This is more a cautionary tale about an insurer than a recommendation I'm afraid but it might make people think before accepting an insurance policy.
I am so upset with my insurance company, who had better remain nameless in case they sue me on top of everything else. Perhaps naively I assumed ... Read review
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Advantages: You don't get prosecuted for having none, peace of mind till you need help! Disadvantages: Expense, hassle, not there when you need help.
This is more a cautionary tale about an insurer than a recommendation I'm afraid but it might make people think before accepting an insurance policy.
I am so upset with my insurance company, who had better remain nameless in case they sue me on top of everything else. Perhaps naively I assumed they were there to help if the worst happened to my car, so I could replace it without much expense.
I cruised along with this ... ...pear shaped. Were they there for me? Judge for yourselves.
I was teaching at my regular school (I do supply and have a regular day at this lovely school) and never thought to look outside to check my car. However after school my colleague asked where it was. I said "where it usually is" and she told me to look. Lo and behold, it was gone. My colleague called thge police who asked me if I had the keys. I went to check my handbag. ... more
This is more a cautionary tale about an insurer than a recommendation I'm afraid but it might make people think before accepting an insurance policy.
I am so upset with my insurance company, who had better remain nameless in case they sue me on top of everything else. Perhaps naively I assumed they were there to help if the worst happened to my car, so I could replace it without much expense.
I cruised along with this cosy view of the situation until May when things went pear shaped. Were they there for me? Judge for yourselves.
I was teaching at my regular school (I do supply and have a regular day at this lovely school) and never thought to look outside to check my car. However after school my colleague asked where it was. I said "where it usually is" and she told me to look. Lo and behold, it was gone. My colleague called thge police who asked me if I had the keys. I went to check my handbag. It had gone too. So I had lost not only my car but also my keys, mobile and other bits and pieces which were a pain to replace. I had to phone my husband to cancel my cards and to get onto our neighbour (very conveniently he's a locksmith) to change our house locks as I couldn't be sure if my address was in my bag. We also had to arrange for the electric locks on my husband's car to be changed, as I had a key for his car in my bag.
So it was a lot of hassle. All 3 insurers were helpful on the phone. That night at midnight I got a call from a PC in Bradford who told me they had found my car but it looked like a write-off. Two 16 year olds lads had crashed it while running away from the police.
My insurers said this made things easier to sort and they would get an engineer's report asap. I pointed out that I was losing work and money; as a supply teacher a lot of work comes at short notice and I wasn't able to do it as my husband needed the car. They were sympathetic and said they would do their best to speed things up.
After a few days I hadn't heard any more so I phoned up and they said an offer was on its way. I asked if they knew how much and was told £750. I was gutted! I'd had the car only 13 months and had paid £1695 for it. I knew I wouldn't get that, but the car was now 10 years old and we couldn't see that it would have depreciated nearly 50% in a year at that age. The woman on the phone agreed and suggested I appeal and send in ads of similar cars showing the price. I did so; we couldn't find many similar as it was a Sapphire limited edition with 2 airbags and electric windows etc, but we sent in ones as close as we could. We got a reply saying they would not increase the offer as the engineer said it was in average condition with dull paintwork (whatever that meant) and a bit of rust. (the latter was cosmetic, my husband was waiting for a dry day to sort it out as we have no garage!)
I contacted my broker who was wonderful and said she'd look for ads and write to the insureres. She couldn't find any cars like mine for under £1250 so sent them the ads and requested a bit more money for me. They informed me they would up the offer to £900, which we felt was very much a token gesture and would not enable me to replace my car. The broker phoned them and pointed this out but they said they went on the price in a certain directory and top price it gave for mine was £1100. The broker pointed out that I'd had a lot of hassle with this and that we couldn't find a replacement car for their price as the ads proved, to which they replied that they took no notice of ads as it always cost more to buy a car than the price in the directory.
This incensed me as it was tantamount to saying that they never gave people adequate money to replace their cars. I'd been paying them my premiums for over 3 years and had over 10 years' No Claims' bonus, so I thought I'd kept my side of things and now they were letting me down. I have written to them detailing the story and my feelings about it and await their reply with interest.
In the meantime we had to accept their £900 which we've put in an account till we can make it up to the price of a car similar to my old one. So I am carless after my dealings with them. Why did I bother! My dad said they are only out to make money, not to help you, and I think they proved him right.
Thanks for reading. Just check that you know what will happen if you need the insurerers to pay up.
Advantages: It's a legal requirement! Disadvantages: You have to really shop around for a good price
Company cars are great. You don't have to worry about anything. Somebody else services them and pays the bills, and if you crash them it's not your insurance that pays out.
So after seven years of driving company cars I was incredibly ignorant of the whole insurance industry. Purchasing my own car after such a long time was a daunting enough task, but once the deposit was paid on a 2000-model Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited with a four-litre engine ... ...In these wonderful days of the Internet insurance quotes can be obtained online, but only if your circumstances are straight forward. I didn't have an official no claims discount as I hadn't had my own insurance for so long, even though I'd driven for five years without any accidents. With all the caveats and legalities surrounding insurance I decided that the web was the wrong way to go about it, so I got hold of the Yellow Pages and set about phoning ...
markd_uk 17.10.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Motor Insurance - In general
Advantages: A MUST HAVE ITEM Disadvantages: PROOF OF THE PUDDING IS ONLY WHEN MAKING A CLAIM!
In the UK motor insurance is a legal requirement. It is against the law if you use (or permit to be used) a motor vehicle on the public highway without third party insurance - to quote the Road Traffic Act.
I have been in this business for some 15 years now and I realised a long time ago that if this law should ever change I'd be out of a job!
Motor insurers continually get bad press. Quite simply for every 100 satisfied customers there will always ... ...that you hear about because it's more interesting to the media.
In my opinion if you follow these few basic rules, you will not go far wrong!
A) ALWAYS tell the truth. You may save a few quid by telling fibs but you may as well not bother insuring your car at all if you've told porkies.
B) DO NOT make assumptions. Just because you have comprehensive cover this DOES NOT mean that you're covered to drive any car! In fact, you're just as likely to ...
toffeeboy 20.03.2004 (26.03.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Motor Insurance - In general
Advantages: See text of opinion Disadvantages: See text of opinion
...our (compulsory) insurance for our motor vehicles.
Before I get started, let me state that I’m NOT some raving left wing Socialist, who believes that anybody in life that makes a healthy profit should be put against the nearest wall and shot at dawn. We live in a Capitalist system here in the West, and I mostly go along with that system, for all its faults, as I think that the principle that the harder that someone works, or if they come up ... ...for an accident in a motor vehicle that was my fault. (I HAVE had a couple of claims AGAINST other drivers though!)
~ ~ My unfortunate experience with car insurance companies began when I first went to obtain insurance on my very first taxi, a ‘bog-standard’ standard Nissan Bluebird 1.6-litre. (I LOVE Bluebirds, by the way, and am now on my fourth!)
My first surprise was that it was impossible for me to ‘shop around’ for ...
the_mad_cabbie 15.08.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Motor Insurance - In general
Advantages: Peace of mind, security. Disadvantages: A bit of extra expense.
Motor Insurance!
We are bombarded with adverts and offers about it from all sides - T.V., newspapers, magazines, e-mail and snail mail!
Do we need it? Of course! Apart from it being a legal requirement, often our cars are the biggest investments in our lives after a house. We need to protect the money we pour into them against that unfortunate day when we have an accident or even worse for some, when you come out of the shops laden with shopping ... ...internet, this type of extra motor insurance is not very well publicised, except when you are at the dealers and purchasing your new car.
A search on the internet will provide lots of companies willing to sell you this insurance cover. You may find out that it cost about £250-£400 for 3 years cover. I found that this was a small price to pay for the peace of mind that it gives me for knowing that the shortfall should a write-off happen again was ...
bwanamdevu 22.10.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Motor Insurance - In general
Advantages: None, I suppose they may pay out if you need to claim. Disadvantages: Too many to list, read on, can't pay by cheque for many companies, won't quote untill I'm 17, TOO EXPENSIVE, too many mistakes, stressfull and after 100 calls, I AM ANNOYED
I am currently 16 years old, so immediately you are probably saying, why does this person need car insurance? Well next week I will be 17 and I'm trying to get my car insured before my birthday, so that I have insurance cover so that I can drive on my birthday. I also need the insurance policy to tax the car. My car is a Fiat Cinquecento, M Reg, with no extra security and has not been modified, it has the tiniest engine you could imagine. An 899cc ... ...cheap to insure compared to a 1.1 litre car which are normally common for the first car.
It should be a group 2 car for insurance purposes, but I have heard that this can change from insurance company to insurance company, as they classify cars differently. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have rung nearly one hundred insurance companies!! Yes that's right, ONE HUNDRED! I started off with some of the big names such as the AA, Churchill and ...
PeterFarrell 06.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Motor Insurance - In general
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Obtaining a competitive yet adequate car insurance can be a very time consuming and expensive business. I spent considerable amount of time looking for new car insurance after my car was written off earlier this year. I had enjoyed 5 years of trouble free motor insurance from CGNU who settled my claim in full, however since the merger with Norwich Union I found that in order to take out a new Policy I would be under new Terms and conditions as proposed by Norwich Union which were not as attractive as the one’s I had previously been enjoying. On this basis I decided to shop around extensively for motorinsurance.
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unlucky enough to have to use my insurance when I had an accident that was my fault last year. They were great. A vehicle was at my disposal by the next day and my car was taken to a local garage. The repairs were done quickly and the car returned to me. The claim was sorted out rapidly and with no hassle. Also, even though I had not paid for protection of my no-claims bonus with my insurance, I am still left with some no-claims bonus years, which I was really impressed at.
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