Cheap Quote, crap service (Diamond Car Insurance)

Member Name: jonroach

Product:	Diamond Car Insurance
Date:	05/12/02 (1757 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap Quote

Disadvantages: Poor service

I originally wrote this opinion for Admiral Car Insurance, but as Admiral, Diamond and Elephant Car Insurance are run by the same company I decided to include this opinion under these headings as well. Sorry if you have already read this review. If you haven't, then sorry for the long op, but the tips for a cheaper quote at the end are well worth a look.

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Several years ago I insured my car with Admiral car insurance and I was, like many of the other comments on this page, disappointed with the company.

When I insured my car with Admiral the quote they offered me was by far the cheapest so went with them. At first everything seemed alright, I paid the premium and drove around happy in the knowledge I was fully insured. Then after several months I moved house. I rang Admiral to tell them and was told there would be a £22 increase in premium, I couldn’t quite work out why this was since I felt I was moving to a ‘safer’ area. A few weeks later I read through my insurance forms and realized that although I had paid £22 for moving house, the increase in premium was only £7, the remaining £15 was their ‘administration fee’ which they charge if there is ever an increase or decrease in premium.

With my moving to a different area I also was able to take advantage of the local train service and no longer needed to use my car for commuting to work. Naturally I thought this might mean a decrease in premium so I eagerly rang Admiral to see how much it would be. I was disappointed to be told that there was no decrease in premium, however I was required to send off my insurance certificate since there had been a reduction in cover and a new one would have to be issued so I sent it off and awaited my new certificate. This certificate never arrived and I needed to buy a new tax disc for my car so contacted Admiral.

I decided that I should start by making sure th
ere was no refund for not using your car for commuting to work. I was told by the phone operator that there would be a refund. I told him that I had taken commuting off my insurance some months ago and was told there was no refund. I then asked for my refund and was told that the refund could only take effect from that day and it couldn’t be back-dated. I protested and told them they told me I wasn’t entitled to a refund when I was and that it should be back-dated. After some discussion I was told that my £9.34 refund (which wasn’t back-dated) would be increased by £10 to £19.34 as a gesture of goodwill. This was still subject to their obscene £15 administration charge which they refused to wavier (i.e. the total refund was £24.34 but after taking their £15 fee only £9.34 was left). Then the subject of the insurance certificate, firstly they tried to charge me £15 for a new one saying they had no record of receiving it. After about 10 minutes of complaining they eventually agreed to send me a new one free of charge.

The final kick in the teeth came when I received my renewal notice. After lots of phoning around I came across a cheaper quote with another company, I was very glad since I couldn’t wait to change insurance companies. I then looked at my renewal notice which had a message to the effect of:

“….don’t worry about renewing your insurance, we will automatically take the money from your chosen method of payment.”

This has been highlighted by another dooyoo contributor, basically they assume you will be renewing your insurance with them and charge your credit card or debit card which I think is awful. Especially when you read further down the letter and if you don’t want them to be your insurers you have to ring them – which of course I did and thought the matter was resolved. That was until I received my credit card bill only to find they had taken the money anyway! I imm
ediately contacted my credit card company who told me the quickest way to get the money back was for me to contact Admiral and get them to re-credit my card. Yet more time on the phone, only to be told that they would only refund the money if I would tell them my new insurer and policy number. I did eventually get my money back.

So Admiral do give cheap premiums, but their customer service is terrible. If you have to make any changes you will have to pay their charges. There are however ways to get even cheaper premiums from them, and if you read on then I will tell you how!

These bits of advice cover the whole Admiral group, that is Admiral, Diamond and Elephant Insurance – they are basically all the same company.

Firstly get a quote over the internet, most companies give you a 5 – 10% discount and the Admiral group is no exception. Their website is reasonably easy to use and you can buy on-line and get immediate cover.

If you are female use Diamond and not Admiral, this is because Diamond is only for women and they get cheaper premiums. So if you are a woman I suggest you take advantage of this, if you are a bloke then you will probably moan and scream injustice but think of all the things that us men can do that women can’t, for example – going to the loo standing up! No amount of savings on a car insurance premiums can give women the ability to do this, and if you have ever been to a football match, pop concert or visited a rock festival then you will know the advantages of this!

When you fill in your details on the internet then you will find the website automatically puts your average annual mileage at 10,000 this is because they regard this as being what most people do. If you do less than 10,000 miles/year make sure you change it. But what if you do about 10,000 miles/year? Well change it to 9,999 miles/year, when I did this it knocked about £20 off my premium. I assume this is because
they work along the lines of people doing say, 7,000 – 9,999 miles/year pay so much and those doing 10,000 – 12,999 pay a bit more.

Most insurance companies charge more to put additional drivers on your policy unless they are your spouse. However something interesting I found with Admiral, Diamond and Elephant is that by adding an additional driver, whoever they are, actually DECREASED the premium! Now if you are married or have a partner who is on your policy then there is nothing you can do. But of you are single then put someone else on it, your mum, your dad, brother, sister, mate from down the pub! Just put someone else on it, just because they are on your policy doesn’t mean they have to drive the car (this is important if the only person who you can think of to add to your policy is your brother who drives like a maniac!)

Finally, by paying by credit card is slightly cheaper than debit card. So if you are paying for it in one go then go for the credit card. If you are thinking of paying by installments by direct debit then check what the APR is going to be. Usually it is pretty expensive, and you might be able to get it cheaper on a credit card. For example some credit cards offer 0% interest for 6 months, or low interest rates for so many months and might be cheaper, and you also have the option for paying it off over a term which suits you and you are not bound by the insurance companies fixed term payments and saving yourself more money.

It is also worth pointing out that if you are currently a holder of a policy with Admiral or Diamond which you took out over the phone then when you get your renewal premium you might be able to save yourself some money by following the advice above. My wife did just this. She had taken out insurance with Diamond which cost about £500, when the renewal premium arrived for the following year it had INCRESED to £540 despite her getting an additional years no-claims bonus. So w
e cancelled the renewal then took out her next years insurance over the internet which only cost around £400. I wonder what they thought when the proof of no-claims bonus arrived!

Well, that about sums it up. Hopefully you have found this information useful. I don’t know how long this information will apply for, I am sure if everyone starts following the advice above then Admiral will change the way they calculate premiums, but until then, get saving!!!

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