Elephant Insurance

[Parthiban]

I was ringing around getting insurance quotes today as I've been looking at switching the cover on the Lexus over to my name and when I spoke to Elephant, I also asked about how much more I could expect to pay if I added any modifications (as it looks like they'll be who I'll insure with). While the difference wasn't much for adding a bodykit and alloys, they said they wouldn't actually cover the extra cost of those modifications, only up to the value of the standard parts. They also said that the same would apply if the car was fitted with a styling kit from new, which I found quite surprising.

Is everyone insured with Elephant aware of this? I'm still most likely going to go with Elephant as no one else seems to be able to get close to their quote (mainly as I'm 23 with 0 no claims)

[Habeeb]

Hi mate, give admiral a call, they got me a fantastic deal, I am also 23 although no mods to the car. also try confused.com Its also worth noting that direct line are currently offering no claims bonus to all drivers named on a policy and not just the main driver. So it may be worth getting the car insured in your dads/mums name and adding yourself as a named driver and earning some NCB at the same time with direct line. Also make sure if you go with elephant that you get the 12month policy and not the 10 month bonus accelerator policy. No other company will recognise the NCB you earn from a 10 month elephant policy, so basically you are forced to renew with elephant again otherwise you would have just wasted money trying to get yourself insured.

[SHAHZ]

Thats right they wont pay out for modifications

[Adie]

I changed to Adrian Flux because of the modifications. As I have alot of mods they just insure the car upto a certain amount. Mine is insured for £15,000 (Stereo maximum they pay is £400) although alot more has been spent on it.

Unfortunately you'll never see the money you've spent on mods

[bigal]

i am insured with elephant and i strongly advise you stay away from them or any part of the admiral group as an insurance company. As for modifications i think its pretty standard to not cover the cost of the modifications.

[MacRS200]

i am insured with elephant and i strongly advise you stay away from them or any part of the admiral group as an insurance company.

Any particular reason for that mate?

[Parthiban]

i am insured with elephant and i strongly advise you stay away from them or any part of the admiral group as an insurance company.

Any particular reason for that mate?

Thanks for all the replies, I'd like to know the answer to that too. Have you had any bad experiences with Elephant?

My car is unmodified at the moment too, up until now it would have affected my insurance premium too much. However, now it doesn't seem to make too much of a difference so I was just trying to get a rough idea of costs if I did change anything.

I've been insured as a named driver on my mum's policy since 19 with Privilege. The only reason we were looking to change was that our renewal for this year was £850 with full no claims. That's why I was quite surprised to get a quote from Elephant in my name with zero no claims for £900 (£790 for 10 months).

Based on ridiculous quotes from everyone else (including £2000 from Adrian Flux), it now seems to be narrowed down to either switching to Directline so I will earn NCD as a named driver, or switch the policy into my name with Elephant.

I'd really appreciate it if anyone who's had experience with Elephant (good or bad) to let me know as I am a little sceptical as to how they can be so much cheaper than everyone else without compromising service quality.......

[eXOBeX]

Search these forums for "alastair", you'll find details of A-Plan Insurance who do a pretty good deal for Lexus owners.

[maneesh]

Admiral, Elephant and Bell are the same company. Elephant and Bell are merely trading names for Admiral. However, if you look at the small print, the cover is NOT the same. With Elephant, all your interactions are carried out online over email. I had to make a claim with Elephant, and because it's all over email, it's soooooo slow. I got my cash in the end though.

Also, the quotes I got from Bell and Elephant were exactly the same. They are extremely well priced for drivers of high risk vehicles with zero or little NCB that live in London. I chose Bell, because they offer you the ability to make contact by phone, and also, they offer a refund policy if you cancel your insurance before expiry date. With Elephant, they will not refund anything even if you cancelled 2 months after taking out the policy!!!

With my GS300 SPort and my claims history, every insurer was quoting north of £2000. Bell and Elephant quoted me £800, or £600 for the 10 month policy.

FInally, they don't like modifications at all.

[ColinBarber]

Admiral, Bell, Elephant (and Diamond if you are female) are fine with mods and are normally only around £20-30 extra per mod. However is stated before they will not pay out to replace the mods.

[atacam]

I got a quote from Virgin. Don't know about mods, but they were only £326 fully comp. But I am 32 with 7 yrs NCB. Also they don't charge you extra for paying monthly. :)

[bigal]

i am insured with elephant and i strongly advise you stay away from them or any part of the admiral group as an insurance company.

Any particular reason for that mate?

Thanks for all the replies, I'd like to know the answer to that too. Have you had any bad experiences with Elephant?

I'd really appreciate it if anyone who's had experience with Elephant (good or bad) to let me know as I am a little sceptical as to how they can be so much cheaper than everyone else without compromising service quality.......

lets just say they cant be so much cheaper than everyone else without compromising service quality. Non of their staff seem to know what is going on, and i have been lied to by them on more than 1 occasion. Basically i was involved in an accident nearly a year ago which wasn't my fault and the claim is still ongoing! they didn't even have the decency to reply to a formal letter of complaint!!.

[Parthiban]

Well it seems that its better to go with Bell than Elephant, and as the quotes were the same, I'll think I'll probably go with that one then if I can't find another better quote. Gonna try A-plan tomorrow though, hopefully I can get a better quote from there and it'll be sorted...... :)