[RedMini]

I've just got my renewal through for my MCS from MINI Insurance. I have found cheaper elsewhere, but I wonder about claims.

Does anyone have good or bad experiences of MINI Insurance - or any other companies - when it comes to claims. Cheap insurance is all very well, but it might not look so good if a claim goes wrong.

[dietcokeplease]

There was a survey conducted (possibly by Which?) which was syndicated in most of the national newspapers. It ranked Insurers on the time it took to answer calls to claims hotlines. From memory companies that you would imagine to be blue chip stock did well (eg More Than/Royal Sun Alliance. Companies that were less well known fared worse. The leading Companies answered in 10-30 secs and the worst took over 30 minutes. I'm pretty sure that the worse Companies in the survey used Claims Agencies rather than employing their own staff.

[monsta]

My car insurance runs out in a couple of weeks, despite gaining another year of no claims (now 7 years) it's gone up! Not happy.

The best offer I could get was through Adrian Flux, £440.

A colleague at work used to work for an insurance company and she says that Directline aren't so good (I'm currently with them) same goes for elephant.

The key is to avoid companies who's claims lines are based in India!

[TheBlackKnight]

Quote:

The best offer I could get was through Adrian Flux, £440

Bah - I had a massive run-in with Flux a few years ago and won't touch them with a barge-pole. Just renewed my insurance with esure and my premium is a few coppers over £400.

Monsta - still remembering how excellent your MINI looked at 2002 London to Brighton - full respect mate!

[monsta]

Just looked at e-Sure, they're £413.00 - the lead so far

10 days to go!

[RedMini]

Thanks for your replies - esure were a lot cheaper for me too, but I was reluctant to even get a quote from them because of those irritating TV ads.MINI want about £550 with protected no-claims for my MCS - I might be nearer 50 than 40, but for some reason that I honestly cannot understand insurance companies rate my postcode in the top band.

Liverpool Victoria (who have got a lot of good reviews in this forum) and Direct Line were even higher than MINI Insurance. I was with DL until a year ago due to good premiums for previous cars, and the odd claim they handled went OK.

We tried Flux for a quote on our classic Mini earlier this year, but when the paperwork came through it really just seemed to be a mechanism for selling instalment payment schemes. We ended up going with MiniWorld Insurance for that car, operated by Herts Insurance Consultants. They refuse to put anything in writing until you have signed up, and it took 3 goes to get the correct details on the policy. They didn't change the premium, but I've a feeling the changes will push it up next time. We won't be using them again.

Back to the MCS, I don't think that esure are going to be any good to me on that as they don't like modified cars. The insurance is due for renwewal on Tuesday...... that's the day the JCW kit is being fitted. Looks like I'll stay with MINI.

[monsta]

What time are you booked in for the JCW kit? Is it at JCW? I work just around the corner now, keep your eyes open

[RedMini]

Quote: Originally Posted by monsta

Is it at JCW?

No, the local dealer was cheaper - charging for 6 hours labour instead of 9.

[TheBlackKnight]

Some of the insurers I called up for quotes asked me whether the car was 'Pepper' or 'Chili' (referring to the option packs of course). It turns out that these both carry insurance weighting (at least it did with two of the insurers that I spoke to) as if it were a performance modification......

When I asked why, the answer I got from both was 'Because the alloy wheels are different'.

Bah. My advice - find an insurer who doesn't ask about Salt/Pepper/Chili as it'll probably be cheaper!

[~Marcus~]

In my youth I worked for Direct Line in Motor Claims, and mostly the claims service was ok. However we were actually given targets for getting people to go to approved repairers as DL of course got much reduced labour rates from them. Some of the approved repairers were less than reputable and generated no end of complaints with regard to the quality of repairs and general attitude, so do not feel you have to go to the insurance company's approved repairer and don't be bullied into it!

Most of the complaints we got were about valuations for total losses, and most of the time the customer was frankly dreaming (like the idiot who wanted £2000 for a 70s Austin Princess ) but if the customer wasn't happy with the valuation and kicked up a fuss the managers would slap on a bit more to make them go away. If you're not happy, mention going to the media, Watchdog etc and watch that claim get settled in double quick time!

[RedMini]

Quote: Originally Posted by MaxxUK

In my youth I worked for Direct Line in Motor Claims, and mostly the claims service was ok. However we were actually given targets for getting people to go to approved repairers as DL of course got much reduced labour rates from them. Some of the approved repairers were less than reputable and generated no end of complaints with regard to the quality of repairs and general attitude, so do not feel you have to go to the insurance company's approved repairer and don't be bullied into it!

I remember that they had their own repair facility near Croydon a few years ago. It didn't last long though.

I was once speaking to a telesales bod at Churchill, and they were telling me about how I would get a free loan car if I had a car repaired at one of their network of approved repairers. My retort was that I wouldn't park my car on the forecourt at the one near where I live, let alone let them repair my car. At that time they regularly left customers' cars parked overnight in neighbouring residential streets, and it wasn't too clever when they opened in the morning and emptied out their workshop driving cars at speed down the pavement and across the forecourt of the KwikFit next door.

[shroud]

I am probably one of the many who does bother to check at renewal whether i am still getting a good deal on the premium sand regularly change. Personally for my age 30 something in kent, i found Tesco and L &V the cheapest and most hassle free (via web).

I always ring around because having had some experience with underwriting, the same company a year later can often be cheaper, whilst your current insurer may hike up their prices based on the previous years or periods claim experience.

My colleague was also keen to stress that saving £50 on the premium should be secondary to using someone that you knew would pay out in a timely fashion, and in the unfortunate event of a write off, would give you a good value. Whilst i agree with this, (as mentioned by a previous post) most of the blue chips tend to provide good service as reputation is very important. I generally avoid the smaller insurer because in the past i have found that they can be very tough on claims and have been known to put more effort into actively trying to avoid paying out.

Just my experience, but i also avoid brokers, as i had a situation once where i did have a problem and i ended up having a real problem trying to address the issues with the insurer, due to poor communication through the broker.