.3.

Basically, is it right that they have charged me over an extra £100 for my insurance or should I ring them up and try to knock it down. I think its pretty unreasonable seen as though nothing has changed. I expected it to go down if anything. They haven't taken it out yet but I have had a letter saying they will when my current insurance runs out.

Many Thanks

[Nosha123]

compare the market... simples...
also - if you call up - you may find they do a better deal if they think you are going elsewhere

as a rule though - nothing seems to get cheaper in this life - only more expensive!!!

[ummmm]

Shop around....they can charge what they want but you can go else where..

[R1Geezer]

Well this seems to be the form. For my bike for example the quote I got was 40% more so I did a confused.com on it and got it down to less that last year. Oddly enough, yesterday I just got a similar quote for the car up over 40% so I'll be doing the same next week when I can be bothered. I think insurance is getting dearer but add to that the apathy factor then the insurers are starting to take the pi55. Shop round I guess.

[BertiWooster]

Ring them up and ask to be put through to their customer retention Dept .

The renewals / customer services dept, wont have any powers to reduce it by much , however the ret dept in a lot of cases will offer you a decent reduction to keep your business .

It worked recently for me , for house insurance

[boxtops]

Insurance premiums have gone up a lot since last year - worth shopping around. Bear in mind though that not all the insurance companies list on the insurance supermarket sites - we do look at others too. Our building society did a good one, and I'm with Marks & Spencer at the moment.
The costs are going up as the cost of repairs and personal liability settlements go up - they have to cover themselves somehow.

[BertiWooster]

Insurers indeed , do rely on the apathy factor .
A lot of people cant be bothered to shop around before / when renewal time comes around .

Also , have you ever wondered why insurers send out renewal invitations , only , a few weeks before renewal ? .

[sara3]

mine went up from £500 to £600 this year with Esure, with 20+ years of no claims. they said they couldn't compete with the market so offered no discounts.

I went elsewhere and saved £150.

[BobbyBobBob]

Thanks guys. Looks like I'll have to shop around.

[Skyline D]

I'm not terribly clear on why you think them having charged an extra £50 for insurance due to a change part the way through the year was fair enough but £100 extra for a full year isn't? Clearly if there was an extra charge during the year your new car is in a higher insurance group than the old one (the engine size in itself doesn't necessarily mean anything).

You have an extra year's no claim of course but you don't say how long you've been driving. If you've been driving many years an extra year will make no odds. If you've only driven for a year it ought to make a big difference. Having said that, insurance premiums do seem to be up this year generally all other things being equal.

Direct Line when they first started used to be notorious for sticking in low quotes to win business and then rapidly increasing them for subsequent years and relying on apathy to keep a large percentage fo their customers. No idea if they still do that but you certainly don't have anythnig to lose by checking with some other companies. I'd certainly go get some rival quotes before I even thoguht about phoning Direct Line back and trying to haggle. You have to be forearmed with what your alternatives are before you try to haggle.

[donna1901]

they did this to me. i have a 2.0 audi a4 and was paying around £400 , renewal was close to £600 so i told it was being cancelled and swiftcover quoted me £380 which is happy days. All insurance companies do it. I ve been driving over 10 years and never been with the same company twice.

[welshlibranr]

Direct Line did the same with me last year, I rang them and said that I wouldn't be renewing my policy, I had compared other insurers quotes before calling them, and guess what? they gave me a loyalty discount, and a few other discounts, and hey presto! instead of my premium going up by 100 pounds it went up by 23, so it's worth having a word before changing insurers!..................

[donna1901]

the way i see it is this, if they want your business they'd give a good renewal price not a over priced one. I would like the low quote at 1st as I wont haggle,i'll ring them tell them to cancel and thats it...if they ask how much i have been quoted i actually 1/2 the best quote just to try and get loads off. in 11 years of driving i've had 11 different insurance companies