Hi all

I have just put in a claim for accidental damage having fractured a radiator
tail pipe (that's the DIY bit - destroy it yourself).
This is the second claim this year - no I'm not accident prone, honest.

So the question:

Is any increase in premiums a function of the number of claims made, or is
it the total value of claims made?
The total cost for both issues combined is likely to be £2k

TIA

Phil

In article ,
"TheScullster" writes:
Hi all

I have just put in a claim for accidental damage having fractured a radiator
tail pipe (that's the DIY bit - destroy it yourself).
This is the second claim this year - no I'm not accident prone, honest.

So the question:

Is any increase in premiums a function of the number of claims made, or is
it the total value of claims made?
The total cost for both issues combined is likely to be £2k

Sorry, don't know never having claimed, but what is the claim for
(i.e. what got damaged)?

I seem to just repair things which get damaged, e.g. a leaking
pipe caused the kitchen units to go rotten, which spurred me on
to replacing the kitchen, which was on the long term to-do list.
I remember mentioning that to a colleague when I was just
finishing it off, and his response was "oh, we just claimed a
new kitchen on the insurance", after their washing machine
leaked.

Having said that, I did include DIY disasters on my insurance;
it only cost £10 extra.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Tue, 12 May 2009 10:44:38 +0100, "TheScullster"
wrote:

Hi all

I have just put in a claim for accidental damage having fractured a radiator
tail pipe (that's the DIY bit - destroy it yourself).
This is the second claim this year - no I'm not accident prone, honest.

So the question:

Is any increase in premiums a function of the number of claims made, or is
it the total value of claims made?
The total cost for both issues combined is likely to be £2k

TIA

Phil

Two Grand ...WTF did you damage?





--------------
Any posting using my name and/or e-mail address
but other than by newsindividual.net is not being posted by me and should be disregarded .
Remove NOSPAM to reply by e-mail

TheScullster wrote:
Hi all

I have just put in a claim for accidental damage having fractured a radiator
tail pipe (that's the DIY bit - destroy it yourself).
This is the second claim this year - no I'm not accident prone, honest.

So the question:

Is any increase in premiums a function of the number of claims made, or is
it the total value of claims made?
The total cost for both issues combined is likely to be £2k

TIA

Phil


If the 2 claims are in any way alike or are down to carelessness or poor
judgement then:
Your premium may increase
A larger excess may be imposed
In extreme circumstances some type of loss or property may be excluded.

It will depend on the company, how much you pay them, how many previous
claim free years you have etc.

You may have to stick with your current insurers unless both losses were
just down to bad luck. New insurers are not keen on people who have
losses. Something about the shareholders expecting them to make a profit!

If your insurers quote too much next renewal a good broker (sorry, no
ideas) who knows the market might be able to help you out.

TheScullster wrote:
Hi all

I have just put in a claim for accidental damage having fractured a radiator
tail pipe (that's the DIY bit - destroy it yourself).
This is the second claim this year - no I'm not accident prone, honest.

So the question:

Is any increase in premiums a function of the number of claims made, or is
it the total value of claims made?
The total cost for both issues combined is likely to be �2k

TIA

Phil

Dont worry, your new premium will ensure you pay your claim back over
a few years and then some. Or did you think they gave away money for
free?


NT

In article
,
wrote:
Dont worry, your new premium will ensure you pay your claim back over
a few years and then some. Or did you think they gave away money for
free?

My renewal came in today - Direct Line. It's gone up by a third from last
year. Over 1000 quid now. Never have made a claim on them.

--
*I must always remember that I'm unique, just like everyone else. *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article
,
wrote:
Dont worry, your new premium will ensure you pay your claim back over
a few years and then some. Or did you think they gave away money for
free?

My renewal came in today - Direct Line. It's gone up by a third from last
year. Over 1000 quid now. Never have made a claim on them.

Get an on-line quote using same details, as though you were a
prospective customer (pick another house number if necessary,
although I didn't find it so). You'll probably find that's a
much lower quote, and then phone them up, and they'll come
down to match that. Loyal customers just accepting standard
renewals get right royally screwed.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

"Stuart B" wrote

On Tue, 12 May 2009 10:44:38 +0100, "TheScullster"
wrote:

Hi all

I have just put in a claim for accidental damage having fractured a
radiator
tail pipe (that's the DIY bit - destroy it yourself).
This is the second claim this year - no I'm not accident prone, honest.

So the question:

Is any increase in premiums a function of the number of claims made, or is
it the total value of claims made?
The total cost for both issues combined is likely to be £2k

TIA

Phil

Two Grand ...WTF did you damage?


The estimate of £2k is not for damage to property caused by the leak(s).
Most of it is for excavation of pipes suspected as being the leak source;
trace and access visits with thermal imaging camera, sonic testing kit etc.
Also the cost of reinstatement work, carpet refit and redecoration.

Phil

In article , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article
,
wrote:
Dont worry, your new premium will ensure you pay your claim back over
a few years and then some. Or did you think they gave away money for
free?

My renewal came in today - Direct Line. It's gone up by a third from last
year. Over 1000 quid now. Never have made a claim on them.

Get an on-line quote using same details, as though you were a
prospective customer (pick another house number if necessary,
although I didn't find it so). You'll probably find that's a
much lower quote, and then phone them up, and they'll come
down to match that. Loyal customers just accepting standard
renewals get right royally screwed.

Direct Line do Tesco Home Insurance too. Last 2 years my renewal came in
and was inflated as per Dave's. I let the policy lapse both times and
just signed up fresh online without incident, it saved arguing the toss
with the phone oiks.

Although, I think Tesco's defaults to 'automatically renew for your
(in)convenience' unless you contact them to tell them not to.
--
fred
BBC3, ITV2/3/4, channels going to the DOGs

On 12 May 2009 13:05:32 GMT, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

Loyal customers just accepting standard renewals get right royally
screwed.

Aye, same applies to car insurance as well. Check what the same insurer
will offer for the same insurance online, make a note of the quote number
and ring 'em up. They'll invariably match it. Sometimes you might have to
let the old policy lapse and start an new one as a "new customer" but who
cares you have the same cover for less money...

Think this sort of ruse has got me £100 off in the past. I must admit to
accepting the last renewal quotes early, but then got £20 of M&S vouchers
per policy. I did have a quick scout about the net first before accepting
the quote less £20...

--
Cheers
Dave.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article
,
wrote:
My renewal came in today - Direct Line. It's gone up by a third from last
year. Over 1000 quid now. Never have made a claim on them.


A THOUSAND QUID!!! Building and contents quoted as £300 by Tesco
(previously £200, no claims between) so went on-line to Tesco's site. I
couldn't get the Tesco quote up to £300 even when buying "finest",
accidental damage and everything else. They've now ****ed me off so I
went elswhere for £165.

Another Dave

In article , Andrew Gabriel
wrote:
In article , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes:
In article
,
wrote:
Dont worry, your new premium will ensure you pay your claim back over
a few years and then some. Or did you think they gave away money for
free?

My renewal came in today - Direct Line. It's gone up by a third from
last year. Over 1000 quid now. Never have made a claim on them.

Get an on-line quote using same details, as though you were a
prospective customer (pick another house number if necessary, although I
didn't find it so). You'll probably find that's a much lower quote, and
then phone them up, and they'll come down to match that. Loyal customers
just accepting standard renewals get right royally screwed.

Indeed. Just done that. Less than half for their 'best policy' - even less
for the 'ordinary' one. Phoned them up and asked what the f**k was going
on - both my cars are with them too. The guy on the phone was very
sheepish. Must have had a lot of grief recently.

Used Go compair and the lowest quote is 1/4 of my renewal. And has a
higher contents limit.

*******s. What ever happened to keeping a good customer happy?

--
*Don't byte off more than you can view *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In message , Another Dave
writes
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article
,
wrote:
My renewal came in today - Direct Line. It's gone up by a third from last
year. Over 1000 quid now. Never have made a claim on them.


A THOUSAND QUID!!! Building and contents quoted as £300 by Tesco
(previously £200, no claims between) so went on-line to Tesco's site. I
couldn't get the Tesco quote up to £300 even when buying "finest",
accidental damage and everything else. They've now ****ed me off so I
went elswhere for £165.

Yeah but it depends on what you are insuring, as well as where
(subsidence, flood risk et.).

Our buildings insurance this year was about GBP 800, but we live in a
fairly large, listed Victorian building, so the rebuild costs would
potentially be a lot more than your average house. Our old 3 bed semi in
Leeds was a lot lot cheaper
--
Chris French

On Tue, 12 May 2009 19:07:18 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

*******s. What ever happened to keeping a good customer happy?

I guess they rely in good customer inertia to fund the discounts they give
"new" customers. It'll all be in the model they use to ensure shareholder
happiness, which is the real aim of many companies.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Tue, 12 May 2009 16:56:37 +0100 (BST), "Dave Liquorice"
had this to say:

On 12 May 2009 13:05:32 GMT, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

Loyal customers just accepting standard renewals get right royally
screwed.

Aye, same applies to car insurance as well. Check what the same insurer
will offer for the same insurance online, make a note of the quote number
and ring 'em up. They'll invariably match it. Sometimes you might have to
let the old policy lapse and start an new one as a "new customer" but who
cares you have the same cover for less money...

Think this sort of ruse has got me £100 off in the past. I must admit to
accepting the last renewal quotes early, but then got £20 of M&S vouchers
per policy. I did have a quick scout about the net first before accepting
the quote less £20...

A few weeks ago I renewed my motor insurance with Norwich Union
Direct/Aviva, then a couple of weeks later bought a new car and
changed my insurer to somebody else. I cancelled the NUD one by
telephone - no problem at all, and received a refund of most of the
premium. A short while after that I received a letter from NUD
thanking me for renewing with them (as I had done), inviting me to
claim for M&S vouchers.
I did feel a bit guilty claiming the vouchers, so didn't bother...

After all, I had had very good service from NUD a couple of years ago
when I claimed against another driver.

--
Frank Erskine

In article ,
chris French wrote:
A THOUSAND QUID!!! Building and contents quoted as £300 by Tesco
(previously £200, no claims between) so went on-line to Tesco's site. I
couldn't get the Tesco quote up to £300 even when buying "finest",
accidental damage and everything else. They've now ****ed me off so I
went elswhere for £165.

Yeah but it depends on what you are insuring, as well as where
(subsidence, flood risk et.).

None of that here.

Our buildings insurance this year was about GBP 800, but we live in a
fairly large, listed Victorian building, so the rebuild costs would
potentially be a lot more than your average house. Our old 3 bed semi in
Leeds was a lot lot cheaper

Mine isn't listed. Just an ordinary 4 bed Victorian semi. I've now got
online quotes for 1/4 of the renewal.

--
*I didn't drive my husband crazy -- I flew him there -- it was faster

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article et,
Dave Liquorice wrote:
*******s. What ever happened to keeping a good customer happy?

I guess they rely in good customer inertia to fund the discounts they
give "new" customers. It'll all be in the model they use to ensure
shareholder happiness, which is the real aim of many companies.

Seems to me they're trying to recover their (Royal Bank of Scotland)
losses from mugs who were their loyal customers.

--
*The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 12/05/2009 13:26 Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

My renewal came in today - Direct Line. It's gone up by a third from last
year. Over 1000 quid now. Never have made a claim on them.

I rang them at renewal time last year to tell them they were expensive
compared with other quotes. Got an instant offer of 25% off which really
annoys me: they were willing to overcharge me by 33%. Went elsewhere as
they were still not cheap enough.

Don't forget to try through Quidco and TopCashBack. MoreThan currently
offering £70 back and Lloyds TSB £75. I've had some serious money back
over the past few years and have had pretty low premiums too. Having
said that, household can be quite difficult to buy online as
circumstances may well not match the policies commonly on offer.

--
F

On May 12, 11:38*pm, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:
In article et,
* *Dave Liquorice wrote:

*******s. What ever happened to keeping a good customer happy?
I guess they rely in good customer inertia to fund the discounts they
give "new" customers. It'll all be in the model they use to ensure
shareholder happiness, which is the real aim of many companies.

Seems to me they're trying to recover their (Royal Bank of Scotland)
losses from mugs who were their loyal customers.

You lot must be using some very dodgy companies!

I always check and the renewals from Admiral (multi car policy) and E-
sure (house and contents) are always the same (or within a few quid if
I enter the wrong excess, etc) as what comes up via their own websites
or any of the comparison websites. There may be slightly cheaper
quotes form other companies I've never heard of but nothing
spectacular.

MBQ

In article
,
Man at B&Q wrote:
On May 12, 11:38 pm, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:
In article et,
Dave Liquorice wrote:

*******s. What ever happened to keeping a good customer happy?
I guess they rely in good customer inertia to fund the discounts they
give "new" customers. It'll all be in the model they use to ensure
shareholder happiness, which is the real aim of many companies.

Seems to me they're trying to recover their (Royal Bank of Scotland)
losses from mugs who were their loyal customers.

You lot must be using some very dodgy companies!

Direct Line?

I always check and the renewals from Admiral (multi car policy) and E-
sure (house and contents) are always the same (or within a few quid if
I enter the wrong excess, etc) as what comes up via their own websites
or any of the comparison websites. There may be slightly cheaper
quotes form other companies I've never heard of but nothing
spectacular.

I'd have been quite happy if it was only 10% or so different -
introductory offer etc. But the actual figure is over 60%. And I've got a
discount for no claims and one for having my cars with them too.

--
*He who dies with the most toys is, nonetheless, dead.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On May 13, 2:37*pm, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

You lot must be using some very dodgy companies!

Direct Line?

I always check and the renewals from Admiral (multi car policy) and E-
sure (house and contents) are always the same (or within a few quid if
I enter the wrong excess, etc) as what comes up via their own websites
or any of the comparison websites. There may be slightly cheaper
quotes form other companies I've never heard of but nothing
spectacular.

I'd have been quite happy if it was only 10% or so different -
introductory offer etc. But the actual figure is over 60%. And I've got a
discount for no claims and one for having my cars with them too.

So the moral is Direct Line advertise the fact that they don't pay to
be included on comparison websites, but they don't tell you they will
shaft you if you don't compare their prices.

Personally, I would avoid them in future.

MBQ

In article
,
Man at B&Q wrote:
I'd have been quite happy if it was only 10% or so different -
introductory offer etc. But the actual figure is over 60%. And I've
got a discount for no claims and one for having my cars with them too.

So the moral is Direct Line advertise the fact that they don't pay to be
included on comparison websites, but they don't tell you they will shaft
you if you don't compare their prices.

Indeed. I've written to them asking for an explanation. The renewal isn't
due until next month.

Personally, I would avoid them in future.

I've found them fine when dealing with a couple of claims over the years
on the cars. One for an awfully expensive rear screen on the old Rover.

--
*Money isn‘t everything, but it sure keeps the kids in touch

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

wrote:
On 12 May,
"TheScullster" wrote:

Hi all

I have just put in a claim for accidental damage having fractured a
radiator tail pipe (that's the DIY bit - destroy it yourself). This is the
second claim this year - no I'm not accident prone, honest.

So the question:

Is any increase in premiums a function of the number of claims made, or is
it the total value of claims made?
The total cost for both issues combined is likely to be £2k

We had two small claims 2-3 ago years amounting to less than £2k. For the
next two years we were unable to get a low quote shopping around, but endured
a slightly inflated premium with the exiating insurer, depite not having made
a claim in the previous 30 years.

I worked for an insurance company for over 35 years. There was a time
when loyalty counted for something. Nowadays it is where they are most
likely to turn a profit in the future.
Competition is so fierce that everything possible is done to keep prices
down for the perceived good risks.
Fraud is sufficiently prevalent that the last office I worked in had 2
ex-Scotland Yard detectives.
Computer models ensure that prices vary from hour to hour to balance
portfolios.
Rock bottom premiums for the best risks mean that any person with a
claims history is uprated by the computer system or charged more because
a human actually has to get involved in assessing the risk.