Car insurance premiums go up despite no claims?

galah

this *may* be a stupid question...

but every year so far, my car insurance premiums have been going UP - rather than down - despite no accidents, claims or anything else. Is this just a market thing or is something happening that I am not aware of? Just got my renewal, and my premium pretty much DOUBLED year-on-year - surely that cannot be right? Even the difference from last year to this year's cheapest quote (different insurer) is almost 60 quid...

Granted, I changed my car - but I upgraded from an 00 banger with hardly any safety features to a new car with all the bells n whistles (in the lower price range, and lower engine size, mind you)

is this normal? just interested in how these companies actually calculate the premiums...

peteb2

yep. its called an increase in rates. And whilst your car may be a smaller engine, the price of potential repair also comes in the grouping of cars for insurance rating purposes!

NIMAN

Most folks insurances, be it motor or home, have been on a steady rise over recent years.

I think we are all paying for some major world events or something.

Best advice is to always shop around. Once a firm has you in, they tend to offer you poor deals to stay as a customer. Its often easy to find better quotes with a few phone calls.

Otis Driftwood

Ive been in the industry for about 2 years and the basic reason for the increase is the increase in the amount of claims.

Insurance is a pool,money is paid in via premiums and paid out via claims.

The last 2 winters have been bat shít mental in terms of claims and it has pushed the rates up exponentially.

I used to work for one of the biggest companies in the industry and remember hearing that for every euro they were taking in they were paying out €1.10 (something like that anyway)

Im sure every other company is the same.

Also,historically in recessionary times claims go up,exaggerated claims,false claims etc.

Its a vicious circle.

cookie1977

Wasn't AIG was it? :P

Mezcita

+1 on the shop around offer.

It's a pain but well worth it. Once you get a lower offer (based on a few companies) go back to your original company and advise them to beat it or lose your business.

I would understand your premium going up if you had been making claims but otherwise it's just companies taking advantage of people not shopping around.

Otis Driftwood

cookie1977 wrote: »

Wasn't AIG was it? :P

Nope.

paddles

Ok, I have decided after a few yrs to shop around but I find the questions quite difficult to answer e.g.
cost of re-building house? no clue. How would u find out?
cost of out buildings e.g. walls, garages etc - same question.
value of specifications e.g. fitted wardrobes, wooden floors -again,huh????

Is there just a round figure that you put that it really doesn't make any difference??
And re. value of contents, is that literally everything from carpets, curtains etc to all furniture, light fittings, bathroom fittings etc etc?
Thanks.

bryaner

paddles wrote: »

Ok, I have decided after a few yrs to shop around but I find the questions quite difficult to answer e.g.
cost of re-building house? no clue. How would u find out?
cost of out buildings e.g. walls, garages etc - same question.
value of specifications e.g. fitted wardrobes, wooden floors -again,huh????

Is there just a round figure that you put that it really doesn't make any difference??
And re. value of contents, is that literally everything from carpets, curtains etc to all furniture, light fittings, bathroom fittings etc etc?
Thanks.

As far as I know contents is anything you can carry out of the house, the rest falls under buildings, I'm not 100% on this and am open to correction..

cookie1977

http://www.scsi.ie/publications/press_releases/scs_press_releases_2011/scshouserebuild2011

This is released yearly in about Feb/March

ComfyKnickers

paddles wrote: »

Ok, I have decided after a few yrs to shop around but I find the questions quite difficult to answer e.g.
cost of re-building house? no clue. How would u find out?
cost of out buildings e.g. walls, garages etc - same question.
value of specifications e.g. fitted wardrobes, wooden floors -again,huh????

Is there just a round figure that you put that it really doesn't make any difference??
And re. value of contents, is that literally everything from carpets, curtains etc to all furniture, light fittings, bathroom fittings etc etc?
Thanks.

Hi there, re the cost of rebuilding a house, check out www.scsi.ie and go into Publications and there is an Adobe doc giving you all the info you need depending on type of house and no. of bedrooms. It's roughly €125 per square foot but if you just give the square footage to whoever you are ringing, they will be able to calculate it for you anyway. Your garage should be included in the square footage.

Regarding your contents, think of it this way, everything you can bring with you if you moved in the morning is a content. So, fitted kitchens, fitted wardrobes, bathroom fittings, wooden floors etc. all fall under the buildings category as you would not take these with you when you move (well ok, technically you could tear out your kitchen and bring it with you but we're being realistic here lol). All moveable stuff is a content so all free-standing furniture, carpets (you can take these so they are a content) etc, tv's and all that kinda stuff - contents!

Try if possible to get accidental damage on both buildings and contents. An example of both - you are up in your attic and accidentally fall through the ceiling - accidental damage on buildings will cover you for this. When I was working in insurance, we had a client who was painting her stairs. She had carpet down (which is a content), tipped over the entire tin of paint and it literally spilled down every step of the stairs and totally destroyed the carpet. Accidental damage cover on contents would have covered the replacement of the carpet.

Hope this helps