So, my renewal notice has arrived and it’s gone up over £200! The meerkat and the fat bloke both suggest I can do much better elsewhere, but things go slightly wonky at the ‘modification’ part of the process. My car has a factory fitted (at time of manufacture), optional extra panoramic glass roof. Is this a ‘modification’ or not? I seem to be getting conflicting advice 🙄

Automatic renewals are generally a rip-off as insurers rely on people who can’t be bothered to shop around. Usually best to start again ime. Factory option is definitely not a “modification”.

If it was factory fitted then I would say its not a modification.

factory fit is not a mod – only stuff you have fitted after it left the factory.

Just ring your insurers back and tell them you just got a better price at X and see if they will match.

Might work, might not. Nothing to lose really.

factory fitted.. not a mod

My insurance went up £200 this year for no reason, I have a full no claims and no points. The chap on the phone was surprised I didn’t want to renew!
keep shopping round, it is the most boring job in the world though..

I paid £350 this year for a 306 hdi estate. Fully comp and 8 years no claims.

My renewal quote for next year with nine years no claims…

£700…!

I contacted budget and told them I got a quote from direct line for £360 and they didn’t even put up a fight. The gent on the other end of the phone said “we couldn’t even come close to that”. Are some of these insurance companies in the shite.?

My insurance auto renewal pretty much trebled this compared to last year/what I just rewnewed for! Madness!

on the mods note……(I used to work for DL many moons ago) a modification is/was classed as anything not on the original spec – so if they want to be @rsey then optional extras are mods. Now, I would never declare a panoramic roof or optional alloys or the like, but that’s not to say that it’s not technically fraud (in the most minor sense of the word).

I heard some interesting arguements in my time with policy holders dropping things like “I went for the bigger wheels” into a conversation, the price then jumps 10% and everyone gets a tad upset!

Mine went up £15 (I’m with the NFU)

Mine went up about £156. So I went online, tapped in the exact same details on my policy with the company I was already insured with and it was cheaper than last years premium.
They said I’d have to cancel the policy that was about to end like it was a really big deal.
I went elsewhere anyway out of principle.

I received my renewal yesterday. £319 fully comp, no endorsements, full protected no claims etc. Shopped around a bit £230! I feel like one of those zoomers from the tv ads!

To be fair though, I think £230 is a bit steep for a 34 year old driving a 59 plate 1.2 Clio. I did pay £1200 a year for a Clio 16v back in the day.

holy moly!

OK, done some haggling with the insurance company and they are down to £385:50 from £590:75! A big factor was paying monthly. If I want to pay the policy monthly, the £385:50 goes up to paying a total of £523:70 – a £138:20 charge for paying monthly, or put another way, 36% extra 😯

I now have them down as being loan sharks as well now! Who can work out the APR on that? deposit of £54:80 and 10 payments (over 1 year, with a ‘payment holiday’ month) of £46:89

It’s outrageous!

Car insurance renewal is ridiculous nowadays but the insurers have obviously worked out that they make more money by treating their customers like idiots!

I have cancelled renewal on 5 policies in the last 3 years and renewed 3 of them with the same company via GoCompare/Confused, saving over £1.5k in the process.

Worst was Elephant who tried to double the premium and would not negotiate at all. With an extra 1 year NCB on my daughters car they went from £450 (parked on the road in SW London) to £940 parked on a driveway in a nice part of Durham. I eventually got a better policy for £380.

More recently, on my own car, the insurers tried to hike the premium from £280 to £419 and take away the protected NCB as I had changed the policy mid term. What I had actually done was transferred the 6 years NCB from a car I had sold – they knew I was going to do this when I took out the premium as they wouldn’t let me use the NCB on 2 vehicles but agreed to reduce the premium when I sold the other car. 2 hours + on the phone later, they agreed to a premium of £269 with AA cover included.

Money grabbing gits 👿

Edit: You are right PDF – paying monthly costs a fortune and must make them as much or more than the insurance aspect!

Had this as well last week, last year my renewal quote was lower than the previous years policy and £20 cheaper than anything else on the comparison sites. This year the renewal quote was more than doubled (up to £700 from just under £300) the letter had the cheek to say that they were saving me £800ish as well , and reading the small print my excess had jumped from £150 to £600 and they’d taken away the driving other cars cover.
Comparison sites came in at £300-£350 for comparable cover to last years and the current insurer were quoting £400 for a new policy.
When I phoned to tell them not to auto renew they asked why not, when I said I’d found cheaper insurance they offered to match the cheapest quote on the spot. The chap in renewals got quite annoyed when I said I expected to get a competitive quote on renewal and I wouldn’t renew with them even if they did the policy for a tenner.

BTW ended up going with directline, cheaper than the best on the comparison sites and with most of the ‘optional’ extras included.

Just out of interest, who is the insurer in the original post?

direct line told me ANY optional extras are mods. so cruise control fitted in factory = mod.
anything different to the basic car is what i was told.

When you have a properly modified car they really have you bent over their knee. One of mine is significantly (not cosmetically) modified ( 50%+ additional power, brake, gearbox, suspension changes) and they just sit there smiling with their hands out!

Other than that I just ring about and get a better quote elsewhere, go back to them and say “X will do it for Y, can you match that to keep my business?” and if I’m not a valued customer I walk.

Original insurer (soon to be ex insurer) is Admiral

direct line told me ANY optional extras are mods. so cruise control fitted in factory = mod.
anything different to the basic car is what i was told.

yup. but unofficially it’s really a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ type scenario. All the guys on the phone know that pushing to add mods will p*ss the customer off and turn them away. It is daft really, if I get heated seats am I really a bigger risk??

optional extras = mods, yes seems many places are taking that approach, but when you buy a 2nd hand car, how would you know what was an optional extra?

Admiral asked me for an extra £36 quid for moving 2 streets away, taking the car off the road onto a gated drive, moving away from the pub, into a quiet side road. I’ll be re-considering them myself this year.

I’m not an insider so don’t know, but I don’t know how the insurance company can claim a factory fitted extra is a mod – a second-hand buyer will not have a list of all the options and if it’s a common option it may be on all cars of the same type yet still be a mod. I’d like to see them claim it in court – if it were a set of 19″ rims and bright green paintwork I can see it might register as a higher premium, but cruise control and optional air con – I think any self respecting lawyer could walk rings around such a contest.

What about removals? One of my car has most of its interior removed, air con removed etc…. 🙂

Exactly as Pedalhead said. happened to me, looked at my insurance online for a “new” quote and it was about £50 cheaper, so took out that one and cancelled the old policy. However shop around as I wouldn’t waste staying with the insurance company if they can’t be bothered to find me the best deal. Happened to Mr MC too on his motorbike and they seemed surprised when he wanted to cancel, they asked why and he said “isn’t it your job to give me your best price?”

What about removals? One of my car has most of its interior removed, air con removed etc….

Depending on what has been removed it might be more dangerous for the occupant in an accident !!!!

It would be an optional extra and if you didn’t mention the money for your replacement car, should it be written off, wouldn’t be included.

But how may of you have Parking sensors? Have you mentioned those on your insurance cos you should be.

Oh and how much snow was there around your area last January? Lots of snow = lots of crashes = lots of claims = premiums go up

Simples!

but cruise control and optional air con – I think any self respecting lawyer could walk rings around such a contest.

I’d guess that it would cost the insurer more to repair the car if those things (or other options such as the OP’s panoramic sunroof) are damaged in accident.

If you don’t declare them you may find the car restored to the spec of the base model if you claimed?

The cost of insurance has gone up massively (>30%?) because of a big increase in claims and lots of personal injury claims, according to the papers.

If you don’t declare them you may find the car restored to the spec of the base model if you claimed?

I take your point but how long would it take to declare everything thats fitted to the car? Most insurers dont have enough knowledge of the types of mods to know what they are. For example I put a stainless cat-back exhaust system on my car because it was cheaper and better than putting a new “standard” exhaust back on. The insurer (Bell) put it through as a modded manifold! Its got bugger all to do with the manifold but thats the category it fell into and cost me something like 50 quid more a year. ridiculous.

Of course, the flip side to all this is that if you do mod something that you haven’t declared your insurance could be null and void! The clio forum I lurk on has countless stories of folk getting roasted by the polis because their insurers wont cover the car in its current condition i.e. non standard alloys etc so technically they are driving without insurance.

The clio forum I lurk on has countless stories of folk getting roasted by the polis because their insurers wont cover the car in its current condition i.e. non standard alloys etc so technically they are driving without insurance.

I would guess that the Clio forum has plenty of younger drivers who are taking the mick with regards to non-disclosure in an effort to reduce their premium.

If I want to pay the policy monthly, the £385:50 goes up to paying a total of £523:70 – a £138:20 charge for paying monthly, or put another way, 36% extra

I now have them down as being loan sharks as well now! Who can work out the APR on that? deposit of £54:80 and 10 payments (over 1 year, with a ‘payment holiday’ month) of £46:89

On the basis that you are paying £54.80 upfront, the amount you are “borrowing” is £330.70. You would pay back £468.90 (10 payments of £46.89) which would give you an APR of 123%

true Jon, and i think the issue of “fronting” has been clamped down on a lot too. Having said that Its hard enough for older drivers to get sensible premiums – i’ve heard of 25-26 year olds paying almost 1k for insurance! The problem is that pricing people out of the market will lead to more uninsured drivers…

123% that’s shocking 😯

ask them how much the price without the discount is before the credit charge (8.5%) is added on.

piedi di formaggio – Member
123% that’s shocking

That doesn’t sound right to me?

(But my background is in science not money so ignore me if I’m talking monkeypoo!)

Direct Line 👿

i’ve heard of 25-26 year olds paying almost 1k for insurance!

I was at an accident a couple of weeks ago where the 20 year old, whose car was a write-off, had paid £2,200 to insure his £500 car.

Felt quite sorry for him as although it wasn’t his fault (he was hit head on by another young driver on the wrong side of the road) the other driver was ‘technically’ insured but was having a problem as there were several obvious boy racer mods which the police were taking a keen interest in!

I was at an accident a couple of weeks ago where the 20 year old, whose car was a write-off, had paid £2,200 to insure his £500 car.

Felt quite sorry for him as although it wasn’t his fault (he was hit head on by another young driver on the wrong side of the road) the other driver was ‘technically’ insured but was having a problem as there were several obvious boy racer mods which the police were taking a keen interest in!

And that whole post pretty much sums up why the rest of us are paying huge amounts to insure fairly safe risks – we are taking the hit for young drivers who aren’t actually paying enough to cover their own risk.

Try e-sure they have been great my (very low) premium actually went down this year!!

Same story here, my renewal went from 400 to 670. Shopped about and got it back down to roughly the same. Bloke on the phone said the price hikes are down to personal injury claims increasing massively. There was a story in the times about a young lad getting quoted 26k for his first policy!!! Not a fancy motor either.

e-sure quoted 500 quid for us.
depends on ya engine size too….. we have a 1.6 engine and 9 years no claims…still the prices are high…. absolute rip off….. 😥

Depending on what has been removed it might be more dangerous for the occupant in an accident !!!!

Nothing safety-wise. Air bags and soft padded pillar covers are still on 🙂 I’ve *heard* the addition of a full roll cage to an aging car can polarise the insurance market – some assume you’re going to go mental and so more likely to claim, but others assume the occupant injury will be notably lower and you probably won’t be claiming for much more than a new shell (the value of).