There’s no love lost with car insurance companies

My wife received her car insurance renewal today. In round figures they want £450 to renew when she paid £250 last year. My wife is a keen shopper but she’s also a loyal customer. Whatever she buys is well worth the money but normally from the same sources. Unfortunately she has to become an unfaithful customer.

Because there’s no love lost with car insurance companies. Despite my wife’s loyalty the insurance company will take her for £200. Sounds silly but think how it makes up for the tight deals they do to win new business.

What’s amazing is the results of her shopping around getting direct online car insurance quotes.

The first 9 car insurance companies she got quotes from directly online were all under £250. 4 of which were under £200.

I suggested she search ‘car insurance for over 50s.’ She got the same range of price so they want your business but the quote won’t necessarily be the cheapest because you’re over 50. She didn’t get any advantage by searching, ‘car insurance for women over 50.’

My wife was so incensed she decided to visit her insurers site to get a direct quote. WOW. No £450 quote – they were the cheapest. She wouldn’t give it to them though, out of principle. It’s a pity.

Next she visited one car comparison site because she was ‘confused.’ They asked her for her renewal quote. She entered the sub-£200 direct car insurance quote from her insurer, not the £450 she received in the post.

The car insurance comparison company beat the quote. But the question is what would she have got if she’d entered £450 as a renewal quote. It also mashed up every quote she’s previously received – some higher – some lower.

I can only say after 43 years selling cars that car insurance companies are respected as master marketers. They take a product and create many different products through different distribution channels and different promotions with different prices. You have to pick the bones out of it all.

It is worth the hours of effort to shop directly with car insurance companies before you go compare the market. Saving hundreds of pounds can contribute to other costs like interest payments, fuel costs or servicing.

I’ve tried to unpick car insurance over on carbuyersinfo by detailing what you need to know and making the point savings are real. I’ve detailed the information you need before you start shopping, made the point the quotes are free car insurance quotes and added the FSA’s advice. I maybe patronising when suggesting how to make comparisons and providing a list of car insurance companies to contact direct.

The point is you can save a lot of money. Up to £2,000 in some instances I’ve come across.

I hope this post is interesting and useful. If you go across to carbuyersinfo the advice could help you save money.

If you think your family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances could benefit from this please Facebook or tweet it.

You may wonder why I don’t name and shame our present insurer and recommend our new insurer. The reason is not only do car insurance companies mix products, distribution, promotions and prices, I believe they change the odds like bookies. So if they have a volume of bets, or profit for the day they can switch from profit to volume or visa versa. In the same way if they have their quota for sex, age, occupation – whatever and types of cars they up the price and move to different mixes. It’s fair enough because they must balance their books – I don’t know! Who does – shop around.

Regards
Ralph
carbuyersinfo.co.uk. car comparisons to help you find a car to suit your purpose and purse

Over 50, looking for car insurance? You’ve got problems

Seriously. If you’re over 50 you may have noticed ads for car insurance for 50 years olds. When you see cheap car insurance for over 50s advertised you think you’re going to get cheap car insurance. When it comes to cheap car insurance women – who were previously targeted – will tell you insurers seemed to just want their low risk business and the quotes weren’t that cheap so they still had to shop around.

That’s problem number one.
Problem number two is being over 50 and insuring a small car.
Problem number three is being over 50 and insuring an MPV.
Problem number four is being over 50 and insuring a Crossover, SUV or 4×4.

Problem number five is frustration.

It’s worth looking into because you could save the equivalent of 3-months state pension, even five months.

It sounds unbelievable a driver over 50 would have problems insuring a small car. The problem with insuring small cars is the new car insurance groups 1-50 have widened the range of premiums that can be quoted. In some cases small cars that were group 2 under the old system are now group 8, not 4 as expected. Plus some small engines are now more powerful pushing them further up the group ratings. This all means motorists over 50 not only has to calculate if they are getting value for being a low risk driver, they have to be very careful which small car to go for based on insurance groups.

The problem is worse with Crossovers, SUVs and 4x4s because the variations for sale have expanded with new crossovers and premium brand entrants and therefore the range of premiums has increased. This sector has retail prices ranging from £15000 to over £75000 with various dimensions and engines. The problem is becoming similar for MPVs.

Knowing which car insurance to go for is further confused by various promotions, packages, premiums and different car insurance companies.

This all calls for some serious comparisons to be made which brings me to the last problem – frustration – and the tendency to take the first quote you think suffices. I know what it’s like. I qualify for car insurance for the over 60s. I get very frustrated not being able to talk to people and when I do they have english as a second language and are reading a script. It’s like talking to a wall. Did you know some supposed customer service departments are internally referred to as shield teams. It gets more frustrating filling in online forms with the same information. I feel like I’m doing their job for them and they’re robbing my time.

However it is worth shopping around because of the huge range of quotes available and the huge savings to be made. Car insurance is one cost where you make savings.

All you need is:

• all your personal and car information in front of you
• remember they are free quotes so get as many as possible
• note what you get for your money
• make comparisons in a table not on the back of an envelope
• have a big list of car insurance companies
• shop directly before using car comparison sites

It’s no fun, it’s frustrating but keep going with an eye on saving big money. Don’t take the first quote that seems OK. A car insurance quote can be half the highest quote BUT there are cheap car insurance quotes a quarter of the top price.

Regards
Ralph
carbuyersinfo.co.uk Car Comparisons to help you find the right car for your purpose and purse.

How long does it take to phone a long list of car insurance companies?

This is worth near 4 million pounds to you – a spoof but true. It’s a bit like Jamie’s 30-minute meals. He’s done the preparation, got the resources, and the ingredients are sitting on his shelves. You just get to see 30 minutes of action.

Over on carbuyersinfo I’ve prepared a list of car insurance companies. You just need to copy and paste my list into a column on a spreadsheet to make them a resource – something you can benefit and profit from in the future.

You need at hand your name, address, DOB, marital status, gender, email address and telephone number – you know that.

You need correct details of your car, parking, mileage and use.

Your licence is something to look after and protect in terms of convictions, points, fines and bans. The word care covers it.

So you’ve got a list of car insurance companies and the answers to their questions. You need to create columns for premium, excess, duration, quote reference, breakdown and legal cover, hire and injury for inclusion or added cost.

You need the one payment price and monthly cost.

I say phone a list but nowadays your pushed online to do the work of their receptionists. The online quote only counts if you make an upfront payment. If you go monthly you lose the online discount and then pay added interest. Something you might like to complain about to the FSA. Why should you lose the online price by paying monthly? You just spent an age doing their work for them plus given them data they sell on. Interest is something else. BUT IN TOTAL YOU’LL PAY 25% MORE PER ANNUM. What’s the base or interbank rate today?

How long does it take to get quotes from all the companies on my list. ALL DAY. 8-hours. BUT we did this exercise against a £1400 renewal quote and got it down to £600 cash. We got that on quote #15 but still kept going – you never know. £800 saving in one day. Which is about the return you’d expect if you had near £4 million invested. Not a bad days work. Take the day off work. Break the British economy with absenteeism until we get cheaper car insurance.

Save yourself  a fortune by going over to what everyone needs to know about car insurance and read the whole boring sequence just because it can mean so much money to you. There’s nothing to buy, no subscription, it’s all free like car insurance quotes. The message is they are free car insurance quotes, get as many as possible.

Regards
Ralph
carbuyersinfo Car Comparison Site Differences and Similarities Revealed.

Questions to ask yourself before buying car insurance

There are six simple questions to ask yourself before you go shopping for car insurance quotes.  Somehow car owners have problems answering them when asked by car dealers. Correct answers are vital as they form part of your contract with the insurance company. And they make you a better informed buyer.

Regards
Ralph

 

Need a list of car insurance companies to phone direct?

The bigger your list of car insurance companies, the more car insurance quotes you can get in, which increases your chances of saving big money.

Here’s your big car insurance companies list.

You must phone car insurance companies direct before you use car insurance comparison sites because once you use a comparison site they bag you as their customer. If you use a comparison site and then phone direct the insurance companies will say they’ve already quoted you through the comparison site. Getting quotes from comparison sites severely limits your ability to later shop around directly.

Regards
Ralph

Making Sense of Car Insurance Bands

As previously mentioned on this blog car insurance bands changed at the beginning of the year from car insurance groups 1-20 to groups 1-50. The reason given for the change according to most pundits is the increasing variety of cars on the market. In particular Crossovers, SUVs and 4x4s.

The car insurance bands table reflects a cars price, performance, cost of repair and security. To understand the change it’s said car insurance bands have roughly doubled. This means if you have a small 1.2 car which was car insurance group 2, it will now be in car insurance band 4.

But what does this mean for SUVs?

According to my records a Toyota 4×4, RAV4 2.2D was car insurance group 12. Now their models are 22-26 which is about double, as they said.

However, a Honda 4×4, CR-V 2.2D was also group 12. But today they’re 27-29, a bit more than double.

A Nissan SUV, X-Trail 2.0D was group 13. Now they’re 32-35. That’s a lot more than double.

To make you feel better think of those paying for SUVs in car insurance groups 40-50 which include the Audi Q7, BMW X6, BMW X5, Discovery, Infiniti EX, Range Rover, Lexus RX, M-Class, Touareg, and XC90.

Regards
Ralph
carbuyersinfo car comparisons

What Do Women Think of Women Only Car Insurance?

When a car salesperson sells a car they explain what’s going to happen and is needed for delivery. One requirement is a certificate of car insurance to tax the car.

Sometimes the car buyer will ask for advice or tips about car insurance. When the buyer was a woman I always said they’d be OK and there were plenty of car insurance companies advertising to women drivers, even women only car insurance.

I’d get a little chuckle when the lady was obviously in her 60s or 70s and I’d ask if they were over 50 because there is car insurance for women over 50.

The surprising thing was I only got an occasional smug smile suggesting they believed they paid lower car insurance premiums.

The most typical response was, ‘Oh yes, they want your business but they don’t give you a better deal.’

My experience is female drivers generally pay lower premiums than male drivers – especially young drivers. However, car insurance companies punting for women drivers are not necessarily the cheapest.

So it’s the same old advice, you’ve got to shop around. It’s best to first enquire at direct car insurance companies with as many companies as you possibly can, before using car insurance comparison sites. Also compare the features in the policy as well as the premium.

Regards
Ralph 
carbuyersinfo Car Comparison Site - Similarities and Differences Revealed