Insurance rip off?

[raleighnut]

Ah insurance does my head in.

Car and home, and travel insurance yeah good idea. Although in the last 10 years Ive paid 6-7k in car insurance for what? No accident whatsoever.

The ones for companies like boiler insurance from British Gas. Really annoy me. Recently found out my mother had been paying something like £25 a month for it for the last 10+ years, so £3000 or so they have had off of her. Only once did something go wrong with it. Would of cost £2-300 to fix.

I'd rather just be in charge of my own finances and risk. And have a savings account.

With boiler insurance you get a free service every year which is probably why it never went wrong plus you have the peace of mind that you're not going to be gassed (carbon monoxide) because the flue has become blocked.

 

[Crankarm]

So it is just discount and excess cover wrapped up in a sly way to make you want to insure something that is not a great risk.

A bit like when you buy a kettle from Argos for £30 and they ask if you want three years insurance on it for £40.

Picking up on MrWill post #5 - British Gas seem by far the worst and seem to aim their marketing at frightening elderly people. Also I hear lots of feedback that they write off and shut down boilers with easy repairs on them to make you buy a new one. They paint a picture of local tradesmen ripping off people but then rip people off more themselves.

British Gas are total and utter w***ers. They routinely cold call and pester my elderly mother trying to get her to sign up to having a replacement BG boiler installed and enter into a very onerous expensive maintenance contract which after 3 years they then condemn their own boiler that they fitted for yet another new one and she doesn't even live in an area where piped gas is available as it is very rural!!!! The bustards. I hate BG.

Plus for me they are now trying to extort a monthy standing charge having not informed me as had they done so I would have left them as I use one unit of gas every 6 months a tiny amount. I am now in the process of switching. How I hate BG. You feel like you've been mugged.

 

[Crankarm]

With boiler insurance you get a free service every year which is probably why it never went wrong plus you have the peace of mind that you're not going to be gassed (carbon monoxide) because the flue has become blocked.

Yeah right. My boiler gets a yearly service from a local independent gas heating engineer, despite me hardly using it, recently not at all, for £40 and I don't have to enter into onerous and expensive contracts pushed by bully boys and crooks such as British Gas. The independent heating engineer who checks my boiler has told me it has a lot of life left in it yet and will go on for years. DO NOT LET BRITISH GAS ANYWHERE NEAR IT AS THEY WILL CONDEMN IT EVEN THOUGH IT IS FINE.

 

[Crankarm]

There seems to be a new trend for insurers to try to worry us more so we get extra cover.

Dawn French and an annoying fat dog try to flog us "uninsured driver cover", surely that is us paying to cover the insurance companies risk? We must already be covered if an insured driver (or an unknown driver) damages our car.

Now there is an ad where we can get "Vandalism Cover" with direct line. Surely we all have that already too? (Assuming fully comp).

Then there is one that offers us the cash so we can buy an upgrade - has it not always been like that?

It also seems a bit odd that Money Supermarket has people in pimped up cars that they probably would not be able to get cover for.

Indeed a complete rip off. If you are a low risk i.e. never had a crash, careful driver, clean license, live in a low risk area, never ever made a claim what so ever, you do not need all these extra 'covers' the insurers try and flog you. The people who do need them are the ones who are maniacs on the roads, regularly crash, live in dodgy areas, have poor driving records. The insurance industry is just using fear tactics to make low risk policy holders think they need all this extra so called cover. Unless you live in Baghdad you don't. When buying insurance on -line first became available I used to select a huge excess (as I consider myself a low risk) for damage to my car, driving a low value car, which would massively reduce the premium to next to nothing but the insurance industry has since become wise to this so now they have 'minimum' premiums and this no longer works.

 

[Globalti]

Every year Swinton try to increase our household premium and every year I phone and say "This is not acceptable, I'm going elsewhere" and every year they reduce the premium back to the previous year's level. I'm getting sick of it.

 

[spen666]

The problem being you are not being insured for damage to you or your property, but to sombody else or their property. You could put your car insurance premium into a savings account for 50 years, but if you severely injure somebody in an accident and they require rest of life care you won't have enough money to pay for it. That is why car insurance is compulsory, and it is only third party that is compulsory.

[Pedantic Point] It is legal to drive a motor vehicle on the road without an insurance policy, if you comply with certain other requirements[/pedantic point]

 

[spen666]

Every year Swinton try to increase our household premium and every year I phone and say "This is not acceptable, I'm going elsewhere" and every year they reduce the premium back to the previous year's level. I'm getting sick of it.

Next year, don't tell them you are leaving, just leave without telling them.

That way you won't have to put up with them lowering your premium back to the last year's level

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Then there's the £35 to type your new address into their database...
And the extra £38 extra premium because you moved from a rural estate with private communal parking to a rural estate with your own parking, which happens to be a locked concrete garage.
Oh well, I'll get another meerkat next month because I just got like for like cover for £20 less than their original premium

 

[Paul99]

[Pedantic Point] It is legal to drive a motor vehicle on the road without an insurance policy, if you comply with certain other requirements[/pedantic point]

Yes but not many people have the £500k required

 

[GaryA]

Roadside recovery is a form of insurance...I'd been with the AA for 13 years becoming more and more peed off with the annual rising premiums esp as I'd only used them 3 x
£145 this year with some bilge about valuing long term clients but then discovered I could get it for £50 less on line as a new customer-sp much for customer loyality. Cancelled DD and refused to answer their increasingly desperate calls/e mails
went to RAC for £92 which are just as bad no doubt, but I'll swap mercenary style next year
I week after i swopped the AA sent a £50 off coupon- too late you idiots!

 

[akb]

It does bug me that I have to legally pay insuarance on my car. £900 for the month on a car thats worth no more now than £700. Id rather pay the bills out of my own pocket. I guess this is down to all the dishonest people out there. Grrrrr

 

[Paul99]

It does bug me that I have to legally pay insuarance on my car. £900 for the month on a car thats worth no more now than £700. Id rather pay the bills out of my own pocket. I guess this is down to all the dishonest people out there. Grrrrr

It's not for you, it's for the £100k car you may crash into.

 

[Crankarm]

Vehicle insurance should only cover 3rd party liability for injury or death. Damage to vehicles should not be covered so you pay for your own damage. That way drivers would be a lot more careful and there would be far fewer crashes/collisions/accidents.

 

[GaryA]

I knew somone a long time ago who got royally ripped off who then bought an old large vauxhall banger at an auction site and insured the car with the rip-off insurance company then went and looked for a newish shiny expensive merc or bmw (cant recall which) and had a nice little shunt at a roundabout-enough to cause damage but not enough to harm anyone. He just owned up and say it was all his fault- some dog poo got on his accelerator pedal; £100 fine for careless driving and a huge bill for them.

 

[Spoked Wheels]

My guess is that in a year or two, insured against non insured drivers will not be part of your policy and you will have to pay extra for it. They'll do the same for anything they can get away with.