Car Insurance Rip-off

[Charlie XGO]

Hi everyone

 

Just thought I would let you know that some insurance companies namely Bell Direct have recently started charging additional premiums for any optional extras fitted to your car. I have had my current car insured with them for 4 years and only after making a claim this year did they suddenly start charging for the fact my car had leather seats and xenon lights! When I called to investigate what would happen if I acquired a new car they informed that optional extras are not covered! In that case why are they charging an additional premium

 

Be warned after a bad year for insurance companies I suspect there will be a lot more of this kind of behaviour. I will probably change insurer at renewal time.

[CharlesElliott]

Personally, I have always found this to be the case with all insurance companies. Whether they add premium or not varies, but, for example, I have found that Tesco and Direct Line do even if they are just factory options.

 

Charles

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[Shaun_E]

Elephant also charge extra for factory fit options even though they will only pay out for a "standard" car. Just switched to More Than who do not charge extra for options although I'm pretty sure they won't pay out for them either.

These days, if you want cheap insurance don't expect any more than the bare minimum cover. I figure my savings in insurance premiums will cover the couple of hundred quid for alloys on my car but if you have thousands of pounds worth of options then you'd better make sure your insurance covers them.

N.B. I'm talking about tin-top isnurance here.

 

Yellow SL #32 - member of Drowned Rat Racing

 

Edited by - Shaun_E on 21 Nov 2007 12:37:04

[7 wonders of the world]

CIS

 

Too young to be old !

[SLR No.77]

As far as I'm aware all the details of a vehicle at first registration are available to insurers, and vehicles are given an insurance grouping based upon this information. Some years ago I had a loan Freelander whilst ours was being serviced, and Direct Line charged me extra because despite being exactly the same model, same age, the loan car was a higher group on the system. They explained the system to me.

 

Therefore if a vehicle is supplied new with various factory fitted options, these should already be taken into consideration by the insurer when you submit the registration of the actual vehicle to be insured. "Any modifications to manufacturer's original specification" should include only changes made after the vehicle was supplied. Some special edition models have different wheels etc - IMHO these are not declarable modifications. To take it to the extreme it would be necessary to declare options such as metallic paint if this were not the case.

 

BTW, I've just used www.moneysupermarket.com and saved £140 renewing our tin-top insurance

 

Stu.

 

www.superse7ens.co.uk..........the rebuild 😬