Insurance Cost Shock!

[andrewtayloruk]

Hi,

Just thought I'd share my insurance quote with the board so you may get a laugh. 

After a couple of false starts I've managed to do the deal on a 2015 RX450h, picking up this week. 

My insurance quote from Lexus Insurance was £3K.

I'll be 38 next month, driving nearly 20 years. I've got 10 years NCD and no accidents or convictions in the last 10. My girlfriend has a fault claim and an SP30 from last year but it didn't seem to affect the quote that much, she drives a company car which I also drive. 8000 miles a year as I work from home and don't need to commute.

We live in a reasonably good area with low crime (although it's NE which I realise puts the prices up a little). I wish I'd not bothered with the Lexus and gone for an Audi S8 instead :) :) :) :) :)

I've managed to get a much more reasonable (if not somewhat more expensive than I expected) policy from Aviva for £600. I tried Adrian Flux for the Gold Members discount but they came back at nearly £1K and were pretty rude on the phone.

Hopefully it's all worth it!!!

Andrew

 

[Farqui]

Well done persevering, that's quite a price difference.

[malcolmw]

This seems very expensive to me. I don't want you to give any personal information if you don't want but are you in a high risk category of employment or some other high risk situation?

 

[Bluesman]

Well done you. Its about time legislation is bought in to stop the free for all that goes on in the insurance world. Legalised theft.

[andrewtayloruk]

32 minutes ago, malcolmw said:

This seems very expensive to me. I don't want you to give any personal information if you don't want but are you in a high risk category of employment or some other high risk situation?

 

No not at all, I work in IT. Very mundane. The biggest risk in my life is that sometimes I'll re-heat something twice :)

I think it's probably a combination of a lot of factors. It's a relatively high cost vehicle, and we're in the north east which is probably higher than average on car crime.

It's a big engine and they're probably easier than most to steal (keyless entry). 

My last car was an Toyota auris estate, insurance with business cover was around £260 pa.

i was expecting around £450 for the RX but I've not insured something at this cost before so I may have been a little naive.

I would never have dreamed that £1000 was even possible and if I'm honest when I saw £3000 I initially misread as £300 then I assumed that I filled something in wrong!

I keep telling myself it will all be worth it!

Andrew 

[Farqui]

Andrew,

I'm also in IT, mostly work from home and can relate to the reheat comment LOL.

 

 

Insurance for my new (to me) 450H was also a little higher than i anticipated. You maybe right in the type of vehicle it is and key less entry. I hope my premium will reduce next year, wishing thinking tho...

 

 

Cheers, Lee

 

 

[steveledzep]

I'm in the sticks of south west Wales, 25 miles from Swansea.  I've just renewed with Admiral at £320pa, that includes protected ncd, courtesy car, business use for me and Mrs Ledzep with an excess of just £200. We're both early 60s with 9 years ncd.

[Shahpor]

Excuse me for going off topic, but what IT jobs do you guys do which are working from home?

Also, I got a stupidly high quote from Lexus insurance too, but a little bit of searching quickly sorted that out.  I think they wanted something like £1000, whereas I am now paying £350.

[ScousePaul]

I work in IT too and also from home . When I taxed my new LS430 recently it was after having a company car for more than 10 years. Couldn't get any insurer to honour any no-claims bonus so basically started from scratch. Got a policy for around £500 from Sheila's Wheels (they do blokes too). Live in a nice enough area but now have to start building my no-claims once again... Fitted into my budget, which is the main thing when looking at the whole car ownership package.

[edit]

btw my GH450h insurance is almost half that for both of us due to it being my in wife's name and so having lots of no-claims discount.

[rayaans]

5 hours ago, andrewtayloruk said:

No not at all, I work in IT. Very mundane. The biggest risk in my life is that sometimes I'll re-heat something twice :)

I think it's probably a combination of a lot of factors. It's a relatively high cost vehicle, and we're in the north east which is probably higher than average on car crime.

It's a big engine and they're probably easier than most to steal (keyless entry). 

My last car was an Toyota auris estate, insurance with business cover was around £260 pa.

i was expecting around £450 for the RX but I've not insured something at this cost before so I may have been a little naive.

I would never have dreamed that £1000 was even possible and if I'm honest when I saw £3000 I initially misread as £300 then I assumed that I filled something in wrong!

I keep telling myself it will all be worth it!

Andrew 

Lexus own brand Insurance is always going to be expensive - what did you expect? Its like going to Audi and asking for their Insurance.

On a side note, Im paying £450 on my RX with £300 excess and business use and with Admiral. Apparently my job is "high risk" according to insurers - Doctors apparently drive at odd hours of the day and have the most accidents!

The car is expensive to insure because its parts are expensive. For example, a front bumper on my wife's IS cost £2.3k going through insurance. If you have any sort of accident where more than a bumper is involved, the cost will be huge. 

[DanD]

I pay ~£370 for mine, although the insurance is in my wife's name as she is the main driver. I always go through comparison websites at renewal times and I find I always get good offers as a new customer, much better than renewal offers I get from my existing insurance.

I do wonder if Lexus insurance get any business at all: I also went for to them for a quote as it seemed the logical thing to do, but they were horrendously expensive.

I think that high quotes are just a way of saying, "- sorry, not interested in insuring you, look elsewhere!"

[andrewtayloruk]

Hi

So this thread has been extremely enlightening. 

Things I've learned

1. Lexus insurance is bonkers, it's like as PP stated, they just don't want the business. They're a broker so it's not really much hassle to them to quote high. They can miss out on 10 normal policies and still make enough on the 11th quote

 

2. IT workers and Lexus seems a common pairing. Perhaps we're all sick of troubleshooting in our day jobs and like a bit of reliability in our private lives.

 

3. Admiral is a good choice for insurance. I've actually just had a quote at £470 so I've cancelled my aviva policy and took their hand off.

 

4. For bonus points I got a quote from admiral without my girlfriend on the policy. She has a company car so no NCD, she also had a fault claim and three speeding points last year. It made absolutely no difference. It was exactly the same price.

[andrewtayloruk]

15 hours ago, Shahpor said:

Excuse me for going off topic, but what IT jobs do you guys do which are working from home?

 

I work for a very large IT services company and I do technical support for cloud services. Mainly amazon Web services. This job is fully at home, my last job was similar for a similar company. Was flexi at home to suit me. 

I really enjoy it, I would definitely try and get WFH in my next role.

[DanD]

It does not suit everyone. I have friends who have worked from home for years and love it. Personally, I hate it. I need to be able to draw a line between work and home, although it is not always easy I am always on call (I work in Crisis Management and Business Continuity). Oddly, I find I am more productive in a work environment.

Going back on topic... does working from home mean fewer miles and therefore a cheaper insurance quote for you?

[andrewtayloruk]

15 minutes ago, DanD said:

Going back on topic... does working from home mean fewer miles and therefore a cheaper insurance quote for you?

Yes probably, I insure for 8000 miles p/a although I probably won't do that unless we take a few long trips in the summer. I also don't need commuting/business insurance.

To be honest, if I did start going back in to an office, I'd look to commute on my bike or on public transport. That would be more about the cost of fuel and increased servicing demands on the RX rather than the insurance cost. 

This whole saga is now getting beyond a joke.

Got my admiral policy through, no mention of my additional driver.

I've phoned them and they've told me that for the last few days they've had a fault on the system which is not adding an additional driver even though the details have been entered. The new quote with my girlfriend added is £200 more, or, £100 more than the policy cancelled with Aviva.

I'm actually on the phone now and they're trying to tell me that it's £20 charge for cancelling the policy (which was taken an hour ago and doesn't start until Friday) !!

Irate is not the word.

 

[rayaans]

6 hours ago, andrewtayloruk said:

Hi

So this thread has been extremely enlightening. 

Things I've learned

1. Lexus insurance is bonkers, it's like as PP stated, they just don't want the business. They're a broker so it's not really much hassle to them to quote high. They can miss out on 10 normal policies and still make enough on the 11th quote

 

2. IT workers and Lexus seems a common pairing. Perhaps we're all sick of troubleshooting in our day jobs and like a bit of reliability in our private lives.

 

3. Admiral is a good choice for insurance. I've actually just had a quote at £470 so I've cancelled my aviva policy and took their hand off.

 

4. For bonus points I got a quote from admiral without my girlfriend on the policy. She has a company car so no NCD, she also had a fault claim and three speeding points last year. It made absolutely no difference. It was exactly the same price.

Dare you to phone them up and ask for it cheaper

Watch it go down by another £50 lol - I phoned them 3 times in the end and got £250 off

[T Sport 1978]

It's odd this.  My circumstances almost mirrors the OP's.  Was in IT, did drive an Auris hybrid, currently 38, also shocked by a renewal quote that is £960 without NCB bonus protection or legal protection which is silly.  

I am now a restauranteur and only drive less than 5000 miles and it's still stupid money to insure this car.  If I hadn't paid up for a service plan, relative cheap tax and the fact that I love this car, I think I might have started to look at going back to Toyota.  

I will carry on looking for quotes, I am sure there is room for improvements yet. 

A little off topic but I am nearly into my 2nd year of trouble free motoring with my 450h, and still enjoying it like it was my first day with it.

 

[NemesisUK]

Ah! 60yrs of age and 40yrs of claim free driving brings some reward then. £180 fully comp with protected NCB, legal cover etc., etc 

Not that I'm smug. at all, much ....

[lockeyboy]

Will mine go down ? as I've given up on IT as of MOnday this week, and am now temporarily at least retired aged 42, until I have to tax and insure all three cars of course...

i worked from home and away as a project manager in IT (never got the balance right, I hate being away or at all all week)

wifes RX had some vandalism to the door, just weeks into ownership, looking like £2k plus VAT, going through insurance obviously.

[sorcerer]

I work from home repairing, building and upgrading computers but I need business cover on the car insurance so that I can do pick-ups/drop-offs and my wife also needs business cover (Civil Servant) as she sometimes has to drive for her work (she doesn't drive enough to justify her own car so just one car in the household). Both of us have 40+ years driving experience, no claims in the last 20 years etc., etc., and it was £320 last year.

I often think that you could get a greater understanding of how car insurance works by burning chicken bones whilst facing east and offering a sacrifice to some obscure cosmic deity rather than trying to logically work it out.

[DanD]

Post code also makes a huge difference.

[Silversalmon]

How do you get the chicken bones to ignite? The rest should be easy.....