Hi folks,

Been looking around for car insurance as my renewal is due in March. Ive been driving a year and im 19. 20 this year. 

I paid 1200 for the year just past with Direct Line. I went onto Hastings to see if I could get anything cheaper and I've been quoted £661 ALL IN. Blown away by this so was wondering what people think/ have heard of Hastings car insurance? 

Cheers 

Been with them twice with no problems.

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Just now, Stoney871 said:

Been with them twice with no problems.

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Brilliant cheers. Pretty chuffed with that reduction on the price..

I am with them Hastings car insurance and I cant fault them

at that price at your age take there hand off

1 minute ago, dezwez said:

I am with them Hastings car insurance and I cant fault them

at that price at your age take there hand off

Great. That's 2 people already saying they are good. Yeah I am amazed. I was expecting around the 1000 mark again. 

I will use it as leverage to get Direct Line down to the same price but if they don't match I'll be moving to Hasting's

Been with them myself a couple of times - no problems, even when someone did a hit and run on my Volvo. Took care of business for me no problems.

I just tried admiral. 1740 QUID without a black box!!! How is that possible?! One company 660 and the other nearly 2 grand?!

 

@Stoney871 @dezwez @Tomson

3 minutes ago, fraserrg said:

I just tried admiral. 1740 QUID without a black box!!! How is that possible?! One company 660 and the other nearly 2 grand?!

now that's strange as i think admiral is part of hasting

Admiral is not part of hastings.

Admiral is it's own group, (which includes elephant, diamond, confused etc)

Hastings were good for me, they did jack up the price at renewal, and refused to lower so I switched, but good service otherwise.

Keep an eye out for not getting cover on things, you might with DL

Need to do mine tonight. Will tell you if I have Hastings again!

EDIT: nope, Admiral this time round! Been with them a couple times as well, so no bother :)

Was with Hastings two years, can't fault them. Customer services always polite and easy to deal with if changing anything on the policy. Never made a claim though so can't comment on that. 

Your existing insurers will rarely come close to anyone competing for new business, in my experience. Even rarer that they will match a new quote. Make sure you get Motor Legal Protection, having been involved in a claim against an uninsured driver it is worth the cost 1000 times over. I will never be without it, however a courtesy car I can do without. I pay £389.00/year for myself and my wife, including business miles, to drive a 2016 mk5 mondeo and a 2016 fiesta. That's both of us driving each car [emoji16]can't beat that!
Try Adrian Flux and Budget for young driver and/or modified cars


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tl:dr version of the below - I definitely don't recommend them!

I'm with Hastings and have found them to be rubbish.  Had an accident a couple of years ago where I was cut up on the approach to a roundabout.

Their handling of the case was awful.  I was told different things each time I spoke with them, they never returned calls, they didn't keep me updated.  They also farm out some of the claims handling to a company called Albany Assistance who are even worse than Hastings.  Albany Assistance and Hastings were content to let me drive a dangerous car (my wheel was buckled and the steering arm was crack because I was shoved into a kerb).  I mentioned my concerns and they shrugged it off and said they won't do anything until the subsequently uninsured third party acknowledged the claim.  It was only after a few days that it was explained to me that if I paid my excess, they'd start taking care of it.  This was my first claim, so I was naive.  After paying the excess, a courtesy car arrived the next day.  Mind you, it took nearly a year to get that excess back again!  And after the accident, their nominated solicitor engaged in relentless ambulance chasing.  No wonder our policies are so expensive!

This incident was a couple of years ago and to this day, I don't really know how the case finished up.  I made complaints at the time which took them several months to investigate.  Eventually they did and they found in my favour and gave me nearly £300 compensation, but to be honest, I would have much preferred not to have the stress they gave me.  You also need to watch their courtesy cars (supplied through Albany Assistance) as they come with a gigantic excess (they don't put them on your own policy) and they charge you a fair whack to reduce this.  So I was actually out of pocket by a considerable sum. There is also some convoluted agreement you have to make with them whereby you agree to attend court and this, that and the other, before they release a car to you.  They also knocked my NCD because fault was yet to be established and this cost me a small fortune at renewal.  Even though it was protected and it was clear the accident was not my fault.

Their nominated repairer was also crap and on collection day I spent over 4 hours down there because they didn't finish the job and left a load of overspray they had yet to polish in.  I also got lied to and they never fixed some of the issues listed above.  And after 4 hours, I got so annoyed, I took the courtesy car and left again.  Took them another week to actually fix the car and their shoddy repair.

So yes, I won't recommend them at all.  And the other insurer that likes to blow their own trumpet and needs to be avoided is LV=.  Oh, and the Admiral Group are pirates - first company to insist on black boxes for drivers of a certain age. First (and still only company I believe) to treat driver awareness courses like points and a fine

So yeah, insurance is a con!  But had to go with them again as their claims handling meant I had trouble getting affordable insurance elsewhere.

Thanks for the comments folks. 

My renewal is coming up and sticking with Admiral again by the looks of it. They've bumped it up to about £690 but that's stil the cheapest around 

Might give Hastings a go...

12 minutes ago, Tom-B64 said:

My renewal is coming up and sticking with Admiral again by the looks of it. They've bumped it up to about £690 but that's stil the cheapest around 

Might give Hastings a go...

What age are you mate? 

16 minutes ago, Tom-B64 said:

My renewal is coming up and sticking with Admiral again by the looks of it. They've bumped it up to about £690 but that's stil the cheapest around 

Might give Hastings a go...

This isn't just for Admiral, but even if your current insurer is the cheapest after you have shopped around, I always tell them I can get it cheaper and there is usually more they can take off. :)

6 minutes ago, fraserrg said:

What age are you mate? 

20 atm 21 in May.

2 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

This isn't just for Admiral, but even if your current insurer is the cheapest after you have shopped around, I always tell them I can get it cheaper and there is usually more they can take off. :)

Yea my mum is pretty good with that but think 690 is lowest atm :(.

 

Just done a quote with Hastings and they've come within £50 off Admirals quote so might give them a ring later and see if they can drop it. Only thing is, there was no choises to declare any modifications, so I haven't declared my lowering springs...

Stupid things is, I usually find it cheaper to get a quote with no mods, then have them manually added, than quote with mods in the first place...

Just now, alexp999 said:

Stupid things is, I usually find it cheaper to get a quote with no mods, then have them manually added, than quote with mods in the first place...

Yea I think i'll have to do that anyway. Making nervous how they don't have an option to add on online so I imagine if I ring up it'll be silly money for the springs to be added on :(

12 hours ago, Tom-B64 said:

20 atm 21 in May.

Just done a quote with Hastings and they've come within £50 off Admirals quote so might give them a ring later and see if they can drop it. Only thing is, there was no choises to declare any modifications, so I haven't declared my lowering springs...

Well if they don't ask you can't tell.

56 minutes ago, Stoney871 said:

Well if they don't ask you can't tell.

er , aren't you supposed to be upholding the law or something ?  ;-)

but yeah , car insurers are just as bent as costa del sol timeshare , so play them at their own game i say  :-)

Hey fellas, I'm sure you're only joking @biff55 and @Stoney871 but jut thought I would add that not declaring mods would make your insurance void in the case of an accident, leaving the driver to face the police, and any other drivers involved to pick up the pieces


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The point here is failing to disclose if asked.
If they don't ask you then what can you do about it.
Technically you should ring them and offer disclosure of modifications but then they bump up premiums and charge amendnent fees.

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