# Insurance, how do they work it out



## Darlofan

Wife had renewal this week. I got on comparison sites and best quote was £127.

Realised later I'd put her at 8yrs no claims but was in fact 10.Also I put commuting to and from work with SDP but as she works from home now no need for that. 

Re entered derails and quote went up by £11! Not massive but 2more yrs no claims and not commuting in rush hour would surely lower the risk?


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## cole_scirocco

They would probably end up saying with it being sat for longer periods of time it may be easier to steal... or some other **** and bull story.


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## Mikesphotaes

Money-grabbing sods!


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## Darlofan

Thinking about it though. The house insurance will drop because wife is home now so rarely unoccupied. 🤔


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## MDC250

Darlofan said:


> Thinking about it though. The house insurance will drop because wife is home now so rarely unoccupied.


Not necessarily, they may load the premium to reflect more risk of damage whilst in the house.


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## Andy from Sandy

I do wonder if continual use of the same site gets you an increase similar to how continually checking credit score used to affect that. Other than that a random number generator.


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## MDC250

Anecdotally there does seem to be a sweet spot in getting online quotes too early or too late, you may end up paying more than you might otherwise do. In the run up to renewal I get an outlier quote about 3 weeks before and then use that to work from. Renewing on the day it was due over the phone while on holiday cost me dearly one year


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## Darlofan

MDC250 said:


> Anecdotally there does seem to be a sweet spot in getting online quotes too early or too late, you may end up paying more than you might otherwise do. In the run up to renewal I get an outlier quote about 3 weeks before and then use that to work from. Renewing on the day it was due over the phone while on holiday cost me dearly one year


Oh yeah I never leave it that late that's why I got on it straight away. Have heard a few times as well that since auto renewal started the renewal notice mysteriously doesn't seem to get sent!!


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## MDC250

I forgot my wedding anniversary on the same holiday. That cost me even more


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## Darlofan

MDC250 said:


> I forgot my wedding anniversary on the same holiday. That cost me even more


Oh god!!


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## Cookeh

_EDIT: Interesting, it seems like 4 posts vanished into thin air whilst writing mine...which now no longer has any context_

I have always found the agent I'm dealing with to be pleasant and largely helpful, so it is not them I have a problem with. My problem, and I imagine most other peoples, is the random multiplier that seems to exist. It often feels like we have a base cost for our premium (depending on age, car, NCB, postcode, etc - which makes perfect sense), but then that cost increases utterly randomly depending on other factors. How, for example, does the time of day I call at affect my ability to drive in a safe and conscientious manner? Or indeed how does the number of days away from renewal affect my premium? Why is it that quotes from the same insurer can vary by up to 20% if I simply get a requote 10 minutes later? I imagine that is what annoys others most, it's certainly what annoys me most.

The other thing that gets insurers a bad name, and again I imagine this is not the fault of the agent but company policy, is having to call in on the phone to get to the actual premium cost. It is apparent that insurers already have a renewal figure calculated, so why is it the renewal quote that comes via a letter is significantly higher than this. It is truly disdainful to send a renewal letter through saying my premium will be, say £450, only to then drop that the second I call to £300. Often no explanation is given, and if one is it is normally something asinine like "loyalty discount". £300, in this scenario, is obviously the true value the insurer calculated, making the renewal quote by letter nothing short of deceitful.


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## ollienoclue

It's insurance companies: none of them lie in bed straight at night. Same with getting a renewal letter/chancer saying premium will be near 50-100% more than last year, you ring up and it magically reduces. It's almost calculated to **** you off.


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## J306TD

The other half is with Quote Me Happy. Her renewal was £70 less than last year and £50 cheaper than anywhere else.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk


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## Andy from Sandy

I have recently renewed my car insurance.

The insurance company sent me new proposal showing £243. Last year I paid £213. They say they have cut the cost of legal protection to £15.

I do a search on comparison site and a couple of quotes come up at £180 but a similar 5 star company is quoting £220.

I ring insurance company as a courtesy to say I won't be renewing.

New quote £195.


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## Christian6984

J306TD said:


> The other half is with Quote Me Happy. Her renewal was £70 less than last year and £50 cheaper than anywhere else.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk


Ive been with quotemehappy for a few years, both cars are insured with them. They have been one of the cheapest for me, sometimes a few quid more than comparison sites but not enough to justify the hassle to change and send proof on NCD. Company is part of Aviva and nearly everything is managed online to save on costs, except claims and perhaps removing them or convictions (I do wish policies would automatically remove these when the time comes they no longer need to be declared, I'm guessing they don't but have a few years to wait to find out as my crash was 2018). I also like the fact you can turn off auto-renewal yourself without having to ring up to have it turned off. I haven't ever forgot to sort my insurance, one of them is on my birthday for starters and you get email/texts etc, so from that perspective of not having to be on the phone is brilliant, I remember going through everything with Direct Line when I started driving, least technology is good for somethings.


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## ollienoclue

It does strike me that these insurance quotes and how they magically can drop a renewal quote is in need of some decent consumer protection by a regulatory body. There can't be much difference in how risk is calculated, so much of this is surely based on margin they can make?


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