Car Insurance renewals

Hi - just a word of warning for anyone who is about to renew their car insurance. 

My insurance was due up this week and I hadn't received a renewal notice.  I got a really good quote from another company via a colleague and then emailed my current broker to ask what my renewal quote was from them.  They sent me the figures and, as the new company was offering a much better deal I accepted this and emailed my old brokers to tell them I wouldn't be renewing.

However, they then emailed me and said I had no choice but to continue with my old company as I had not given the required TWO MONTHS notice!  Apparently this is Spanish law and they are not required to send any reminders or quotes - they just keep taking your money until you give them 2 months notice to stop.

I now need to remember to cancel next March or I will be stuck with them again for another year.

I thought I had the hang of most of the systems here - but you live and learn!

Which broker was that, Claire please & WHO were the actual insurers? Was it MAPFRE by any chance?

Hi More - it was AJB insurance (from a recommendation on EOS) and the company was Groupama.

Thanks, Claire. We have our own Spanish car there these days with the insurance needing renewal on June 9th. Obviously we've been looking around as you do.

We are with Helvetia through Knights (Quesada) & our buildings & contents cover is with Groupama, also through Knights. We have just reinsured for the buildings & contents. I now intend emailing Knights & also a friend of ours does insurance & he's got us quotes for June 9th so I'm going to pick his brain by email too. That way we get info in writing.

I know Mapfre were getting terrible bad press over this in another forum local to us both. I hadn't heard it was Spanish law &, seeing as generally, no one can get hold of the renewal cost until a week or so before, I can't see HOW anyone can decide who to go with a minimum of two months before!

I am not 100% sure of the law (so please check before you proceed!)

BUT... We try to pay all our bills in cash to avoid any 'unwanted direct debits'.  Most co's will insist you give them bank details (so they can debit you regardless of whether you want to continue with them or not).. and I understand this IS a requirement of Spanish law.

We cancelled our Helvetia car insurance for second year - basically as they hiked the price by a whopping 120%!  We told our broker to cancel all policies with them. We kept getting demands for the money (as we keep our bank account at the lowest we can - so any requests for anything over Eu50 would have been rejected)... plus we always cancel a DD direct with our bank - again, should a co we have ceased dealing with try to debit out account!

I think it is the law here that you have to give 2 months notice to cancel - but as you say - how do you know that far in advance!

We now use Linea Directa as their policy for medical assistance should you be unlucky enough to need it is A1 regardless of who casued the RTI.

I could list lots of insurance co's that have a bad name - but top of my list is Liberty Seguros and 'The Insurance Centre' in Coin.

(Will not elaborate here - just to say when it came to a claim they messed everything up and I was too unwell from the RTI to deal with it all.  They do not do what it says on the tin!)

I must admit , when we said we would ONLY pay by our credit card for a one-off or by our debit card in Spain as a one-off as we did NOT want a direct debit setting up so they could take as & when the renewal came up, Knights DID say it wasn't their policy to set up a DD!

They will try to get you to pay by d/d but you can do what I did with telefonica, iberdrola, water , etc; is cancel it telling them I was closing the acct. & to send all bills by post. No problems, also you get until the middle of the following month to pay unlike a D/d where it's gone before you get the bill. All the Spaniards I know pay this way. I've never had a problem re; car insurance I just go in well before it's due & ask what it is & the girls ring the co: for the renewal premium. One year I said to them it's far to much & they went back & got it reduced by 15%.

Hi

I am taking my UK car over in a few week,and have had great quotes (I think?) from two companyscompanysIbexInsureand Bestinsure.comIbexInsureand Bestinsure.comBestinsureand Bestinsure.comBestinsureund out that Bestinsure is a broker for the other one.

As for building/content insurance Use a company in Weston-super-mardontlled Insurance for holiday homes.co.uk (although we dont let out house out) really good price most of the ones I have tried cant come with in £40 of them.Hope it can be of some help to anyone.

thanks for the warning about 2 months notice

This message was last edited by ms51 on 11/05/2010.

ms51, we live in Weston-Super-Mare &,  in our 1st year of owning in Spain ... 5 yrs ago ..  knew no better so we went with Insurance for Holiday Homes in Weston as they were local. They were very expensive compared with buying our insurance where we live when in Spain. We found that out after discussing insurance with friends in the same situation & from asking on various Spanish forums. You would do better to look around more in my opinion. We have our insurance from an agent in Spain.

Morerosado,thanks funny you know that company,- had two quotes yesterday from Insurance company's in Spain,and they were nearly £60 more than the one in here. Am now doing the car insurance,and again going with a company here,BUT the company broker they use is in Spain,fun cause I had a quote from the same one in Spain,but its cheaper it go through the uk on?? how does it work,do you every get the feeling her comes a Brit let ripe them off lol.

Hi again ms51

We have owned property in Spain since completion April 2005 (we put the deposit down Sept 2003) also since June 2009 we have owned a Spanish car so we're reasonably knowledgeable we feel regarding insurance companies in Spain BUT LEARNING SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY!

If you are not in the local forum for your/our area in Spain may I suggest you register as it will be far better for local info & quick too. I use it & others which are very local to me as well as EOS. Register here!

Can I suggest you email these people who are excellent on price AND we were given a policy IN ENGLISH with both as many give you policies in Spanish!! We have used both.

http://www.saltsbay.com/  email info@saltsbay.com Their head office is in Torrevieja ... see http://www.saltsbay.com/contactus.htm

http://www.easycover.net/  Their head office is in Torrevieja too ... see http://www.easycover.net/en/contact.php

We currently use one very close to us as we can pop in when we want without venturing miles. http://www.knight-insurance.com/ who have 15 offices spread across the Costa del Sol, the Costa de Almeria, the Costa Cálida, the Costa Blanca and the Balearic Islands so may have one close to you. All these are agents who find you the bet deal. We pay just under 200€ to cover just over 100,000 buildings plus just over 16,000 contents. Insurance has increased a lot over the past 2-3 years.

Be aware that in Spain all bathroom & kitchen fitments come under contents not buildings as in England! 

Hi again ms51

We have owned property in Spain since completion April 2005 (we put the deposit down Sept 2003) also since June 2009 we have owned a Spanish car so we're reasonably knowledgeable we feel regarding insurance companies in Spain BUT LEARNING SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY!

If you are not in the local forum for your/our area in Spain may I suggest you register as it will be far better for local info & quick too. I use it & others which are very local to me as well as EOS. Register here!

Can I suggest you email these people who are excellent on price AND we were given a policy IN ENGLISH with both as many give you policies in Spanish!! We have used both.

http://www.saltsbay.com/  email info@saltsbay.com Their head office is in Torrevieja ... see http://www.saltsbay.com/contactus.htm

http://www.easycover.net/  Their head office is in Torrevieja too ... see http://www.easycover.net/en/contact.php

We currently use one very close to us , policy is in English again, as we can pop in when we want without venturing miles. http://www.knight-insurance.com/ who have 15 offices spread across the Costa del Sol, the Costa de Almeria, the Costa Cálida, the Costa Blanca and the Balearic Islands so may have one close to you. All these are agents who find you the best deal. We pay just under 200€ to cover just over 100,000 buildings plus just over 16,000 contents with Groupama, policy booklet is in English as were the others. ASK FOR ENGLISH. Insurance has increased a lot over the past 2-3 years.

Be aware that in Spain all bathroom & kitchen fitments come under contents, not buildings .. as in England! 

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EDITED TO SAY: Previous post was duplicated!!!

I was having problems posting, then just as I thought nothing was working TWO are posted!

Hi Again

Have now joined the forum,and been in touch with one of the Easy Insurance,they will call me back shortly,thank again for the info,as you say still learning,we signed about the same time for the house as you did.

thanks again

Hi again folks - just an update.  My broker managed to get me about 60€ off my renewal quote when I kicked up a fuss about not being able to cancel.  Just shows that you should never accept the first figure they give you.

 More,

How do you get to your house from the airport? I was considering getting a car, but as I live 35mins away from Alicante/Murcia a taxi is going to cost me upwards of 50e x2 so I don't see how I could save money.

Hi Tony, there's many non residents in the same boat in our road & we are all friends with residents (just those in our road) so we all help each other out with lifts, watering plants, borrowing things some of us haven't got  like stepladders etc. Certainly we take things over that others need, it's a mutual appreciation society.

Tony, have a word with Chris who many of our friends have used to/from both airports & he has taken 8 of our friends to Benidorm then collected them three days later. All speak highly of him. (He has a 9 seater minibus). Very reasonable we found & so courteous.

Also we have been a few times to have coffee at Cafe Vienna at Almoradi on market day (Saturday) & they've put a card with our bill so, if Chris is busy, try these.

Derek Nelson at Cafe Vienna, Almoradi. 6 seater vehicle.
0034 699 089 390
0034 660 346 254
0034 966 781 066
nelson.derek@talk21.com  

On house ins. I pay 174,62€ for 105,000 € building & 20,000€ contents with Reale Seguros.

guslopez, we paid around that BUT we NOW have our own 1.9m sat dish, bolted securely with resin adhesive too, onto our rear wall, which HAS to be on insurance once mentioned & that cost us the extra. Most people never disclose they have a dish ... probably never give it a thought ...  but should check it's covered as we HAD to pay extra!!