rip-off additional car insurance
 

I already own a 2005 V70 d5,never claimed in my 40 years of driving, my premium for next 12 months With Hastings was- £310, fully comp, after tackling them with a cheaper quote from - the AA which was-£227 they agreed to match it and reduce their premium by - £80. However in the last week i purchased another v70- same year, spec, colour, value and all, so i rang them today to see what the additional cost would be to put on my insurance- unbelievable- from £227 it jumped to- £805, now i purchased this latest car to fix a few problems on it and keep, but at those prices no way it really is a scam by the insurance companies to say -oh sir your 40 years of no claims driving can only count for 1 car, it really is a pi-- take, and how do they get away with it, this is the first time i have posted in this section such is the strong feeling that again the poor motorist is getting shafted again, i always thought that if you as an individual accruing how many years of NCD then this should be applicable to any car you drive, and them saying that your ncd goes out of the window for a second car is just blatant theft ,i am now in the predicament of having to sell this latest car due to the greedy, thieving set of ba---rds they are, and our government is just as bad for letting them get away with it.-Gripe over-[for now].

Is AA insurance still having 'problems'? I seem to recall some financial problems in recent years, and they seem not to do too well in sat surveys.

Anyway, I had a similar situation - only temporarily - with a V70, buying an XC70, both of similar ages and specs, owning both for a while until I offloaded the V70.

Aviva is who I insure with and all premiums (monthly) were as pretty much near pro rata as if I had insured each car separately - as I could tell. And I could tell how the monthly cost increased when I added one and removed the other.

Shop around. Not all insurers are the same.

I encountered this problem when I bought a van for work.
Had to build up a second No Claims history in tandem to the existing one.

Sadly insurers have you over a barrel and make up the rules as they go along. Some will give you an "introductory discount" on your second car equivalent to 1-2 years NCB, other tightwads won't so you have to insure it as if you have no NCB at all.

Many other people have been caught by the same trap over the years, nothing gets done about it because many people who have many fingers in many pies get a nice "brown envelope" from those various pies.

Nothing can ever be proven to be outside the law of course so it just continues.

I've had similar issues in the past when adding an XC60 alongside my S40. Made the argument to my insurer (Elephant at the time) that I'm only one man. I can only be driving one car at a time, so where is the increased risk? They left all of my official NCB on the S40 but changed their quote for the XC60 to take account of the NCB.

You should also be able to split the NCB between the cars, even if you've no prior experience driving one of them. That was actually suggested by one of my previous insurers.

I would insure the oldest as a classic car on 3,000 mile policy. You can state social domestic and pleasure etc and be factual but it will shred your premiums.

Don’t forget that the risk is not just 5he driving whilst you are out and about in one car the one left at home could be stolen, burst into flames or have an uninsured driver smash into it and run off or many other risks. So not as simple as I can only drive one car so there is only one risk.

Have you tried one of the multi vehicle policies which are said to give discounts?

Feeling better for getting that out of your system? It’s standard industry practice to generate an NCD on each car. Nothing to do with the Government, it’s the insurance industry. Shop around, it’s what the comparison sites are for.

Thanks all, yes i do feel better getting that of my chest and i always do the comparison sites to get the best prices, but i think on this one i am fighting a losing battle, i will try other avenues and see what happens, regarding your ncd
applies on the car and not on you, that's like saying-oh yes it's the car that has been driving careful all those years you was just a passenger, by the same token if you asked for a quote on a car that hasn't had a claim in 40 years would they say it's £9.99 sir well done, i don't think so, like has been said they change the goalposts to make sure they score everytime.

I've alway found Admiral to be really good. I've got the multicar policy with three cars on and I think my V70 is £138.00 fully comp for the year

Had a Aviva multicar policy a few years, which has full NCD, they usually bung 2 or 3 years NCD discount on new cars that I add for which I don't have earned NCD to transfer.

I also use an Admiral multi-car policy and have previously found it quite cost-effective to add new vehicles. There are two named drivers (myself and my slightly younger sister who lives a few miles from me) and between us we’ve got five cars on the policy including my three 940s. Individual annual premiums for fully comprehensive cover range from £117 to £168 per car depending on use and estimated mileage.

I generally avoid classic policies, despite my newest car being 1998 vintage, because they tend not to permit commuting and business use.

An alternative view-
I've paid insurance premiums on two cars for nearly 40 years as my wife and I both needed cars for work etc, having put all that money into the pot we get NCB on both of them, now some tightwad who has only paid one premium all his life gets a second car and wants the same discount on it as I get having paid all those premiums for all those years. ###### outrageous, the government should stop it!
In truth that already does happen as if you phone the insurer and press them they will find ways to discount the first car and add introductory bonuses to the second, my insurer even started scrabbling to sort me a discount when I just phoned up to check a detail on the policy document. We have a multicar policy with Admiral now which links the cars together to give a discount and also allows for 'occasional drivers' rather than 'second driver' to recognise that one person won't drive two cars twice as far as one car and three people can't all use one car at the same time.
There used to be a term in finance where a customer was a 'Rate Tart' basically someone who was always chasing the latest best deal with a whichever company was offering it, shop around and play hardball but be prepared to do it every year.


Incidently something to consider for those who do have two cars, as we're getting older the prospect of mortality looms, previously both cars were in my name with my wife as a second driver, if I were to pass on my wife would be left with no NCB as she wasn't the policy holder, we recently got them to make her the policyholder on 'her' car and swap the NCB over to her too.

Also had this issue. I've usually had two cars, ( one for work, and one for play) but occasionally ran 3. Over the years I have been caught out several times with having to start the NCB on the 3rd car from scratch. I tried to remind Aviva on one occasion, that I had 3 years NCB built up on a previous third car so asked them could I use this. "Sorry... but that policy has been lapsed for more than 2 years.... you'll have to start again" was the gist of their response. I have even tried swapping 3 policies between 2 cars annually, to maintain a one year buffer, but somehow that did not work either for me.
I now accept this type of renewal of car insurance as a sort of "Git tax" - If I did not try and run 3 cars I would not have to pay the tax :)

This is particularly relevant to me at the moment as my daughter has just thrown her broken Jazz at me, as she has just bought a newer car and the garage offered her £1.. I joke not. So I'm having it - far to good to throw away, I have repaired the Jazz which now sits on my drive awaiting the next stage of its life.

Huuurrr they never did that for me :)

Cheers
Bob

I had same problem a couple of years back. My 3 litre needed the ignition sorting out and as it was my daily, I wanted to spend time and do the job properly. I considered buying a friends little run about for about £3-400 until I enquired the cost of insurance. More than the car! Same reason as others give you- start from scratch with a second car. Didn't bother!

hastings,, well no shock that shower of thieves pulled that on you

Dad did the online check and got a few quotes before going to see his V50
hastings came out best (not the cheapest but best overall) on what they offered for the £, we Rang them to check "going to look at the car tomorrow,, If we buy can we sort over the phone" "yes" was the reply

we get there, car is Better than the advert,, (strange but true)
Phone hastings,, they add £30 on for "over the phone" ,, then cut dad off
call back,, they add Another £30 on, goto transfer dad to some Other opperator who adds £30 on again
they then hang up Again
I phone back (dads phone was out of credit by now),, they add another £30 on
£120 added on for No reason other than they could ,,
guess who got a Royal blast from me,,

we phoned the broker dad used for his old car "yes ok , fine ,, give me the reg ,,,, "pause for a min "ok your covered on that car now,, £0, call us tomorrow when your home and we can sort you out with ins on the old car !"

Hastings = thieves, id not recommend them to anyone ,not even if i Really didnt like the person :D,,

40 years NCB is a waste anyway, best to see if you can split it, if not, find a company that will, prob be cheaper in the long run, also, split it down the middle, dont favour one for the other, reason being, the max NC discount is only around 9 years (75% allowance), if you collect more NC, they are not counted...

I know someone who insured a tiny car that wasnt even his, just to build up NCD on another policy for a second car, im sure he took the details of a scrapper lol

This was an issue for me a few years ago, got a trade policy from covea for £670. Could insure and drive anything I wanted upto a value of 15k. The price kept going up for the policy so I cancelled it last year. Got a quote the other day from them and it was an eye watering £1458. I have maximum no claims and no points. Guess premium's have gone up :(

What worked for us some time ago was putting the second car in my wife's name.

At the time we only had one car insured with Admiral and when we decided to get a second car I contacted Admiral to get a quote with my wife as registered keeper and policyholder and for me to be a named driver.

Because she had been a named driver on my policy for years and both of our records were squeaky clean, they gave her maximum NCD on her car and she has retained this even though she has insured with another company this time

I think the whole NCB concept is a facade nowadays. You’ll find that if you make a claim your premium will rise on all your cars, not just the one you’ve claimed against. They will say this is because they base your premium on a risk calculation and declaring a recent claim increases your risk score. So technically you’ll still be getting the percentage discount but against a larger premium.

This is also why protected NCBs are such a laughable con. Someone who has dutifully been paying their favourite insurance company over the odds for years to “protect” their NCB will still see their premium rise steeply should they claim and would in fact do far better to shop around for a lower price. Except, of course, they’ll have now got even more sunk investment in the company that’s merrily rogering them!

It’s worth remembering that many of the old high street names are now just fronts for private equity and venture capital operations whose sole purpose is to take as much money from their victims as they can get away with.

This isn't directly related but is about insurance. I just got my windscreen replaced, (screen hit by a stone and cracked) through the insurance. This "doesn't affect my NCB" according to my policy, but I guessing I should still be expecting my policy to rise? It isn't quite due yet.

On the comparison sites, I'll list 13 years NCB, but the then they'll ask have you had any claims, which I'll have to say yes to, which will presumably push the price up.

Anyone got experience ?

Yes, you don't need to tell them about the glass claim as they already know about it. Your existing insurer should have told you already that it won't effect your NCB and your policy should tell you how many times you can use the glass replacement before it does - usually unlmited. Also it's not a claim as such because it's for the glass, a policy within a policy was how one insurer described it to me, ask your broker/insurer for clarification though.

Hi.
If you need any help with insurance at all then please feel free to drop me a line.
Regards,
Dan.

I am with Admiral Multicar, but will be ditching them as cheaper to insure separately from the 9th.

Wanted £971 for

1996 940 LPT.

Also a 2015 Toyota Auris Hybrid estate.

I have 8 years NCD on Volvo and 2 years on Auris.

No claims/accidents.

Did a comparison site and got:

Volvo 940 £257.00 (ESURE)

Toyota £455.00 (ONE CALL Insurance) Not heard of!

Admirals best after phoning was £850!

Couldn't put Volvo on classic as use it for my Business, so both have business use insurance.

It's such a con! Should have more NCD as when returned 8 years ago from 7 years living in France/Ireland, had to virtually start again, as needed a legal professional translation at vast expense! Was with Groupama, then AXA France, Axa Ireland and went with AXA UK thinking make life easy, but nope, got the above!

James.:thumbs_up:

No experience as when a stone cracked my 940 windscreen. I looked into the insurance wording and my insurers wording was "NCD wont be affected, but the renewal price may change"!
Decided as £100 excess anyway, to pay for it myself! £195.00.

James.

Admirals isnt including the BIG discount for lulling you in, once next year comes around, your new lower cost will prob end up the same if not dearer than Admirals, you will then need to compare the market again and keep doing so, year on

Most likely, and I don't mind. Last year did the same and Admiral were a bit more, but but came down and was happy as saved changing for the sake of £60. If Admiral or LV are cheaper next year I will go. Loyalty counts for nothing now.

But why don't insurers offer any customer whether existing or new the best rate from the off! In my case Admiral £850 instead of £970.

You shouldn't have to phone them. I bet most just accept it and they get to make a great profit by each customer!

There is no loyalty. I don't mind say up to £50 dearer than comparison sites but £150 is a good saving.

James

Like all sellers, they want to get the most money they can but recgnising half a loaf is better than no bread, will reduce their profit margin to take the business while hoping next year you'll stick around.

Also another example of the public being fleeced is since the govt dropped the threshold for a grant on buying a new BEV to £35k, many manufacturers have dropped the price of several models to £34995 or similar - some models were £40k+ previously!

Another reason there is no govt intervention on insurance premiums is they get IPT - Insurance Premium Tax which i believe is currently ~5% so they are getting a metaphorical brown envelope from the insurance companies every time we pay a premium for a policy.:eek:

I kind of think you've answered your own question.
I have to admit whilst I know I could generally get something off the price by searching around I usually contact Admiral who I've been with for years and they just knock something off and I stick with them, when I've tried searching around in the past I get to a point where I've spent half a day filling in online forms to find £50 or £100 off and come to the conclusion my time and sanity is worth more than that. Staying with one company also has the advantage to me that I have all of the contact details to hand and an online account, and I know the product I'm buying is consistent, some super cheap policies don't allow for travel to work, have high excesses etc, other people get a buzz out of finding the cheapest and are not bothered by coping with the variables.

I'm inclined to agree on that, it's certainly not as clear cut as it should be. I phoned my insurer on one occasion and the person at the other end said 'I see you've been with us for a long time, lets see if we can find you some discount', surely that's what NCB is all about? I suppose the rot set in when insurers started to give spurious discounts to new customers, back when I learnt to drive with BSM they had a deal with an insurer to give me a years NCB straight away, presumably justifiable because BSM gave me a superior quality of tuition, but since then the introductory discount has just become a marketing tool without the slightest sense of justification, once you've got to that point 10% NCB is made pointless by a 25% introductory offer.

A friend of mine was unlucky enough to be involved in an RTA the other day playing bumper cars with her Astra Vs a council lorry on a roundabout. The lorry was a bit ahead of her but they both saw the same gap and went for it, the lorry starting a second or 3 before her. Lorry in centre lane and she was in the outside lane at the approach to the roundabout, as they both entered, lorry slightly ahead the tailswing from the lorry as he turned to go round (and then straight on, she was turning right) caught her front wing/bumper.

I got there ~1 hour after it happened and after getting her calmed down and a basic visual inspection of the car, followed her home where she phoned her insurers.

By this time it's ~5pm on a thursday before a Good Friday Bank Holiday - her courtesy car is arriving when they pick up her car on Tuesday for repairs.

Have to say i was impressed with the insurers getting things moving so quickly and it made me wonder if the fact she went with a well-known name (and possibly paid more) was a part of how things got moving so quickly as opposed to a cheap insurance that might have dithered and told her she's not covered for this or that silly little thing :thinking:

Going back to when I first had a car, 1982, I had a friend who was a bit older and a bit more street smart when it came to cars, he advised me if I was looking for cheap insurance to go to the Brokers at the end of Market Street, they were really cheap, but, just one thing, if you have an accident don't bother claiming, they'll mess you about until you give up.
You pay your money and take your chance.

I've followed the same pattern for the last four years with success:

1. Renewal letter comes through. Price is higher.

2. Punch my details into a price comparison site. Find the cheapest quote.

3. Call current insurer and ask them to match it.

This has worked four years in a row. If they say no, then it's just a bit of extra admin for me to deal with by switching. Never hurts to ask and be brutally honest with them. I usually say something along the lines of "I've received my renewal and looked around. XYZ is £££ cheaper but I'd rather not switch. Can you match it?"

They haven't said no yet. Even with the ~£30 'admin charge' for dealing with them over the phone, I'd rather be out £30 than go through the hassle of switching.

Keep it simple ;-)

This should work while you're insuring something normal ... my 1979 242GT which looks like a Group A 240 Turbo and has all sorts of aftermarket kit (from wheels through to ECU) isn't something that can be insured quite as easily, and everything else "normal" we insure is really linked back to the Volvo. Every few years I do a ring-around, but with a multi-policy discount on daily-driver & house & contents linked back to the Volvo, I never get a better quote from any alternatives that i can use as a bargaining-chip with the current specialist insurer ...

I bought a V70 as a second car this week and was surprised that the cheapest way to insure it was through the insurer of my other car - Axa.

Axa mirrored my nine years’ No Claims Bonus and offered a much lower price than anywhere else I could find. I don’t know whether it’s too late for you to sort this, but if not, they might be worth talking to.