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Changing CAR INSURANCE providers.....
Well, I've finally bitten the bullet and changed my car insurers of many years. I went onto one of the comparison websites and have managed to reduce my annual insurance by £658 !!!!
My previous insurers DL were costing me £1140 per year and wouldn't hardly budge when I threatened to cancel my insurance offering me a measley £12 annual discount in the end.
Ok, I don't now have breakdown cover, legal assistance, personal accident, windscreen cover, courtesy car or protected no claims. But my installments have gone down from £95 to £41 which is not to be sniffed at. Are these 'extras' really so essential anyway?
I will definitely be adding RAC/AA breakdown cover individually. I may add extra safeguards to my policy when it is viable to do so. My financial situation dictated a subantial reduction be made this year. Are there any good vehicle breakdown cover deals out there?
Can you better this or maybe suggest ways of improving on it even more? Any thoughts or suggestions much appreciated.
My previous insurers DL were costing me £1140 per year and wouldn't hardly budge when I threatened to cancel my insurance offering me a measley £12 annual discount in the end.
Ok, I don't now have breakdown cover, legal assistance, personal accident, windscreen cover, courtesy car or protected no claims. But my installments have gone down from £95 to £41 which is not to be sniffed at. Are these 'extras' really so essential anyway?
I will definitely be adding RAC/AA breakdown cover individually. I may add extra safeguards to my policy when it is viable to do so. My financial situation dictated a subantial reduction be made this year. Are there any good vehicle breakdown cover deals out there?
Can you better this or maybe suggest ways of improving on it even more? Any thoughts or suggestions much appreciated.
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Comments
Yes, I had Green Flag with my DL policy and they were pretty good. I'll take a look at their breakdown cover as well.
Got another 5 months before I can switch, I know for sure I can it for cheaper.
but I wouldn't feel comfortable driving with it.
My credit card offers free breakdown cover, I also got a years free breakdown cover from the car dealer when I got my car its annual service.
I would also look very closely at what service you get - my Brother in Law broke down and had breakdown recovery with his bank account from one of those rip-off packaged accounts, so assumed everything would be fine.
However, all this covered him for was to take him to a nearby garage to do a repair, and not recover the car to a place of his choosing. The garage he got taken to could not look at his car for well over a week, then ripped him off big time for the repair (about £1000 for something that should have been no more than £300), and also charged him £20/day storage. Of course, with the car broken he could not take it anywhere better.
Have you ever had to claim?
+1 for AutoAid.
The downside is you have to pay for any assistance you require, then claim the money back. However, speaking from first hand experience, we needed to be towed to a nearby garage, had to pay there and then, and the claim process was quick and efficient, and we received full cost back from AutoAid within 14 days.
I'm a careful driver, don't do that many miles so the extra safeguards to my car insurance can wait or the moment. If an accident isn't my fault, the other driver's insurance will pay anyway - assuming of course they are also insured!
With regard to breakdown cover, I've been looking at Green Flag. Roadside assistance, home start and national recovery for £60 a year. Sounds ok, but I'm sure there is a better and cheaper option?
I should really have looked into reducing my car insurance much, much sooner. I should also have given much more thought to the extras and is what I'm paying for more or less important to me.
Green flag are cheap - until you need to claim. The next year the renewal goes through the roof! Even if you just call once like I did when I still had my driving license.
Also the AA will only cover you for a certain number of breakdowns per year. Although the cover I had it was the driver was covered not the machine. The AA left me stranded 10 miles from home on a moped because of this. Gee was I glad it was summer at the time!
I have RAC cover with my Barclays bank account and they've been brilliant. Come out to both my car & my boyfriends (as the only stipulation is that I have to be with the car) we broke down once near Stansted airport when I was travelling to Chelmsford from Nottingham - the RAC took the car back to the garage in Nottingham, and we got a lift to Chelmsford.
I have a Barclays account - how much do they charge for their breakdown cover? Just wondering if it is competitive with other breakdown companies.
It's part of the Premier account, not a clue how much it costs as there are loads of other benefits with the Premier account, not just the RAC cover!
I only have the basic account so wouldn't qualify.
I was in a similar position a few months ago when the breakdown cover was due for renewal on one of our family vehicles.
After a bit of delving and unsuccessful negotiation with the AA, I decided to opt for 3-Star cover from
http://www.startrescue.co.uk/annual-breakdown-cover
• Roadside Assistance
• Nationwide Recovery
• Home Start
• Accident Recovery
• Alternative Transport
• Overnight Accommodation
• Key Assist
• Message Assist
The policy seems to be a ‘decent fit’ for the family vehicle in question and our particular requirements; I paid £35.40 p.a. so appears to be excellent value.(I think it’s actually cheaper now !)
‘StartRescue’ comes highly recommended from many quarters but whether it really is good value for money remains to be seen; however, on a personal level, that’s something I would rather not find out!
Not one I've heard of, but I'll take a look. Thanks.
I’ve recently had a free upgrade to my policy from Startrescue; it’s a free Legal Aid package for the remainder of the policy, which runs till June’15.
Obviously just a little ‘tempter’ to get me to buy the full package when the present subscription expires; I don’t think I’ll ‘upgrade’ the policy at re-newal time....I’ll just stick with the present level of cover.......but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Fortunately, I haven’t had cause to use Startrescue’s services yet. I switched to them (from the AA) based jointly on cost and some glowing recommendations from people who (unfortunately!) had to call them out.
They’ve been in existence for 16 years apparently............until June last year I’d not heard of them either.:)
Edit. I’ve just had a look at Startrescue website and they have changed the charging policy since June. They now have ‘charge bands’ depending on the age of the car; ...........that being said, the cost for our particular vehicle is exactly the same.:)