| Product: |
Motor Insurance - Comments & Tips |
| Date: |
02.07.01 (534 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Cheaper insurance
Disadvantages: Time needed to key in your details on websites
This is going to be a long tale, so please be patient, be prepared to be astonished but, above all, be delighted with the World Wide Web’s never ending capacity to entertain.
It revolves, in this case, around my car insurance which always offers a challenging few hours’ work chasing the cheapest quality quote when the annual renewal notice pops through the letterbox.
For a variety of reasons, which would take too long to go into here, but partially due to the fact that I inherited a lot of Scottish blood from my mother’s side, I have never had a penchant for paying more than necessary for any product or service.
In the case of car insurance it goes deeper because I was fortunate enough to work for many years as a motoring correspondent and enjoyed the privilege of “owning” a brand new car for road test purposes on a weekly basis. That meant an all expenses paid automotive environment for 95 per cent of the year.
However, I still had to maintain a vehicle of my own for emergency purposes – occasionally one road test car would be returned one day and a follow-up vehicle would not be due until the next day or, on rare occasions, another road test user or delivery driver had unfortunately been involved in an accident and the car would be unavailable.
Having my own car either at work or at home as appropriate ensured I was never without transport, but I still had the expense of taxing and insuring it even though its use was strictly limited throughout the year.
The first serious attempt to minimise the insurance outlay came when I acquired an F-registered (1989) 1.3-litre VW Jetta in 1992 with 66,500 miles on the clock. I’d no qualms about that, VWs are built to last and it had a full service history, but my insurance cost proved higher than expected when I notified my insurer of the vehicle change.
When the time came to renew the insurance I decided to scout around
even though I’d been with the insurer, Guardian Royal Exchange, for many years. A few telephone calls quickly brought a considerable saving and the switch was made.
Over the years I repeated the exercise annually and used Touchline, Churchill and Dial Direct amongst others, managing to keep the most recent premiums down to around £155 for fully comprehensive cover. That’s even more remarkable because of the fact that I changed to my present Jetta, a 1.6-litre TX, six years ago, after becoming frustrated with the 1.3-litre version’s lack of punch for overtaking.
The Jetta change had brought the unexpected surprise that it resided in Group 10 of the insurance companies’ ratings rather than the Group Seven of the 1.3, even though the only benefits were an extra 300cc and central locking. No insurance company was able to offer a compelling reason for this very sharp rise in insurance costs, although I suspect it was due to VW’s then quite expensive prices for spare parts.
A year ago, after having been with Touchline for a couple of years, its renewal notice contained the information that my premium was to jump from £155 to a remarkable £237 and that the company would be delighted to again insure my vehicle for the following 12 months. A quick telephone call revealed that Touchline’s continuing losses on motor insurance had led to its switch from an insurer to a broker – hence the higher premium.
I said thanks, but no thanks and keyed in my details on the various Internet websites that provide insurance quotes from a wide range of companies. To my astonishment the least expensive, at £175, proved to be Direct Line who, until then, had always come up with the highest quote of all.
With nothing better seemingly about to emerge I was just about to accept Direct Line’s quotation when an AXA leaflet came through the door as part of the postman’s daily junk mail deliveries. As
I had nothing to lose I rang the freephone number and, bingo, up came a quote for £153.50 and a £10 M and S gift voucher!
Having given the matter all of two seconds’ consideration, I passed on my credit card details and AXA became my latest car insurer. Even more ironic was the fact that it meant a return to Guardian Royal Exchange, a company it had bought out some years previously.
That must seem like a happy ending to you – even cheaper insurance and a gift voucher – but there’s still a sting in this tale to savour.
A week ago AXA sent me its renewal notice and came up with a figure of £177. Knowing that insurance premiums are going up around 20 per cent this year on average, that seemed pretty good to me, especially as I’ve managed to keep the cost down over the years.
But I’m not one to meekly accept the first offer and once again came the trawl over the Net. First stop was Hill Hammond (We’ll save you up to £67) but their cheapest was £220 and highest £304); the same sorry tale dribbled through from the other websites.
I’d just about given up when I had an idea – why not discover what AXA itself would quote over the Net? Curious, I keyed in AXA.com, only to be faced with an almost overwhelming list of its worldwide associate insurance groups. Eventually I found axamotor.co.uk and typed in the details of the car insurance I was “seeking” from them.
This is done using the Quick Quote survey , which proffers an offer you can either accept or reject. I waited for a few seconds before the quote popped up - £167.88 – and, would you believe, a £10 amazon.co.uk gift voucher!
Somewhat taken aback, I hunted for my original AXA renewal notice and rang the customer service number. I explained I was ringing about my car insurance renewal and then casually mentioned that, out of curiosity, I had sought a quote from its own website that pro
ved to be the equivalent of £19 cheaper.
There was a moment of silence and then a request to break off to have a word with a supervisor. After a few minutes the voice at the other end offered the explanation that it was a different division of AXA and that he could not match their offer. I said there was little point in renewing it with them and paying more for the same insurance cover, with which he agreed.
I returned to the AXA website to note which division of the company was involved, which remarkably proved to be AXA Direct, the same as the original insurer. Once more I rang the customer service line and was answered by the same call operator. Once more he “conferred” before coming back with the information that the website operation was housed in a different part of the building and that lower running costs meant customers gained reduced premiums. I said I thought the whole affair was somewhat bizarre and would renew my insurance over the Net. He replied that he entirely agreed with my viewpoint.
The obvious outcome is that I will renew my car insurance – with the same company – at a saving of £19 and if you think that’s not too wonderful, just consider that it pays for my next three months’ surfing costs reading your dooyoo opinions and comments.
So this long tale ends here…..well at least until the same time next year!
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