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"Car Insurance - what a pain!"

Blimey getting car insurance sorted is a right pain!


I've been with NFU Mutual for ages (8+ years) - I have two cars (Land Rover Discovery and Land Rover Freelander) and my home and contents are insured with them.

Never had a claim on cars or house - so in theory I'm an ideal customer - just pay the premiums and that's it.

This month my car insurance renewal came through - it's gone up 73% !!!

I contacted NFU to see if there had been a 'typo', but before I could explain what my query was about they launched into a script about how all insurers have put up their premiums due to insurance fraud rising etc. etc. etc. - I had to politely cut him off half way through his spiel!

So as NFU Mutual seem to have lost the plot I'll be taking my custom elsewhere this year. So for the first time in a long while I'm having to get quotes etc.
I REALLY HATE all the TV insurance advertising so I'm not enjoying this!

By getting online quotes (not through a compare site) I've managed to find some that are similar prices to what I paid last year so guess I'll be going for one on those.

SPAM Tip: Always use a 'throwaway' email address when getting quotes especially if you use a 'comparison' site.

The problem is who to choose?
Searching online for 'so and so car insurance review' brings up so called 'review' sites where it appears they are ALL TO BE AVOIDED. So not much use. All this tells me is they all appear to be rubbish if/when you actually need the insurance so perhaps you may as well go for the cheapest price anyway?!

I've found that The AA, Tesco and Admiral have come out best price wise at the moment.

I'm just venting really as I'm not enjoying this task and I've wasting too much time over it - this isn't helping! ;¬)

I thought I would post this in General Chat just in case someone has an interesting view on things.

[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Glad to see that things could be 'sorted' soon Hmmm. Just out of interest, have you contacted your local Police and asked for details or information regarding a RTA around the time of your son's 'demise'? If there is a 'claim' then surely they would be aware of an incident?

Just had a long phone call with a friendly and seemingly very efficient chap at Adrian Flux.

He has contacted both the claims dept. and underwriters - my son has to make a phone statement then hopefully they will close this alleged claim and give my son his 1st years NCD back! :¬)


It's not over until the fat lady sings etc. etc. but I'm hoping things are on the way up.


...to be continued.
[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Thanks for that Eccles.

Your phone call shows how scummy it is out there :¬(
I wonder if they will try again.

It's frustrating that none of the departments/companies involved have any details they can give me of this alleged incident.

I'll be making more phone calls today to see if anything has moved on. The trouble with this sort of thing is it seems to take up your life to get sorted.

I've added ombudsman and OFT to my list.

I did call in to see my local CAB when this first started (never used them before) - they just said I had done the right thing and to let my insurers sort it out. The trouble in my case is £4300 is due next week if this doesn't get resolved...

[s]Hmmm...[/s]

EDIT: Cheers pb :¬)

Good luck with getting it sorted. I really think the onus should be on the Insurers to prove a claim rather than on the suspected parties involved. I thought Justice in this country was supposed to be 'innocent until proven guilty? Obviously doesn't work for Insurance.

I had a phone call this month just after changing insurers (got it down from £900 to £452) and the person knew my name (I didn't confirm it, just asked who was ringing). They then said I'd be in a accident (I haven't). I was tempted to let them carry on and then say I don't drive, haven't got a car and wasn't the person they though they were ringing and then see what their excuse was, but instead just put the phone down on them.
Strange that you got a claim form, you're not making a claim. Surely the other insurer has to prove the car insured was in an accident.

Remember there's always the insurance ombudsman after you've gone through you insurers complaints procedure plus the OFT, who I think are starting to investigate renewal quotes.

Cheers DL :¬)

This has been (yet another) eye opener for me.
Obviously if there had been an accident or the car was stolen then you expect bad news - but to receive a letter like this out of the blue (just before renewal) seems like a complete stitch up!

As others have pointed out to me - insurance companies are on-the-ball when it comes to chasing proof of no claims or copies of driving licences etc., etc. but when the tables are turned things don't seem to happen so quickly...


[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Hi Hmmm ... really sorry to hear the news, doesn't sound good. Keep us informed of any developments and if there is anything we can do to help :¬)

Hmmm... wrote:
Just to update this thread for the record and for anyone else interested in Young Driver Car Insurance.

I (17 yo son!) ended up with Adrian Flux at just over £2900*ouch* for a 2002 Corsa 1.0L Life TPFT.

This all happened yesterday. We've got a nice clean car (30,000miles) - might put a picture up!

Adrian Flux were our best quote by around £400.

Just sorting out a few admin bits with them - things haven't been completely smooth which is a shame - but some people say I'm a fussy so and so and expect [i]everything to be 'spot on' ;¬)

There is lots of interesting feedback on this company when you look around - but I appreciate people mostly only hear about bad experiences so am happy to give them a chance.

'Dan' from Adrian Flux seems to monitor many forums so it will be interesting to see if he picks this post up ;¬)

[b]If it should all go pear shaped then I'll be back![/b]
[s]Hmmm...[/s][/i]


I'm back!

My son's first year of driving/insurance is now coming up - but unfortunately there's been a hiccup :¬(

My son has carefully plodded round for a year and hasn't had any problems, BUT a couple of weeks ago he received a letter from Adrian Flux's insurance underwriters 'Equity Red Star'.

A letter that just said 'Date of Incident', time given of '0000', and car registration asking for an attached claim form (which only had the same details on it) to be completed and returned!?!

We aren't aware of any accident or incident and as far as we can tell looking at text messages etc. on that date my son (or the car) didn't even leave our property!

So far Adrian Flux's claims department haven't been at all efficient and after querying things as soon as the letter arrived nothing appears to have happened. I'm currently in their hands and hopefully they will resolve things in our favour in the not too distant future. We can only assume it's mistaken identity, cloned plates, scam or a computer mix up.

The BBC did run a news item on similar problems last year titled Mystery Crashes - the comments don't read well...

We were hoping the renewal premium would come down from £2900 to under £2000 with a years NCD but instead the renewal has come through at £4300 due to a 'Pending Claim'!

I don't seem to be having much luck lately... :¬(
[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Obviously I'll be back to update this story as things move on - I'm still hoping Adrian Flux get their act together so I can post a 'happy ending'.

Hi Rangerover and welcome to the forum.

Yep, NFU seem to have lost the plot big time.
All my vehicles are with other insurers now and I intend to move my house and contents insurance away from them when I renew just on principle. Again never claimed (cars/house) but don't like the way I've been treated so would rather give my money to someone else!

Feel a bit sorry for the NFU local reps though as they are still nice to talk to and are also unhappy with NFU's new policy. If you push them they can get you a 10% discount but against my 73% increase it doesn't really help.
[s]Hmmm...[/s]

We had SEVEN policies with NFU Mutual. They terminated them without any reason...their policy detail, allows them to do this. It is now being investigated by the Financial Ombudsman.

Went to Aviva...better cover for 40% less...thank you NFU...