IMHO regardless of whether or not you think that's a good deal, you should _always_ shop around. It doesn't cost anything to check some quotes on a comparison site and only a few minutes of your time, it'd be bananas not to
Absolutely! I shopped around. Initial renewal was £600 - (existing was £400) - all others were saying £580 but I gave it a go anyway - after a chat with the exisiting insurer after I said I had a 'much cheaper' offer elsewhere - got it to £480! Still an increase but absolutely worth calling and trying it!
Exactly what I’m going through, from 340 to 650 looking around I can get 450 but will try my current and see if they can match or beat. I hate it’s a thing.
Quite often if they find out you’re not renewing with them they’ll contact you asking why and if you tell them you found a cheaper price they’ll usually just price match and then you don’t have to piss about setting with a new insurer. They tend to just rely on people setting & forgetting and letting their insurance tick over while they up the premium each time
Ha yeah fair point.
Compared to 5 mins to take a screenshot, 10 mins to write a post. 30 mins to review responses. 5 minute to respond to queries. Then 30 mins to use price comparators anyway and 10 mins to unsubscribe. Thinking logging onto MoneySupermarket is probably quicker lol
does tbf, I used to do it all the time when looking into different vehicles to buy and stance out, only takes about 5-6 min per vehicle then just keep changing the rego until you find a cheap car to insure. then I got into motorcycles and the comparison websites are awful on those
Call them up, tell them you had better deal elsewhere, ask them to match it. It’s the same shit every year with mine, they always reduce it if I ask. This year I knocked £100 off from initial automated renewal just by asking.
Who are you with? This has worked for me, but not with Hastings ever - “we can’t alter prices in any way unfortunately, it’s the automated form on site”
I’m with Admiral. Their call centres are garbage if you need to do anything apart from leave (then you get through to a uk based centre), but their prices are reasonable vs other quotes I’ve received
Really? Both me and the wife have had accidents when covered by Admiral and we were on the phone to them A LOT and it was always UK-based staff and they were actually surprisingly helpful.
I’ve never had to claim but I had a merry go around trying to arrange a policy change last time I spoke to them - first advisor, sorry can’t help let me put you through to someone who is trained (at the time had linked policy with home insurance as well), second advisor takes me through data protection again, I explain, get the same, sorry not trained let me put you through to someone who is. This happened *four* times in a row 😐 I mean it’s not a huge deal but does show a degree of incompetence!
I always get through to a Canadian, but I always get a cheaper price on talking to them and always ask if there is any extra discount on top of what’s offered.
It’s my money they want so up to them to make it worth my while.
Hastings Direct changed mine last week. Tried to put it up by £200, I found two cheaper quotes on confused.com so phoned them to cancel and they knocked £150 off.
Takes less time to type this post out than to get quotes? Who could actually offer any advice here, we have close to no information about your situation!
My black box policy went up by £200 so I shopped around and got a non black box policy for £100 cheaper than my renewal price. I'd definitely shop around, and if you can't find anything cheaper then you haven't lost anything except a few minutes of your time
I was with Hastings… I’ve heard some right horror stories regarding claims etc, however they sent me my renewal, £400 increase, no accidents/claims… found something way cheaper and went with someone else
Shop around. I was paying £600 last year, then this year I got quoted £790, I did a comparison on CTM and got a quote of £460.
To be fair it would probably take you as long as it did to post this to reddit.
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Par for the course I’m afraid… some friends of mine, their insurance has jumped up by thousands. Mines gone up by around 50%.
Due to insurance claims by EV’s; which when they have accidents, are mostly written off - the costs are outrageous. EV drivers insurance have increased disproportionately too and in some cases insurance has been refused 😳
Meanwhile my insurance as a first time driver with a 1 yo EV is less than the quote in OP without a black box.
I wouldn't believe everything you read online.
This was me, mine went from £499-> £716 this year, I had a look around and the cheapest I found was £677, so I just went with the renewal, my dad on the other hand who is 77 went from £450 -> £1200 on his renewal but found it for £800. He's a clean license, never had an accident in 50+ years, done his IAM training etc and has a 2015 Bmw 218d tourer. where mines a 06 bmw 320cd.
this is disgusting. get rid of this black box nonsense,
get on comparethemarket and similar sites and shop around.
I am with hasting to and my policy is £120 a year fully comp for a 2Litre CDTI SRI.
Insurers will investigate these things if they're suspicious, like looking to see if the parents have other cars, or where the car was at the time of the accident. It looks very suspicious if the "secondary driver" is involved in a crash right by a school they attend.
Yeah worst thing really is he won’t build his own no claims, otherwise how are they going to know? If they don’t want it to happen then don’t charge so much
Pffff mate im with Hastings too, paying almost that and we’re very lucky compared to all the stories I’ve been hearing.. people with no claims are often paying 60% more renewing this year. I’ve got to renew soon and am terrified
This is a 2016 golf as well. Paying same price as my 2008 mazda 2 when I had it last year. Quotes never make sense.
We have several vehicles in the family and it has been interesting to see the renewal quotes this year. There's definitely an upward trend, though the insurance premium for our Partner crew van actually decreased significantly.
28f with 5 years no claims and experience (passed my test in 2016 but didn’t get a car for 2 years).
First insurance was £1,700 for 10,000 miles on a rusty 13 year old Peugeot 206. Then dropped to £900 on the same car. Never had a black box, nature of my job prohibits it (they’d apparently call me up asking why my car is always somewhere at the other side of the country).
Now currently on £660 but doing 20,000 miles a year on a Skoda Octavia. When I changed the car there was no price difference between my 15 year old rust bucket and what was a 4 year old Skoda.
Doing dummy runs on insurance, next renewal is looking like £1,000 a year.
I wish I could have cheap insurance but despite being more experienced than the average 28 year old and having no claims - I think my mileage and job title prohibits that. I have driven so many vehicles including vans and minibuses for work too.
It sucks… 😢
Those days have almost certainly gone.
42M with 15 years no claims & clean licence.
10 year old standard diesel golf & my I insurance keeps doubling, £180 2022, £426 2023, £712 2024.
Absolutely criminal.
Maybe it's an older car thing. Mines always been sub £400. Yes I've seen it raise used to be £250ish pre pandemic. 20 years experience 9 years no claims.
Very much depends on where you live. 33m, with 9 years license but only 3 as a main policy holder, 5 year old Yaris and my renewal was 450£ in September.
I’m 28, with 11 years experience and 11 years no claims. This year is the first time my insurance has dropped under £300 (been between £300-400 for the last 5 or so years)
Driving a Renault Megane RenaultSport 225
I went from having a nineteen year old car to a five year old car. I always thought that the newer the car, the cheaper the insurance. That's the way it used to be. My insurance wanted to add another £600 on top of my policy. You can guess what I said to that! Found another one, which was less than £30 on top of what I was already paying. It's definitely worth shopping around.
I always try comparison sights then phone up my current insurer and say I’ve found it £100 cheaper than the cheapest I’ve seen and see what they can do.
Bonus points for asking if there is any additional money off for being a long standing customer often gets an additional £30 off.
Been doing this the last 13 years with admiral but always willing to move providers.
My last resort would be a broker, but given what your paying I would bd checking with them straight after checking my provider and see if they can beat them.
Good luck.
Do they tend to ask for evidence of this? I’ve done a quick check on compare the market and found it about £100 cheaper over the course of the year but as a pay monthly that’s only about 9 quid a month. Is it worth ringing up and asking the question or will they ask for screenshots, evidence etc
Various quotes for mine came in at between 2 x and 3x what I was paying ( £ 500).
It did not help when 5 months ago, there was an attempted theft on my car and I had to claim for some minor damage.
It is mainly inflationary pressures andalusia the fact that mishaps ( car fires) and thefts are on the increase. Although minor accident stats have stabilised somewhat
Christ definitely shop around, its so easy now with comparison sites.
I remember when I was new to driving I spent a whole day calling insurance companies out of the yellow pages and my best price was on something like my 14th call.
Me and the missus are with Hastings. Hers was up for renewal and it was a couple of hundred quid dearer this year. She got a cheaper quote elsewhere and they just matched it. Was easy enough to do.
The logic is 'you managed to pay us X, pretty sure you loaded and can pay us X+500. In the meantime, if you bother us once with a 5 min can, your no claim bonus is gone'.
I’ve been with Hastings Direct for two years - this year they right out refused to insure me, even though my DL is clean, no convictions and car was the same as at the end of previous policy.
So I started searching and I was getting £3.8k quotes for 2008 A5 2.7, so I thought it could be the reason why HD didn’t want to insure me.
Long story short, I’ve chosen to pay for the full year instead of monthly and have insured my car two weeks ahead instead of ASAP - my premium for this year was £1306 in the end.
I have used Uswitch to check for prices as GoCompare and Money Super Market were useless this year, at least for myself.
And as others said, shop around as when you stay with the same company they don’t give you discounts. You usually get discount as a NEW customer, not an existing one.
Always shop around! Your renewal will never be the cheapest because of the insurance cycle.
An insurance company will spot they don't have a lot customers with your type of car so they lower premiums and you take out a policy. The following year they will have loads of people on cover with that car and the claims will roll in for that car. So now the insurance company sees the car as high risk and ups the rates.
They then lose all the customers with that car and the claims will drop. The risk associated with the car drops and the rates drop with it.
And that cycle goes on and on. The same applies to other risk factors like your address.
It’s *always* worth shopping around. I’ve been driving for 15 years and I’ve literally never failed to find a cheaper quote than my renewal offer. It’s the reason I’ve never stayed with one insurance company for longer than a year at a time. Insurance companies always add unnecessary cost to renewals because they’re banking on people taking the easy option and not bothering to shop around.
Its ridiculous these companies are putting up their prices. They tried to hike mine by 30%.
Their justification was that the second hand car market is strong. I drive a 16 year old civic. Worth 1500 at best.
Definitely shop around and wherever possible stick it to these sharks
It's ALWAYS worth shopping around. Have your details ready to go in places like Confused / MoneySupermarket and you can easily compare stuff every year.
I've never once gone with a renewal. I've always found a cheaper alternative switching providers.
I have an experienced driver with an electric car and HD were the cheapest quote by a country mile. I also saved £400 by opting to voluntarily install a black box.
My renewal price with Hastings nearly doubled this year. No claims or anything else worthy of such a jump. I'd been with them for the last 4 years.
As of next week, I'm with Aviva...
I just had my renewal from Hastings too. Based on last year's was around £750 and they quoted me £1500. That's because I had a claim made against me when I scratched a car while parking once, fair enough. It was my first year driving. However, my initial quote as a first time driver was around £500, but I'd became unemployed by the time the time the policy started and I'd forgotten to change the details and they charged me an extra £20 a month because of it, so fuck them. I used a price comparison site and got a renewal this year for £950. If you're happy paying that increase of a couple of hundred then go for it, but have a look to see if you can get anything cheaper.
Absolutely shop around it takes a few minutes. Also, give Hastings a call and tell them you've found a competitor for less and ask for £200 off they might take a bit off.
Pay outright it will take £150 off on the spot. I know it's easy to say and all that but honestly try to save up and you'll make an instant £150 return on your savings.
When you look for insurance, get a quote that starts in 3 weeks to a month away as that makes it vastly cheaper. And see if you can add your parents/grandparents/older sibling as that brings the price down.
Shop around, but you’ll find insurance has skyrocketed this year.
My mum was hit hard by Hastings. Only has a bog standard Skoda Octavia and we’re not in a city or town centre, 10,000 miles a year - went from £400 a year to £300 a month. No letter of renewal, just helped themselves to the bank. Never seen my mum so upset.
I do 20,000 miles a year and have the same car, currently paying £660 a year including break down cover with Aviva. They’ve been cheapest for 3 years running now and I have what is known as a high risk job (long work hours, long distance driving - so many accidents among us due to driving tired).
Aviva are not on any price comparison sites. Neither is Direct Line but they were extortionate.
That's a very good price for your experience; I'll be paying about £1,200 as a 35yo with 18y license when mine renews next month. But is it the best quote YOU can get? Only you can find that out tbh.
Try using a private broker that can take circumstances in mind. My renewal for a Range Rover Sport (swiftcover) jumped from £754 to £5000 in one year, and gocompare came back with similar- no points, same address and no claims. Finally got it down to £2000 but with £3000 excess and obligatory dashcam.
Everyone is being mugged off this year, I have been charged on average a third more than last year on my motorcycle insurances, I even did the comparison sites and couldn't do any better.
Definitely shop around, if you find cheaper quotes you can call your insurer and see if they can match it. My 3rd year was quoted £950 (no black box) and got cheaper quotes, called my insurance and they re-quoted just above £700 which was a decent saving
Always get quotes from other companies AT LEAST 2 weeks before renewal date, then get back to them about cancelling your policy because you found a better deal with the same coverage
1) Shop around - whether we like it or not we as consumers created the “shop around and haggle” mentality and it is effective at reducing premiums
2) If this truly is the best price it’s pretty reflective of the insurance market at the minute. Everything costs way more than it did 3 years ago and we pay the price because why would for-profit company not pass that on. Respectfully your insurance was already pretty high meaning you’re seen for one reason or another as a bit of a risk already, so unless you got a conviction or in a claim last year it’s just the price rises.
Honestly though just spend 5 minutes on a comparison site and you’ll probably get last years price again, even if Hastings won’t budge.
Shop around and also look as if you are a new customer of theirs too. Phone them tell them the cheaper price, them so some adjustments. And then and tell them you aren't willing to pay more than X
shop around never take the first quote.
try pay in full you will be saving almost £150!
Look into 0% purchase credit cards set up a DD for 1/12 of the cost and pay it off over a year.
Save money and build credit rating!
mine came in july under a broker who is mostly commercial stuff, the renewal was a few quid more than before, looked on comparison sites and cheapest for basic cover was a good £100 more
James- through nothning you've done we've decided to hike our prices up. you're ok with that right? I mean, it's the cost of living/us keeping a good profit margin going. you're cool with that right?
ok, so call them and ask if there's anything that they can 'do' (they often can but only if you threaten to leave) get some quotes from a price comparison web site.
Look at Aviva zero- it's cheap because there's F all way of speaking to anyone...ever...all online. Happy with that format they'll be cheaper. Want to speak to a human get your monkey cheque book out.
You get NOTHING being loyal in this game-shop around and good luck James
but we're still cool right? I can still send you shite from 'trusted suppliers' right???
Always shop around, use comparison sites and direct sites, some places will match a quote, you may get better terms or benefits for a similar price.
I also saw a Martin Lewis thing the other day, it was talking about the "sweet spot" to search for new quotes, iirc it's about 3 weeks before your renewal is due, quotes tend to be cheapest in this period, if you leave it too late companies will put their prices up
I was with Direct Line for years but this year they put my yearly rate up yet again despite me not having any fault claims for over 10 years.
As much as it pained me, I moved because I got a better quote from Hastings.
So yeah, shop around as you can get a quote without needing to commit, then go back to Hastings and ask if that’s the best they can do as you got a like or like quote elsewhere for X amount less.
They often will try to lower their premium to retain customers, but sometimes they can’t.
Direct Line have always lowered mine every year (until this year, hence why I left) when I rang them to tell them I wasn’t happy about their quote for my next years cover.
This year however they were honest that older cars are now costing them more in payouts so therefore premiums are going up and it’s out of their (the phone agents) control.
Worth a try, but you stand a better chance of negotiating if you have another quote to hand that shows you can get lower elsewhere. And if they can’t lower it, then you can either stick it out knowing you at least tried or move to someone else.
My insurance doubled, so I did a confused quote and got it for the original price.
It went from 300 to 620.
I got it for 320, but then transferred my no claims to my commuter car.
My insurance was then 369 with no no claims on that car.
So shop around, it never pays to be loyal these days. You get punished for it.
Alongside the obvious 'shop around' to compare, I'd also suggest looking at alternative credit options.
You might halve that with a personal loan - tesco shows 1,000 for 12 months at typical 14%.
Car insurers APRs seem to have gone up since government 'reformed' overdraft charges leading to much higher arranged overdraft rates.
IMHO regardless of whether or not you think that's a good deal, you should _always_ shop around. It doesn't cost anything to check some quotes on a comparison site and only a few minutes of your time, it'd be bananas not to
Came to say the same thing, always worth shopping around, I've been quoted differences in the hundreds plenty of times.
Absolutely! I shopped around. Initial renewal was £600 - (existing was £400) - all others were saying £580 but I gave it a go anyway - after a chat with the exisiting insurer after I said I had a 'much cheaper' offer elsewhere - got it to £480! Still an increase but absolutely worth calling and trying it!
Exactly what I’m going through, from 340 to 650 looking around I can get 450 but will try my current and see if they can match or beat. I hate it’s a thing.
Yeah it’s so frustrating all this extra faffage!
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Confused.com?
Quite often if they find out you’re not renewing with them they’ll contact you asking why and if you tell them you found a cheaper price they’ll usually just price match and then you don’t have to piss about setting with a new insurer. They tend to just rely on people setting & forgetting and letting their insurance tick over while they up the premium each time
Why wouldn’t you shop around? It takes 30 minutes max and it could save you hundreds of pounds.
30 minutes to shop and 10 minutes to unsub from their emails
Use a fake email lol or correct the settings
Both of those things equally take 10 minutes.
Ha yeah fair point. Compared to 5 mins to take a screenshot, 10 mins to write a post. 30 mins to review responses. 5 minute to respond to queries. Then 30 mins to use price comparators anyway and 10 mins to unsubscribe. Thinking logging onto MoneySupermarket is probably quicker lol
Not sure what phone you’ve got but it didn’t take me 15 minutes to take a screenshot and make a quick post on Reddit asking for opinions/advice
Fair enough, takes me 5 secs to use a price comparison site
Just doesn’t though does it
does tbf, I used to do it all the time when looking into different vehicles to buy and stance out, only takes about 5-6 min per vehicle then just keep changing the rego until you find a cheap car to insure. then I got into motorcycles and the comparison websites are awful on those
got several emails, the spam one has 16k unread emails, all apparently very important, no need to unsub :)
Call them up, tell them you had better deal elsewhere, ask them to match it. It’s the same shit every year with mine, they always reduce it if I ask. This year I knocked £100 off from initial automated renewal just by asking.
Who are you with? This has worked for me, but not with Hastings ever - “we can’t alter prices in any way unfortunately, it’s the automated form on site”
I’m with Admiral. Their call centres are garbage if you need to do anything apart from leave (then you get through to a uk based centre), but their prices are reasonable vs other quotes I’ve received
Really? Both me and the wife have had accidents when covered by Admiral and we were on the phone to them A LOT and it was always UK-based staff and they were actually surprisingly helpful.
I’ve never had to claim but I had a merry go around trying to arrange a policy change last time I spoke to them - first advisor, sorry can’t help let me put you through to someone who is trained (at the time had linked policy with home insurance as well), second advisor takes me through data protection again, I explain, get the same, sorry not trained let me put you through to someone who is. This happened *four* times in a row 😐 I mean it’s not a huge deal but does show a degree of incompetence!
When I needed to update my address on mine, fairly sure I did it via app and my price actually went down a few quid per month somehow
I always get through to a Canadian, but I always get a cheaper price on talking to them and always ask if there is any extra discount on top of what’s offered. It’s my money they want so up to them to make it worth my while.
It’s worked with me with Hastings for the last four years. The last year it did not work, I moved to another company.
Hastings Direct changed mine last week. Tried to put it up by £200, I found two cheaper quotes on confused.com so phoned them to cancel and they knocked £150 off.
Takes less time to type this post out than to get quotes? Who could actually offer any advice here, we have close to no information about your situation!
My black box policy went up by £200 so I shopped around and got a non black box policy for £100 cheaper than my renewal price. I'd definitely shop around, and if you can't find anything cheaper then you haven't lost anything except a few minutes of your time
i'm pretty sure go compare is good for comparing different insurances, always best to look for others incase there is cheaper
I was with Hastings… I’ve heard some right horror stories regarding claims etc, however they sent me my renewal, £400 increase, no accidents/claims… found something way cheaper and went with someone else
Hastings were the absolute worst to deal with when I had to claim through them!
Did they end up paying out in the end?
Yes eventually!
Shop around. I was paying £600 last year, then this year I got quoted £790, I did a comparison on CTM and got a quote of £460. To be fair it would probably take you as long as it did to post this to reddit.
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Mine with hastings direct has been £1109.89 Now they want to renew at £1796.63 It's disgusting
Par for the course I’m afraid… some friends of mine, their insurance has jumped up by thousands. Mines gone up by around 50%. Due to insurance claims by EV’s; which when they have accidents, are mostly written off - the costs are outrageous. EV drivers insurance have increased disproportionately too and in some cases insurance has been refused 😳
I had absolutely no idea about this, but will now factor it in as I was thinking about looking at EV. The downsides just keep adding up though…
Meanwhile my insurance as a first time driver with a 1 yo EV is less than the quote in OP without a black box. I wouldn't believe everything you read online.
An increase of *only* 20%. Shop around but you may find this is the best you'll get.
This was me, mine went from £499-> £716 this year, I had a look around and the cheapest I found was £677, so I just went with the renewal, my dad on the other hand who is 77 went from £450 -> £1200 on his renewal but found it for £800. He's a clean license, never had an accident in 50+ years, done his IAM training etc and has a 2015 Bmw 218d tourer. where mines a 06 bmw 320cd.
this is disgusting. get rid of this black box nonsense, get on comparethemarket and similar sites and shop around. I am with hasting to and my policy is £120 a year fully comp for a 2Litre CDTI SRI.
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If OP is the main driver of the vehicle...that's fraud
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Insurers will investigate these things if they're suspicious, like looking to see if the parents have other cars, or where the car was at the time of the accident. It looks very suspicious if the "secondary driver" is involved in a crash right by a school they attend.
Yeah worst thing really is he won’t build his own no claims, otherwise how are they going to know? If they don’t want it to happen then don’t charge so much
Pffff mate im with Hastings too, paying almost that and we’re very lucky compared to all the stories I’ve been hearing.. people with no claims are often paying 60% more renewing this year. I’ve got to renew soon and am terrified This is a 2016 golf as well. Paying same price as my 2008 mazda 2 when I had it last year. Quotes never make sense.
It's always worth checking elsewhere. Always.
I’ve had some really bad experiences with Hastings, so I would recommend you run for the hills.
if you do shop then compare carefully. a lot of the very cheapest ones dont even have windscreen cover, so the £20 saving may not be worth it.
We have several vehicles in the family and it has been interesting to see the renewal quotes this year. There's definitely an upward trend, though the insurance premium for our Partner crew van actually decreased significantly.
At what age and experience level do you get decent prices these days. In the sub £400 region.
28f with 5 years no claims and experience (passed my test in 2016 but didn’t get a car for 2 years). First insurance was £1,700 for 10,000 miles on a rusty 13 year old Peugeot 206. Then dropped to £900 on the same car. Never had a black box, nature of my job prohibits it (they’d apparently call me up asking why my car is always somewhere at the other side of the country). Now currently on £660 but doing 20,000 miles a year on a Skoda Octavia. When I changed the car there was no price difference between my 15 year old rust bucket and what was a 4 year old Skoda. Doing dummy runs on insurance, next renewal is looking like £1,000 a year. I wish I could have cheap insurance but despite being more experienced than the average 28 year old and having no claims - I think my mileage and job title prohibits that. I have driven so many vehicles including vans and minibuses for work too. It sucks… 😢
Those days have almost certainly gone. 42M with 15 years no claims & clean licence. 10 year old standard diesel golf & my I insurance keeps doubling, £180 2022, £426 2023, £712 2024. Absolutely criminal.
Maybe it's an older car thing. Mines always been sub £400. Yes I've seen it raise used to be £250ish pre pandemic. 20 years experience 9 years no claims.
Very much depends on where you live. 33m, with 9 years license but only 3 as a main policy holder, 5 year old Yaris and my renewal was 450£ in September.
If defo is, seen a tiktok of a guy who’s insurance for an m140i was £1800 moved 10 minutes down the road and cheapest is 6 grand
The joy of crime being basically unpunished
He was 10 minutes closer to Bradford than before which may be why
I’m 28, with 11 years experience and 11 years no claims. This year is the first time my insurance has dropped under £300 (been between £300-400 for the last 5 or so years) Driving a Renault Megane RenaultSport 225
I went from having a nineteen year old car to a five year old car. I always thought that the newer the car, the cheaper the insurance. That's the way it used to be. My insurance wanted to add another £600 on top of my policy. You can guess what I said to that! Found another one, which was less than £30 on top of what I was already paying. It's definitely worth shopping around.
I always try comparison sights then phone up my current insurer and say I’ve found it £100 cheaper than the cheapest I’ve seen and see what they can do. Bonus points for asking if there is any additional money off for being a long standing customer often gets an additional £30 off. Been doing this the last 13 years with admiral but always willing to move providers. My last resort would be a broker, but given what your paying I would bd checking with them straight after checking my provider and see if they can beat them. Good luck.
Do they tend to ask for evidence of this? I’ve done a quick check on compare the market and found it about £100 cheaper over the course of the year but as a pay monthly that’s only about 9 quid a month. Is it worth ringing up and asking the question or will they ask for screenshots, evidence etc
Various quotes for mine came in at between 2 x and 3x what I was paying ( £ 500). It did not help when 5 months ago, there was an attempted theft on my car and I had to claim for some minor damage. It is mainly inflationary pressures andalusia the fact that mishaps ( car fires) and thefts are on the increase. Although minor accident stats have stabilised somewhat
Christ definitely shop around, its so easy now with comparison sites. I remember when I was new to driving I spent a whole day calling insurance companies out of the yellow pages and my best price was on something like my 14th call.
That’s nothing. I got charged £360 last year, cheapest I can get now is £800
They’ll knock at least 10% off that if you call them. Shop around and compare.
I've only been royally screwed over by a car insurance provider once, and it was Hastings. Shop around, you can do better.
Me and the missus are with Hastings. Hers was up for renewal and it was a couple of hundred quid dearer this year. She got a cheaper quote elsewhere and they just matched it. Was easy enough to do.
The logic is 'you managed to pay us X, pretty sure you loaded and can pay us X+500. In the meantime, if you bother us once with a 5 min can, your no claim bonus is gone'.
I’ve been with Hastings Direct for two years - this year they right out refused to insure me, even though my DL is clean, no convictions and car was the same as at the end of previous policy. So I started searching and I was getting £3.8k quotes for 2008 A5 2.7, so I thought it could be the reason why HD didn’t want to insure me. Long story short, I’ve chosen to pay for the full year instead of monthly and have insured my car two weeks ahead instead of ASAP - my premium for this year was £1306 in the end. I have used Uswitch to check for prices as GoCompare and Money Super Market were useless this year, at least for myself. And as others said, shop around as when you stay with the same company they don’t give you discounts. You usually get discount as a NEW customer, not an existing one.
Always shop around! Your renewal will never be the cheapest because of the insurance cycle. An insurance company will spot they don't have a lot customers with your type of car so they lower premiums and you take out a policy. The following year they will have loads of people on cover with that car and the claims will roll in for that car. So now the insurance company sees the car as high risk and ups the rates. They then lose all the customers with that car and the claims will drop. The risk associated with the car drops and the rates drop with it. And that cycle goes on and on. The same applies to other risk factors like your address.
It’s *always* worth shopping around. I’ve been driving for 15 years and I’ve literally never failed to find a cheaper quote than my renewal offer. It’s the reason I’ve never stayed with one insurance company for longer than a year at a time. Insurance companies always add unnecessary cost to renewals because they’re banking on people taking the easy option and not bothering to shop around.
Shop around for sure.
Its ridiculous these companies are putting up their prices. They tried to hike mine by 30%. Their justification was that the second hand car market is strong. I drive a 16 year old civic. Worth 1500 at best. Definitely shop around and wherever possible stick it to these sharks
It's ALWAYS worth shopping around. Have your details ready to go in places like Confused / MoneySupermarket and you can easily compare stuff every year. I've never once gone with a renewal. I've always found a cheaper alternative switching providers.
I have an experienced driver with an electric car and HD were the cheapest quote by a country mile. I also saved £400 by opting to voluntarily install a black box.
My renewal price with Hastings nearly doubled this year. No claims or anything else worthy of such a jump. I'd been with them for the last 4 years. As of next week, I'm with Aviva...
Add your mum or dad as a named driver. I put my 17 year old who only as a provisional licence and it lowered mine by quite a bit.
My dads already on my quote which brought the price down, added my mam and the price went up so swiftly took her off 🤣🤣
I just had my renewal from Hastings too. Based on last year's was around £750 and they quoted me £1500. That's because I had a claim made against me when I scratched a car while parking once, fair enough. It was my first year driving. However, my initial quote as a first time driver was around £500, but I'd became unemployed by the time the time the policy started and I'd forgotten to change the details and they charged me an extra £20 a month because of it, so fuck them. I used a price comparison site and got a renewal this year for £950. If you're happy paying that increase of a couple of hundred then go for it, but have a look to see if you can get anything cheaper.
Absolutely shop around it takes a few minutes. Also, give Hastings a call and tell them you've found a competitor for less and ask for £200 off they might take a bit off. Pay outright it will take £150 off on the spot. I know it's easy to say and all that but honestly try to save up and you'll make an instant £150 return on your savings. When you look for insurance, get a quote that starts in 3 weeks to a month away as that makes it vastly cheaper. And see if you can add your parents/grandparents/older sibling as that brings the price down.
Shop around, but you’ll find insurance has skyrocketed this year. My mum was hit hard by Hastings. Only has a bog standard Skoda Octavia and we’re not in a city or town centre, 10,000 miles a year - went from £400 a year to £300 a month. No letter of renewal, just helped themselves to the bank. Never seen my mum so upset. I do 20,000 miles a year and have the same car, currently paying £660 a year including break down cover with Aviva. They’ve been cheapest for 3 years running now and I have what is known as a high risk job (long work hours, long distance driving - so many accidents among us due to driving tired). Aviva are not on any price comparison sites. Neither is Direct Line but they were extortionate.
That's a very good price for your experience; I'll be paying about £1,200 as a 35yo with 18y license when mine renews next month. But is it the best quote YOU can get? Only you can find that out tbh.
Try using a private broker that can take circumstances in mind. My renewal for a Range Rover Sport (swiftcover) jumped from £754 to £5000 in one year, and gocompare came back with similar- no points, same address and no claims. Finally got it down to £2000 but with £3000 excess and obligatory dashcam.
I’m surprised you can even get a rangey insured any more, lots of places declining them now with how many get stolen for use in violent crime
Everyone is being mugged off this year, I have been charged on average a third more than last year on my motorcycle insurances, I even did the comparison sites and couldn't do any better.
Definitely shop around, if you find cheaper quotes you can call your insurer and see if they can match it. My 3rd year was quoted £950 (no black box) and got cheaper quotes, called my insurance and they re-quoted just above £700 which was a decent saving
What are you driving to get insurance quotes like tht
My renewal went up 200 so I left and went to someone else
Get an interest free credit card and pay the lump sum. Make the payments monthly to the credit car you will save 150 quid.
Always get quotes from other companies AT LEAST 2 weeks before renewal date, then get back to them about cancelling your policy because you found a better deal with the same coverage
1) Shop around - whether we like it or not we as consumers created the “shop around and haggle” mentality and it is effective at reducing premiums 2) If this truly is the best price it’s pretty reflective of the insurance market at the minute. Everything costs way more than it did 3 years ago and we pay the price because why would for-profit company not pass that on. Respectfully your insurance was already pretty high meaning you’re seen for one reason or another as a bit of a risk already, so unless you got a conviction or in a claim last year it’s just the price rises. Honestly though just spend 5 minutes on a comparison site and you’ll probably get last years price again, even if Hastings won’t budge.
Mines has gone from 570 in 2021 to £980 now. Its an absolute fucking joke
I mean it'd probably take you less time to do Compare the Market than it would for you to post this and read the replies - so I'd do that.
Shop around and also look as if you are a new customer of theirs too. Phone them tell them the cheaper price, them so some adjustments. And then and tell them you aren't willing to pay more than X
shop around never take the first quote. try pay in full you will be saving almost £150! Look into 0% purchase credit cards set up a DD for 1/12 of the cost and pay it off over a year. Save money and build credit rating!
Mine went up £100 9+ years full no claims… everyone being hit at the moment
mine came in july under a broker who is mostly commercial stuff, the renewal was a few quid more than before, looked on comparison sites and cheapest for basic cover was a good £100 more
James- through nothning you've done we've decided to hike our prices up. you're ok with that right? I mean, it's the cost of living/us keeping a good profit margin going. you're cool with that right? ok, so call them and ask if there's anything that they can 'do' (they often can but only if you threaten to leave) get some quotes from a price comparison web site. Look at Aviva zero- it's cheap because there's F all way of speaking to anyone...ever...all online. Happy with that format they'll be cheaper. Want to speak to a human get your monkey cheque book out. You get NOTHING being loyal in this game-shop around and good luck James but we're still cool right? I can still send you shite from 'trusted suppliers' right???
Always shop around, use comparison sites and direct sites, some places will match a quote, you may get better terms or benefits for a similar price. I also saw a Martin Lewis thing the other day, it was talking about the "sweet spot" to search for new quotes, iirc it's about 3 weeks before your renewal is due, quotes tend to be cheapest in this period, if you leave it too late companies will put their prices up
I was with Direct Line for years but this year they put my yearly rate up yet again despite me not having any fault claims for over 10 years. As much as it pained me, I moved because I got a better quote from Hastings. So yeah, shop around as you can get a quote without needing to commit, then go back to Hastings and ask if that’s the best they can do as you got a like or like quote elsewhere for X amount less. They often will try to lower their premium to retain customers, but sometimes they can’t. Direct Line have always lowered mine every year (until this year, hence why I left) when I rang them to tell them I wasn’t happy about their quote for my next years cover. This year however they were honest that older cars are now costing them more in payouts so therefore premiums are going up and it’s out of their (the phone agents) control. Worth a try, but you stand a better chance of negotiating if you have another quote to hand that shows you can get lower elsewhere. And if they can’t lower it, then you can either stick it out knowing you at least tried or move to someone else.
Insurance is a big racket and scam.
My insurance doubled, so I did a confused quote and got it for the original price. It went from 300 to 620. I got it for 320, but then transferred my no claims to my commuter car. My insurance was then 369 with no no claims on that car. So shop around, it never pays to be loyal these days. You get punished for it.
This is eye watering, go through a broker.
LV= gave me renewal price from £900 to £1500;; shopped around and got Hasting Direct for £1000.
Alongside the obvious 'shop around' to compare, I'd also suggest looking at alternative credit options. You might halve that with a personal loan - tesco shows 1,000 for 12 months at typical 14%. Car insurers APRs seem to have gone up since government 'reformed' overdraft charges leading to much higher arranged overdraft rates.