The Great British Insurance rip off

[Blue Maverick]

I retired from the Insurance industry in 2021 - specifically the claims side of things - from pre-Referendum days there were discussions and articles in the Trade Press that a vote to Leave would cause a massive uplift in premiums because costs of everything would increase. Then Covid hit and in certain areas quite understandably employees from overseas went home to ride it out with their families and then Patel got laws passed that prevented them from returning. A mate who lives in Kent and worked in the City at an insurers head office tells me almost 40% of staff - Portuguese - French - German etc - vanished almost overnight. And if something is in demand we know the prices for it rise - labour is no different. And then Ukraine pushed the costs of everything up too.

That last one is what makes me laugh. All these "back to the office" warriors who have money in commercial property and are shit scared don't grasp that employers are happy for folk to work from home as that way they use their own heating and lighting and even make their own brews.

And their own internet, I know my wife does that’s why our heating bill is bigger than normal :(

 

[bluethrunthru]

And their own internet, I know my wife dies that’s why are heating bill is bigger than normal :(

In the 70's and 80's the UK was known as Treasure Island by the companies in the EU as we didn't have a land border -pre-euro when exchange rates changed as did inflation we here couldn't easily drive from Northern France into Belgium to buy a car at a cheaper price.

I bought a brand new FIAT Uno in 1984 as an import from ROI - it cost me 60% of the UK new price delivered to my door.

 

[talkativesprout]

If everybody's car set fire to themselves tomorrow they would go out of business. I think i might have some French DNA

 

[jrb]

I’ve got 5 cats, all different ages. Thankfully they are all healthy at the moment. But I’m dreading them becoming I’ll, which will happen eventually. Not one of them is insured. I can’t afford to insurance 5 cats every year.

 

[city2]

Just got our pet insurance through and it’s nearly doubled, tried comparison sites and it’s pretty much the same. Our car insurance looks like it’s going up by at least 35%, the thing is we’ve no choice you can’t choose not to have car insurance, they are blaming supply chains etc but they’ll not come down when everything calms down the robbing bastards. The pet insurance is just another money grab, apart from medication and vet fees what can justify a 100% increase, it’s pure fucking greed.

And if you do make a claim for your pet they will fuck you over

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

I’ve got 5 cats, all different ages. Thankfully they are all healthy at the moment. But I’m dreading them becoming I’ll, which will happen eventually. Not one of them is insured. I can’t afford to insurance 5 cats every year.

We have a 16 year old cat. Never been insured. Had a look and it’s £90 a month. We’d still have to pay an excess and 20% of fees too.

Fuck that.

 

[AkanjisAfro]

My car insurance went from £800 to £2400 cheapest quote. No changes to the policy

 

[BridgyDids]

We have Mr Gove to thank for this. He was the governments man to work with the FCA on fair pricing for personal insurance products which call into effect last year.

So they effectively brought in that Insurers could only give the ‘technical price’ for Policies. Ie: what the insurer thinks your risk is worth to them. No discounts permitted.

Therefore one price based on the risk.

It used to be the model that Insurers would ‘price walk’ the price. This was a practice where they would look to get the right premium over a defined period, but would offer incentives (discounts) for new business.
For example, this means that say your technical rate was £1k, the insurer would start it at £750 first year, £800 the next, £1k the third, £1.1k the fourth and then £1.2k the fifth year. (Excluding any inflation etc)
The insurer gets their requisite premium over the 5 years (give or take) and customer gets a discount first year or two and can then cut and run after a year or two if they wish.

Insurers got greedy and then those people who didn’t move for 10 years or so, would be paying massively over the odds (mainly old people with no access to technology)- so government got involved.

Law was passed that Fair Pricing for all - so the discounts got stripped away - meaning all of us pay more!

Also inflation is bonkers (and I don’t need to explain things there!) so cost of claims are flying up. It’s hitting insurers hard, with some pulling out of personal lines.

This hasn’t helped either.

Inflation, supply chains, labour costs and everything else mentioned has also hit Insurers hard, and the reason they are not offering quotes anymore, is not that they are making too much profit!

 

[Blue Maverick]

We have a 16 year old cat. Never been insured. Had a look and it’s £90 a month. We’d still have to pay an excess and 20% of fees too.

Fuck that.

Ye same here, we will do it this year but we get £2k cover for £15, pay excess plus 20% so that’s only £1500, no doubt they’d try to wriggle out of that, they do need to get a grip of all insurances. I did many house fires were people had no insurance and that was when it was less than a packet of fags, now I can see lots not bothering it’s getting stupid.

 

[Blue Maverick]

My car insurance went from £800 to £2400 cheapest quote. No changes to the policy

Wtf are you driving? I wanted to by a van this year and do up to a camper, looking on the Facebook groups, insurances like others have sky rocketed, it may well put paid to that dream unless something changes.