Insurance Renewal

[DougX]

I am sure this topic has been raised before, but I thought I would just make members aware of my experience. My XJ8 is up for renewal on 16th November. I rang all the major players in the Classic Car Insurance field. Adrian Flux, Footman James, Peter Best, Lancaster Insurance (who I am currently with). I wanted a limit of mileage of around 4,000 mile p.a. and a guaranteed value for my XJ8 (which is £5,500 - Valuation letter from the JEC). I have no convictions, no driving convictions, no accidents, no insurance refusals, etc. etc. My current renewal came through from Lancaster at a price of £197.99 - last year it was £124.76!!!! An increase of £73.23. So I tried the various classic car insurance companies mentioned above. Peter Best = £201.05, Adrian Flux = £209.30, Footman James = a joint policy for 7 months until my other Jaguar is up for renewal (already insured with them) was £154.68! I phoned Lancaster and questioned why my premium had gone up so much, with a response of “let's see what we can do”. No changes to my policy requirements, they came back with a revised quote of £148.49. So the morale of the story is do your research, see what the other classic cars insurers are quoting, then go back and speak directly to your insurance company and see what they can do. It worked for me!

[andypryce]

They undoubtedly inflate renewal price on the basis that x% of people will just renew anyway, very annoying

[xjray]

Renewal quotes are almost always considerably higher than the previous year in the hope that you won’t bother checking around, which many don’t, and will just shrug and pay up.

I always do a comparison check on my domestic and car insurances when they come up for renewal then call the current insurer (assuming I’m happy with them) and ask them to match the better price. As long as you are sensible with the price you’re asking for then they will often match it, or at least come somewhere close. I have saved hundreds over the years by spending a few minutes checking.

I had the same experience with Lancaster on my last renewal, checked around and got a better quote by about £65 and they matched it straight away.

Caveat emptor, as they say!
Ray

[andypryce]

I tend to do the same, but I must confess I didn’t this year when the multicar policy for the XF, a Toyota Yaris plus the house insurance came up for renewal, it just seemed too much effort, and that of course is what they hope for….

[700SN]

a bit late i know, but as i had my Capri with Adrian Flux already, i asked them to quote for the Sierra 2.9 XR4x4 and the Jag XJR x308.
I managed to get both for £180 on a 3,000 mile policy (each car). This compared with what Footman James' renewal was for the XJR alone - which was around £210 i think, which in my opinion for 3,000 a year and age 56 without any misdemeanours i thought was about double what it should be.