Tesco Car Insurance - what's going on?

[Black Sheep]

www.moneysavingexpert.com has a guide to getting the best quote from comparison sites, might be of some use?

a lot of insurance companies are starting to remove themselves from comprison sites tho.

 

[sheva]

my third party insurance, peugeot 306 1.4, was £258 last year. Just got my renewal through, £919!!! Rang them up and asked, genuinely, if it was a computer error. No says they, apparently they`ve reviewed all there policies and decided to up there prices to this level.
Needless to say I`ve now got to hunt down another insurer through the comparison websites, not something I`m looking forward to.

 

[Smokin Joe]

*Looks Down*

Laddie!? Nope, still definately a girl

Ooops

 

[MrGrumpy]

funnily enough our car insurance renewal from Direct line came through and it was £150 more than last year. Got a cheaper quote from themselves as a new customer but still not as cheap as tesco?? I swear direct line and tesco are also linked in this as well but not sure. Anyway Tesco it is this year and at last kept the price the same as last year.

 

[srw]

We were told that one cause of the increase was banks backing out of the insurance market meaning less competition amongst insurers.

I think you were told a half-truth. Only RBS (Direct Line and Churchill) is really looking to exit insurance - and that's only because the government has told them to. The level of competition is as high as ever; what's changed is that company after company has seen results plummet below what's viable, so has to put up prices to where they should be.

 

[srw]

funnily enough our car insurance renewal from Direct line came through and it was £150 more than last year. Got a cheaper quote from themselves as a new customer but still not as cheap as tesco?? I swear direct line and tesco are also linked in this as well but not sure. Anyway Tesco it is this year and at last kept the price the same as last year.

"Tesco Insurance is provided by UK Insurance Ltd", says the Tesco website. UK Insurance is the white-labelling company owned by RBS, who also own Direct Line. As far as I know, all the insurance back-office work (including pricing) in the RBS group is handled together.

So, yes, Tesco and Direct Line are very closely linked.

 

[srw]

a lot of insurance companies are starting to remove themselves from comprison sites tho.

Only the very brave, the very foolish and those who have spent squillions on branding. That's basically Direct Line.

 

[potsy]

Just had my renewal quote,up over £100 on last year

No problem I thought,just have a quick look round for somewhere cheaper.OMG Direct Line want £850,even the 2 comparison sites I've tried are no cheaper than my current provider (Swift)
Will try Tesco now but am not holding my breath

 

[PBancroft]

Not had great experience with Tesco / UK Insurance. When we moved house they told me my premium would go up because of the change of address (fair enough) so I said not to worry, and I would shop around.

I did, and found a cheaper quote. I then called back Tesco, and told them I didn't want to take on their offer and will cancel my agreement with them. Oh, says they, you can't do that just yet - you've just taken out the higher premium.

Um, no. I didn't.

It took about four weeks and multitudes of phonecalls to get that rectified, talking with person over person who didn't care they had charged my card for a payment I didn't authorise and did I once get an apology? Did I ****. In retrospect I should have taken it up with the bank and the ombudsman, but at the time I didn't think (I was moving house - I was somewhat busy). I avoid Tesco like the plague nowadays - I'm always of the belief that any company can make a mistake as they're only as good as their least experienced and underpaid staffer, but how they handle such mistakes is what matters... and they handled it appallingly.

 

[asterix]

Every time I've had a quote from Tesco it's been far higher than I pay now,use a comparison site and you'll be amazed at the difference between the cheapest and dearest.
Though it's not always good to go for the very cheapest as the excess may be a lot higher.

All my insurances went up this year, so I shopped around and managed to find much cheaper rates for equivalent insurance.

Strangely enough I found Tesco wanted more for TPFT than comp on my van by a few quid. I assume they are a broker and use different companies.

Am now with the AA, they weren't the cheapest but they give me longer abroad for an extra £12. There's very little difference between TPFT and comp on a van for some reason.

 

[Flying Dodo]

Sadly, most insurance companies rely on the fact that a large proportion of their customers don't bother shopping around, and therefore tend to fleece existing customers by jacking up the prices at renewal. It's only when you query it, that they somehow then offer you a cheaper price.

 

[swee'pea99]

The whole industry is built on inertia. Always use comparison websites, then take the price back to your currnet insurer. 9 times out of 10 they'll drop their price to match. Oh, and getting fully comp on a £400 sounds a bit od to me. Just get 3rd party. Even fire & theft is usually a waste of time at that level. Just go cheapest legal.

 

[potsy]

Strangly the comparison site has Swiftcover at over £600 for me,yet the renewal quote direct from them is <£500

would it be worth trying for a discount by phoning to 'cancel'?

 

[surfdude]

my 18 year old lad looked on these comparsion web sites and the cheapest he could find was about £4500 tpft .glad iam an old fart

 

[srw]

Strangely enough I found Tesco wanted more for TPFT than comp on my van by a few quid. I assume they are a broker and use different companies.

That's because the clever statistics underlying the pricing engine show that people who take out TPFT tend to claim more than people who take out Comp. And that, in turn, is because people who take out TPFT tend to be the sort of people who drive more or less carefully. However, once enough people discover pricing anomalies like that the stats will alter and so will the prices.