One of the best (Direct Line)

Member Name: vladimpala

Product:	Direct Line
Date:	17/11/00 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Consistently Cheap for low risk dirvers, good service

Disadvantages: Junk Mail, poor value for higher risks

I have had my own insurance for 9 years now and 7 of them have been with Direct Line.

Every year I have shopped around, by phone or on the internet and for the last 5 years the most I could have saved is £10. That said when I was younger I found considerably better deals and when I considered switching to a Golf GTi the quote from Direct Line certainly wasn't the cheapest - so I guess if you are a bit of a higher risk you can probably get better deals elsewhere (all my cars have been smaller lower risk models). Another plus was the year they allowed me to reduce my cover to theft and fire for 9 months whilst the car was garaged - but I still earned my no claims bonus for that year!

During my time with them I have made 1 no fault claim - reporting the accident on Saturday morning saw the car picked up on Monday morning and returned 10 days later with the repairs covered by the repairers 3 year warranty. Direct Line dealt with the claim quickly and efficiently and chased up the other party's insurer when they were a bit tardy with their payment for my hire car. On the down side I had to organise the hire car myself and reclaim the cost - other insurers will provide the car themselves.

Renewal is a breeze - in fact you don't have to do anything at all unless you don't want to renew. However this a condition of renewal is to allow your details to be used by other Direct Line companies for promotional purposes - and I do get a lot of junk mail from Direct Line (loans , breakdown services, home insurance etc etc).

In other ways service has also been excellent replacement documents arrived promptly when I lost mine, changing cars was a breeze and quotes for potential new cars are easy to obtain.

In summary - consistently amongst the cheapest and good service, but it is still worth shopping around.

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