Motor car insurance.

[Roxie]

Can anyone enlighten me as to why it takes over a month to refund monies on a motor car insurance that I have cancelled? I renewed my insurance in Feb. and sold the vehicle on 2nd June and immediately told the insurers that I had sold it.
John

 

[sunnybob]

easy peasy. They keep your money till the end of the financial month to get the interest on it.

 

[AJB Temple]

It won't be interest yield. It's peanuts currently. It will simply be a bulk processing schedule - you will be lumped in with thousands of payments that need to be input, checked to make sure correct sum, valid reason and correct client, bank reconciled, payment authorised, payment run done on whatever scheduled date they use for bulk payments.

 

[ScaredyCat]

add to that, insurance companies are scumbags..



.

 

[sunnybob]

No, its interest. youre not looking at the tens )possibly hundreds) of thousands of pounds that insurance companies have to pay out every month. Even 1% of a half million is worth the effort.

I caught my solicitor doing this once. he had 40K of mine and took a fortnight to give it to me. I got the hump and investigated. The entire company (there were 20 solicitors in there) was sending its entire funds to the channel islands every single night at office closing time, and bringing it back every single morning at opening time.

I demanded that I got the interest on my money, and I received an extra 10k (on 40k!), which to this day I am sure was not all of it.

 

[sammy.se]

No, its interest. youre not looking at the tens )possibly hundreds) of thousands of pounds that insurance companies have to pay out every month. Even 1% of a half million is worth the effort.

I caught my solicitor doing this once. he had 40K of mine and took a fortnight to give it to me. I got the hump and investigated. The entire company (there were 20 solicitors in there) was sending its entire funds to the channel islands every single night at office closing time, and bringing it back every single morning at opening time.

I demanded that I got the interest on my money, and I received an extra 10k (on 40k!), which to this day I am sure was not all of it.

Flipping heck, 25% return! That's better business than being a solicitor

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[sunnybob]

It was a few years ago when interest rates were higher. but the point stands. 1 % of a lot of money is a lot of money.

 

[Lons]

sending its entire funds to the channel islands every single night at office closing time, and bringing it back every single morning at opening time.

I demanded that I got the interest on my money, and I received an extra 10k (on 40k!), which to this day I am sure was not all of it.

Crikey Bob £10k for a 14 day investment at night only so say 5pm to 9am plus a couple of weekends is not much more than a week and a half in total. That's one hell of an investment, hope you put your money where they did once you'd found out.

5 grand a week return for a £40k investment you would be rich in no time, I think I could just about survive on £250k pa :wink:

Bob

 

[Lons]

Roxie, you need to hassle them for repayment. There is absolutely no reason or excuse for slow refunds, certainly not with the major companies who can and do make almost instant payments especially for claims which are straightforward and don't need a loss adjuster.

The only reason They can give for slow payment is that they have to be certain there are no unreported claims or incidents which they could still be liable for after the refund has been made.

Bob

 

[defsdoor]

The real question is why does your utilities provider take 3 months to give you back the 800 quid they over "estimated" over a 12 month period.

And this is after getting the ombudsman involved.

The entire services industry is all about scamming you.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

No, its interest. youre not looking at the tens )possibly hundreds) of thousands of pounds that insurance companies have to pay out every month. Even 1% of a half million is worth the effort.

I caught my solicitor doing this once. he had 40K of mine and took a fortnight to give it to me. I got the hump and investigated. The entire company (there were 20 solicitors in there) was sending its entire funds to the channel islands every single night at office closing time, and bringing it back every single morning at opening time.

I demanded that I got the interest on my money, and I received an extra 10k (on 40k!), which to this day I am sure was not all of it.

Flipping heck, 25% return! That's better business than being a solicitor

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

25% in two weeks - remarkable! :shock:

In 40 years of dealing with solicitors I've not found one that hasn't paid interest on anything they've held for me.

 

[AJB Temple]

Really, these interest stories are not the case in the current environment. It might have been true years ago, but we have been in a very low interest rate environment for 8 years now. Insurance companies will be getting about 25 basis points (0.25%) per annum compound, on money held on short term deposit. No one runs a business to generate interest yield on this.

The business I am involved with is quite small and we typically hold between £65 million and £150 million of client money on any given day. The cost of complying with regulatory rules accounting for it is more than we make from the yield. It's actually a nuisance. Banks don't want it, because of the restrictions on what they can do with it.

 

[rafezetter]

Another year and another post about this - I've had my renewal email quoting £40 MORE this year compared to last, assuming Admiral understand the whole "no claims discount" thing, adding another year to the tally.

One telephone call plus some googling to check competitors and ..... from £595 down to..... wait for it £519.

And here's the kicker - my previous policy was a TEN month policy with a "driver behaviour" tracker fitted.

The new one is a TWELVE month policy, WITHOUT the tracker (because it seems to make no difference to the policy renewal price, something I quite pointedly pointed out.)

Enough saved to cover most of my MOT renewal cost, more if you count the two extra months.

It pays (or saves) to check.

 

[Lons]

It pays (or saves) to check.

Absolutely !!

Even though I've been with the same car insurer for several years I've never paid their renewal quote and always shop around before giving them the opportunity to match. As soon as they can't or won't be competitive I'll place my business elsewhere.
Has to be like for like which isn't always obvious and I never use price comparison sites as IMO they steer you towards the ones they get the highest commission from.

Big surprise this year in May when I came to renew my touring caravan insurance. Last year best I could get was from SAGA ( that's a first for me!) at £269 but renewal from them this year came in at a wopping £458. :roll: :shock: A quick ring around got me even better cover from the Camping and Caravanning club at £286.
I did afford SAGA the courtesey of explaining their quote which they couldn't do.

 

[fezman]

I insure 2 cars, mine and the Wife's. Both with tesco's, which I have to say whenever i have needed to use the cover they have been brilliant (new windscreen if your wondering).

Price wise, my car insurance went up about £90, which it tends to do on every renewal quote from them. Now for the crazy part. I did an online quote at tesco's website and it came back £5 cheaper than my previous years cost. i.e. it went down £5. So i rang up, explained this to them and they price matched themselves. I've had to do this for the last 2 years.

For the wife's car renewal, for the first time in my 49 years on this planet, her renewal quote went down by £30, so i just took that

 

[Lons]

It seems pretty common Fezman.

I've gone blue in the face at times arguing with various companies in different industries that it's cheaper for them to retain existing customers than procure new ones but they just don't get it!

New customers get introductory discounts and most people get discounts ordering on line, I get the last part of course. Existing customers are fair game to make extra profit as they bank on a majority just renewing without question.

Similar with the banks and utilities is it not? They don't get my hard earned without an argument.

 

[sammy.se]

Insurance in this country is a massive scam. Don't know how they get away with it.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[SammyQ]

You should have been here during the Troubles. My insurance - for an identical car to my sister in Wakefield - was four times her fee. They claimed, the actuaries were factoring in the high number of highjackings and 'boy racer' car thefts. :shock:

Sam

 

[Sideways]

Shop and move every year.
When I was working and too busy to pay proper attention to insurance and utilities, I stuck with the same company as the car aged and devalued, but the insurance only ever crept up. When I finally shopped around and moved, I SAVED over £400 a year on the same vehicle.
I've over paid thousands over the years because I was too busy to shop around.
Ever since, come the end of the year, they always try to jack their prices up. 20%+ is commonplace. I call them, tell them I'm willing to pay 5% more than the last year. Take it or I cancel....So far, no one has agreed so I cancel and move the policy. I always get a quality insurance policy for the price I'm willing to pay.
I've saved hundreds a year by shopping around for utilities too.
There's no reward for loyalty so there's absolutely no reason to give any loyalty.
Decide what the going rate is for a product of the right type and quality, then simply state "I want (this) and I'll pay you £x for it". Take it or leave it. I'll buy it somewhere else if you don't want the business. It takes all the hassle out of "negotiating". I've watched hard nosed negotiators at work in asia. This is their approach. It works for me.
If no one will deal, you know that your judgement of the market price is wrong

 

[DrPhill]

I would like to put a plug in for 'Lifesure' who insure and provide recovery for my camper van. Have renewed twice and neither time was there a vast increase. First renewal the price actually went down - because I had bought a disklock I think. This year the premium went up a a percent or two - about inflation.

Staying with the same insurer for a third year is a strange occurrence for me......

(No other connection to them apart from being a happy customer)