Adrian Flux Insurance - Thoughts?

[tiggerthefox]

Curious to hear what experiences, good or bad, users of this forum have had with this company.
I'm re-insuring my 20-plate RS4 Vorsprung this month and have elected to switch providers. Having seen various YouTube 'influencers' extolling the services of this company, and have noticed their advertisements in some of the motoring mags (Evo, in particular), I rang Adrian Flux on Thursday with an initial enquiry and agreed a call back for 9am today to discuss options in more detail. One hour later and I'm still waiting....
A quick look at the 'tweets and replies' section of the @FluxHelpdesk Twitter does not fill me with much optimism that I'd be wise to proceed, but on the flip side, nobody uses Twitter to congratulate a company on doing a good job, either....
Comments and observations welcome.
Thanks.

 

[Raiden]

Had to chase my renewal with them yesterday. They are way too high this year and can’t explain why. Meerkats are half the price this year so Adrian can Flux off I think.

But to be fair did a good deal on the wife’s classic mini with an agreed value last year.

I don’t get car insurance.


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[tiggerthefox]

@Raiden AF eventually called but as I’d all but given up waiting I missed the call so had to call back.
To be fair, the agent who took the call apologised for the delay and we got down to business.
What staggered me was the outcome.
I’m of ’a certain age’, with a squeaky clean record - max NCD, no criminal record, pointless licence, no mods, S5 category Tracker, sub-6K mikes per year (more like sub-4K in the last 12 months), second driver equally dull and park on the driveway in a very low crime-rate neighbourhood.
AF has just quoted me nearly +£300 over my current premium and has just about doubled my mandatory excesses.
No explanation. And this is based on Aviva underwriting the policy. It all seems to fly in the face of what Martin Lewis has to say about premiums heading South.
Unless this is a sign of things to come from a select list of other potential insurers, I doubt I’ll be taking up the offer

 

[Raiden]

Maybe Flux won’t be so competitive this year. 2015 was bad for me as me and my wife both had accidents plus I got 9 points that year.

So been really good since then and thought by now I deserve a cookie. So all clean and turn 39 soon and got quoted £730 (paid £750 last year) and after moaning got it down to £680.

Through the meerkat with admiral I’m quoted £445 with more extras but after having a play around if I park on the street Ford are the cheapest at £429


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[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX]

@Raiden AF eventually called but as I’d all but given up waiting I missed the call so had to call back.
To be fair, the agent who took the call apologised for the delay and we got down to business.
What staggered me was the outcome.
I’m of ’a certain age’, with a squeaky clean record - max NCD, no criminal record, pointless licence, no mods, S5 category Tracker, sub-6K mikes per year (more like sub-4K in the last 12 months), second driver equally dull and park on the driveway in a very low crime-rate neighbourhood.
AF has just quoted me nearly +£300 over my current premium and has just about doubled my mandatory excesses.
No explanation. And this is based on Aviva underwriting the policy. It all seems to fly in the face of what Martin Lewis has to say about premiums heading South.
Unless this is a sign of things to come from a select list of other potential insurers, I doubt I’ll be taking up the offer

Hi.
I'm sorry that we weren't able to provide you with a competitive quotation. Unfortunately we aren't able to be competitive on every quotation I'm afraid.
If you wanted to PM me your details though I would be happy to take a look to see if there is any reason we are so un-competitive.
Regards,
Dan.

 

[tiggerthefox]

Hi.
I'm sorry that we weren't able to provide you with a competitive quotation. Unfortunately we aren't able to be competitive on every quotation I'm afraid.
If you wanted to PM me your details though I would be happy to take a look to see if there is any reason we are so un-competitive.
Regards,
Dan.

There were errors on the quotation when it came through by email, most notably the recording of car ownership status. The illustration records both myself and partner as owning additional vehicles when I clearly stated on the call that I own my vehicle and my partner owns hers. We’re a two vehicle household with both vehicles owned outright. I called your office back and spoke to another agent to correct this point. I assumed I would receive a revised offer but have heard nothing more. Perhaps this was because it was late Saturday morning.
To be fair, your PDF quotation did come in £60 cheaper than the figure quoted by the processing agent during the initial call, but this was still excessive when comparing it to my current premium.
The agent I spoke to on the call back suggested that even if I did contact Aviva directly it would be likely that I wouldn’t get a cheaper offer than the AF offer. Even if this was said without malice, I did feel as though I was having my nose rubbed in it.
BTW, I’m a former long term Aviva customer, going back to the NU days. Apropos nothing in particular other than I’d be likely to sound them out as one of the select list I’m likely to consult.
Your call back agent also suggested that because of the value of the vehicle, the premium would be inflated, along with the risk factor attached to it going walkabout in the middle of the night. This despite the installation of a Thatcham S5 Tracker and the vehicle not being one of the Top 10 stolen vehicles in the UK. Last time I checked, there wasn’t a single Audi in this select list, either.
It seems to me that your underwriters are prejudiced against this type of vehicle, regardless of the other low risk profile elements declared to your sales agents. I contracted AF on the basis that you, apparently, specialize in insuring vehicles that sit outside the mainstream.
Happy to discuss this with you further, but I suspect there won’t be anything positive arising.

 

[Raiden]

I’ve gone with Admiral in the end. If I park the car all day and night round the corner it’s a hell of a lot cheaper.

What’s annoyed me is when I spoke to Flux to cancel the person said let me change the parking and see what we come out at. I got quoted £500!!!! How the hell can you drop another £180? And from my original quote it was £250 more then the new one? Does someone make this up? We can all say it’s what the computer says but me moving my car a few yards up the road why does the price dramatically drop?


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[tiggerthefox]

So, just to update this post, I have now successfully insured the RS4 at a very acceptable rate for the cover required.
After the eye-wateringly expensive quotation issued by Adrian Flux, I went on to consult, on a like-for-like basis, with Chris Knott and AIB Insurance. Chris Knott offered a competitive proposal when benchmarked against my outgoing insurer, although the very pleasant agent at AIB was ultimately unable to offer what I was looking for. That lead me back to a former insurer of mine of many years on a direct basis.
Another like-for-like discussion ensued and out popped a quotation approx. £60 cheaper than my current insurer after adding in some voluntary features, increasing the annual mileage by +2K and factoring in an existing relationship with them for another insurance product. When all said and done, this final checkout figure was just 64% of the premium quoted by Adrian Flux.
"So what?", you ask.
Except what makes this all the more strange is that the household name insurer I have returned to....at just 64% by premium value of the Flux quotation, remember....is the same insurer Flux used to underwrite its proposal. In cash terms, this is a huge difference.
Now, I'm sure there are all sorts of technical, weighted risk explanations for this, but nevertheless, money talks and it clearly pays, at least in my case, to buy direct.
Thoughts?

 

[mikep99]

Admiral? Or their underwriters?
No-one has been able to beat them for me over the last few years..

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[tiggerthefox]

@mikep99 Aviva.

 

[mikep99]

I've found that *if* the mainstream insurers will insure you then they come up with the best prices.
As long as it's relatively unmodified.
Think I pay £40 on top as it's on coilovers..
YMMV

Mike

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[tiggerthefox]

100% factory car, Mike. Black calipers as well.
Has a Thatcham Cat S5 Tracker fitted and that's it. I'm of a certain age, low mileage, massive NCD, points free licence for 20yrs and low risk neighbourhood.
Aviva had my direct business right back to Norwich Union days until about 4 years ago when they couldn't quite compete with another mainstream insurer on my old A4 S-Line BE.
Happy to be back one year on from buying the RS4.

 

[mikep99]

I'm very similar age, history etc and car...
No point overthinking stuff, business is busines for the companies.
Someone has to make money.
Go with what you're happy with at the right price



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[RS3 S.]

I've had it with some of these so called ''specialist insurers''. The other year i was calling around for my RS6 & got told by a couple, ''sorry we cant insure that car due to the value''. As above I'm now with the main stream & Churchill who were more than happy to take the car on. Just to add I've full no claims & a clean licence & over 50 years of age.

 

[tiggerthefox]

I'm very similar age, history etc and car...
No point overthinking stuff, business is busines for the companies.
Someone has to make money.
Go with what you're happy with at the right price



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Happy indeed, Mike.
i dare say if I was prepared to benchmark all the mainstream insurers on a direct basis I’d probably find further, marginal savings were available. At the end of the day two thirds of the specialist brokers were nowhere on price versus cover, while a household name offered me a cracking deal over the phone in about 15 mins.
As a returning customer, I’ve had to provide a current insurer’s cancellation letter confirming my NCD and this was a doddle, too.
Profit isn’t the problem, but the gulf in quoted prices is, especially when the underwriter is the very same company I eventually bought direct from.
Very much a case of ‘buyer beware’…

 

[tiggerthefox]

I've had it with some of these so called ''specialist insurers''. The other year i was calling around for my RS6 & got told by a couple, ''sorry we cant insure that car due to the value''. As above I'm now with the main stream & Churchill who were more than happy to take the car on. Just to add I've full no claims & a clean licence & over 50 years of age.

Yep, I had that from my current insurer.
Happy to take the car on 12 months ago and throw in a ‘don’t amend your policy cover and we’ll honour the current premium for the next two renewals’ offer, only to baldly tell me a month ago that the underwriters were no longer willing to cover the car, while declining to give a reason.
The agent I subsequently spoke to mused that was most likely down to the risk of theft and the high value. That the RS4 isn’t in the Top 10 most stolen list didn’t wash, either. I’d be more worried if I had a Range Rover on the drive.
The Flux agent even told me that his quote was high because they’d have to pay out in the event of total loss and that I was welcome to speak to Aviva direct although I wouldn’t get a better deal on that basis. Isn’t that what we purchase insurance for, though? Or is it me?
Was very happy to prove him wrong to the tune of hundreds of pounds.

 

[jdp1962]

I've just experienced something similar with Adrian Flux. I had my B8.5 S4 insured with them for six years until I sold it this summer; I never paid more than £400 a year for it. I changed to a Cupra Formentor VZ2 310, and after a lot of arguing and haggling, come renewal time in October, it was still around the £400 mark. I've not got on with the Cupra so am returning to Audi, having just ordered a 68-plate SQ5 3.0TFSI for delivery in a week's time. AF told me my current insurer would only accept it if I had an approved subscription-based tracker fitted, with an extra premium of nearly another £400. Without a tracker, the cheapest they would offer me with another insurer was over £1,500. I've done the comparison websites and Admiral/Churchill etc are all coming in around the £500 mark. I'm ready to go mainstream, I think.

Oh, and I'm 59, never had an accident or claim in 42 years of driving, and my last fixed penalty notice for speeding was in 2003.

 

[Terminator x]

I used them once, never again. When I switched cars mid year they wanted £1800 to insure vs other quotes at £400; I refused to pay their daft premium so had to cancel. They then refunded 50% of the premium even though I had only been insured for 2 months so just 17% of a year. Took me almost a year to get the rest back from them and I had to threaten ombudsmen etc.

TX.

 

[Garrett 69]

Back in the day AF was okay for modified vehicles but their premiums and demands of you these days takes the smeg.