General Chat

Our car insurance is due for renewal at the end of the month and last week we received the usual notice from the insurance co.

Last year the premium for comprehensive cover was just over £1000 and we expected the new one to be more, but got rather a shock when it was over £2000. :-0 :-0

This is almost as much as the car is worth - we also have max. no claim bonuses and no penalty points or anything, so goodness knows what it would be in full.

So I spent most of yesterday afternoon looking for a better offer. I remember someone on here talking about Tesco Bank, so I filled in all their pages of application, clicked the final "Next", only to be told that they couldn't insure us!!! No explanation, so I assume it is age related.

Among the unsolicited emails touting for business was one from a company called Quotezone, which looked like a comparison site. They claimed to represent well over 100 insurance companies, and had good reports from users, so I gave it a go.

The questions were much the same as Tesco's, so I had all the answers to hand. After completing the form, all the offers came up instantly and there were 47 willing to insure us. The premiums ranged upwards from £850 - a great improvement on £2000. Some of the companies I had never heard of, but there were other more well-known ones and we selected one about 5th on the list, which included a lot of what we wanted and we added optional extras, making a total annual premium of £980.00.

Today OH rang our current insurers and told them to cancel our policy, and why. The chap on the phone didn't comment!!

Quotezone also do house and travel insurance. The latter is a nightmare when you get older, so I shall definitely be using them again.

Goodness, Andysmum, that sounds like a lot to me!

Admittedly, my car is 12 years old - but it was only £291 for comprehensive cover on renewal in January.
I suppose I should expect it to be about £600 next time.

Gosh that's a huge amount!! I dont drive anymore but in 2021 my renewal was for £275 or there abouts fully comp, 11 years no claims .Is one of you over 70, sorry for asking because last year my dad who was 85 then said his insurance went up hugely because of his age. I am only 61 .

Yes, we were both born pre-war! :-)

That explains it, then - as you'd thought!
Premiums mostly rise when drivers are over 80 .

In fact, I've read that some insurers won't insure drivers over 80 at all.

You did well to get it down to £980, from £2000.

Oh well, I've got just over 3 years to go! Better start saving.

Last year our comprehensive policy was £251, the renewal has just come in at £380.
Everyone I know has had a huge increase this year. We always change the company every year, so I will hit the comparison sites as usual and see what I can come up with

Mine was 408 last year and that’s based on a maximum yearly mileage of 5000 miles

I do far less than that anyway !

Admittingly I.m over 80 but have a clean driving license and driving history and full no claims

It’s due for renewal end of the, month and it’s jumped to £604.3 !
So a 50% increase :-(

Our granddaughter was quoted over £3,000 a couple of years ago. She put me on as a named driver, and it reduced to £900. I don't know if it works with older drivers as well as youngsters, but won't cost anything to try if you have a friend or family member with a responsible job.

Also don't forget to look at a cashback site like Topcashback, you can earn a good few quid back through them.

be careful, Duncan they presumably they expect you to be the MAIN driver....if they find out that SHE is the main driver... watch out!!

Thank you, but no it is all above board, I am very much a named driver only. It is an accepted way of reducing the premium, nothing dodgy.

I agree.
My student grandson, a new driver with his first car, added his mum as a named driver, and it reduced the premium to a level he could afford.

About quarter of an hour ago I caught the tail end of an item on Watchdog. The presenter (can't remember his name but he's established and respected) was saying about having a named driver to reduce the premium, and he stressed the difference between named driver and main driver.

Andysmum, and anybody else interested, it might be worth looking for Watchdog on catch up tv, there may be other ideas first which I didn't hear.

Duncan, I saw and heard that too.

Florence in the hebrides