I renewed last week. Every £50 I added to the voluntary excess knocked about a fiver off the premium.

Seems the actuaries think your number comes up about every 10 years ?

To compare and for fun, I got an on line quote for a third party fire and theft policy . This turned out to be marginally more expensive than the comprehensive policy renewal figure. Wonder why?

I think that will depend greatly on the value of the car ? If the car is of little value the comprehensive cover is unlikely to be invoked except as a write-off ?

Well maybe-but if cheaper comprehensive prices can be achieved by nudging up the excess-then maybe it’s worth risking that route?

Sometimes. It often depends upon what the existing voluntary excess is and whether the policy default excess is zero or [whatever]. I found a few years ago when I was still with esure (had been for about 12 years at the time) that both my compulsary and voluntary excesses were zero, but then they jacked the price up by about 10% (I was in my early - mid 40s then).

I checked what difference it would make to all my quotes, including theirs, by changing my voluntary excess to £100, and that took 10% off across most of them. I've left it as such ever since, and found going to £200 made a far smaller difference, so thought better of it.

Of course, what worked for me (cost-benefit wise) might not for another person.

A friend of my wife's has turned 80 and the online stuff scares her. So I was roped in to get her car insurance.

As her current insurers wanted an increase from around 450 to 650. For a Jazz. Managed to get a policy at 530 (halving her excess) but it was surprising to me as my own car (EV) costs me about 350 quid. She lives in a nicer area than I do as well.

I recall you used to get gouged because you weren't 21. Now once you retire it seems you're getting gouged again. She's sharp as a tack with a clean driving record. And it's a Jazz FFS.

Car insurers seem to be a strange lot.

Edited by Ethan Edwards on 16/05/2023 at 21:40