this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024
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I had a car insurance renewal quote that had a 110% increase since last year. That's more than doubled with no claims, accidents, or points.

I went to a comparison site and found one that was 'only' a 50% increase on last year. Insurance prices are ridiculous!

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

They're just trying their luck. A good chunk of people probably just renew without even checking the price, let alone shopping around. I'm not sure why they're allowed to do that, but they absolutely do.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Same here, never had a crash or claimed at all and they wanted just over £1,000pa for a 2015 Skoda Yeti - I won't get that for trade-in, what are they on?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You might want to check that trade-in value. I recently got £4k for a 2013 Yeti trade-in. It was an L&K but even so...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

They will give you a much better value in part exchange because they want you to buy another car.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Same here, last years premium was £442, this year Hastings upped it to £992, they called it an insurance premium tax. This is on a 1.0 Ford Ka+. I used a comparison site and managed to get it to a little cheaper than last years quote.

When I called Hastings to make sure auto renewal didn't go through they reckoned they could probably match last year's quote, I refused and explained that I didn't like they idea they were taking the piss so just cancel it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Thats odd. (I work in insurance, backend software dev).

Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) is specifically 12%, its a bit like VAT for insurance. Them saying the tax is causuing it to almost double its absolute bullshit.

100 Premium = 12 tax, total of 112. If your premium is was to double “because of tax”, either they messed up on the tax calculation (say 120% instead of 12% tax would “double” the total)

There was also a change in the last few years regarding “premium walking” where your first year is basically an undercut price, and each year after the premium increases. Now they have to offer the same price to new and existing customers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Actually I did get last year's quote wrong, last year I paid 583 which is considerably less than I said (my memory is going)

It went upto £998. Still seems excessive to me, I'm bang on 50, never claimed, never had an accident & have all my no claims.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

At the bottom is a message “this years quote includes IPT..” would you mind showing the full message?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

No worries,

No optional extras.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Thanks - I was expecting it to say “last years price didn’t include tax but this years price does”

But its not, both include IPT. Honestly insurance pricing is mad, even from the inside

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

They often want to reduce the coverage they offer to achieve this. They will try to reduce millage, the amount of listed drivers, increase excess etc. This gives you a quote that is not comparable to the insurance comparison websites.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Never take a renewal, they’re always a rip off. It’s just the insurance company preying on people who don’t look for other quotes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Not true—at least didn’t used to be. For 3 years, Tesco renewal was cheaper for us than any online comparison site (same excess, options etc). That included Tesco new quote.

But definitely never take a renewal without checking.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Fair, in my experience I’ve never found I couldn’t get a better deal, but I’ve also never used Tesco insurance.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Funny thing was it was a Tesco policy that doubled the price, though for the previous two years they were either the cheapest or so close that I didn't bother changing; I think last year there was one policy that was £15 a year cheaper. This year though they were far from cheapest.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Yes, all bets are off this year. Plus we now have a ‘claim’ even though it was all paid by the other party. No idea how much difference things like that make but certainly not comparing like with like.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

I've already decided that if my renewal is stupid, I'm going to mothball the car for a bit.

Take a little break from having to deal with it, and see if the premiums come down as little in 6 months.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Same here FWIW.

Something's gonna have to give at some point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Mine nearly doubled too, and using a comparison website I was able to find something close to my current premiums. I phoned direct line to query why it had gone up, cited the better value elsewhere and they magically reduced their quote by £200 without even hesitating.