Ricky Budlight

Got my quote for renewal of Insurance on 13/10 from Adrian Flux as the broker......£958.50....that's an extra £100 on last years price..i thought there is no way i am going to pay nearly a grand for the privilege of driving a decent car
It also included a £450 x/s with Uninsured loss and Injury claims and Personal Accident cover.

I am 32 with 7 years NCB...have my other half as named driver..
with a SP30 on both licences and two claims to me name both NON-fault..
The car is a 93 WRX with uprated S/S exhaust straight thro and a K&N induction kit.....

so phoned TESCO's and they quoted me a fantastic £690.90 with ALL the above plus a staggering £200 x/s i just could not believe it as Victor Meldrew would quote..so i jumped at the chance and signed up to TESCO

how on earth can Adrian Flux charge me an extra £260...its disgusting and i feel cheated and ripped off yet again by these Brokers...

WELL DONE to TESCO for taking on these Brokers and getting a piece of the action for a 3rd of the price...
also they gave me a 5% discount as i have a child under 15 as this counts to being a careful driver.......and NO CAT 1 alarm has to be fitted even thou i have already one on it....its a weird world.

Rum*

With greatest of respect, its not a question of Adrian Flux, or any other Broker "ripping you off". We all do our utmost to secure rates to target many different sorts of risk/motor etc...I personally have been working for the last 6 months to obtain the most competitive rates for Subaru owners...however I admit that we are not always the cheapest...Where we use one particular carrier/insurer (for example for imports or modified vehicles) we are bound by these rates/policy terms.

In the case of Groupama Insurance (our main outlet for Grey Imports) they are highly competitive when it comes to a "squeaky clean" risk - however (and alas) where there have been claims and/or convictions (especially in the last 12 months) they are just not interested - i.e. the rates increase dramatically.

In this situation the broker may not have any other outlet and as a result will lose your business. I would stress that it would be a rare occurance to see any broker wanting business to walk out of the door - at the end of the day - your business pays my wage!

The likes of Tesco, Direct Line, Churchill, NU Direct, Privelege etc are all Direct Companies and their rates are NOT available to the likes of ourselves, Adrian Flux, Randall Pace, A-Plan etc. With Tescos, they appear to be having a huge drive at the moment (similar to Direct Line a few years ago) - which in itseplf is bizarre as ALL Tescos policies are underwritten by Direct Line! - to increase market share - the result being "cheaper" policies. Whilst this situation benefits the policyholder now - I would suggest that (IMHO) the rates will increase again over the next 12 months.

Basically what I am trying to say, is that I appreciate you are not happy with the increased premium....and I understand your move to Tescos due to the premium savings - all I would like to say is that it is not necessarily always the Brokers that are "ripping you off" - it is sometimes the Direct Companies undercutting everyone else to obtain market share....we all (Adrian Flux included ) want to retain business from year to year...

On another note I thought that Trackers were required on most of their performance car policies...have they advised you of that as yet??

Tom

fast bloke

Rum - this probably isn't the place to get into this discussion, but I was recently quoted 2500.00 quid (sorry US keyboard - no pound sign) to renew with my existing insurer. After shopping around I got a quote from Elephant for 1200.00. My existing insurer called me back to see if i was going to renew with them. I told them I had a quote for less than half. They called me back in another 10 minutes with a matching quote, and offered a lesser excess to win the business. In my opinion this is blatent profiteering. This is not the first time this has happened to me, probably won't be the last and is the reason I call every insurance company who will cover NI every year at renewal time. I understand that people are trying to run a business and must make a reasonable margin to justify its existance, but I assume in the above case that my existing company would still be making margin at 1200.00 as a single case loss leader is fairly pointless. SO the question is, why so much for the first quote?

Rum*

Fastbloke,

I'm not disputing what you have said - in that case IMHO it is a case of profiteering - it would be interesting to see if that was a broker....or another Direct Company??!!

If it was a broker (...that initially offered a premium and then miraculously managed to source a cheaper quote and thus being in a position to compete...) then I too would be seriously pi$$ed off.

I personally would no longer want to do business with a company like that - as in my view/opinion, a broker is used in an attempt to look after client interests at all times - and that effectively means sourcing the best policy/premium at all times (obviously this can only apply to the policies that that broker has available to him/her).

If it was the Direct Company - then I have no reasonable comment that I could put on here, suffice to say the Directs are able to make up the rules as they go along. They will put forward a premium and then, in an attempt to secure the business, that initial figures goes out of the window and is replaced by a highly competitive alternative premium...they make a business decision to retain the business and as such (from a bookkeeping point of view) they make a paper loss on that piece of motor business...

Basically, neither should be allowed or accepted- but alas it will always happen...

What I was trying to say in the post above, was that it is not always a case of a broker trying to rip you off...the price that our clients get is the lowest and most competitive figure that we are able to offer - it is our interest to offer this at all times...at least that way if we lose business we know that we did all we could to retain the client...

Bearing in mind that I get 12.5% commission we are sometimes able to discount some of that in an attempt to either secure new business....or a renewal. However this is not something we do on a regular basis, and to be honest it tends to be for existing clients, if at all. I would hope that we earn every penny of our commission - and I think that there are several clients on Scoobynet who will/can back me up when I say that our customers are treated as friends and not numbers and when it comes to the crunch we provide and excellent level of service at all hours... (not that that was in debate)...

Sorry if the above is all muddled...its probably a result of exessive drinking over the weekend!!!

Tom

fast bloke

Rum - It was a broker. I see where you are coming from and the majority of companies don't do it, but while some of them continue to do it and get found out, loads of people will continue to refer to the insurance industry in general as a bunch <insert expletives as required>. That said, the broker in question did settle an unrecovered theft in 16 days from theft to cheque arriving in March, so if their first quote had been slightly higher (even by 200.00) I would probably have stuck with them for customer service

Rum*

Fastbloke,

I agree entirely...hopefully with the introduction of the General Insurance Standards Council (GISC) and the regulation that follows membership you and the rest of the country will see a noticeable improvement in the service provided by the insurance sector.

Basically anyone who wants to sell insurance will have to be a member of GISC - as a result of this all members will then be fully regulated/policed - by all accounbts its going to shake up the whole industry!!! Finally!!

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Tom

I'll back you up when you say that the majority of your clients are treated by friends For anyone that doesn't know, my other half Chris L has spoken to Tom/Rum for a quote regarding the possible purchase of a heavily modded scoob, not the easiest of cars to insure

He has been extremely impressed by the way in which his enquiry has been handled by Tom and by the amount of detail he has taken into consideration. Needless to say unless the the quote is stupidly high we will be going to Tom for our insurance as we feel it's better to deal with somebody who genuinely cares and knows about our cars

He also says that Tom is a bloody nice bloke

Sal

PS. Glad you found your password


[Edited by scoobychick - 10/15/2001 3:35:41 PM]

Rum*

Thanks Scoobychick

I think that with regard to the new quote....and having just spoken to Chris....we might be having problems!!! ...but hey, at least we tried ...

Luckily I don't think that the above was about Schofields as such...more a generalisation of the insurance market.

Its is all too often noted that people are being ripped off - too often brokers are NOT looking after their clients interests and as a result of this the industry has obtained a bad name - what I think I was trying to stress is that NOT all brokers are out to rip you off....there are some of us who do try to offer the service that you would expect - however at times we have no option i.e. we might have to offer a renewal that has increased by £100.00 (or as stated above a renewal that is £260.00 more than a competitors market) - but it shouldn't be presumed that the broker is trying to rip off the client - the broker concerned (including myself, Randall Pace, A-Plan and the like) don't have access to the same rates as the Direct companies - as stated above they are able to ajust their premium at will - i.e. this week they might decide they like Scoobs....they might provide Track COver....and they might not need a Tracker....next week all of the above could alter - No quotes for Scoobs...or maybe no Track Use...or maybe Tracker become a requirement! - basically they alter their terms depending on how the claims/loss ratio is affecting their income/profit. If Scoobs are being stolen....their prices go up! If they don't have many Scoobs on the books...then they will undercut the market to obtain market sharre until such time as the loss ratio outweighs the premium income....aty that time they will get rid of all that type of motor....etc etc etc...

I could go on and on and on......but that would get really boring for everyone

I've said my bit and attempted to stand up for most of us brokers...

All the best

Tom

Ricky Budlight

Rum...

Those were fine words by someone who genually thinks of the customer needs first rather than profit margins...

Phoned TESCO today after seeing about the Tracker feed you left
and the supermarket had only insured it as a Subaru 1.8 GL...(stick to Oranges i thought) so DVLA has my details as this.....strange..!!!!!!

so i apologise to yourself and any other Brokers WHO put the customer needs first...

So back to square one...

Richard

Rum*

Richard,

Ring me in the morning....

0113 250 0377

Tom

Ricky Budlight

Hi Tom...

already have my good friend...

Rang yesterday at 1700 but was told that i will be called back today...

so awaiting eager response with baited breath..

regards
Richard

Dave!

That 1.8 GL thing is interesting, several of the online companies i've tried usually end up quoting for that model even when the form forces you to enter the exact MY (00 WRX RA in my case)...can anyone explain why this is?

Ricky Budlight

Thats my exact thoughts....

As my log book clearly says 2000cc so is DVLA at fought here..??

Its a good job Rum (alias Tom....nice bloke) told me to give them another ring to check on tracker...

As if i had taken the policy....come claim time...i would not have a leg to stand on....its vital you check all these things out..before taking on a policy as Rum did with me for the best part of 1/2 hour.....and fair play to him as it gives me a chance to ask questions as well.
Thats GOOD customer service

Cheers Rum your a star..

scoobysti4

I've just tried Tesco for my Sti Ver 7 Full NCD, Aged 44yrs Clean Licence + wife to drive £1,036 and tracker compulsory!! Crap ....in a word. Schofields win hands down

Rum*

he he he.....we do keep trying.....we don't always get it right....but at least we try

Tom

Dave!

scoobySTI4,
Hi, your details are v. similar to my own, I'd be interested to know how much you paid schofields.....mine cost a grand by the way (can't even remember who it's with now - well it's early yet!),
Rum...looks like you'll be getting a call in the new year!

Dave.

SVX33

I recently phoned for an Insurance qoute (wont name names!) for a Subaru SVX and was delighted when it came back nice and cheap (about 650quid which i thought was ace for 22years old with 4YrsNCB), i decided based on the qoute i had been given that i was going to go out and buy the SVX so i phoned up to confirm details, laydeee on ra phone says: yeh thats a subaru 1.8 GL yada yada blah, and i was like nah! dunno how it happend, car garage claimed it was DVLA's mess up as it was an imported vehicle, i checked it out and bought the car anyway and am now paying through the nose £1300pa with Tesco 1000excess blah blah -they werent the people who gave me the original qoute of 650quid!! so think you can help me Schofelds??

Rum*

We will always try and assist....however on the Grey Imports we are restricted to 23 yrs and over...

...on the UK cars, strange though it might sound....we are restricted to 25 yrs and over...*sigh*...we can't always help...sorry

Tom

SVX33

thanks for your help anyway RUM )

out of interest, im gonna need insurance when im 23 next year, what would i be looking at approx with yourselves?

EH6, 22yrs old, 4yrs NCB, parked on street, immobiliser fitted, oh yeh and its a 3.3 not a 1.8 GL *lol* has alloys but no other mods. (yet!)

JayRaj

Hi all,


Just to say be very weary of Tesco's insurance. They unfortunately do not have the faintest idea of imported cars let alone mods.

I insured with them last year. Gave me a great quote and wrote to me after 2 weeks saying that I needed a tracker. I said fine, good for my own comfort too, so I fitted one. I sent them the proof of fit and didn't here from them since.

Low and behold, my renewal came through with a notice saying that they hadn't received proof of the tracker.....cheeky sods. Basically, I hadn't been covered for theft for nearly a year!!!!!

In the end I went to Rum and the crew, because of their reasonable quote and the safe knowledge that my car/me would be well looked after in the event of a claim.

Thanks

Jay