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Car Insurance

Legal Requirement but Total Scam

By Hannah PPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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So I don’t know how it is in other countries but in the UK car insurance is mandatory but has no regulatory body, which means insurance companies can do basically whatever they want to their customers.

I will admit, this is going to be more of a rant than anything else but hey I need it, it’s been a complicated day.

So I’ve had a car for five years, it’s an older car and it’s pretty basic. With five years of no claims the insurance actually wasn’t bad. When I first got insurance for it though the cheapest quote I could get through a comparison site was £1200, putting my mum on the insurance, who has been driving for a long time and has ten plus years of no claims, dropped the premium by about £300, so that was obviously a no brainer.

This year I took my mum off my insurance because I moved away from home. However, when I looked into adding her to my policy after I’d opened it the insurance company who I have my insurance through this year were going to put the price up by £35. They may not be a lot but why is it that with one company adding my mum drops my premium but with another company it increases my premium?

Now as I alluded to above, I’ve changed insurance company this year, mostly because I’ve moved away from home and into a city, so going with another company was, at the time, cheaper. Now however, I’m getting a new car. My current car is beginning to get a bit worn and is struggling to cope with some of the longer drives that I’m now doing, so I’ve decided to upgrade to a two year old mini.

On comparison sites I could get a full year quote for £550, and that was with the company that this year’s insurance is through. To change my policy with my current provider however, going through their site and calling them, they were going to add about £300 to my current amount, which almost doubles the premium for the year.

So how does that work? Can someone explain it to me? I’m showing loyalty to a company, and sticking with them while there were a few cheaper quotes on the comparison site, but they decide that they’re going to massively raise my premium.

I explained about the quote I’d found on the comparison site, but since I hadn’t taken a note of the reference number they said they couldn’t match it. When I re-entered all the details into the comparison site, baring a mind only about a week and half has passed since getting the previous quote, the new cheapest premium is £620. How can the insurance premiums change by so much over just over a week?

So long story short, they said they’d match the £620 premium I’d found but they couldn’t amend my current policy, they’d have to cancel it and start a new one. Yeah, makes no sense to me either. And then they say that they’re going to charge me a £55 cancelation fee, even though it wasn’t my fault that I needed to cancel, it was theirs since for whatever reason they can’t amend a policy midterm (??? since when? Amending a policy is fairly standard). After about a ten minute discussion, where I may have bitched a little about effectively being penalised for tying to be loyal to the company and they’re charging me £55 for the privilege because they can’t amend a policy, they waived the charge.

With everything else so regulated, why can’t car insurance have a set of rules that actually have to be followed? The lowest price on the price comparison website was £620 as stated above, but the highest was over £3000. It’s almost like they don’t want your money. But I really don’t understand how there can be such a difference between prices. It makes no sense at all.

Anyway, that’s me done, until next year when it comes to renewal.

industry
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About the Creator

Hannah P

I'm 23 and from Cornwall, England.

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