Astronomical insurance quote on ST300!!

[wheatenfields]

Hi folks,

Quick question about insurance costs!

Very much aware of cost of living crisis etc, but just had my insurance renewal on my ST300.......and shocked! Now over £900. 8 years NCB, garaged, clean licence. Last year it went up to £620, from £510 the year before.

I wasn't expecting it to be cheaper this year round. But nearly £300 more?! That's the best part of 50% increase YoY

Have done all the main price comparison sites, all the same as my renewal.

Anyone else experiencing insurance quote rip off this year?

 

[H Rafiq]

Have you got any declared mods on it? Is that why it’s higher? 8 years NCB is good.

 

[wheatenfields]

Have you got any declared mods on it? Is that why it’s higher? 8 years NCB is good.

No mods on the car. 6000miles per year too. Nothing that I can think of that could justify it. Other than a premium because I'm in London? It's garaged too!!

 

[andycupra]

just go elsewhere. or call them. they try this with renewals as many just go with it. although there has been an increase for insurance overall

 

[H Rafiq]

Do a comparison, find the cheapest and call your current company and get them to match that price. If not then go elsewhere. Maybe get a dashcam too. That brings my premium down a bit. Had a telematics device for 6 months too as insurance was £350 cheaper with it in the car.

 

[wheatenfields]

Thanks gents. Got the dashcam, done the comparisons....done 'em all. Still getting dicked. I'll get on the blower, and will post if I find something reasonable. Cheers

 

[SRGTD]

@wheatenfields - Insurance companies premium calculation algorithms are so complex these days and use multiple risk factors, and some of the risk factors used aren’t even directly related to the insurance risk - e.g. pretty much all insurance companies will use a person’s credit score / credit rating as a risk factor as their risk stats have shown there’s a correlation between the insurance risk and a person’s credit rating and their ability to pay their premium and how they pay (monthly or by a single annual payment).

You don’t necessarily have to have made a claim in the expiring period of insurance for your premium to increase. Insurance companies will be analysing the risk and claims data of their car insurance portfolio on an ongoing basis to identify which types of risk are generating claims, and if all Cupra Leon ST300’s as a risk segment is generating a disproportionately high frequency of claims and high average claims costs, then an insurer is likely to increase premium rates for all Cupra Leon ST300’s in their portfolio of risks.

Your research is showing premiums on all the comparison sites are similar to your renewal price, which does suggest that;

1. the ST300 isn’t currently favoured by the majority of insurance companies
2. there may be certain risk factors specific to you / your car such as postcode / garaging location (there may well be other risk factors too) that insurance companies view as high risk.

It would be worth considering ways to legitimately reduce your premium - e.g.

• increasing your excess
• fitting an insurer approved security device (not all will offer a discount so check with the insurance company first to establish whether or not they would).

There may be others in addition to the above.

It might also be worth considering;

• contacting the forum sponsors section of the forum as there may be forum discounts offered by the sponsors. There are two specific sponsors who are insurance partners; Adrian Flux and Chris Knott.
• asking a traditional high street insurance broker to search the market for a competitive premium quote; many brokers will have access to insurance companies who aren’t on the comparison sites. They may also have special scheme arrangements with some insurance companies that give them preferential insurance rates.
• contacting insurance companies direct that aren’t on comparison sites - e.g. Direct Line, Aviva (there will be others).
• a broker who specialises in cover for high performance cars; try an internet search for ‘Performance car insurance’.

Please update this discussion thread once you’ve found a premium you feel is acceptable, as it may be helpful to other forum members who find themselves in a similar position you yourself.

Good luck! ?

 

[SamuelDonuts]

This sounds truly ridiculous, but try adding a named driver? When I added my other half, who will maybe touch the car once or twice a year for a few miles, it brought it down by nearly £100.

Gotta play the algorithm game.

 

[Nathan penney]

They’re up there with focus ST’s for getting nicked so unfortunately everyone pays for it.
Hope you find it cheaper somewhere.

 

[R3k1355]

They are ripping everyone off this year. Been reported most people are seeing a 30% increase over last year.

Legalised robbery, they're clearly colluding and operating in an anti-competitive manner.

 

[SRGTD]

They’re up there with focus ST’s for getting nicked so unfortunately everyone pays for it.
Hope you find it cheaper somewhere.

Yes, I dare say that with fewer new cars having been built, and long wait times for new cars due to supply issues with some key components such as semiconductors, insurance claims for car thefts - particularly desirable cars - will have been on the increase.

Additionally, increased energy costs, high inflation feeding through to the cost of car parts and paint for repairs and repairers wage bills will also be adding to claims costs. As you’ve said, everybody pays, irrespective of whether or not they’ve had a claim.

My premium this year also increased by more than the rate of inflation; circa 15-16% more than last year. I’m retired, drive no more than 5k miles per year, no claims in over 20 years apart from a couple of windscreen stone chip repairs a few years ago, I’ve a clean driving licence since I started driving over 45 years ago and I live in a fairly rural location with low crime rates. I checked the comparison sites and apart from a couple of companies I’d never heard of that were a bit cheaper, what I’d been quoted by my insurance company was pretty much one the cheapest prices.

Unfortunately, car insurance is one of those grudge purchases that we need to make. You don’t see anything in return for the premium unless you need to claim, which gives the insurance company another opportunity to increase the premium even more. A no win situation for the customer………

 

[martin j.]

My Honda’s renewal came through at around 30% up, checked around and did get a reasonable price elsewhere but every company is at it, some cars getting hit worse than others. RIP off Britain?

 

[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX]

Hi.
Please feel free to give us a try for insurance if you haven't done so already.
Regards,
Dan.

 

[Tivver500]

My multicar policy (Cupra ST and TVR) went up by nearly 50% in March so shopped around....
I live in rural Somerset and I'm an IAM National Observer so, would think, pretty low risk but most insurance companies didn't seem to think so!!
Ended up with the IAM's 'insurer' (Cornmarket) who have insured both vehicles for only a 10% increase in cost.

Could be worth signing up with the IAM and doing their Advanced Driver course to reduce premiums.....

 

[SuperV8]

My Honda’s renewal came through at around 30% up, checked around and did get a reasonable price elsewhere but every company is at it, some cars getting hit worse than others. RIP off Britain?

My renewal mid Jan was actually £3 less!! for my 184ST at £268.

 

[DigitalSushi]

Mine went up about £100 to £540. So yeh i think after they were forced to put the prices down in lockdown they are reaming us again.

Check your job description as well. some jobs have a higher premium on them. When I put IT manager my premium is considerably higher than when I put Systems analyst. Both are valid descriptions so might be worth looking at that

Thanks gents. Got the dashcam, done the comparisons....done 'em all. Still getting dicked. I'll get on the blower, and will post if I find something reasonable. Cheers

Be wary of this, if you cannot provide dashcam footage when you have specifically taken the insurance with dashcams declared (and got a discount), some of the more unscrupulous companies (so basically all the robbing gits) might try to invalidate your insurance. I have heard of this but I dont know if it is totally true but I'd definitely check the fine print

 

[black_sheep]

My quote didn't increase, but the compulsory excess jumped from £250 to £600 this time around.

Insurance companies are now obliged to provide the same deals for existing customers as new customers, so once again everyone loses out!

My insurance with a right hand drive car based in Germany was lower than what I was paying in UK, so don't get me started about how we are ripped off here.

 

[seatgraham]

According to a recent report (March 2023):
In the USA, the national average cost for car insurance is $1630 which is equal to around $136 per month. In the UK, the national average cost of car insurance is £412 for a year.
equivalent of £1300 per year for USA- wow!

 

[Mr Pig]

We shop around every year and move most years. You can't use comparison sites as they don't give you the same prices as you get by phoning directly.

Getting loads of quotes is a pain in the neck and everybody hates doing it. Insurance companies know this and hope you are lazy enough to think that because you found them cheaper last year you'll assume they're still the cheapest, won't bother phoning round and they put your premium up every year. The diffidence can be hundreds, it was on my car last year.

We always stick with the big guys. If you do need them the service you get is typically better, they have huge resources. Direct Line, Admiral, Esure, Churchill, usually one of those. Sometimes we'll be with the same company two years in a row but it is unusual.

 

[SRGTD]

According to a recent report (March 2023):
In the USA, the national average cost for car insurance is $1630 which is equal to around $136 per month. In the UK, the national average cost of car insurance is £412 for a year.
equivalent of £1300 per year for USA- wow!

Bear in mind that those average US and UK premiums won’t be on a like for like basis; in the US there’ll be a much higher proportion of gas guzzlers e.g. large engined 4x4 pick up trucks (e.g. Dodge Ram, Ford F150 and similar), high performance cars (e.g. Camaro, Dodge Chargers, Corvettes and similar), and I dare say the average annual mileage driven in the US will be also somewhat higher than in the UK.

Having said that, I think that the compensation culture and the propensity to sue in the US will be a major contributory factor to the very high premiums in the US. Where individuals are injured in car accidents, the resultant Injury claims can be very expensive to settle - and probably much more so in the US than in the UK - check out the UK v’s US personal injury awards comparison for large payouts in the table at the link below.

Compensation Tables And Payouts For Personal Injury Claims (UK)

A helpful article guiding you on how to use compensation tables for personal injury claims and providing a list of compensation payouts (UK).

www.legalexpert.co.uk

In the last couple of decades, in the UK we have become much more legally aware, and with some legal firms offering their services on a no win no fee basis, I dare say we’re moving in the direction of the US as far as a ‘suing for compensation‘ culture is concerned in injury (and non-injury) claim scenarios. That can only mean one thing for car insurance premiums; we‘ll all have to pay more to fund an increasing number and cost of injury claim payments ?.