Insurance renewal - Speed awareness Ouch!

[Cottis]

So, policy is up at the end of the month and I had not received a renewal letter, so called them up and they said blah blah, lost in post whatever. The policy to renew is £212 etc etc and I said yeah, go ahead. He then asked if I had any endorsements, accidents etc in the last 5yrs including speed awareness course. I did go on a course about 18months or so ago for getting done 35mph in a 30mph zone. Thought I should be honest and it put the policy up to £252. I asked him how much it would be if I had taken the points and not gone on the course and he said it would be £272. So, the course cost £95 and was a waste of time (other than not getting the points i guess) and the fine would have been 60quid and now meant I had to drive 20miles in hazardous snow and ice to an awful 3hrs of insidious instruction.

Evidently this course (which should make me a better driver) will stay on the policy for 5yrs but the price will decrease incrementally before the 5yrs expires.

Wish I had not been honest now but I guess it could bite me in the backside if I ever had to claim and they found out.

[Jack4688]

I haven't got that problem because I was caught doing 73 in a 50 so the speed awareness course was not an option. Had I been doing 2mph more when caught I'd have been banned

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

Removing drivers from the road ie test pilots chavy boy racers is a good thing!As these guys is what costs the rest of us high insurance premiums. If people want to open up take it on a dual carriageway or motorway. I know the speed limits were reduced on virtually all A and B roads by 10 mph about 5/6 years ago which i a real pain

Cottis i hate the 2mph or 5mph over the speed limit nonsense it's just a con where councils generate extra cash. I was driving big transits with long open bed and tail lift doing deliveries for HSS Hire back in 2008. I got caught doing 33 mph and 35 in 30 Zones. It is so easy to go slightly over the speed limit in these big long bed transits because you sit so high up 30 literalyy feels like 20-25 mph .One was the IR camera that faces you and the other Police trap.

Hertfordshire is the worst county in the UK for it So not only speed cameras everywhere but disgraceful road surfaces too. Yet they still want our road tax for deteriorating roads that screw up our cars Trust me before long they will figure out a way to tax those who fart too much as they will be deemed as polluting the atmosphere.

[AndyP]

Which insurance company are you with?

I had to do a speed awareness course a few weeks ago and the instructor told us that the insurance companies had a 'gentlemans agrement' not to penalise people who attend the course, only 2 companies ignored this and they are Admiral and Elephant.

[Cottis]

Yep, i'm with Elephant. I did a quick comparison to see if anyone could beat the increased premium and they couldn't so I just went with it. It was do the gardening or spend the day calling round specialists to see if they could beat it and the grass won.

I will bear that in mind next year though, as I don't think paying to go on a course to theoretically improve your approach to driving, should result in an increased premium.

Thanks for the info though, good to know.

[Jack4688]

Yeah Admiral love to make up reasons to charge you more, unfortunately for me they are still the cheapest so that's who I go with. They have awful customer service, probably why they are quite often the cheapest...

[Cottis]

I think Admiral and Elephant might be linked. Must say, never had an issue with Elephant. They are pretty good, online stuff is easy to use and the staff are friendly and I've never had to wait on hold. Could be worse.

At the end of the day, I shouldn't have been speeding I guess, then I would have had a pretty cheap policy.

[Michael S2]

Yes Admiral and Elephant are sister companies. Been with Elephant for a number of years now and never had any problems with customer sevices.

[Jamo]

They are basically the same company but have different target audience in terms of policy, elephant was for higher risk policies

[anthonys2]

I have all my cars on the multicar policy and I must admit they've been good to me over the years even back in 2009 when a van decided to hit the back of my car they were going to write it off till I pointed out what it was worth with other examples for sale they do listen

[Kieron20V]

My missus just got insured with Diamond who are run by Admiral, asked if I had done any courses and I did a driving awareness about a year ago for missing a red light. Was an extra tenner on her policy with me as a named driver.