eSure Insurance

[Linas.P]

Just wanted to share my experience with this insurance company.

This is one of sister companies called eSure and Sheil'as Wheels who are under same underwriter eSure insurance Limited. Nothing to hide here - I have chosen them because they have offered the cheapest insurance and that is pretty much it.

One way or another I consider insurance in UK to be legal fraud and only insure for the sake of compliance rather than anything else and my hopes are rock bottom from the start. If I would have option not to insure, I would not insure - quite simply prices in UK are ridiculous. 

Anyway back to the point. I was using Admiral and Bell in the past  (obviously both are using same underwriter as well) and both were fairly awful, every time there was time for renewal my price would jump by 30% and I would need to spend 2hours on the phone brokering world peace to get my price in order. Not sure maybe they tried to get rid of me... 

Now.. as some of you might remember last year I had non-fault, non-claim collision which because of arbitrary insurance rules has to be reported (why!). When I list it in comparison tool that increases my insurance costs by almost 50% (from £600 to ~ £900, that is for notification only accident). However to my big surprise and for the first time in 5 years eSure renewal price was lower than a year before and they even added legal protection and hire car upgrade.

All in all it was no brainier to switch, because going with anyone else woudl have meant declaring the accident and paying £300 more, whilst staying with eSure I got loyalty freebies and they didn't penalise me for honestly reporting the accident. 

In conclusion from all insurance fraudsters around UK, eSure seems to be the fairest criminal and to the date I cannot fault their policy conditions or customer service. I guess I would only see their real face if it would come to making the claim, but as far as policy for mere compliance goes I am pretty happy.

[J Henderson]

On the flip side....based on my experience with esure, I would strongly advise anyone to steer clear of them.

I am currently covered by them for exactly the same reason as yourself - they were considerably cheaper than the others at renewal time last year.

My policy with them expires in a couple of weeks and they've given me a renewal quote that is approx £60 lower than what I paid last year. That policy included some declared modifications such as 19" IS-F wheels, but as I will be reverting back to OEM 18" wheels, a fresh "no modifications" quote was in order.

Sure enough, a search on a comparison website later and esure are once again the cheapest available. However I will not be buying insurance from this company ever again due to their dishonesty and thievery.

To cut a long story short, I was completely honest and open with all my details when requesting a quote last year. The aforementioned 19" wheels were declared, where the car is kept overnight (which is actually my place of work most days, not my home address). Every question asked by the comparison tool was answered truthfully. I even built-in to the policy some modifications that I was planning to do, but didn't actually go ahead with (lowered suspension, brake upgrade, tints). Plus of course I also recorded my claim history, which was an accident that saw my previous car written-off. An accident which was clearly not my fault.

https://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/108404-car-written-off/

Despite all this, I felt the quoted price was quite reasonable so I went ahead and bought the policy from esure.

So far, so good...but imagine my surprise when I was hit with an additional charge of £92 about 3 weeks later. Which, what a surprise, was outside the 14 day "cooling-off period" where the policy could've easily been cancelled without financial penalty...The reason cited for the additional charge? It was my failure to answer YES to the question "Was the driver at fault?" regarding the accident I was involved with.

As far as I was concerned, that was the only logical answer to give to the question. I was minding my own business when an oncoming vehicle drifted into my side of the road and hit me. The whole thing was witnessed by many people, captured on a dashcam and the other driver was even charged & prosecuted for his actions. I pointed all this out to esure but they didn't want to know and Insisted that I had to pay the extra £92. This left me furious, so yes I have vowed never to do business with them ever again. I don't care if I have to pay more to be covered by other companies.

[Linas.P]

I am in no way defending insurers in UK as they are just bunch of fraudsters defended by government. I guess I your situation I would have sued them if needed (just principal).

I remember your accident and I know for sure it was not your fault and by any definition you are right. On the other site £92 is better than £400 for non-fault accident I didn't make claim for, or 30% hike for renewals which in my case few years ago was £600...

[rayaans]

I find insurance companies all hit and miss.

Always depends on whos on the other side of the phone, and how reasonable they are!

[J Henderson]

Well, that's two companies I''ve now crossed off the list. I was previously with Covea at the time of that accident mentioned above and their customer service was frankly appalling.

It was the first time in my life that I had ever had to make a claim and they offered almost no communication at all during the whole process, which also seemed to go on forever. I was the one who had to do all the chasing and endure umpteen lengthy phone calls - usually left on hold for 30mins+ nearly every time. They didn't even bother to inform me that my car had been written-off! I only found out when I called the workshop to find out how they were getting on with my car. Overall, a truly miserable experience.

The only good thing I will say, is that the settlement figure was very good - only £400 less than what I had paid for the car a year earlier.