Insurance Premium after stolen/recovered

[TobyMellin]

So this time last year, my 2000 90 TD5 was stolen. After 2 days I received a phone call to say it had be found, awesome.

I went down to the crime scene, the back quarter was all smashed in, the rear door was damaged beyond repair, the drivers door was damaged, the radio had been stolen, they had somehow snapped both rear shockers and caused other various body damage.

The quote to repair came back at £3100 all in, which the insurer agreed to pay.

Now 12 months on, I've had my renewal through. I was originally paying £600 a year (25 years old). It has now shot up to £2100! I've shopped around and cant seem to get it any cheaper!

Does anyone have any advice? I didn't even pay that much on a TD5 at the age of 17!

I refuse to pay this amount at the age of 25 with 7 years no claims!

 

Cheers

Toby

[landroversforever]

It will be higher now though as you've claimed? So you'll be starting again with your NCB?

 

[TobyMellin]

My insurance company have knocked my no claims down the 3 years.

The insurance system is ridiculous, because some little p*^&k stole my car and smashed it up, I should have to pay for it

I suppose there's nothing I can do, except look for another vehicle

[Retroanaconda]

How many years NCB do you have to claim with? Are you saying 3 years?

If so, combined with a recent significant claim and (I suspect?) a high-risk postcode it seems you are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Frankly the insurance companies are just as much a bunch of robbing c***s as the vehicle thieves themselves, however as you rightly alluded to someone has to pay for that payout. Alas it is never the culprit who ends up paying, only the owner through a vastly inflated premium and by extension other owners through their premiums.

All I can suggest is keep looking around, and try and talk to people - they can at least explain the reasoning behind the quotes. Or try to.

[David Sparkes]

Just thinking idly of some work-arounds; basically reducing the cover, so reducing the cost.

I suppose a year 2000 vehicle is too young to be considered a Classic in insurance terms, but can a restricted mileage policy be found? Say 6 or 10k a year?
My 2 year old run-about has a mileage restriction, IIRC it's their minimum of 10k, which is more than enough for someone who has only done 6k year for each of the last 3 years.
My understanding (and limited experience) is that NCB does not apply to true 'Classic car' policies. You may need to look at firms other than the normal ones you have approached so far.
This begs the question; How many miles per year have you done over the last 3 years?

Does it cost in to make arrangements to keep it off the street (assuming it's street parked now)?
Have you tried what the premiums are for a more run of the mill car; something really boring and normally cheap on insurance?
If the premiums are still high because of your claim history it puts a new angle on the '90 v ordinary car' discussion.

Regards.

[Early90]

Try adding an older relative, with no recent claims, as a named driver. See what happens.

[L90-v8]

my 1999 disco is on a classic policy

[Cynic-al]

I have protected no claims and I was surprised when I did insurance quotes with and without my last claim the price came out the same.

However I agree, the whole no claim thing sucks, they will only let you use your no claims bonus on one policy, surely the fact that you haven't claimed means that you haven't claimed so you should be able to use it on as many policies as you like? Then on the flip side if you make a claim on one policy you have to declare your accident to all policies and they put your price up even though they haven't paid out a penny. Rubbish! I've just changed a car and they charged me £100 to change for 6 months on a policy that was £230 for the full year just because they know I wasn't likely to start ringing around and trying to cancel claiming back part of the policy.

 

Anyway things to try;

- add a partner or parent, in the past this has brought my policy down.

- restrict mileage or use

- add a black box

- insure in someone elses name with you as the listed main driver or lay it up for a year and get a very cheap run around to build your no claims back up

- leave it at someone elses address who lives in a more reputable area and insure it at that address if practical

- get a trade policy. You have to be very careful with the terms and conditions of a trade policy but a friend of mine has one, pays around £700 a year and has something like 24 cars at the moment, although I don't know if they're all listed on the policy as some are laid up.

[landroversforever]

44 minutes ago, Cynic-al said:

However I agree, the whole no claim thing sucks, they will only let you use your no claims bonus on one policy, surely the fact that you haven't claimed means that you haven't claimed so you should be able to use it on as many policies as you like?

This one grates on me... My daily is a '65 plate John Cooper Works mini with 240bhp... costs me about £500 a year for 14000. Then, my little runaround for the dirty jobs is my little old Peugeot 206, a lowly 1.1L that had 60bhp when it was new in 2002... that costs me about the same to insure for only 2000 miles!  All because my no claims is used up on the mini. They're even with the same company. 

[L19MUD]

1 hour ago, Cynic-al said:

 

- get a trade policy. You have to be very careful with the terms and conditions of a trade policy but a friend of mine has one, pays around £700 a year and has something like 24 cars at the moment, although I don't know if they're all listed on the policy as some are laid up.

Would be interested to know who this policy is with please?

 

I use admiral multicar - currently have a 300tdi 110, 200tdi 90, Series 2a 88, 2012 A5 S Line Black 3.0 Tdi, and a 2010 Range Rover Vogue SE all on the same policy and pay a total of £850! I do live in Sunny Suffolk, all cars on private driveway/garage and I have 10 to 13 years no claims on all of them. I am 32 and my OH is also 32.

The 3 older ones are all on 'Classic' agreed value terms with sub 6k per year mileage

[TobyMellin]

22 hours ago, Retroanaconda said:

How many years NCB do you have to claim with? Are you saying 3 years?

If so, combined with a recent significant claim and (I suspect?) a high-risk postcode it seems you are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Frankly the insurance companies are just as much a bunch of robbing c***s as the vehicle thieves themselves, however as you rightly alluded to someone has to pay for that payout. Alas it is never the culprit who ends up paying, only the owner through a vastly inflated premium and by extension other owners through their premiums.

All I can suggest is keep looking around, and try and talk to people - they can at least explain the reasoning behind the quotes. Or try to.

I did have a7 years NCB, never made a claim since I started driving, but since the theft, they have reduced this to 3 years as I claimed for the damage to the car.

22 hours ago, David Sparkes said:

Just thinking idly of some work-arounds; basically reducing the cover, so reducing the cost.

I suppose a year 2000 vehicle is too young to be considered a Classic in insurance terms, but can a restricted mileage policy be found? Say 6 or 10k a year?
My 2 year old run-about has a mileage restriction, IIRC it's their minimum of 10k, which is more than enough for someone who has only done 6k year for each of the last 3 years.
My understanding (and limited experience) is that NCB does not apply to true 'Classic car' policies. You may need to look at firms other than the normal ones you have approached so far.
This begs the question; How many miles per year have you done over the last 3 years?

Does it cost in to make arrangements to keep it off the street (assuming it's street parked now)?
Have you tried what the premiums are for a more run of the mill car; something really boring and normally cheap on insurance?
If the premiums are still high because of your claim history it puts a new angle on the '90 v ordinary car' discussion.

Regards.

I can't see a 2000 year car being considered for a classic policy yet, but it's worth a try I suppose! I normally rack up around 15k a year. I've now changed the vehicle to being locked in a garage (now locked up in the workshop every night). I could afford to pay the £2100 a year, but I can't bring myself to do it out of principle! I'm being left with not much choice but to sell the 90 and get a company vehicle and maybe a project Land Rover.

 

[mickeyw]

Sounds like you're insured with Dick Turpin and Associates. With a hike that that you may as well have stumped up the £3k repair yourself and not claimed in the first place, grrr!

My experience with classic policies is that the vehicle covered can't be your only transport. Some companies don't allow commuting on classic policies.

Limiting the mileage certainly helps. Our cars (we have 3 between the two of us) are all on about a 4k  year allowance each,  and we don't normally manage that much.  

Postcode is certainly a major factor  - there's not a lot you can do about that. I can't see that insuring in another name at the same address will help.

[Bowie69]

5 minutes ago, mickeyw said:

My experience with classic policies is that the vehicle covered can't be your only transport. Some companies don't allow commuting on classic policies.

 

My experience is counter to that, I have a classic policy on my Audi, less than £200/year for what was a group 19 car back in the day, no limit to mileage, and business class use, of all people provided by RAC(!), but had the same policy underwriters under Lloyds the previous year. (When they tried to hike it to £300 I just left them!)

[Cynic-al]

1 hour ago, L19MUD said:

Would be interested to know who this policy is with please?

 

I use admiral multicar - currently have a 300tdi 110, 200tdi 90, Series 2a 88, 2012 A5 S Line Black 3.0 Tdi, and a 2010 Range Rover Vogue SE all on the same policy and pay a total of £850! I do live in Sunny Suffolk, all cars on private driveway/garage and I have 10 to 13 years no claims on all of them. I am 32 and my OH is also 32.

The 3 older ones are all on 'Classic' agreed value terms with sub 6k per year mileage

Will find out the details of his policy when I see him but I know there are certain hoops he jumps through for it to be a trade policy.

[honitonhobbit]

Might I suggest you also look to get some training. RoSPA Bronze, Silver and Gold drops the price down, as does Advanced Motorist

Insurance is a game though. I've just had a quote through form my present insurer (Swinton) for Fully Comp on a VW Toerag V10 (05 plate), my wife and I to drive, no nasty bits to pay before we get the moolah. I told them about the chip (370bhp/660ft/lb) and it's cheaper than my 55 plate A4 S Line 2.0Tdi (no mods at all). A4 is £455.00 and the Toerag will be £435.00. Crazy - but I'm happy

[Cynic-al]

On ‎17‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 1:03 PM, L19MUD said:

Would be interested to know who this policy is with please?

 

I use admiral multicar - currently have a 300tdi 110, 200tdi 90, Series 2a 88, 2012 A5 S Line Black 3.0 Tdi, and a 2010 Range Rover Vogue SE all on the same policy and pay a total of £850! I do live in Sunny Suffolk, all cars on private driveway/garage and I have 10 to 13 years no claims on all of them. I am 32 and my OH is also 32.

The 3 older ones are all on 'Classic' agreed value terms with sub 6k per year mileage

I asked him about the policy, it's through a broker, it used to be a trade policy but when he stopped trading they transferred it to a multicar policy but he can have any number of cars he just has to phone them to let them know what he's bought. Obviously he's the only driver of all of them. Upto 3.5 tonne and upto 8 seats.

[L19MUD]

Thanks for finding out

[Happyoldgit]

Insurance certainly is a game no matter the item covered.

Totally off topic but equine insurance has to be one of the biggest rip-offs. You insure the horse for injury / sickness & vet fee cover and during the period of cover it injures itself but the vet and you manage to nurse it back to fine health - at a cost. You claim for the fees and treatment and the insurance duly pays yet come renewal time you find the insurers have excluded and will no longer cover those bits of the animal that are now fully healed and back to normal. To use an analogy with motor insurance - you dent a wing, claim on the insurance and they cover the cost or repairs - but come renewal time discover that they will no longer cover that wing for any further damage.

[honitonhobbit]

Also off topic

Same with most domesticated animals Steve - but not cats.

I find the most complex and difficult is overland travel insurance organised in the UK. It's ridiculous. Most other countries make it really simple

[AMB]

Half on, half off topic.

After my 110 CSW was stolen my no claims on that car was reduced from 11 years to 3.  Premium to insure another plus imposed exclusions are unacceptable.  Not wanting another to be stolen and not seeing how I could have done more to prevent it, I am no longer an LR owner.  Perhaps sometime in the future.  Police attitude did not help.  Local PCSO sympathised, but nothing was done despite reliable sighting and possibility of CCTV coverage along the route. 

In investigating insurance, I did find it best to go to a broker that I could talk to face to face.  They found a company who would make allowance for the fact that the 110 was a low mileage second car and that I had max ncb on the main car.

The off topic whinge - why has my travel insurance rocketed after investigation confirmed that I don't have a medical condition?  I'm a diabetic and take some medications because of my family health history.  All that has been declared in previous years.  No problem.  This year I have had some hospital checks - all clear.  No indication of those family health problems.  Yet, when informing my insurance company (as required by the policy) the cost has gone up - despite the lower risk.  It's all a con.

 

[Arjan]

Reading all this cr.p - I'm glad to live on this side of the Channel....

3 LR's together for € 230 a year, green card for most of Europe & northern Africa, etc. Recovery, glass, indicators, too, included. I do wonder what that Toureg V10 will do here, though...

We have after 8 years of not making a claim that you get to make 3 claims before the premium goes up.

Bon Courage.

[neil110]

We talked about this at work and came to the conclusion that the premium you pay when you have the max no claims discount is what the insurance company needs to provide you with insurance whilst still making a profit. Everything above that is pure profit.

Had a crash, years ago, dropped a bike in pouring rain on the A5. Repairs, after paying the excess, came to £1012. premium had been £247. The renewal quote for the premium was £1259.

[Cynic-al]

Well at the end of the day if they didn't make money they wouldn't be there, they're not a government service. They base it on risk and statistics, if they price themselves out the market they wouldn't earn any money either so it's kind of self regulating even if its annoying.

What annoys me if when the courts stick their nose in and make rulings like they can't make a womans insurance cheaper based on gender. If the statistics show that they pay out less to women then men then it costs them less so they should charge less.

[Bowie69]

I think the point is, it is supposed to be insurance, and the insurance company should have the financial backup to pay these claims, and not have to raise the individual premium next year.

After your truck was stolen, did it make the risk any greater next year? No, certainly not. That is why they are thieves. 

Same for accidents, if you have one you tend to drive much more carefully and therefore less likely to crash, though of course this is far more subjective. 

[Cynic-al]

I believe the statistics show that if you've been involved in an accident your more likely to be involved in another one sooner rather than later. I couldn't say what the logic is. 

To be fair to them the last claim I had with protected no claims the renewal didn't go up. 

I believe if you have enough money to cover a claim you don't need insurance but I've never been in a position to need to look into the details:)