Comparing the meerkat

[nev]

Its that time of year again, when van insurance is due for renewal. As usual the reward for staying with my current company is a cost of 100 quid more than at least ten of the other quotes obtained from a comparison site - no surprise there really :roll:
However, on a whim I compared the comparison sites ( moneysupermarket, meerkat and gocompare) and guess what - up to a 40 quid difference for the same quote from the same companies :shock:

Moral of the tale .. compare the ComparethesupermoneyGomeerkat.coms

 

[adidat]

make sure you read the policy first, i didn't and was most disappointed to find that my 900 quid excess was fault or non-fault, so basically my car that was stationary and parked was hit by some silly b!tch, and the insurance company had no intention of helping me get back the excess.

adidat

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I did exactly that last time I renewed my car insurance. Adidat is spot on. I also found a differential between quotes from the same insurance company from different comparison engines. But the policies being offered weren't the same.

My understanding is that in order to beat each other in the price feeding frenzy, they deliberately make it look like they're undercutting their competition by offering what is superficially the same policy when in reality it will have one of the benefits missing (courtesy car or free Green Flag etc etc).

Of course that's a monumental pain in the wotsit because you have to trawl through the detail to unearth whats different. So my advice is to search the cheapest and then quickly review the policy "features" page to ensure you have all the cover you want.

 

[nev]

Now I'm even more confused :?

The first quotes I did not include the missus as a named driver as she has an SP30 [-X , so in the interest of giving my existing insurer a fair shake, re did the quotes with her added. Now in some cases they've got even cheaper!

just me...

plus the speedy missus...

I think they just pluck figures out of the ether!

 

[adidat]

a good tip for new drivers, get a couple of middle aged women with good driving history as named drivers, also there jobs makes a big difference. This knocked 500 quid of my first year of driving bringing ridiculous quote down to 1500 quid.

It bothers me that all i got for that was a few bits of paper and a cuddly toy (also made it legal to drive my car). So I managed to not be involved in any claims, surely some of that money should be refunded?

Insurance companies are massive crooks, they have whole departments for getting out of claims. One of my Grandfathers holiday let barns flooded one winter NFU refused to help him out as no one had stayed over night in the last 30 days. even though i had been in there decorating a few days before.....

Adidat

 

[Eric The Viking]

Hat tip to NFU Mutual. I only started with them when I bought a Land Rover Defender, but they've been inexpensive (one year the quote for two vehicles was less than the quote for our people carrier alone from someone else), and recently dogged in pursuit of my excess, getting it back from QuikFit who damaged the underside of the car when trying to lift it. I find them friendly and they do what they say they will regarding a claim.

 

[No skills]

a good tip for new drivers, get a couple of middle aged women with good driving history as named drivers, also there jobs makes a big difference. This knocked 500 quid of my first year of driving bringing ridiculous quote down to 1500 quid.

Very true, adding my other half wipes off 600 odd from any quote I've had.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Another one to watch is the third party cover for driving other people's cars (which used to be automatic with fully comp. cover on your own) - quite often they take it off without your noticing. A friend of mine had been driving his fathers car for some time, and I told him to check his insurance. I've always had cover, he said. You want to make certain I said. A week later he came to me and apologised. He didn't know the cover had been removed.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

a good tip for new drivers, get a couple of middle aged women with good driving history as named drivers, also there jobs makes a big difference. This knocked 500 quid of my first year of driving bringing ridiculous quote down to 1500 quid.

Very true, adding my other half wipes off 600 odd from any quote I've had.

I don't get that? Why would the inclusion of middle aged women on your policy reduce your risk and hence the premium you pay? Do the insurance companies make the assumption that they'll have a lower risk because the "safer" named female will have a certain share of the driving. Thus over the course of a year, less accidents? That logic holds up until you realise that for example I'm named on my wife's policy and she on mine, but we very rarely drive each others cars.

I'm pretty sure the insurance companies will have clear statistical data that proves the risk is lower. Just seems a slightly odd one that's all.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My daughter started two years ago and hers went down by £100's by naming us.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

and yet its her car, and you never drive it pretty much, would that be reasonably accurate? If so....why is she less risk? I don't get it :duno:

 

[marcros]

i suspect that a formula somewhere calculates that a named driver, on average, uses the car x% of the time, and particularly for new drivers this equates to a substantial risk reduction. the fact that individual cases dont conform to this percentage isnt that important.

 

[fumbles22]

My mother put her date of birth in the other way round (6/9 instead of 9/6) because her home country has ties to America.

She had to pay £40 to get it changed and, we were told on the phone, that had we attempted to claim the entire thing was null and void!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

and yet its her car, and you never drive it pretty much, would that be reasonably accurate? If so....why is she less risk? I don't get it :duno:

I think my wife's driven it once. I've never driven it.

 

[No skills]

Nag factor.

The cars being driven less as the first drivers too busy getting their ears bent by middle aged women.

 

[mind_the_goat]

Agree on the named driver ploy, no idea why. We have our house insured by NFU and recently needed to make a claim for accidental damage, all very straightforward. Will be looking to see what they can do for our cars on the next renewal.