Insurance renewal time...

[themanthatcan]

Well it's that time of year again; that fun time where you spend ages on the phone to call centres or hours entering the same data over and over again into websites, only to find another insurer who wants to charge you some ridiculous premium.

My renewal notice came through from Admiral at £573, which was roughly the same price as last year. I'd done a lot of hunting when I bought the S3 and that was the cheapest I could find at the time (and just happened to be who I was already insured with). I was sure there was some money to be saved though, and on the advice of MoneySavingExpert I tried some price comparison websites. Boy was I glad I did!!

I'd tried Confused.com a few years ago and being the pessimist I am, wasn't really too surprised to find that you could get a cheaper quote by going direct to the broker. Imagine my surprise when MoneySupermarket found me a policy with eSure for £377!! Yes that's right..a £200 saving!! Taking the same approach as confused.com I popped onto the eSure site and did a quote direct with them and it came out at £425, so using MoneySupermarket actually same me £50...w00p!!

£377 for fully comp on an S3 in a dodgy Portsmouth postcode can't be sniffed at! :thumbsup:

 

[jesters3]

Sorry to rain on your parade, but I take it you haven't told them about the CC?

 

[themanthatcan]

Sorry to rain on your parade, but I take it you haven't told them about the CC?

What CC??

 

[jesters3]

Sorry I thought you had Custom Coded your car?

 

[themanthatcan]

You must have me confused with someone else

 

[Nilz]

LOL.....well done mate!!

 

[jesters3]

Must have been, still £377 all in is awesome!! Good hunting.

 

[markyp2002]

Have you tried Direct Line? They are fantastically cheap. They were the cheapest i found for me and my missus fully comp on the TT!

 

[1animal1]

yup i agree, although im finding that privilege, direct lines sister company is cheaper still for me....confused are useless in my opinion, they must have a mark up in the product cos i get cheaper going direct...plus they dont search half the firms that they advertise...... comparison websites are lazy and as such charge you for the convenience.....

Happy to be proven wrong on this but a good old fashioned ring around one afternoon is hard to beat.

 

[S£]

i'm with tescos and got mine for £330 with the other half on it and a free pressure washer worth £100 even though i wasn't a new customer + they gave me half price gold breakdown cover originaly £140 too, i found that the monkeys that man the quote line were crap and i had to argue with them till they got fed up and passed me on to thier next department, who low and behold could do me all the deals the previous person told me was absolutly not possible.

 

[1animal1]

my misus had similar problem..... i told her to shop them after they said that they couldnt lower her premium..... she did and halved the monthly amount, i then told her to 'ring' Tesco to cancel and tell them why...guess what...they beat it

nobody likes losing business

 

[mattyboy199]

Dont forget to try Greenlight insurance

 

[fran-s3]

Greenlight insurance smashed all my renewal quotes, plus with all my mods declared! Def worth giving them a go and they even cover my keys and locks. (if I lose my keys or they get stolen - and it doesn't effect your no claims!)

 

[buckas]

just did a quote on MS

cheapest one is £500 more than i'm paying with directline.........hmmmm

 

[S£]

Greenlight insurance smashed all my renewal quotes, plus with all my mods declared! Def worth giving them a go and they even cover my keys and locks. (if I lose my keys or they get stolen - and it doesn't effect your no claims!)

Although greenlight were the next best quote they came in at £100 more expensive, BUT i didn't speak to them direct, i still doubt they would have beaten my price

 

[themanthatcan]

I tried Greenlight and although they were cheap, they came in at about £50 more than eSure. I honestly don't think I'm going to get any cheaper than £377, although I'm willing to try anything

 

[dansansome]

Chris Knott insurance saved me over £100 Vs my cheapest price-comparison type website quote

http://www.ckinsurance.co.uk/car_insurance_1.html

 

[j4jon]

But Greenlight will cover the mods for little or no more money. I'd rather pay a little more and know that all the mods are covered

 

[1animal1]

how do they prove that you know about a remap when you bought your car.... just a thought, though i wouldnt recommend defrauding an insurance company:thumbsup:

 

[fran-s3]

exactly - I'd rather declare all my mods and pay a little extra instead of risking your insurance becoming INVALID if they ever find out you've remapped your car! And believe me they will scrutinise your car in the even of a serious accident! Is it worth going to jail for and losing your car's value and the whatever damage you have caused? Only you can decide, it's a serious matter chaps as I'm sure your well aware.

 

[jesters3]

how do they prove that you know about a remap when you bought your car.... just a thought, though i wouldnt recommend defrauding an insurance company:thumbsup:

They can't.

Only way they can scrutinise it and take it further, is if they send out an inspector and on seeing the engine has uprated parts they can question the fact that it has been 'modified' and is not running 'standard' parts. They could also talk to the garage and ask what 'other' work has been done to the car etc. In my case I have 3 nice shiney blue hoses with SAMCO Sport blazened all over them - you could say that they are like for like replacments of a split OE Pipe and are not a 'modification' but you never know...

 

[fran-s3]

Im sure your insurance company would argue the fact that there not a OEM part you've replaced it with, and that's what there clause specifys. Unless Samco have suddenly signed a deal with Audi to supply all there pipes!

 

[1animal1]

that aside Fran if you've only got a map that was placed on the car when you bought it..... how would you know? simple answer is that in most cases you wouldnt

 

[fran-s3]

Entirely true animal and I agree with you. I just doubt an insurance company would sympathise with you and let you off and 8k plus claim if it came to that. All I know is insurance companies will go down any route to try and not pay out if they can.

 

[jesters3]

Im sure your insurance company would argue the fact that there not a OEM part you've replaced it with, and that's what there clause specifys. Unless Samco have suddenly signed a deal with Audi to supply all there pipes!

You know that, hence why I declared all mods and business mileage so instead of £377 I pay £653!!

 

[1animal1]

Entirely true animal and I agree with you. I just doubt an insurance company would sympathise with you and let you off and 8k plus claim if it came to that. All I know is insurance companies will go down any route to try and not pay out if they can.

hey i agree on the ruthlessness of the ins companies, however this would be a difficult one to pick up on and to prove

 

[fingermouse]

i just went with adrian flux as they replace modded parts like for like £405 all in mods declared and is the sportecs go missing I get some more

 

[bantam1]

The declare mods or not argument has been had so many times on here it's unbelievable. I'm another in the you'd be stupid to risk it camp. Insurance isn't just there to enable us to drive legally on the roads, it's there for our own protection too.

Small claims, bumps etc. then sure it's not cost effective for the insurance company to check out your vehicle against standard spec, but in the event of a big claim do you think they're not going to ensure their liability, especially on 'performance' vehicles?

As fingermouse points out the mod friendly insurers will also cover mods on a like for like basis. Play them off against each other (greenlight, chris knott, adrian flux) and beat your quotes down that way.