Good News/ Bad News

The good: Just got my AA car insurance renewal quote, and it is more than £100 less than last year.

The bad: Although none of my personal or vehicle details have changed, my bank has changed the company which operates its debit cards from VISA to whatever the company with two coloured circles calls itself.
So, before insurance renews, I have to contact them to change card co and card number.

I expected to be able to do it online. It appears not.
Drop them a note in the post? It appears not!

Seems no way round the hassle of getting through and dealing with it on phone!

And I bet they say it means that I can't renew at quoted price since a detail is being changed. GRRRRR!

Do you not have an on line account where you can change it?

Link

Change banks

All sorted.

They were very good, once I got to speak to a human.

It's the 20 minutes of recorded announcements/sales pitch/button pressing for choices/ waiting in queue, that is so frustrating.

I know that I am an impatient person. I even shop ultra early to avoid queues. Doing business over telephone is no longer the smooth experience it once was.

ena: Did he have an accent?

Funny you should ask that.

He was an Aberdonian: Scots, but very different from more usual Scots accent.

So, not Wigan. Not, "are you on "t'internet', have you bin down 'chimley'?

th'internet: I believe is the preferred Wiganese.

I've also just recently changed my insurance provider (Hastings), who were about to charge me this year £568.04. Not accepting that, I went back to my previous provider (LV) who said they'd charge me £321.05 a year, which I did accept. No, I don't drive a Bentley, or a Porsche, or a Tesla.

Ironically, when I bought my car two years ago I tried LV and they gave me an inflated cost, and that's why I changed providers back then.

I then phoned Hastings, roughly 15 minutes before they closed for the day, and explained I wanted to cancel. The guy jumped through several hoops and climbed a couple of mountains trying his best to bring their price down, and I waited patiently and answered his questions. Finally, after doing some "calculations" he came back and joyously said they could bring down my yearly cost to £325.85. Yippee!

When I got a word in edgeways I told him I still wanted to cancel as it still wasn't good enough. By now my patience had worn thin and told him that for the last two years they'd been ripping me off.

Thing is, my brother suggested I go with Hastings. He drives a 2L car and his insurance was half that of mine for my 1.4L Astra. I think my boss only pays a few quid more for his brand new BMW, and no, I've never been in an accident, nor have I ever had a claim against me.

Just goes to show that you can't trust 'em.

Yes, my Astra Estate has cost as much to insure as did the big Merc which I drove before I retired.

And my mileage in the former is around 1% of what I drove in the latter.

I've no idea why it costs so much to insure, unless my age is a contributory factor. Also, as I said, mine is just a 1.4 and people are amazed that I pay road tax on it as well. I can't work it all out, but I don't suppose we're meant to.

I drive no more than 2000 a year, so I don't hammer my cars.

One of my motorcycle insurances "automatic renewal warning" notice came this morning, from Bennetts.
Policy with Ageas, up from £84 last year to £115 on June 6th.
I cancelled the automatic renewal straight away, online.

Then I went on 'Go Compare' and got a new quote.
Swinton have quoted me, same policy, by Ageas, £82 !

You should always get quotes off comparison sites, they work out cheaper. And, don't forget, you aren't insured by who you think you're insured by!

For some reason insurance for women is always more expensive, even though we are the better drivers.

The companies say that car insurance , until recently, all else being equal, was lower for women than men.

But, insurers are legally required to no longer look at gender when calculating motoring premiums. However, that was EU law, so maybe Brexit has reversed this, although google says In 2020, men were still paying 26% more than women.
.

Over in Spain, the sex of the driver is irrelevant because the car is insured not the driver.
Spain, apparently, is in the EU.

Loopholes

Not paid car insurance for 6 years but out of curiosity check to see what I would have to pay and it has not risen by a vast amount in this time

What the Insurance companies charged young people on passing their driving test when they have never been in a accident is ridiculous.

Especially, when some are better, safer and accident free drivers than many older motorists.

Tonker, the year before last I got my renewal quote from More Than which I thought was excessive, and looked on Go Compare and the cheapest quote was from More Than.
I rang and they were more than happy to go with the internet one.
I asked why the difference from the original quote ,but they were non committal.