I managed to halve my renewal price this year by shopping around, so looks like I’m in the happy minority.

my premium this year has gone up a smidge, i was more shocked that i couldn’t find anything cheaper, and that the cheapest quote i could get was from the same company i am insured by, but for more than they have given me as a renewal.

Momo you sure? Cynical Al says all the prices have gone up.

my premium this year has gone up a smidge, i was more shocked that i couldn’t find anything cheaper, and that the cheapest quote i could get was from the same company i am insured by, but for more than they have given me as a renewal.

Yep, same. Renewal gone up, I thought, “damn, I’ll get on (insert favourite price comparison site)”, all were more expensive.

I work for a large insurance company, albeit not in personal lines, the industry is struggling at the moment, and fraud is becoming a bigger problem. The premiums for young drivers these days seem obscene though!

I think they must do it on stigma rather than facts.

No, it’ll be facts. Otherwise an insurer working with ‘the facts’ would come allong and insure everyone in Liverpool, market forces i’nit.

? Car theft used to be a MASSIVE problem for insurance companies.

Now cars are harder to steal for the casual thief and car stereos are intergrated.. so its ‘a big problem’ but moved to a different area more.

The issues presented now could be tightened up more by insurance companies working with each other to combat fraud but then, when your looking for excuses to increase prices….just like the oil industry ‘oh Libya/2% of the worlds oil production’…bollocks..

I moved from BB and they increased it!!!!

Where the hell did you move to, Baghdad?

Now cars are harder to steal for the casual thief and car stereos are intergrated.. so its ‘a big problem’ but moved to a different area more.

Yeah, phones and satnavs.

Cougar, have you not heard of something called ‘excess’?

Have you also not heard of something called increased premiums due to claims?

That alone makes any claim gain by a customer outweighed by the extra money you have to find to pay ontop of your old renewal due to claims.

Hora > I’m nor sure what you’re getting at to be honest.

Of course I know about excess, and the effect claims have on your somewhat tellingly-named “no claims bonus.”

It’s nothing new though. The relative cost of replacing a smashed window and stolen satnav isn’t a wholly different situation from the cost of replacing a smashed window and a car stereo several years ago. In fact it’s probably more expensive, as more cars are fitted with glass which is “special” in some way, which rams the price up.

Time was, someone puts a brick through the quarterlight of my 1977 Fiesta, reaches in to unlock it, then extracts the DIN stereo, to fix all that would cost me £15 for a replacement glass from the scrapyard and maybe £30 quid for a new el cheapo tape deck. These days, if someone were to put through the tinted window of my 58-plate Mondeo and have away with a TomTom I’d foolishly left in the car, I’d be looking at a claim in four figures.

… granted, a large part of that is “I have shinier toys now than when I was a student,” but if you’re suggesting that it’s not worth claiming for a break-in any more, I’m not sure I’d agree.

Lets just say the glass and sat nav cost £500 to replace.

It costs you £250 (excess).

How much do you think your premiums will go up over the next three years? The additional premiums will soon cancel out your £250 ‘saving’ by claiming.

Rocket science?