Hi All
I've red thiese posts with interest and thought I would add some insight into the conversations. I worked in the insurance industry and ran for 4 years, a large van / business car and minifleet portfolio with my own underwriting, pricing and operation teams, so know a fair amount about motor rating. No insurer is making much money in motor and all have slightly different appetites, which tend to change monthly as they try to keep loss ratios flat across many variables. Motor pricing is an arms race amongst insurers, with each looking for he next predictive risk factor that will allow them to outperform their competitors, and a number of insurers have now made an exit from the market due to heavy losses - the motor market has recorded Combined Operating Ratios (i.e. Over 100% is loss making) over 100% for at least a decade. There are around at least 20 different variables which interact to produce your own individual price, which not only include he questions you answer, but also third party data such as credit score, abi groupings, postcode and your own loss experience, it might even include the time of day you submit the quote, the quality of the broker you might use etc. At the same time, I know that prices tend to constantly increase, motor inflation is a problem being driven by many factors, including the expense of repairs as technology increases, issues such as fraudulent claims and the recent Ogden rate cut has hit motor result to around £3bn as well. Against this, new technology is also helping, AEB and other safety devices is slowly reducing accident frequencies and the increasing use of dash cams give an insurer a much better ability to protect their customers from fault claims in a situation where the other party is at fault and lies.. So whilst we might all moan and challenge the increasing cost of motor insurance, we could all do with better understanding of the dynamics that the industry is facing - in my time running the portfolio, I probably saw around 2-3 claims per annum that would be between £2m and in the worst case, £9m payouts to support an individual that have been badly injured as a result of a motor accident, helping them to continue to have some sort of life. Whilst I don't defend insurers as they do need to continue to work hard to improve their cost bases, I do hope that the above has shed some light on the intricacies of motor insurance. When I left the insurer where I ran the above portfolio, I left the fleet scheme (and had to give back my BMW X5 much to my wife's delight), I had to buy my own individual insurance and although not surprised by the ranges of insurance quotes available, I did manage to shop around and negotiate a fair price for my D4 Landmark at that time, with zero no claims. I guess that I would also therefore add that it pays to shop around and don,t be afraid to negotiate hard! When I moved to my D5, my insurance reduced by about £20 a year although the value went up by over £20k. Just goes to show that the insurers no longer really worry about the theft aspect, but it is the third party injury claims that tend to cost the most and with better tech to avoid and minimise accidents, the D5 is therefore a better risk!
Hope the above is useful and informative, and hopefully haven't come across as too much of an insurance geek!