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Car insurance premiums

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adrian840

Member
Messages
10
Hi all,
I've recently had my car insurances renewal through and was dismayed to find it had increased by over £600.00. I was diagnosed with type 1 in May 2009 and informed my insurance company straight away and was not charged any extra premium. I renewed may policy last August with only a minimal increase in the premium. During the last few days I have been shopping around to try and get another policy, all goes well until I mention that I'm a type1 diabetic and then the premiums go through the roof. I was led to believe by my diabetes specialist that this was an offence under the disabilities discrimination act. I've tried having my wife as the main driver and me as the named driver but this still incurs on average an extra £500. I would be very grateful if anybody has any ideas on where to look or what to do next. Is it an offence to charge excessive premiums because someone suffers from diabetes? Thanks in advance for your wisdom.

Adrian
 
Terrible, absolutely terrible. I always thought the DDA (1996) stopped this type of thing happening where rip off insurance companies take advantage of this situation. My company car insurance, as far as I'm aware, hasn't went up in costs due to my condition. In fact, one of their reps told us that he thought it was illegal for an insurance company to single out anyone's illness and take more money due to this.

I would shop around until you get a decent one and then send a letter to all other companies telling them how poor you think they are and that they should be named and shamed.

Let us know how you get on.
 
Good news ! I managed to get a decent quote from kwikfit, same cover as I had before and £150 cheaper than last years premium and a total saving of over £700 on this years renewal from direct line. I got a quote from Direct Line for just my wife to drive the car (£400) and to have me as a named driver would cost a further £600. (Full no claims, no accidents, no convictions). I will check the DDA and if necessary I will take action against all the companies who try to increase the premiums.
 
Hi
Just an opinion here,
as morally wrong as it may be, I think that if an insurance company see's you as an increased risk for what ever reason, then they can charge more, its economics i'm afraid
i would have thought though, that as with any other kind of insurance a common sense approach on the company's side would make for better relations, and a few simple questions and answers as to how well controlled your type 1 is would suffice. (you would normally sign a declaration to confirm this)
My wife has managed to secure life insurance despite numerous medical conditions, but any current ailments are not included, and she had to have a medical before the insurance was granted.
but am glad you managed to find one of the more sensible insurance companies
Best regards
Crofty
 
I'm T2 controlled by diet and Metformin, my current insurer wanted almost double the amount I was paying last year, told him to get lost and shopped around. I found the cooperative to be the cheapest, only about 20 quid more than last year, around a £180 saving from what I was quoted by my current insurer. Quite happy with that. :D
 
I've seen insurance for Type 1's change dramatically through the years. When I got my first car in 1978 soon after deing diagnosed, I was charged £600 per quarter for 3rd party only (this was 1978 remember, when petrol was under 50p a gallon). I had to have medicals and letters from my doctor for each insurer so even attempting to shop around was a major excercise. In those days Diabetes was a relatively unquantified risk so they whacked up the premium to make absolutely sure they wouldn't be out of pocket.

These days, the risk assessment is made by the DVLA medical section and reflected in how many years your licence is issued for between renewals. Insurers don't even ask what's wrong with you any more. Most just take a 3 year licence as an indication of low risk, although I always make sure to tell them what's wrong with me, so they can never pull the old 'you never declared that' one on me.

You say that telling your insurer when you were first diagnosed made no difference, but like us shopping around for a new insurer, the insurers themselves will shop around for a new underwriter. It could be that your insurer has picked a new underwiter, whose favourite tool for generating revenue is medical conditions. Also could it be that as you were only recently diagnosed, you don't yet have enough clean history to get a 3 year licence? That would give an insurer who doesn't like medical conditions just the excuse he needs for making some easy money out of you.

I don't think an insurer would be commiting an offence to charge more for insuring an increased risk

These days there's so many little scams they have to put your premium up, they don't have to focus on a medical condition . When I tried to renew our two cars with the very same insurer this year, I just happend to notice they had us down as only havng ONE car in the household on one of the policies. On speaking to the agent I asked if he could get that corrected to two for the new documents, as it must be their error as they know we have two cars insured with them which were both insured at the same time on one phone call. Incredibly the agent said that will be an EXTRA £30 (8%). Apparently for this insurer (not others) having 2 cars is a somehow a significantly bigger risk. Yeah right!
It's really worth shopping around very carefully as every parameter is considered a different risk by different insurers, and these can vary each year.
 
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