Sunday, March 01, 2009

competing for car insurance

I was told off by an insurance company yesterday for taking my business elsewhere. I'd decided to insure my car through a different broker and the person from the people I used last year said I was making a mistake and I ought to rethink.

Apart from the sheer cheek of it (though I know everyone's desperate for business), the deal I've got this year is better than last year's - and with the same insurance company. It's interesting that two brokers can offer such different prices for what is effectively the same product.

I trumped the man's objections on the phone by pointing out that his firm had not sent renewal information 21 days before the expiry of my current insurance which is a breach of the regulations for the sale of insurance and this suggests the admin might not be all they claim it is. He fairly quickly did the necessary and wished a good day after that.

What struck me after I'd done the deal was that the price I'm paying for 2009/10 is half what I paid the year I insured my first car in 1982. Who said the financial services revolution has brought us no benefits?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What struck me after I'd done the deal was that the price I'm paying for 2009/10 is half what I paid the year I insured my first car in 1982. Who said the financial services revolution has brought us no benefits?

Actually, it's not the financial services industry. In 1982 you were younger, probably not married etc etc. Therefore you were a much greater risk and your premium was higher.

You're now married, a vicar, a grandfather etc and are seen by the insurers as a lesser risk. So your premium will be smaller.

Given that the purpose of insurance is not to protect you, but to generate income for the insurer, I would humbly suggest they're still getting their pound of flesh.

simon said...

Possibly...

Buit in 1982 I was 25, had been driving five years, was married, professionally employed, insuring a nearly-new family car that I kept on the street outside my house.

So while I might have been a bigger risk, i still think competition, a rash of new entries and other changes in the financial services industry has contributed to a drop in prices overall.

Still, what do I know..?

Anonymous said...

Simon

Delighted that your car insurance premium has gone down. Might it have something to do with the fact that you are now exiled in the London Borough with the second lowest crime rates in London?

Sutton is I believe the lowest, but then thay have about 100,000 fewer residents than Bromley.

On a similar note. Knowing how much you enjoy the Daily Telegraph, you would have read an article yesterday pointing out that price comparision websites were not actually that good after all.

A mutual friend of ours got a quote for his 19 year old son to be insured on nothing more sporty than a 1.1 litre euro box, and the cheapest quote was £3,000. The car was only worth half that!

Starbucks

simon said...

We were living in tory controlled Bexley in 1982 - very low crime rate, almost non-existent public services. But you can't everything.

Anonymous said...

They get everywhere don't they!