Insurance chimps .....

[RedRick Esq.]

As per Usual

My renewal came through this morning with a big bold statement saying how renewals cant be more than new business Blah blah

Last years premium £309 including EU breakdown cover and helmet and leathers cover underwritten by AXA with a total Excess of £600

Renewal £467 ..

Quick scour round the internet and 10 minutes later i have insured for a total of £327 including EU breakdown helmet and leathers cover and £25K of personal accident insurance and protected no claims ...so actually better than previous years cover and only £18 more

Underwritten by AXA with a total excess of only £500 so no change there other than the excess is lower

You couldnt make this up really but how is it they somehow manage to lose customers who for the sake of a few quid would have just let it auto renew - is it just the brokers trying their luck ?

 

[sparkplug]

Lure you in with a good introductory offer and hope that you don't shop around next year when they hike it up.

If they're right then they cream profits off you for years to come, if they're wrong they've lost a low profit sale (and you'll probably end up back with them at some point when you've done the rounds of the other companies).

Sound business model from their point of view, really poor customer service from our point of view - but because they all do it we don't have much choice but to dance to their tune.

 

[Malcvtr]

As per Usual

My renewal came through this morning with a big bold statement saying how renewals cant be more than new business Blah blah

Last years premium £309 including EU breakdown cover and helmet and leathers cover underwritten by AXA with a total Excess of £600

Renewal £467 ..

Quick scour round the internet and 10 minutes later i have insured for a total of £327 including EU breakdown helmet and leathers cover and £25K of personal accident insurance and protected no claims ...so actually better than previous years cover and only £18 more

Underwritten by AXA with a total excess of only £500 so no change there other than the excess is lower

You couldnt make this up really but how is it they somehow manage to lose customers who for the sake of a few quid would have just let it auto renew - is it just the brokers trying their luck ?

I'm sure Wapping will be along to share his view soon...

 

[Wapping]

By now you’d think that bikermates would have got used to it, but just in case:

a. Insurance is a commodity, just like tins of beans or cans of Euro fizz. You can find tins of beans at various prices, up and down every high street and retail park. It’s great, you have a choice.

b. If you discover that Axa’s premium was maybe £200, whilst the other £127 maybe went to the owners of an online search engine, for whom you maybe did all the input work, would your piss cool or boil? *

c. Shopping around is the only way to be happy. Do it and move on.

d. The whole lot is a shit shower, run at the lowest level of expectation. But, even so, thousands of policies are sold each day and millions of pounds paid in claims. So it does (sort of) work. This interim report from the FCA throws some light on it.

https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/market-studies/ms18-1-2-interim-report.pdf

There is then a lot of additional reading:

PS21/11: General insurance pricing practices - amendments

In May 2021, we published PS21/5 which set out our final rules to address the harm we had found in our GI Pricing Practices Market Study. On 18 August, we published PS21/11, making minor changes to these rules.

www.fca.org.uk

*I have not the slightest idea (and even less interest) as to whether these numbers are in any way typical

 

[Wapping]

Lure you in with a good introductory offer and hope that you don't shop around next year when they hike it up.

If they're right then they cream profits off you for years to come, if they're wrong they've lost a low profit sale (and you'll probably end up back with them at some point when you've done the rounds of the other companies).

Sound business model from their point of view, really poor customer service from our point of view - but because they all do it we don't have much choice but to dance to their tune.

UK Motor insurance is forecast to run at a loss (premiums less claims, is a negative number) in 2023, after two years of profitable trading. A loss for the year is not an untypical result.

The reasons? Still competition between insurers in the sales department ie. Basically, underwriters chasing premium volume and market share, by undercutting the opposition. Steeply rising inflation, pushes claims costs up.

 

[busy builder]

Does any one go with voluntary excess ? I find putting £0 voluntary excess makes no difference to price.

 

[Guru Gora]

I just have a play with it on the comparison sites.

But yes generally the difference is minimal or zero.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SiRich]

I used to work for a huge home insurance provider, the business director shared there was little to no profit (eg a tenner) in first year policies, the aggregator sites and Fca pricing legislation (new business vs renewals) have made things extremely competitive

 

[Wapping]

The numbers (premium) for Motor insurers in the UK are very big, the top 10 largest providers accounting for just under 71% of the total market share, of which Admiral are by far the largest. The table though does show how much choice there is for the consume, which is a good thing, naturally.

List of Top 10 Biggest UK Car Insurance Companies​

Rank	Motor Insurance Company	Motor Insurance Gross Premiums Written (£million)	Estimated UK Market Share
1	Admiral Group (including Admiral, Bell, Diamond, elephant.co.uk, Gladiator)	£2,237	14.0%
2	Direct Line Group (including Direct Line, Churchill and Darwin)	£1,730	10.8%
3	Aviva (Aviva, Quotemehappy, One Call)	£1,677	10.5%
4	Hastings	£1,112	7.0%
5	AXA	£969	6.1%
6	LV=	£932	5.8%
7	esure (Sheila's Wheels, esure)	£679	4.2%
8	RSA	£661	4.1%
9	Ageas	£654	4.1%
10	NFU Mutual	£626	3.9%
Top 10		£11.3 billion	70.48%

 

[wessie]

whilst the insurers might not make much profit, if any, on the motoring book, we give them a lot of data they can sell on or use to market other products at us. I obviously didn't tick the "fúck off, leave me alone box" on the website when buying car insurance as Ageas are frequently reminding me they sell other products.

 

[Wapping]

……as Ageas are frequently reminding me they sell other products.

Thanks for reminding us. Appreciated and bookmarked.

 

[SiRich]

looks like Rick decided it was a shit rant after all