I'm not what you might generally call a brave person. Truth be told, given a choice I usually veer towards the sensible option, I stick rigidly to the cautious side of life... OK, what the heck, I admit it. I'm a lousy, terrible, stinking great coward, which probably explains why I waited until well into my 28th year before learning how to drive.
However, late in the summer of 2002 I could put it off no longer, so learn to drive I did. Cost me a small fortune in lessons, but on 20th December last year I passed my driving test first time! The examiner must have been in a very good mood to have let me pass, though, after witnessing my 'Mr Bean' impersonation during the turn in the road. This involved holding up traffic in both directions when I managed to stall the blasted car (twice) whilst simultaneously making both myself and the examiner jump by accidentally sounding the horn. If that wasn't enough, I also managed to accidentally catch the windscreen wiper lever and, in my flustered state, squirt the windscreen with windscreen wash before setting both the front and rear wipers in motion, and spending a considerable amount of time finding the 'off' position again. Finally, when I eventually managed to get the dratted car moving forward again, I went around the next corner and promptly clipped the kerb as I attempted to pass a bus on a hump-back bridge. The stuff driving-test nightmares are made of, I can tell you!
Still, I did pass (would've put a bit of a dampener on Christmas if I'd failed) and finally, last weekend, I managed to find the 'first-car' of my dreams at a price I could actually afford (well, at a price I could almost afford, but that's another story!) I am now the proud owner of a Hyundai Accent (probable opinion to follow!) This happy circumstance, of course, left me in the position of needing to purchase car insurance, hence this opinion...
I decided to begin my car insurance search on the internet, and I have to admit that Tesco.com was not my first port of call by a long shot. I began by trying about a dozen of the usual suspects (Halifax, More Than, The AA, Swinton, Norwich Union, Direct Line, etc) and received quotes starting at just a little over £500, and reaching right to the other end of the spectrum, well into four figures! Still, eventually I found myself on tesco.com and am I glad that I did? Well, by and large I am, actually, yes!
If you pootle on over to the main www.tesco.com website, then choose the blue 'Personal Finance' tab at the top of the page, this will open the Tesco personal finance website in a new screen, for you. Here you can find information not only on car insurance, but for pet, home, travel insurance, etc, along with loans, credit cards and saving accounts, amongst others. If you really want to you can take a site tour from this page, but heck, I didn't have time for that, lead me to the motor insurance, as fast as you can, please!
So, after one more easy click through to the motor insurance page, I was pleased to notice straight away that Tesco offer a valuable 5% discount if you buy their motor insurance on line. However, I remained a little sceptical about this offers, as in my search I had come across several other insurers offering similar deals (often with much higher discounts) but these discounts were often completely negated by the ridiculously high price of the quote provided!
Getting a quote on the Tesco internet site was incredibly easy, the quickest and easiest quotation form I found in my entire search. However, it was reassuring to note that before presenting me with the actual quotation form the website informed me that if I did turn out to be a tad too stupid to figure out their ridiculously simple form (although they put it SO much more politely!) I could 'also get a quote and buy over the phone'. This is great, and a real godsend if you do happen to run into any difficulties with the online form. However, be careful with this one, because if you do end up purchasing over the phone you would, of course, lose the 5% online discount!
So, moving swiftly on with the quoting process, another couple of clicks took me through to the actual online quotation form itself, which, as I mentioned before, was extremely quick and easy to fill in. Primarily, you are presented with a one page form asking for the usual personal details, i.e. who you are, the car you want to drive, how many drivers you want to insure to drive the car, etc. I know I keep harping on about this, but it really is a very straightforward form to fill in, and even if you do get into difficulties they provide a handy 'help' service, signified by a question mark in a pale blue circle next to every question you might have a problem with. Should you be confused at all then one click on one of these little question marks gives you a wealth of information in a red-bordered box to the right of your quotation form, to assist you in correctly filling out your information. Remember these question marks, we'll be coming back to these later!
If you choose to add additional drivers to your quote then you are taken away from the main quotation form to another page to fill in the relevant details. Once completed, one click will whip you back to the original form to continue with your quotation. Once all of the relevant information has been filled in, you are whisked directly to your quoted premium, which is where all of the fun really begins, believe me!
First thing I noticed was that this quote, though towards the lower end of the quotes I'd received, wasn't the very cheapest I had seen. However, I quickly noticed that the compulsory excess was set at a very reasonable £0! The voluntary excess was higher, but set at a relatively nominal £125 by default. Upping the voluntary excess to the maximum allowed (£175) brought my quote down by a small amount, and opting to go without a temporary replacement car in the event of an accident reduced it even more. By stripping the services chosen back to the bare minimum I could have saved myself an absolute fortune! It is also possible (and practically instant too) with a simple click of your mouse to see what your insurance premium would be with or without legal protection and/or protected no-claims discount. You can also check prices for both comprehensive or third party, fire and theft insurance. This was incredibly helpful and useful, and I had just about decided to go ahead with buying the insurance when I remembered that although this is actually my car, the husband has also decided to stake a claim and had asked to be insured as an additional driver.
Dutifully adding his details along with my own (a simple case of clicking the 'amend' button on the premium page and adding the relevant details) I then waited the couple of seconds it took for my quoted premium to appear, and was surprised, if pleasantly so, to see that adding my husband as a second driver had actually reduced the premium by approximately £50. I'm not sure exactly why adding him as a driver helped to reduce the quote, although he has admittedly been driving for a lot longer than I have, but reduce the quote it did. Bearing this in mind I would heartily recommend that if you do decide to get a quote from tesco.com you try every possible combination to make sure that you get the best possible deal for your hard-earned cash!
Having now obtained a quote that was significantly lower than any I had been given elsewhere, I could either save my details if I wanted to have a think about it and return later (again, a very easy process). Alternatively, I could proceed with purchasing the insurance at the quoted price, which I was more than happy to do. Moving onto the next screen I was offered a range of available breakdown cover, which starts at a very reasonable £42, with various options available up to £163.80 for Personal Europlus cover. Again, these are easily selected, a simple case of clicking on the relevant option.
Moving onto the next screen, I was presented with a list of rules and regulations, which I would recommend you read very, very thoroughly, to ensure that all of the information you give is correct. We are told on this page, in no uncertain terms, that 'Incorrect information could invalidate all or part of the policy.'
Clicking onto the next page, you can select to either pay in one lump-sum by direct debit or credit/debit card, or pay a deposit now, paying the remainder in ten monthly payments, at a very reasonable 8% interest. Then it's simply a case of filling in your payment details, and Bob's you Uncle, you're done!
Personally, whilst using the form I did find it necessary to contact Tesco by telephone, as the car I have purchased has alloys fitted, which might affect the online quote I had been given. The local rate call certainly didn't break the bank, and the phone was answered very quickly. The man who dealt with my query was very friendly, professional and polite. He answered my questions quickly and accurately and was also happy to forward an additional copy of the insurance certificate to the garage I had purchased the car from on my behalf, and assured me that it would be posted that very day.
Feeling confident that I had made the right decision, insurance-wise, I sat back and waited for the documentation to arrive, which it did a mere two days later. Comparing the handy printout I had taken of the original quote with the information posted to me, I was happy to note that all seemed to be in order. Until, that is, I came to the very last page of the Insurance Schedule, and the section dealing with excess amounts. Now, you may remember that I mentioned above that the compulsory excess was stated as £0 in the original quote. I was obviously more than happy with this quote. Imagine my surprise, then, when upon reading the Insurance paperwork I discovered that as tesco.com classify me as 'an inexperienced driver' I qualify for an additional £200 accidental damage excess!
Understandably quite perturbed by this turn of events, I telephoned tesco.com's customer service team again, noting with some annoyance that you have to wait considerably longer when you select one of the after-sales options on the queuing system than you do when telephoning for a quote. I spoke to another charming and friendly young man, who just could not get to grips with what I was trying to ask him. This was namely why, when I had accepted a quote for £0 compulsory excess, had this now become £200 compulsory excess? He informed me reasonably bluntly that the £200 excess for an inexperienced driver is clearly stated on the website, and suggested that I go and have a look for it, which I promptly did. It took me a long time, but I did eventually find it - if you click on one of those 'question marks' I mentioned earlier, the information is displayed in the 'can we help?' box to the right of the screen. My problem with this whole issue is that this is the only place where I have found the information, it is in no way clearly available. This same 'can we help?' box boldly states that you should 'click the ? to get help' at no time is it made clear that information as vital as £200 extra excess is hidden underneath any of these buttons. I have a printed quote that clearly states 'compulsory vehicle excess (policyholder driving) £0' when this is not the case, the compulsory excess I am liable for is actually £200.
I did decide to go ahead with the insurance, as even with a £375 excess (which is hefty any way you look at it) the premium is still extremely competitive. However, this has somewhat reduced my faith in tesco.com, and has diluted what would have been a glowing review into one with a definite tarnish. I haven't decided whether to pursue this matter with trading standards or not, as yet, but that is still an option. I would also seriously recommend that anybody who is thinking about taking out motor insurance at tesco.com should check the fine print very, very closely, even underneath every one of those pesky '?' buttons, just to make sure that you are actually getting exactly what you believe you are signing up for, for your money.
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Online - Ease of applying for products
Excellent
Online - Pre-purchase information
Average
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