The 2 most tedious tasks of the year for me are shopping around for home and car insurance. First I have to make a short-list of companies and then obtain a quote via telephone or from the web.
This op deals with my search for a car insurance quote last November, why I chose Tesco and a summary of the Tesco car insurance policy. Bear in mind that this is only the third time that I have bought car insurance so I am pretty naïve about the subject.
APATHY IS PROFITABLE
My existing car insurer was Norwich Union Direct. A few months ago they published a survey where 8 out of 10 car owners did not shop around for quotes. They simply stayed with their existing insurer.
So NU Direct gave new clients a discount in order to attract them. My gripe was that I got no discount despite being with them for the last couple of years. But I could get a discount if I told NU Direct that I was a new customer. It seemed that there was nothing to be gained by being loyal to the company.
NU Direct is probably the best car insurer around. Even my father is a customer. Perhaps subconsciously I wanted to change my car insurer to be different from him.
SHOPPING AROUND FOR QUOTES
I limited myself to 6 quotes plus the renewal quote from Norwich Union Direct. These quotes were obtained in November last year.
When I was younger I could remember my father getting the contact details of at least 10 companies. He would then ring all the companies to get 10 quotes in one go. He would then buy the car insurance straight away. Not bad for an afternoon’s work.
I took about 3 weeks to obtain my quotes. I have listed these quotes below and have given a few details for each company.
Elephant.co.uk Quote: GBP 359.10
The online form was quite easy to fill in. A quote was emailed to me within a couple of days.
I am a sucker for stupid TV advertisements. I only contacted this company because of the giant pink elephant in the TV ads. In London this company sponsors the local weather.
This quote was the most expensive obtained. The helpline cost 60p/minute, which I thought, was expensive. Car breakdown service was provided by Admiral Insurance, whom I have never heard of.
In short this company was similar to Churchill. They have a cuddly animal in their TV ads but shame about the product.
Direct Line Quote: GBP 322.35
The online form took ages to load. There were 3 pages to fill in. But these pages were quite easy to complete. The quote was password protected. This meant that you could amend details at a later date.
Direct Line Rescue is the breakdown service. This was quoted at GBP 70.35.
Over the past couple of years Direct Line has been the 3rd cheapest quote in my list. I love their red telephone. When I went to the Ideal Home Exhibition last year there was a giant red telephone in front of the Direct Line stand.
Legal & General Quote: No quote given
This was the only company, which I contacted by phone. But the criteria for giving a quote were quite restricted. You had to be between 30 and 75 and have a no claim bonus of at least 4 years. I did not fall into this category and was not given a quote. But the customer services staff was very friendly.
Tesco Quote: GBP 282
I shall go into more detail about Tesco later on.
Sainsburys Bank Quote: No quote given
I first went to the Sainsburys home page, then to Sainsburys Bank and finally to the car insurance page. I entered my car details. No quote was given due to the type of vehicle selected. I was quite surprised at this.
Sainsburys only entered the car insurance market last year. Being a new entrant I thought that their quote would be competitive enough to lure customers from other companies.
Virgin Money Quote: No quote given
The online form was quite easy to use. No quote was given, as the postcode was not in the valid format. I entered my postcode in 3 different ways using capitals and lower case. In the end I simply gave up.
The quote was supposed to be given by AA Insurance Services. Their quotes are more expensive than average.
Norwich Union Direct Quote: GBP 295.98
Being my existing car insurer NU Direct sent the renewal form just one week before my policy expired. This meant that I would have had hardly any time to shop around. Luckily I started shopping around for quotes a month before. But this quote was the 2nd cheapest in my list.
BUYING TESCO MOTOR INSURANCE ONLINE
I went to the Tesco homepage to start with. I then clicked on the Tesco Personal Finance icon. Finally I clicked on the car insurance icon.
The online form was very easy to fill in. As I had asked for an online quote from Tesco last year most of my details were already on their database.
I only partially completed the form on my first visit. I was then given a folder number and pin number to return to my quote.
On my next visit to the site I got an error message saying that my details could not be accessed.
The following morning I phoned customer services who were quite helpful. They told me that the bug should have been fixed. But if I could not access the site again then to give them another call to buy the policy over the phone.
This was good advice as they could have lost my business if the web site played up again.
On my next visit to the site I fully completed the form. I also purchased breakdown assistance. I then had to fill in more pages regarding accepting terms and conditions.
The final page showed a summary of my details. I then entered my card details and the process was complete.
I phoned customer services the following morning asking what would be the next sequence of events. A couple of days later I received a package of documents, which took ages to go through. I had to send Tesco my renewal letter from my previous insurer NU Direct as proof of my no claims bonus history.
I then rang customer services again asking about the next sequence of events. But the woman did not know what I was on about.
I went through the policy document and there were a few mistakes all of my own making. I phoned customer services again and a very kind lady made the changes over the phone.
The main advantage of buying online was a 5% discount in the premium.
THE POLICY
The policy booklet comprised of 24 pages. All of it was full of legal gobbledegook. There was some commentary in plain English, which explained things a little better.
For the purposes of this op I reread the policy booklet. But I still could not make head or tail of it.
The proof of the pudding will be when I make a claim which touchwood will never happen.
UNDERWRITER
The underwriter of Tesco car insurance is UK Insurance Limited. I had not previously heard of them, as my knowledge of insurance companies is not very good.
I phoned customer services enquiring about UK Insurance. They said that it was a very solvent company and was a member of the UK Insurance Council or something like that.
This meant that if UK Insurance went bankrupt then policyholders would get some compensation.
The HQ of UK Insurance is in Leeds. I bet that Lee Bowyer, Olivier Dacourt and Robbie Fowler are not policyholders.
BREAKDOWN ASSISTANCE
This year I shopped around for breakdown assistance for the first time.
I looked at the AA site but their quote was around GBP 125. I felt that this was too expensive. I also did not like the fact that the premium would be cheaper if I paid via direct debit. This meant that if I wanted to change my breakdown assistance provider in future then I would have to cancel the direct debit etc. This is simply too much hassle for me.
Luckily Tesco offered 5 levels of breakdown assistance. Green Flag provided the breakdown service. I know next to nothing about them. A few Ciao ops did praise them though.
I opted for the Recovery Plus level, which cost GBP 77.70. This is similar to having the AA Home Start and relay service. The premium was paid at the same time as the motor insurance.
A load of breakdown assistance documents arrived about 4 days after buying the policy online e.g. breakdown assistance, accident checklist booklet, a breakdown assistance sticker for the windscreen and some name cards to pass on to other drivers in the event of an accident.
I saw on the web site that a discount is given on future breakdown assistance if no call-out is made in the first year i.e. a sort of no claims bonus.
CUSTOMER SERVICES
I am quite a gobby person. It takes me 10 minutes to talk about a subject where others would have taken just a minute.
I hate talking to those customer service staff who are succinct and precise to the point. I am sure that they go on certain courses to talk to customers in a professional manner. I guess that time is money.
A few years ago I spoke to someone in customer services who was Scottish. Within 2 minutes I found out that he was a Rangers supporter. The majority of the conversation centred on the recent performances of Rangers team.
I have always found that the Tesco customer services staff spoke in a friendly manner. Over the past couple of years my Tesco car insurance quote was the 2nd cheapest behind NU Direct. Subconsciously I made a note to move to them provided the premiums were reduced.
Last year I paid NU Direct over the phone and spoke to a grumpy lady. She simply took my card details and was quite curt with me. There was no ‘thanks for your business, sir’ etc. I felt bad being treated this way after spending about GBP 350.
The point I am trying to make is that I would rather buy a product from friendly customer services staff rather that rude staff even if it means losing out financially.
TESCO AND ME
I remember shopping at Tesco back in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Hull. In those days my favourite supermarket was Fine Fare.
A Tesco supermarket opened near me about 4 years ago. Since then I have shopped there nearly every week. Now the staff know me quite well so shopping does not seem like a chore.
I am positive that shopping regularly at Tesco influenced me to buy their car insurance.
My father prefers shopping at Morrisons as he feels out of his depth shopping at Tesco. He phoned me and asked me about my car insurance plans. I lied to him by saying that I would stick to NU Direct. He said that I made a good decision as most of his friends and colleagues were with NU Direct.
But a couple of days later he asked my wife the same question and she said Tesco. My father went ballistic and started shouting obscenities. The point he was trying to make was that Tesco know how to run a supermarket but what on earth do they know about car insurance?
ADVANTAGES OF TESCO CAR INSURANCE
The Tesco car insurance quote was the cheapest in my shopping around.
I have always found the Tesco customer services staff the friendliest around.
Being a regular Tesco shopper it made sense to me to buy their car insurance i.e. I was loyal to the Tesco brand name.
DISADVANTAGES OF TESCO CAR INSURANCE
The customer services staff do make occasional mistakes. They are not as ultra professional or super efficient, as NU Direct.
Tesco is basically a supermarket. They have branched out into CDs, videos, books etc. Tesco Personal Finance offers life insurance, travel insurance, savings accounts, car and home insurance etc. But their core business is food.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There are more car insurers in the market than are needed. This means that some may go out of business or be taken over by others.
I still feel that NU Direct is the best car insurer around despite having left them. I think that more drivers are insured with them than any other company.
The main reasons I changed to Tesco were their competitive quote and the fact that I shop there every week.
Amazingly the word count for this op has exceeded 2000 words.
As I said before I know next to nothing about cars and car insurance. I mainly wrote this op to purge myself of the tedious process of shopping around for car insurance. I doubt if this op will help anybody.
Thanks for reading.
Drive carefully!
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Online - Ease of applying for products
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Online - Pre-purchase information
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