Had my renewal quote through the post - £393 which seemed a bit much, so I thoought I'd have a go at shopping around for some better quotes.

After a bit, the best quote (declaring mods) was from Bell at £349, so after thinking about it I went back to check the details but as I couldn't remember my password, I had to phone them to get the quote details back - Guess what, greeted by a nice recorded message stating the Bell are part of the "Admiral Group".

So how come the quotes vary by over £50 (Bell quote inc mods)??

Anyway, I rung up Admiral, told them about the better quote from one of thier sister companies and asked what they were going to do about it - otherwise I'd switch to Bell.

And you've guessed it, they've beaten the quote by a few quid (inc. adding mods) by giving me a "loyalty discount". Shame they didn't give me this in the first place.

Its simple the banks do it all the time. You rip off your existing customers so you can offer lower prices to gain more new customers. The formula works time and time again due to the generally apathetic nature of Joe Public when it comes to all things financial. They wont lose any sleep over the few smart customers like yourself they lose in the process.

bell & elephant are all part of the admiral group.

Whenever elephant send a re-newal through its always cheaper if you just but in your detail again on line, I saved about £300 once over the re newal quote they sent me in the post !

Cheeky fccukers !

After my accident I saved 800 quid by switching from elephant to admiral, last year I saved another 150 by switching from admiral to elephant. I love companies that stupid!

Same with me - Admiral group (Bell, Elephant and Admiral) are £100's cheaper than the competion when it comes to insureing a coupe in Manchester

29, 7yrs NCB, owned the damm thing since Jan 01, private off road parking with gated access = £720 - best any of the competion could do was £850 plus

And yet every year I have to phone Admiral and say Elepahnt/Bell can beat my renewal quote by £x and every year Admiral will then beat the Elephant/Bell quote by a couple of quid

Totally true about financial service companies ripping off existing customers to attract new ones - I'm a chartered accountant and work with FS companies and see this all the time

Trust me if you lived in NI you wouldn't be complaining about admiral as they saved me over £1000 on any NI based insuance companies .

NI is just an insurance blackhole though

Step 1 for saving money (on anything, not just car insurance) - forget any idea of brand loyalty.
H

I dont really care who it is ill go with the best but HIC have done me well the last few years and the cover for any other car is important to any coop owner and means i can nip about if mine is off the road though depending on price i may forgo it this year as i got the quote down to £950 with my 4 speeding points and 3yrs ncb... and hic were £1250 but it covers track use insured and other cars(this is the bit ive really used a lot though) and although th track hasnt come into it as the mods hit harder im hoping i will track the car at least once this year in the summer with the nice big FMIC

Admiral would not touch me with my mods at around 220 bhp! Of course it took forever to get to that point. Does it matter when you call and what underwriters they have on at that time? I am 48 4yrs NCB and no convictions or claims Pain

They seem prepared to match bell who accept quotes with engine/performance mods, so get a quote from Bell and the chase Admiral to beat it

Just had my renewal through from Admiral... £680, £200 more than last year!

Went straight onto Bell to get a quote... £315!!! How can 2 such similar companies be so different? It just doesn't add up.

Piers how old are you man!!! £!5 is very low

Although part of the same group, Bell, Elephant and Admiral are operate automonously. They have their own underwriting policies and are allowed to beat each others quotes to gain customers.

Is interesting though, as all three are considerably cheaper than any of the competition in Manchester, so with a bit of collusion they could all make more cash...