Insurance fraud?

I didn't ask, and they put a value on it. Now I have agreed. Pray tell, do I have an agreed value policy?

Yes - it's just that now, you don't seem to like the value that you just agreed to. :rolleyes: You weren't a Brexit negotiator in the past, by any chance, were you...?;)

As others have said, pretty much every insurance proposal that I have ever filled in (whether online, over the phone, or with a pen), has had a box for "value" or "current value" on it. If I was insuring a 10 year old Fiesta and I put "£5million" in the box, I'd expect a phone call from them. The default value (in fact online, there's often a drop-down menu when you're filling in the form) is "current market value". If you didn't specify anything different, that's what it would have gone down as.

In the event of a total loss (say, a fire, or something that happens to elderly ICEs quite often;)), they would reach for their Glass' Guide, or their CAP "Black Book", and offer you whatever a similar model would cost to replace. So, if it's a (say) 20 year old 5 Series Beamer, they'd look that up and make you an offer based on that. If it's too rare to have an entry, they'd start looking in the Autotrader or maybe some classic car adverts and find a selection of them, and make you an offer based on those. If you don't like it, you can decline that offer and the onus is then on you to provide credible evidence that it was worth more. Some haggling may result and in the end, you agree a price. The dice are loaded against you, of course, because the longer you mess about trying to claim it was worth more, but failing to provide evidence, the longer you have to wait for your payout.

This is, of course, academic, because once they find out you fitted a non-genuine cam cover, your insurance will be void and you won't get any kind of payout at all, so it doesn't really matter...

...(at least, so someone once told me...);)

If you don't like any of that, you can go to a specialist broker and take out a (real) "agreed value" policy. That's what I have on my old Alfa. There are usually additional forms to fill in, where you give a more detailed description of its condition, and attach photos (they tell you which ones they want, but typically, all 4 sides, interior and engine bay). If it's really valuable, they might send someone round to inspect it, but mostly, they just accept the photos. You are usually limited on the policy if you go down that road though. Sometimes, you have to prove it's a second car, and / or you'll have to agree to a low annual mileage. I couldn't get "business use" on mine, if I wanted an agreed value policy, presumably because few people use classic cars for business miles.

Once you've done that, if the car becomes a total loss, the agreed value is what they will give you. Again, as others have said, the higher the value you agree, the higher the premium is likely to be.
 
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If it's too rare to have an entry, they'd start looking in the Autotrader or maybe some classic car adverts and find a selection of them, and make you an offer based on those. If you don't like it, you can decline that offer and the onus is then on you to provide credible evidence that it was worth more. Some haggling may result and in the end, you agree a price.
Maybe if you do have a car potentially like that, do some "continuous" admin - set up searches of Autotrader and other sites for cars like yours, every time one comes up make a note of condition, age, mileage etc. Watch it, and when it sells, see if the seller, if you can contact him, will tell you what it actually went for.
 

How do you work out the value of your car?​

You can work out the value of your car by visiting a car valuation website. Just enter your car’s registration number to get a valuation.

Yo - because their valuations are so realistic....
 
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In my write off in the past, the pay out was according to an ad in autotrader. Although, I suspected they did the ad themselves and pointed me to it.
Why on earth would they take the time and trouble to do that?

The problem this time is that the value is stated in the renewal policy terms. This would suggest I am agreeing to the stated value.
Every single car insurance renewal I have done for as long as I can remember has included a vehicle value. If you apply on line and don't like their value, you can change it.
 
Why on earth would they take the time and trouble to do that?
Maybe there is some nationwide conspiracy all the insurers are in on where they keep a warehouse of various cars somewhere so they can legitimately list an autotrader ad of eg a 2014 mondeo for half the price of anyone else, screenshot it for their payout documentation, and then quickly remove the ad again before anyone rings up about it. Must save them thousands in payouts :rolleyes:

If you apply on line and don't like their value, you can change it.
And if you can't change it, you can head over to some confused meerkat site and get a quote for a policy that includes the typical new customer discount
 
And if you can't change it, you can head over to some confused meerkat site and get a quote for a policy that includes the typical new customer discount

I queried the renewal price on our Golf and told them I could get it cheaper elsewhere and I would not be renewing with them. They said they do not price match, ever, but could give me a 20% 'customer retention' discount, beating the price that I told them I could get it for. Kerching! :ROFLMAO:
 
They said they do not price match, ever, but could give me a 20% 'customer retention' discount, beating the price
I wonder how that works with the FCA fair value policy , so not sure customer loyalty can be a factor now, as they have to offer new/old customers the same price, to stop this everygreen hike in price and the new customer discount , which i took advantage of for many years

Mine was comparison matching ,
Yep, so have I just last week and got cheaper , so stayed with them , a lot of work though as i did have to show comparison sites and also went onto varios companies and made sure exactly like for like - or as near as i could - Lot of work and time , which i have , many would not

interesting that the fair value policy, implemented by the FCA , does not seem to cover this aspect of discount - NOT complaining , I would have gone elsewhere and setup with a different company (RAC and AXA both cheaper for defacto5*) as i saved about £400 on the 2 cars
 
For some crazy reasons my renewal with esure came to half price for both cars and house.
I quickly renewed in case it was a mistake.
I quickly checked on the meerkat site and I wouldn't get any cheaper by far.
First time in my history of insurance that I got a cheaper renewal.
 
For some crazy reasons my renewal with esure came to half price for both cars and house.
I quickly renewed in case it was a mistake.
I quickly checked on the meerkat site and I wouldn't get any cheaper by far.
First time in my history of insurance that I got a cheaper renewal.
There's a large reduction on mine as well. Hence I was a bit suspicious. Now that it's confirmed there's nothing unusual, I reckon it's insurer's way for telling people to drive ICE.
 
Why on earth would they take the time and trouble to do that?
For profit? They can then sell double after write off. I noticed Cyprus had a lot of old UK-looking cars. I reckon the insurers export those written off cars.

Every single car insurance renewal I have done for as long as I can remember has included a vehicle value. If you apply on line and don't like their value, you can change it.
Every single insurer I used (I am a frequent switcher) in the past did not state a value for the car.
 
Every single insurer I used (I am a frequent switcher) in the past did not state a value for the car.
Cobblers. They all state the market value as well as give you the opportunity to change it.

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Name your last three insurance companies and we can check them.
 
Cobblers. They all state the market value as well as give you the opportunity to change it.
Whatever value stated by the switching website was accepted. I never had a policy document stating the value. I would not have let a low ball pass without making a thread. That means between my joining this forum and last year, I did not have a value in the policy document.
 
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