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.