We have 2 leased vehicles, which had unspecified lead times, typically both got ‘delivered’ in December a fortnight apart.
Whilst a complete faff at such a busy time of year getting services/MOTs etc done has not been a major issue until this year. The dealership rang as usual a month beforehand telling us MOTs/servicing were due but they were unable to give us appointments locally until late Dec/January well after the dates needed, so additional faff this year travelling to one of their other branches 15 miles away.
My experience with motor insurance has been that after two or three years, my then existing insurer will kick me out. By that I mean that my renewal quote will be so ridiculous there is no chance anyone in their right mind would accept the renewal quote. History repeated itself again this year; habitual follow up phone call to check the quote was correct; habitual response from phone operator - no that amount does not look correct; pause to check; unfortunately that is the only offer available from the system. A couple of hours faffing about on the search engines located on money saving expert dot com; plus a few independent searches. End result a new provider for similar amount to previous premium.
All of the above on very low annual mileage without claims. I suspect my post code in London throws up some boogly from time to time. Most peculiar and perhaps I should try to locate a broker to break this cycle.
Long and short of it though would be to suggest to Alley_Cat to spend a couple of hours to ensure that you are not falling victim of the same cyclical nonsense I have been hit with. If so, cancel within ‘cooling off period’ and take out policy with a new provider.
Simple solution to that…
Use a local independent garage.
Cheaper and better service.
Just had mine serviced and MOT’ed
They actually INSPECTED the air filter and said it was like new and did not need replacing and therefore did not charge me for it.
The bill was less than they said it would be for a routine service,
Tesco insurance is often competitively priced. It’s underwritten by several different companies, which may be the reason. If an insurer is feeling over exposed they work a bit like a bookie, either laying off their bets somewhere else or making their pricing less attractive.
Their claims history is pretty strong for a mass market insurer, as is LV.
That said, NFU is from experience a great firm to insure with. You have a person to talk to, you can tell them what you want and they will arrange it and the claims history is near enough 100% as a result. Not the cheapest but you get what you pay for ime!
I switch insurer every year, using the 2 well known comparison sites. My car fully comp somewhere around £125, the other half’s car circa £165. I cannot remember who I’m insured with. (Checked saved certificates) … AA £119 and LV £158.
Probably doesn’t make a huge difference currently as we have a maintenance option included, but if you have a good local independent then I’d have to agree. Often it’s finding that good independent garage is the difficulty, we used to use one for many years until the owner retired.
Another vote for NFU. You actually talk to a human being at NFU and explain your specific requirements. I am not that sensitive to price but really appreciate good service, which is what NFU provide.
This recently happened to a friend of ours who had an accident about 6 hours after the expiry of her policy. She renewed after the accident. The insurance company agreed she was in a grace period and paid up. £17,000 in this case against an annual premium in the hundreds.
I suspect what some may consider a ‘grace period’ was actually specifically specified in the insurance documents.
DL always used to insure you say from from 00:00 on renewal date (27th in my case) until noon on the same date a year later, so they were explicitly insuring you for 1 year + 12 hours, and having been with them so long I wasn’t too bothered that I’d forgotten to sort it out last week assuming I’d be covered until noon today, but having now found last year’s policy documents it clearly said cover started at 00:00 on 27th 2021 and expired at 23.59 on 26th Dec 2022. I’m surprised that such a change (assuming it didn’t happen earlier) wasn’t more explicitly highlighted - my fault for not noticing I know.
Being a pedant I think it ought to say expiry at 23.59.59 on 26th as you are otherwise uninsured for a minute.
Looking at old renewal documents I can also see that the current ones are far less legible, with smaller fonts and many detail in light ink.
Yes, I renewed over the phone earlier today as I could not do so online or by phone yesterday - simply no point taking the risk despite the rise in premium. I certainly wouldn’t have driven it not even to get it off-road. Ordinarily I would have renewed much sooner but the change in cover expiry from noon on renewal date to 23.59 the day before caught me out as it had been the stipulation for so long I’d overlooked the change on the documents.
You don’t need to be driving it to get prosecuted.
I have all my vehicle policies on auto-renew, sure I can get stung for an expensive policy (and I have been) if I’ve not dealt with it promptly but this is inconsequential compared to having ‘no insurance’ on your licence for the next 5 years!
An unusual oversight on my part, that’s all I can say. We used to have auto-renewal on the policies, but stopped it as we would not necessarily have used the same payment method each year. Easy enough to re-enable it though.
No there was, you had to renew, my memory is hazy - but it was not cut and dried as people made out and most certainly there was the potential to fall through the cracks and I remember explaining that many times.
What I explained I can’t remember but I remember the issue
I did general insurance from 75-87 , the principles are much the same, though technology has changed .
Every insurance as I far as I remember (which is now decades) that I’ve had ends at 23:59. That’s it. If you didn’t renew and had an accident on the next day, best of luck.
I had pet insurance 4 years ago and didn’t renew. 3-4 days later my pet got seriously ill. I made a claim and you guessed it, they said get stuffed. So he’s now sat on the mantle piece looking surprised every day.
Yes, ours did as well, but there was some sort of period of grace … and I can’t remember the prices details , but it sure as hell wasn’t 15 days free insurance
