My car insurance is due next month and I’m getting quotes much cheaper than last year, cheapest is £209.59, down from about £290 last year. As my truck will come up for renewal in June I’m wondering if anyone has found truck insurance to be cheaper this year?
Also, I know there is always a loading for new starts, removal of this and hopefully one years no-claims bonus should bring it down, anybody got any experience of how much this is likely to be?
Harry Monk:
My car insurance is due next month and I’m getting quotes much cheaper than last year, cheapest is £209.59, down from about £290 last year. As my truck will come up for renewal in June I’m wondering if anyone has found truck insurance to be cheaper this year?Also, I know there is always a loading for new starts, removal of this and hopefully one years no-claims bonus should bring it down, anybody got any experience of how much this is likely to be?
I completed my first year as an O/D in November last year Harry and like you was expecting my insurance premium to come down having had no accidents of claims inside my first 12 months. I was wrong! It actually went up by £144.
The reason they gave me is that the insurance companies had taken such s battering during the winter of 2011 that all premiums had gone up to compensate. I did shop around but no one could beat the quote I got with my existing insurer (Towergate).
Matt
Mine also went up each of the two times I renewed it, only by a relatively small amount each time though.
Paul
Oh, ok, was rather hoping that insurance was coming down in general this year, I’ll just have to prepare for a similar amount. One thing I should be able to do is pay it in one lump, I think I paid about £700 for paying it over instalments. At least, as it’s paid over ten months I’ll have a couple of months coming up without paying it before renewal.
i use cornish insurance brokers and my insurance has come down every year for the last 12 yrs
some years not by much but its always gone down and not up
BTW i paid £289 for my car insurance last month with adelaide, my current insurer wanted £360 at renewal
I will stay on the phone until I get it cheaper than last year, no way can an extra years no claims equate to higher premium! It is a very very painful process but has become a challenge.
bazstan009:
I will stay on the phone until I get it cheaper than last year, no way can an extra years no claims equate to higher premium! It is a very very painful process but has become a challenge.
bread and milk go up in price and you don’t claim off them all year 
What mad me think that it might go down was the sharp drop in the price of my car insurance premiums, from discussion on other forums this seems to be universal. I’ve factored in the cost of insurance being roughly the same next year so any fall would be a bonus.
i posted on here a few weeks ago (insurance renewal thread) and after much ringing round i saved a fair amount by moving to another broker, have a read, this time coiler’s broker @ stockport was best for my needs
moose
green456:
bazstan009:
I will stay on the phone until I get it cheaper than last year, no way can an extra years no claims equate to higher premium! It is a very very painful process but has become a challenge.bread and milk go up in price and you don’t claim off them all year
You are of course correct but when they get to expensive I will by a cow and bake me own bread 
xfmatt:
The reason they gave me is that the insurance companies had taken such s battering during the winter of 2011 that all premiums had gone up to compensate. I did shop around but no one could beat the quote I got with my existing insurer (Towergate).
When you have your insurance through an underwriter, they have their own claims losses to deal with. This means if they pay out a lot of claims one year, then they will often increase their premiums at renewal to compensate for their losses.
If you deal with a broker, they approach many underwriters meaning that they can negotiate with multiple underwriters - therefore if one underwriter has increased their premium as a result of high claims losses, the broker will place you with a different underwriter who has low claims losses and as a result, a cheaper quote.
I’ve got some quite complex insurance and get all mine through a broker. Ie motor, GIT, employee, and public so pay for the lot together. Mine dropped by 1000 after the first year and 550 after the second, although now my third year of motor cover is with a different underwriter which was not only cheaper but gave me more flexibility with drivers.
Combined policies can be brilliant for complex risks when they can balance all requirements for you. Unfortunately they can also be very rigid with acceptance criteria and inflexible with risk factors.
Take note, a lot of brokers write a combined risk policy merely because it’s easier than taking the time to enquire about the separate products that make up the insurance. If all your policies are underwritten by the same insurer then chances are you could get it cheaper elsewhere - they will usually load one of the elements of the policy to recuperate some profit, knowing the average Joe would rather have all their eggs in the same basket so it’s less hassle to deal with.
I use bluefin for my broker. Although they insure anything they have several people who used to drive trucks and so are aware of the requirements and the implications of not been properly insured! However all my policies are individual with their own policy numbers and separate underwriters. My invoice from them does show the premium for each individual policy but it is so much easier to pay for them all as a group and also to renew them all on the same day. Of course a broker is going to be putting some money on top of the actual premium but as I mentioned in my earlier post they have the opportunity to swap underwriters to keep your buisness if one of your premiums go up. I was staggered this year when NFU quoted me for motor insurance only on one truck, wait for it, £17,000! 