Replacement windscreen hiking up insurance quote – is this new?

Car insurance companies have been making a loss for years so they’re clearly not taking the piss.  Complex cars that cost a lot to fix – not just windscreens, loads of parts are complex now where they didn’t used to be.  Wing mirrors are motorised, heated, with blind spot sensors in.  A crash bad enough to set the airbags off has trashed a whole load of the interior, not just the bumper.  They’re wider so a lot more scrapes I’d guess.  And relatively ‘ordinary’ cars have acceleration that would have been in supercar territory a few decades ago.  Even more so for electric cars.

Insurance co risk profiles are a bitch though.  Our house insurance went up by 260% this year. previous insurer had dropped out of market. the killer for us is ‘working from home’ with visitors – no matter that the business is in the basement and has it’s own entrance (which means vistors never go into the main part of the house), or that it’s no different really in what happens or frequency to everyone else’s courier deliveries, it massively ups the premium we pay.

As someone who’s spent the last 20 years earning a living by pricing insurance, I’m changing my LinkedIn job title to “grifting shyster”

Have you changed career now to Tory politician?? 😉

(Yes, yes, I’m aware other politicians are grifting shysters too…)

What I don’t understand is why a job being done under an insurance claim costs so much more than a privately funded one?

Is the extra paperwork that arduous?

Garages exploiting the fact it’s the insurance company paying

With checking the renewal data, the ‘comparator’ website is now asking for windscreen claims ! So it all adds up.

They’ve been asking the question on the websites for as long as I can remember.
Have you had a claim in the last ‘X’ years, yes , click on drop down menu and  select windscreen

Garages exploiting the fact it’s the insurance company paying

Did you not read what I said about what’s involved in fitting a windscreen? Especially one with heating elements in? There are cars with all of the radio receiver elements built into the glass as well – do you seriously believe that such things will cost the same as a screen for a twenty year old Fiesta? Scratch that, my old Mk.1 Ford Puma, W-reg, so it would be 24 years old, had a heated screen. A replacement screen then was £700. Bugger-all to do with the insurance company paying, it’s what you would pay if the insurance company wasn’t.

The point about insurance is that it should be as simple maths as cost of claims versus amount of money taken for premiums plus profit to cover costs.

I paid £95 a few weeks ago to have an £1100 windscreen replaced so that should mean that 1 in 12 people need a windscreen replaced each year and then it balances up with small profit for insurer. If more than 1 in 12 people need a windscreen then put the excess up or put the premiums up to cover that.
I have only had two new windscreens in 40 years of driving so not that common is it?

Bugger-all to do with the insurance company paying, it’s what you would pay if the insurance company wasn’t.

I’ve gone private to replace screens. And found them roughly half what the insurance were paying out on the same car.

“It’s almost as though there’s a bunch of different and complex factors that influence the risk”

Yeah, well that has hardly changed over the last umpteen years has it?

I stand by my original post, the reason insurance premiums have shot up by a large amount recently is less to do with the sudden increased complexity of risk or the sudden increase in the number of young drivers needing millions in aftercare and much more to do with various unnecessary middlemen like claims management companies trousering large profits, crazy expensive car parts which are impossible to fix economically and the newish ability to easily adjust pricing on the fly using online algorithms (something that should have reduced premiums but anyway).

I’d also add to this the laughable security holes in keyless entry systems.

So yes, whilst some of these issues cannot be laid at the door of insurance, some can like being in bed with the CM companies, the algorithms etc.

People earn a living where they can but NONE of this is of benefit to the consumer – hence my original phrase, its all a grift and it didn’t use to be.

I’ve gone private to replace screens. And found them roughly half what the insurance were paying out on the same car.

Similar on bodywork repairs here, and that was on a 2007 Fiesta so hardly the height of modern integrated tech.

It’s a racket, plain and simple.

Its the hassle of dealing with the insurance and also the payment terms. 60-90-120 days……

Where as paying me is cash/bank transfer on completion of job. …..

It IS a massive racket. It’s not necessarily the insurance companies fault per se, it’s more likely every business that gets income from insurance repairs KNOWS they can charge top dollar and get away with it, and there’s no real incentive for insurance companies to crack down on this, because they can just load next years premiums instead, it’s easier. That way turnover grows, and the same percentage of profit becomes a larger number.

“It’s almost as though there’s a bunch of different and complex factors that influence the risk”

That’s very true I’m sure, but people are cynical because ICs are remarkably quick to identify and factor in spurious ‘statistical’ reasons to increase risk (which feel unfair, even if they are not) but absolutely rubbish at identifying factors that massively reduce risk; for example, the OPs example of someone who can demonstrate driving experience, but because it was in a different country it doesn’t count. Well actually, of course it bloody does.

and don’t even get me started on pet insurance…

but because it was in a different country it doesn’t count. Well actually, of course it bloody does.

Well yes but 100% unverifiable in real terms.

In the same way if I stick down that I was general manager at toys r us on my CV….. It can’t be verified.

What stops me saying I’ve driven 2 years in a high performance car in another country on a company policy where I’m not specifically named as a risk – just to get my insurance down.

What stops me saying I’ve driven 2 years in a high performance car in another country on a company policy where I’m not specifically named as a risk – just to get my insurance down.

well the main thing here is that would be lying; whilst you may get away with it, getting found out would make you uninsured and uninsurable. There’s lots of good faith facts that insurance companies do take into account. Also, it could be reasonably verified, they just don’t want to engage, despite it being a huge factor in weighing up a risk.

Which is what I’m saying really, they are more than happy to put a price up, but very reluctant to take any reductive factors into account because it’s ’too hard’.

I don’t think that insurance companies deliberately rip off their customers, I just don’t think they have any real incentive to NOT rip us off, because they know we are a captive customer.

well the main thing here is that would be lying;

And while it can’t be verified either way I’m sure if it was a legit system ….. Everyone that’s ever been abroad would be claiming they had done it for cheaper insurance.

Maybe, but I’m pretty sure other countries have insurance companies too, and it wouldn’t be beyond the wit of man to check. But y’know, too hard, pay an extra £1500 instead.

panoramic roofs should also check very carefully whether they’re covered

Should be pretty easy, sit in car, turn on ignition, activate screenwash, you’ll find out pretty sharpish I’d imagine.

Maybe, but I’m pretty sure other countries have insurance companies too, and it wouldn’t be beyond the wit of man to check. But y’know, too hard, pay an extra £1500 instead.

Do you have much experience  with cross border bureaucracy?

It hard enough getting companies to speak to each other reliably and in the same format  when they are governed by the same industry body never mind internationally.

Oh absolutely. Like I said, too hard, you just pay £1500 extra instead. Which is my point. They don’t take into account plenty of other things that reduce risk, either, but if some uninsured drink driver crashes into me whilst I’m driving the work car (which I wouldn’t be driving if I wasn’t at work, and certainly wouldn’t drive my own car in that area) I’m meant to tell them so they can put my premium up.  Because y’know, statistics. Go figure.

heres another one; I buy a second vehicle for occasional/dirty/bikes use and they can’t take my no claims into account despite it still being my driving history. Also, the journeys that you I make are now split between two insurance policies, reducing the actual risk incurred by both policies significantly. Do you get a reduction? Guess.

heres another one; I buy a second vehicle for occasional/dirty/bikes use and they can’t take my no claims into account despite it still being my driving history.

Your using the wrong insurance co’s. Plenty do. – admittedly not all.  I have my driving history mirrored across three vehicles with the relevent reductions.

Every insurance policy I’ve taken out for another vehicle will offer a discount but not a mirror of the NCD applied to another vehicle.

https://www.quotezone.co.uk/car-insurance/guides/can-i-insure-two-cars-with-the-same-no-claims-discount

Youngest, who is a new driver at 18, as posted earlier on in the thread, had to get a new screen in his 23 plate Polo a few weeks ago. A new policy so expecting it’ll impact on renewal. Screen was fitted by insurance approved and authorised national company and arranged by insurers.

Todays twist is when he gets a telemetry notification from ‘Theo’, the blackbox app, with a speeding warning, 48mph in a 30 limit…

Route, time and date stamped as being while car was at windscreen fitters, presumably being road tested by them..

This will be interesting..he has mailed insurance co with the details !

not a mirror of the NCD applied to another vehicle.

That’s why I specifically said” mirror driving history and relevent discount”

Your reply to the post about not being able to use NCD across multiple vehicles implied that the poster was wrong and was using the wrong insurance companies.  You’re now saying that he was correct (despite you saying he wasn’t) and that you can’t get a NCD across multiple vehicles, but you have a discount for the years you’ve been driving?  Well, yes, but that’s a very different thing to the 60-70% full NCD, isn’t it!?

Not according to the prices I’m getting Vs the prices without mentioning the driving history.

But you believe in your NCD mumbojumbo if you will. I’ll go by the actual end price.

Insured a car with zero NCB as all in use but mirrored 15 years claim free for 140 quid. It doesn’t matter what the car is. That’s cheap considering zero NCB.

Worth searching out those policy that allow you to mirror driving history if yours doesn’t let you.