Just heard on the news that the European courts have ruled that gender cannot be taken into account when assessing premiums. Is it just me or is this totally crazy? There are so many statistics that show that male drivers are more likely to have accidents and claim so they pay higher premiums?
Surely the insurance business works on assessing risks and works out premiums on the probability of claims being made so it is madness to disallow one of the major differences.
I have had enough of political correctness equality etc. We all end up the losers when this sort of ruling is made.

They are also saying that in future they might disallow age as another reason for affecting premiums. Madness!

Barmy.

Yep the insurance industry arnt happy either. They were commenting what's next age, health ? Barmy !

Yep the insurance industry arnt happy either. They were commenting what's next age, health ? Barmy !

I hate to think what sort of a can of worms this will open up...does it mean now that if I were 17 and just passed my test they could not charge me more just because of "Agism" or if I lost my licence for drunk driving could I not be charged more for "Alcoholism"...if I was 99 and deaf and partially sighted "Elderlyism" !!!!!
Aileen

talking of premiums , i have to pay a premium because i have a dependant under the age of 16 ! x

And up will go everybody's else's premiums to cover it.

Ridiculous!

M.

This is awful news, insurance costs went up enough last year for no good reason without this.
My premium jumped from 300 odd quid a year to 500 odd last year, ridiculous. I'm not going to be able to afford to run my car if I'm charged extra for insurance because petrol prices are horrendous as well.
Sad times.

Yes merlot that seems to be the lines  its going down and for once it isnt the insurance industry its coming form the european parliment.
The whole basis of insurance/assurance is on statistics so if every "ismm " is going to be applied it will make a complete mockery of the whole thing.
They are saying 10 % down for young boys and 25% up for young girls. Life asurance premiums could also be affected asthey have to take the gender stats out of the calulations too and so on

Dont understand that one on car insurance. I have never been loaded because my kids were under 16 ?

Hi Furriefriends , yes i am with quinn , and they added on extra because i have a 8 yr old , i asked why when i was taking out my policy and they said because children can cause a distraction whilst driving ! hahaha x

Flipping heck thats ridiculous !! My kids at their ages 18 and 21 can cause more distracions have you ever tried driving with a bunch of young people in the car? Only dont tell quinn. maybe you should go for discrimination lol
My daughter is with quinn as are most of the young people I know for youngsters atm the are a good deal I will see what happens when one of them have a child as well

Quinn are really dodgy folks they have gone bankrupt on their PI insurrance side and I for one would not touch them with the proverbial barge pole. Just be very careful they are cheap for a reason they have no money around to pay out claims.

Yes whistler they are in administration. I believe the irish government are bailing them out. I must say the people I know who have had claims so far have been very happy with their outcome. I will let you know what happens with my daughters outstanding claim. So far I have nothing but praise for how they have dealt with us.

Hope I dont end up having a different story to tell LOL

I was with Sheilas wheels till they sent me this yrs renewal and it had gone up from £256 to a whopping £801!! When I rang to question it I was told they had had a lot of claims so had to increase the premiums. I told them in no uncertain terms to shove it!!

Kind Regards

It's terrible isn't it - my insurance is up for renewal in April, and I am dreading it - everyone has been saying that the price the pay is going through the roof. 

Mine halfed last year after I changed from an Impreza to a BMW, looking at the price of fuel/insurance - I'm really glad I did change cars now. 

Adding me as a named driver on my OHs policy brought his premium down by a wee bit, so will that no longer be the case either?

That was the same excuse my insurer came up with, I changed in the end but am still paying a fair bit more than last year but on the plus side my new policy is fully comp rather than my old 3rd party, fire 'n theft one.

Blimey, I'm getting worried now!

Mine is due in April, and I changed to Sheila's Wheels a couple of years ago.  I do have extra cover, so I am covered for work, in case I need to go on farm, and reverse into a farmers' gate!

I've never been anything but fully comp, and when I changed to a brand new car 18 months ago, it was still only just over £200 a year.  If mine went up to £800 I would just have to sell the car.

This is ridiculous - people are just not going to be able to afford to live soon.

This is why there are already so many uninsured drivers.

My daughter is 25 and a police officer, she has a year old mini cooper, her insurance came through and had gone up £200 even though she had not claimed and had turned 25 so it should have gone down. Whilst searching for a better quote I suggested Aviva who we are with,they quoted £500 more than the original quote, total £1350!!!! THIS WAS WITH 12 WEEKS FREE!!!When we queried it they said it was due to the value of the car and that it was parked on the road! My son (aged 20) has been driving a year, he is named on my husbands policy and for third party we pay £1400.

Life is becoming too expensive!!!!!

I looked for car insurance in October and the company I had been with were charging me nearly £500. If I was a new customer it would be half that. I went with the co-op in the end. My insurance was £200 fully comp. I was advised to change company every year if I wanted to keep my payments down.

I never accept automatic renewals Lindylou.  I always reapply on line for everything and it's always substancially cheaper.

I received a letter from the AA this week telling me that they were going to automatically renew my cover for £85.12.  I went online and reapplied and got the same cover for £79.45 - not a lot cheaper you may say but bettin in my pocket than theirs!! :)

But I then went through a cash back site and got £50.50 off that price!!  So I've paid under £29 for a years' worth of roadside help and relay instead of the orginal £85 that they were going to take off me! :)

My son has just passed his driving test, he is 17 and has started lopking for a car but I don't think he will ever get one.
The quotes we are getting at the moment on car's costing around £800 1lt engines are coming in at just over £6,000. If he puts my name on the policy it goes down to around £3,500. At these rates he won't get a car until he's over 40 - LOL.

Never accept renewals without 'shopping around' first, you can almost gaurantee finding a cheaper better deal.

Karen

So you do a re quote online with the same insurer each time?
I've just had a renewal notice come through, not made any claims, have 7yrs NCB and they are hiking my policy up by £300 this year   Not impressed...

Just gone on a compare website but the good companies don't price up legal fees etc into these policies so they all come up more expensive. Also I like to pay for insurance and have recovery included too.

Bah!!!! And to think I wanted to buy a van, i'm sure van insurance is much more than car?? Anyone?

So you do a re quote online with the same insurer each time?
It depends......  I use the price comparison sites but would only go with what I think are reputable companies, not ones that I've never heard of!  I've been with Tescos for a few years now with my car but always re apply on line and it's always substancially cheaper and there's often an extra offer eg cash back or Tesco points.

Just checked with Direct Line online again and they are quoting the same price again there.

I'm trying to find another insurance company which give breakdown cover and car hire. Just done a quote with the AA and they don't give you the option of either?? Thought was odd but is £300 cheaper...So maybe worth it?

> eg cash back or Tesco points.

Will look into that then and also Sainsburys

I usually find that Martin Lewis is a good place to start for most things! ;) :)
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

Got my renewal through by email yesterday, it has doubled to £665!  I haven't called them yet, do a bit of shopping around first.  i went through my current insurers website as a new customer and it was £500 - how is that even possible!!

Got to the end of the month before I need to renew so many an evening will be spent searching the insurance sites.

Europe has so much power over us. 

I've just been ordering veg seeds and trying to get 'old fashioned' varieties.  Europe has a list of official veg seeds and only these are allowed to be sold to the general public!!!

The place I've bought from had to charge me a penny membership fee to their 'seed club' as this means I am not classed as a member of the public, just to buy what I want!!  How do these people get these stupid jobs?  They live on another planet.

Jobsworths!! I'm afraid that I think that there will be more loony rules soon!

When searching for insurance I used Moneysupermarket, comparethemarket and the Tesco on line search engine.

A lot of them are cheaper if you apply on line but beware that they cover everything you want, legal protection, protected no claims etc.

I think the way to go is to put your voluntary excess as high as you can and hope for the best!!!

I am in dispute with our Health Insurers.

I have had the audacity to make five claims in the last 3 years and they have taken it upon themslves to increase the monthly premiums by 300% :shock:

I have rung and queried it to be told what do you expect if you make claims :-(

I am sick to the back teeth of the way these companies are just hiking prices up, make obcene profits and then say they are going through difficult times.

It just doesn't sit right that it is us that ends up paying through the roof for things and it is normally things we all rely on and would not be able to live /work if we didnt have to pay for them :-(

NFU were the cheapest one I found. I have had full no claims bonus for years but lost it all when we had a motability car which was insured in my husband's name with me as a named driver. Following his death I had to buy a car of my own and insure it starting from scratch again with insurance. The company that do the motability insurance gave me a ridiculous quote even though I was the main driver of our car and they knew I had driven claim free for years.

NFU gave me the equivalent to 5 years no claim bonus and were the cheapest by a long way - breakdown cover is included although I upgraded mine to include homestart as well for a small extra premium.

Thanks Harley.. Will look into them as my family are with them too.. Not sure why i'm not tbh... lol.. Probably will end up being a lot cheaper too :-)

> I'm trying to find another insurance company which give breakdown cover

Sue, I know someone has said that their Sheila's Wheels cover had gone up humongously, but I've had my renewal today.  This is for an 18 month old car, and I claimed when the car was less than a month old, I reversed into someone in a car park!

I am also covered for business use, it's fully comp obviously, and, although I don't use use it, they automatically offer breakdown cover.

£223.62   I am more than happy!  :-)  :-)  :-)

>>And to think I wanted to buy a van, i'm sure van insurance is much more than car?? Anyone?

My husband has a landscaping / tarmac business and we were paying £70 per month to insure a 7.5t wagon and a ford transit pickup. Due to less work we sold both of those and got him a small ford escort van, the insurance went down to £15 per month. Woohoo! Work completely dried up and we decided to sell the van and get him a little run around car. Opted for a VW Polo and the insurance went up to £39 per month despite the car being less powerful and worth less than the van!!

So no, it is not always more expensive to insure a van and our plan to get some money out of the van thinking the insurance would be the same was a bad judgement on our part!! :-)

my insurance for my lwb van is over 200 cheaperthan my husbands car,
i am insured with nfu,and was shocked when they quoted for my van my hubby
is going to use them when his insurance is due middle of the year.

NFU for me too.  I swapped my Focus Estate for a Ford Ranger Thunder pickup.  I was with Swintons and they quoted me almost £700 pa!  Rang NFU and spoke to the local (ie in the same town as me) rep who quoted £430 and I could still pay monthly.  Their service is fantastic!  I had to make a claim when some halfwit reversed into me and didn't bother to leave details and the company the NFU use as the repair agents had the best customer service I have ever encountered.  Wouldn't change even if someone else gave me a better quote :-)