It pays to shop around! (Motor Insurance in general)

Name: pjs21

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Product:	Motor Insurance in general
Date:	25.05.01 (322 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pays for the damage

Disadvantages: Damages you wallet

So here we are again. It's that time of year when all of those payments are due. Road Tax and Car Insurance are the most crippling things, especially when they both expire on the same day.

On the televison this morning I heard some devastating news for us drivers. The average insurance policy of £336.00 has gone up within the past year to over £600. I could've cried. How on earth would I be able to afford to keep my car going? It was time to phone around as many companies as I could.

Having been on the internet and phone for the morning and contacted 13 companies for quotes, these are my results and general comments on the service given.

The quotes provided are for the following criteria.

28 year old single male, 1 years no claims, no convictions, claims or illnesses. Excess £150. Comprehensive Insurance. Peugeot 106, 1124cc. W Registration. Social and Domestic use, plus to and from work. Only named driver. Car valued at £6500.

Very basic stuff.

I shall write a review of 6 of the companies and to save time, a brief outline on the rest.

1. Direct Line Insurance

The first company I contacted. Direct Line were recommended to me by my dad, having just saved himself £150 by going over to them. Their quote to me was £520. Or a deposit of £100, plus ten monthly-instalments of £49.00. Paying this way takes the premium up to £590.

The member of staff was very efficient and friendly and explained the services offered without having to be asked.

2. Norwich Union

I first tried to use the online quote system offered by Norwich Union. Half way through it told me that it couldn't match my address to the postcode given. So, after trying my old postcode and various ways of typing it in, I decided to call them.

The line was very feint, which didn't help matters. I explained the situation to the guy on the end of the phone, gave him all my det
ails. He explained that my new postcode wasn't recognised and asked if it was a new area. This is Watford, not that new! He said he'd sort it out on their system and would I mind holding. So I held. And I held. And I held a little longer. Ten minutes in total. Then his sunny voice appeared once more.

"Right, I've added your postcode to the system so when you go back online for a quote you won?t have any problems."

And that was that! He didn't offer to give me a quote over the phone, I had to go back online. I wasn't going to but I thought I may as well see what they came up with.

£623.98. Instalments could be made with an admin fee on top.

3. its4me.co.uk

I hadn't heard of this company before and found them on the Autotrade Website following a link on Dooyoo.

A simple form asking all of the usual questions. It was fast to load and took about three minutes to get through. The premium came up at £777.91. The most expensive of all the companies I tried.

4. AXA

Again I started off using the web site for an online quote and having filled out all of the questions and pressed the "Instant Quote" button I received a message saying that this service was currently unavailable. Quite frustrating, if only they'd said it before I'd spent five minutes filling out the form.

So, I picked up the phone and called the free phone number provided.

I was asked what my best quote so far had been and for what excess etc. When the quote came through it was the best on I'd had yet with the same details provided as anywhere else: £474.09. The terms and conditions were explained in full to me and he offered to send a quote along with all details out in the post before I made up my mind. The service I received from AXA was probably the best as far as manner, efficiency and attention to detail. He actually sounded interested in what
I wanted and the information I required.

5. Elephant.co.uk

I hadn't heard of this online company before, but an ad on Virgin Radio prompted me to look them up. Their site was easy to use and the process of filling out a form was incredibly speedy. The quote was also very good at £383.04. That's very cheap. The reason it is cheap is because your insurance is renewable after 10 months, at which point, if you have no claims, you get your no claims bonus 2 months early. You can choose the 12 month option, with that the premium rose to £420.00. Which was still good. There were however two snags. The first ? you can't pay in instalments, you have to by the full amount by credit or debit card. The 2nd, they are part of Admiral Insurance, which as I know, most of you seem to hate.

Although the quote was the cheapest, I need to pay in instalments, so they were unfortunately out of the question for me.

I did phone them up to ask about instalments and a couple of other issues I couldn't find on the site and the customer service was very good. Beware though, calls cost a whopping 60p per minute.

6. AA

Okay, the TV ad made me try this one. The site was incredibly slow to load and the questions came in one at a time to start with and finally a had a whole pages worth. It was very slow and tedious. Also pointless, the premium was £630 if paid in full or £741.00 if paid monthly over 12 months.

The rest were all much of a much-ness.

Tangent (Watford Office) £658.00
Abbey National £716.00
Admiral Insurance £466.00
EGG £673.07
Nationwide Building Society £584.00
Quotelinedirect.co.uk £711.00

So who was the 13th? Who was the lucky winner of my money this year.

The final company I phoned.

Peugeot Direct, who I've had free insurance through for past year after buying a new 106. The premium came in at a very impressive £396.00. Monthly
instalments with no admin charges or penalties. £100 excess and Legal cover up to £50,000.00 included.

Why, oh why didn't I phone them in the first place?

A good question.

The only answer I can give is this ? If I had, this would have been a very short opinion.

Summary: