Re: Advice please advise on my shortlisted car insurers (Sheila's Wheels, esure, Halifax, Norwich Union)

No idea about Sheila's Wheels, they seem to think women make less claims which is wrong. Most just claim on their partner's policy so the figures are misleading.

Esure - oh dear, they have a call centre in India so you can imagien the immense difficulty trying to communicate with someone in English effectively presents. The sales people are in the UK which fools a lot, the claims side is in India. I made a claim once and I'm sorry I ever did, it took a week to speak to a person that could speak English, then a further week to reply to an email, then it went on and on for 10months. I ended up paying for the repair myself.

Never used Halifax. I did once use Direct Line, they were no trouble and have UK based call centres with people that can speak English, so fairly easy to deal with and very prompt in replying by letter and on the phone. I will change to them next year.

Norwich Union, not too sure, they were the most expensive so that put me off immediately.

I would avoid CIS at all costs. I was run in to by a taxi driver who was later found to be involved in a widespread insurance scam with a group of other taxi drivers and relatives who acted as witnesses and injured people. A bent solicitor who advertises his services on black taxis was helping by processing multiple claims for them. He was caught out by submitting two lots of statement from the SAME people, once in which they claimed to be injured and had to go to hospital, the second stating they were standing on the pavement at the time and saw the whole thing. They even heard a conversation from 100ft away between me and the driver despite being next to a motorway! CIS had enough evidence of fraud by the driver, relatives and solicitor but made me wait a year to clear my name and I had to go to court and point out all the statements and how people had lied. The judge asked why CIS had not paid out immediately and reduced their costs for dragging the case out without reason. The taxi drivers are still operating their scam, the solicitor still helping them to obtain money by deception and only two witnesses were paid a visit by the police.

On Sat 25 Oct08 10:18, Conor wrote in :

I would be interested in a cashback site but I hear Quidco is starting to lose its reputation as a reliable payer. For example:

In message , Ian wrote

I believe the Direct line has been sold on so don't go on their past record.

I was with Direct Line and they were OK for a year but I didn't have to make a claim. Their renewal quote was 35% more than the previous year so I found another insurer within 5 minutes on line who could beat the previous years price, and offer the same cover. On contacting Direct Line (Scottish call centre) to cancel a direct debit they suggested that I should have contacted their special (and secret) customer retention department if I had been dissatisfied with the new quote. I politely told them where to go as I had already obtained insurance elsewhere. Direct Line subsequently contacted me asking me to fill in a questionnaire about why I didn't renew the insurance with them.

The 30%+ increase in premiums after the first year seems to be a common practice as I've had similar price increases with buildings and contents insurance. Just check the TV advertising where nearly every company guarantee to better your _renewal_ quote. If phoning these companies don't tell them how much you have been quoted, just ask them for their quote.

In message , Lizzie wrote

A cashback deal from a third party who are also taking a cut suggests that the prices being quoted are too high and probably can be bettered elsewhere. One way of giving back £50 cash is to charge you £75 more in the first place. (£50 for you and £25 for them)

In the case of Topcashback, they don't take a cut. And it isn't a comparison.

You click a link, they get the affiliate money, they pay it all to you, they make their money from non affiliate google adwords.

I got £90 back on a new Vodafone phone/contract deal, and £60 back on a £150 house and contents insurance deal using topcashback. One has paid out, the other is due soon. Also, if you go through a cashback site, direct to an insurer, and use a cashback credit card you make make make for something you were going to buy anyway.

I do use comparison sites for example prices, but I never buy from them as you say, they get a cut too.

My car insurance renewal is 30% higher than last year. If you bear in mind that the insurers often invest the premiums and pay claims out from the returns on investment it's easy to see why despite my renewal being stupidly huge it's actually not far off competitive.

I reckon we'll all be facing higher insurance bills in the next year...

But I had no problems in finding quotes from other insurers, for both car and house, that were 30% cheaper. Try it and see.

Maybe so, but stay with your existing insurer and you are likely to be shafted. If you have a clean insurance record then it appears it's always worth shopping around and changing. If you have a claim then the choice for the next year may be more difficult.

"Alan" wrote

So they'll still be 9% cheaper even when they've added-on 30% next year?

Mine dropped 50% but then again, I've not put several cars in the bodyshop.

:p

I don't understand your logic.

Company A puts it's price up. I go on the web and get a new quote from company B that is £70 cheaper.

Next year if company B puts it's price up I still haven't spent an extra £70 for this year and I will shop around to see if company C is cheaper for the same cover.

The point I'm making by saying the 30% price hike is a common practice for year 2+ is that most companies are offering much cheaper rates for new customers. The definition of a new customer appears to be someone that hasn't bought insurance from them in the previous year. It's a little game the insurance companies are playing to make lots of money from those who cannot be bothered to shop around

Tim has lots of claims including total loss for a string of Mercs and Volvos.

In this case, Swiftcover came out the cheapest on the 3 sites I used.

What it does suggest is that the marketing dept have been given a budget...

Seconded. The only time this isn't applicable is with classic car insurance.

Full no claims sat here. At least my cars are of value where a bodyshop trip is an economic repair.

And you're no a truck driver. Oh, you are. Oh, in fact, I've never had a total loss. In fact I've not had a claim for over 5 yrs. Still, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

"Alan" wrote

Perhaps some figures will help you to understand :- First price is (say) 200. You find one 30% cheaper

- that's 140. Next year they put it up by 30%, so it's now 182. That's still 9% cheaper than 200... See?

So are mine.

I've not had a claim in 18, despite doing 2000+ miles per week.....

And I'm sure you had a car written off that you'd just bought.