Insurance renewal Elephant

[Linas.P]

So just quick post here, to remind everyone how important is to call your insurance when you receive renewal letter, because not doing so might cost you like 30% of you policy (in my case £500).

Long story (hopefully) short, when I changed from IS250 to RC200t my insurance company (eSure) has outright refused to cover me at all. They would not transfer the cover even for 2 remaining months on policy to RC, meaning I had to cancel my policy with them and go with different insurer altogether. RC has stupidly high insurance category not at all representative of the slow car it is. Anyway my previous insurance was ~£680, but the the cheapest I could get for the new insurance was £1412. After long negotiations and of all crazy thing changing the use from SDPC to SDPC&B and changing term to 10 months I managed the price of £1036.

Here comes now and my renewal price is £1014 for the same 10 months period. It has not increased, but I felt it should come down further, for one I turned 30 (25 and 30 being two big drops in terms of age) and my NCB went from 1 year to 3 years (most cheaper insurers don't provide quotes if under 2 years NCB). So I felt I could do better than that, did quick search and got 12 months instead of 10 for 939 from Churchills, then called Elephant and asked them to match... and match they did £758!!! So the effective price came from ~£1243, to £758 just in a matter of 5 minutes and they as well reduced excess by £500. This must be most money I have made per minute ever... I wish I could maintain such sprints longer!

So again - don't just assume renewal price is good, check it, match it and beat it!

[NemesisUK]

This recent announcement should shake things up a bit

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/09/insurers-face-ban-on-hiking-prices-for-existing-customers-at-ren/

 

[Linas.P]

Yes, that is move in right direction. Although, in my case they would have been fine - they didn't hike the price, but didn't discount it as much as they could have.

[JamesIS220]

I always use a comparison site every renewal. There is no loyalty these days.

Every year they give you the same price or slightly higher, when you phone them drop £100-200 off price. Last April best I could do was £1000 for my 2 cars. At least I got £50 back from them as gave refund due to lockdown as less accidents/claims happening.

In April hoping for a bit less as 41, 8 years no claims on one car and 2 on other.

James

[Linas.P]

Yes, that is my experience as well, but generally if difference is more than £50-100 they tend to say they cannot match it and I end-up getting different provider.

I was amazed when the guy was like ... "yeah it is 10 month qoute, let me change it to 12... £1280... let's go through your details and see what I can do... all the details correct.. ok... well I could apply little bit of discount... ok so what we could offer is £758!". I mean... like .... HOW?! How you came up with renewal price of £1014 for 10 months, and then suddenly price drops by over 30%?!

This kind of proves their price is literally taken out of the blue and if they want they can discount to basically anything! + I reckon next year I will get £25 off as well due to covid. 

All above said, my experience with elephant was quite good - I called them up when I got 3rd year NCB and they send £78 discount right away, then £25 for covid, their lines are 24/7, waiting time not so bad. I mean as much as I hate insuring Elephant is least bad company so far. Although that just made me realise that from £1036 I paid, it got £103 discount.... meaning my actual cost was £933 for last year and £1014 renewal was actually a HIKE! 😄 

[flookyk]

On 10/16/2020 at 8:43 PM, Linas.P said:

Yes, that is my experience as well, but generally if difference is more than £50-100 they tend to say they cannot match it and I end-up getting different provider.

I was amazed when the guy was like ... "yeah it is 10 month qoute, let me change it to 12... £1280... let's go through your details and see what I can do... all the details correct.. ok... well I could apply little bit of discount... ok so what we could offer is £758!". I mean... like .... HOW?! How you came up with renewal price of £1014 for 10 months, and then suddenly price drops by over 30%?!

This kind of proves their price is literally taken out of the blue and if they want they can discount to basically anything! + I reckon next year I will get £25 off as well due to covid. 

All above said, my experience with elephant was quite good - I called them up when I got 3rd year NCB and they send £78 discount right away, then £25 for covid, their lines are 24/7, waiting time not so bad. I mean as much as I hate insuring Elephant is least bad company so far. Although that just made me realise that from £1036 I paid, it got £103 discount.... meaning my actual cost was £933 for last year and £1014 renewal was actually a HIKE! 😄 

I am insured with Bell insurance, and have been for the last few years, which is part of the Admiral Group which also includes Admiral, Elephant and Diamond.

Changing from a 2011 RX450h to a 2017 RX450h cost no extra at all at the end of August.

In my previous car (Hyundai Tucson) about two weeks after getting it I was rear ended at slow speed in roadworks with slight damage to my rear bumper ad dent in rear tailgate. The driver that hit me was also insured by an Insurance company in the Admiral group (Elephant), so when I phoned them they told me the other driver had already reported it and would I be open to his insurance company handling it all rather then both.

I agreed and his insurance company arranged for my car to go to the body repairers and provide me with a curtest car through Enterprise. When they took me to Enterprise I found a brand new Toyota Auris with 7 miles on the clock waiting for me that had just been delivered 20 minutes before.

You always find out how good an insurance company is when you actually need them and if the rest of the Admiral Group is as good as Bell and Elephant when needed you will have found a good value for money company there.