Express by Hastings

[Lucy_Wilson2002]

Hello everyone, I have always used the internet to find affordable auto insurance. This year was a bit different because I completely forgot who was insuring my car. Luckily, I remembered that the payment was due on March 7th, so I began shopping around and found a good deal at Hastings Direct for £295. I paid and made sure to save the email. Today, I received an email from Hastings informing me that next year's insurance would be £340, starting on March 7th. Since I had automatic renewal, they would take care of that. This sent me to the Hastings website, where I discovered that my old insurance was priced at £294 and the new one I had taken out was £295. I decided to remove the auto reminder from my old insurance, which would have cost £340 for another year of coverage, which is £46 more than my sub-$300 policy.

[Thomas_Green78]

Seems reasonable.

[godisgreat]

Using a broker, we have consolidated all of our auto policies with our home, barn, and stable policies for the past five years. My time and the ability to deal with a human being are more important to me than saving a few pounds, even though I could save some by searching the web.

[Lucy_Wilson2002]

My car insurance at least saved me some money,but you mention house insurance,now that has been a crazy situation,I thought we and our property were low risk,after all we are both retired we have a detached 3 bed bungalow in a quiet area we have never made a claim we have no big trees at the property we do not have any pets like a dog or cat and no family live with us,last year using the web I got a very cheap quote from Sky Protection at £133, just before we went on holiday over xmas I got a letter from Sky saying we do not want to renew your house insurance when it ends on the 11th of Jan so on the 6th of Jan I hit the web expecting between £145/£160 to insure,having filled out all the online forms all the big names on web sites when I attempted to pay for the insurance said speak to our broker and it was the same broker for all of them,so as time marched on I decide to find my own broker who insured us for £275,I have no idea why all the big names did this but will be aware for the next home insurance to start early .

[STAR89colin]

I would have expected that if rising sea levels were a significant concern, the other way around would be the case, but our house insurance went down mostly because they cut the distance to the sea that you pay extra for. The price has dropped from 400 meters to 200 meters, while the distance between our home and the high tide mark has shrunk to 219 meters. How convenient!

[shamaspoor]

A nice bonus for completing some schoolwork, brucie.

I was taken aback by the "auto renewal" feature recently; after insuring my Transit, I received an email from my insurer from the previous year expressing gratitude for another year of business and providing a link to my account where I could access any updated paperwork or information. I almost kicked myself because I clearly neglected to cancel auto-renew last year and ended up with two insurance. By the way, everything was rectified with a swift phone call, and the woman handling the matter was absolutely fantastic. She informed me that since it occurred on the same day as the insurance began, she would waive any fees and return the entire amount to my bank account. How impressive, isn't that?

[MercedesMan98]

When my dad was a haulage contractor, we expected him to handle all the insurance needs. He had a fleet of 40–50 trucks, including 3x Caterpillars, various vans, a Land Rover, and four or five cars in the household. We also had property insurance for our house and business premises.

After selling the business and dealing with my dad's death in 1983, I now own just one automobile. Not long ago, I had five, but that was still doable because I could keep two or three on the road and the rest off-road. I am content to stay on top of things since I will have plenty of time to maintain one or two automobiles when I retire later this year.


Since I am limited to driving a single vehicle at a time, I have in the past taken out fleet insurance policies, which can be quite economical once you own multiple vehicles.

At renewal, I informed my insurers that her ladyship had a few accidents in her own cars, but since she rarely drove my cars, it didn't impact my insurance. I also mentioned that her own insurers had handled the matter, so my insurers didn't make a big deal out of it.

Just like that, my son is currently 17 years old and learning to drive. As soon as he passes his test, I plan to buy him an affordable car, maybe a Polo or VW Up! He'll have to put up with it for a year or two until he has a few years of experience under his belt and no claims. After that, he'll be free to choose his own policy, although muggins will definitely cover it until he gets a job. At the moment, he's a "student," which may not be the best profession according to insurance companies.

[KARlosfuentes]

Before I went to France, I discovered that my UK fully comp insurance was only third party in other European countries. I've dealt with Hastings Direct before, so I thought you might find this information useful.
Strangely, no one had offered this information before; the policy simply said "fully comp." After I called, they informed me that I had purchased the incorrect policy and should have paid for one of their more costly options if I wanted fully comp insurance in Europe.
I enquired about what would happen if I wanted to go overseas later in the year and they informed me that it would be an additional £88 each time, so basically, just for 10 days of fully comp cover abroad, they wanted an additional £88.

I would not recommend these.

[mortimerPAS]

I thought it was part of their agreement, right?

[mortimerPAS]