Tips to reduce your motor insurance premium

[bennhoughton]

1. If you are Third Party Fire and Theft - get a quote for Comprehensive cover - these policies are sometimes cheaper
2. Try adding your Spouse to the policy - insurers give discounts for Insured and Spouse Drivers
3. Estimate at a lower mileage per annum - obviously if you are going to go over it you will be obliged to tell your insurer when you get close to the declared limit
4. Shop around at renewal - however, always be careful of excesses and cover offered - generally you get what you pay for - the same applies to an insurance policy
5. If you are prepared to pay a slightly higher voluntary excess, you will get a small discount off your premium, but have to pay more in the event of a claim
6. As the very last available option....get a smaller engined car!

[daffy654]

Thanks for the tips Benn.
It is nice to see that you weren't put off posting on answerbank after some people thought you were up to no good last week. :)

[bennhoughton]

no probs daffy. i dont suppose you know if it is possible to change your username on here do you?

[bednobs]

you can just sign up using a new email address with a new name, or emAIL THE eDITOR and ask

[dotty.]

or, like I did, tell your broker how much you wan to spend and they will sell you a policy that costs that much

[Dris]

psst daffy -in fairness (to me anyway) there was a spate of advertisers that day and i wasnt once rude to benn as he will acknowledge that.
Have a pressing huge insurance issue but dont know if benn will give me duff gen now -its a complicated one.....benn?

[bennhoughton]

feel free to ask Dris and i shall do my best to advise accordingly...

[gingejbee]

And when you get a renewal premium ( even if it's quite good - mine was LESS than last year), ring them up and tell them that they're not competitive enough. More Than gave me a 15% reduction, using this tactic.

[Dris]

Bear with me -i'll try to do chronoligical :)
Chimney stack fell off flat we bought for daughter during a storm (crucial) in Jan 09.
Contacted insurance company (begins with Z)
In the interim Council advised that it was subject to a Dangerous Buildings Act -on public throughfare-central.
Advised Ins company and sent letter.
Phoned constantly as Council were getting impatient and had taken over the scaffolding which Laura Ashleys Insurers had erected (the chimney fell into their storeroom)
Eventually 5mths later they assigned a Loss Adjustor.He contacted me and told me he was the previous Loss Adjustor for when upstairs had a burst pipe (old claim).
Advised Ins Co.
Eventually after more letters from Council and forwarded they sent another Loss adjustor out in Oct 09 by which time Council had tendered the job and started work.Ins Co knew this.
I phoned constanly and eventually it was discovered that they hadnt closed the 'burst pipe' claim off and hadnt opened a new one.That was July 10
I then got the invoice from the Council 9.5k in Oct 10
I have sent all letters received to both Loss Adj and Ins Co on several occasions Recorded.
Only when I was threatened with Court Action did they start paying attention.The previous Loss Adj who had never had a site visit left 9mths ago.Another failing.
They are saying they have to start afresh
I met Loss Adj last Wed and all he could do was photo the fait accompli.
Now awaiting my fate.
Thats very condensed-what a debacle -all down to incompetance and no communication.
What recourse do you reckon or next stage if there is one?

[Dris]

Had to submit as I was running out of characters.
What a disaster and I only have one piece of corres from them from Oct 09 -by then more damage had occurrred.Other Ins Co's are involved but only becaise the Landlords only contacted them when they got the invoice so they can deal themselves.I contacted immediately.
I know its seems a bit jumbled but its 2yrs worth of a big claim -hard to condense.Hope you can advise and I wont imply youre a charlatan again ever :)

[bennhoughton]

Hi Dris

Yes that is somewhat complicated, however it is not unsolvable, but i do require a little more info - i dont suppose you could use your advertising scam skills to find my work email address could you? If you could send a slightly more detailed email to that address, again in date order, but also include exactly details of third parties involved, their insurance companies, and a bit about the correspondence you have received as well as sent to your insurer? If you could i will prepare a bit of a report type thing for you advising what you will need to say to your insurers and the best way to approach it... i'll need to do a bit of additional research into the exact ins and outs of it and get back to you if that is any good? Was it a landlords policy with Z...? Just i'll ned to do a bit of background on the policy wording? If you dont want to send it to my work email then thats cool beans, i can give you a brief sypnosis on here without all of the details, but i cant guarantee how accurate i will be

[bennhoughton]

and Eddie51 - not everything you said is quite true - however, unfortunately much of it is and this is at the detriment of our industry - a good few examples of some of the bad practices some of the insurance companies use! As a broker i find it sad to see these, it gives us a bad reputation - one i fear we probably wont ever shake.

[Dris]

Thanks for getting back to me.I'll email you (who would have thought it eh ?:)) .I'll do it tomorrow, as you implied its a bit complicated and its tough trying to stand firm on my own as well as trying to strike a balance where im not appearing fractious,worried and impatient (which after 2yrs I patently am).Cheers benn-much appreciated.

[Dris]

Meant to say hope tomorrow is OK with you -i'll be fresher then and more able to get my head around it.Ta :)

[jno]

Eddie, I think DirectLine are among the ones that say they aren't on comparison websites, but they're pretty cheap (in fact I think we've house and cars with them now, as a result of looking them up directly).

[bennhoughton]

Tomorrow is fine Dris. I'll have a look through and get back to you later in the week.

With regard to Direct Line, and other insurers guys, it is important to remember why, like in all markets, some insurers are cheaper for some drivers than others - some insurers just have a higher apetite for some parts of the driver markets than others - some insurers may not want to insurer drivers over a certain age, or in a certain location or with a specific type of occupation, whereas some insurers will be targeting those markets that others arent - there are many different sub-sectors to the car insurance market, and different insurers prefer to insure different parts of the market.

As for companies on the comparison sites - you will find that yes they are the cheapest in general - but that is because people that go on there are generally focused purely on price and to gain brand awareness for the sake of profits - you pay a lower price yes, but you will find in nearly all instances a reduction in cover from the standard cover you will receive from the policies offered by the direct companies and those offered by brokers. Try it on gocompare or confused - i bet that without you even asking if you want to apply a voluntary excess you will get to the end of the quote and will have a high excess with a voluntary on most of the quotes - how they can get away with putting a voluntary excess on there like that baffles me, but it immediately offers a lower price and so they do it