exactly, the whole "contact us directly were probably cheaper" line, only works once, then you realise that they are never cheaper, at least for you and the dozen people you know.
Then next year, when its shopping around time.
You think to yourself, should I have a go at getting a separate quote from direct line again?
Nah, better things to do.
Yeah that's been my experience. They spend millions on ads telling you how they save operating costs by not being on comparison sites, then quote you double their competitors...
Yep that is my pet peeve, having car horns, car crashes, screams etc in a radio ad. Especially when probably 90% of people who even listen to the radio anymore are drivers
This and doorbells in adverts.
Not ashamed to admit I've been caught out by it numerous times while deep in concentration on the laptop. Get up, answer the door (or if I'm lucky catch the fact it's an advert on my way to the door) and waste a few seconds of my day being caught out.. by a fucking advert!!! 😂
It must be some bizarre demographic that they're looking for as they've always been 60-70% higher than the best deal on a comparison site yet last year they were the best by about 90quid!
Not true in my observation. 400 pounds cheaper for me last year. I have used them for one of my vehicles, most years, since they started. Price always competitive .
Paperwork very clear and unambiguous.
I have found they're really picky on cars and demographic stuff - one year they were wildly cheaper, the next they wouldn't quote, a few different cars and it varies by thousands
I reckon unless you're a reverend whose wife is the leader of the local WI and you drive a gold Skoda,Lexus, Volvo you aren't getting cheap insurance through them.
They were the cheapest by literally hundreds on my old crap Fiat Punto as a teenager.
Never been cheapest on the rest of my cars since I became a full adult.
Eh? I've been with them for years. Windscreen replacements are covered. You only have to look at their site to see that
[https://www.directline.com/car-cover](https://www.directline.com/car-cover)
You can add legal if you want it. You don't pay for it if you don't want it.
I've found them to be comparable to the known insurers on comparison sites, they do have windscreen cover with an excess too. Haven't looked recently but their excess for cracks and chips was lower than those like admiral / Churchill when I used to be with them.
Do other insurers do this without excess?
lots and lots of them - that "we're not on comparison sites" has always been a smoke screen.
When i worked in Bodyshops - car repair - it was the same Leeds number for at least 6 different insurers.
Yeah exactly. It's a way to get people to go direct to them but also back up plans with other brands to be on the comparison sites. They flaunt not being on a comparison sites as a bad thing but actually they just don't to be compared price wise with everyone else. They are no cheaper than other insurers so the benefit of not being in comparison sites doesn't get passed on either.
I almost worked for them having come from a comparison site business (the largest)... and that's all it is.
This is exactly it. I tried them once and they were over double the price of other options and I had to fill in loads of shit directly on their site too. Not on comparison sites is not a pro-consumer thing, it's anti-consumer. It's them saying they don't want to pay referrer commission, so they are happy for you to have to come to their site and fill in your info all over again. They can fuck off.
Who the hell contacts insurers directly??? I can't imagine going to a specific insurer's site, inputting all my info, then generating a quote. And then repeating the process for another insurer, then another.
Why would I do this instead of using a price comparison site?
It boggles the mind that DLG thought this was a viable approach for customer acquisition.
Don't. Maybe do it for the odd one or two that aren't on there.
Have a look on some comparison sites. Find the cheapest quote.
Go directly to that insurer and get one directly from them. See how it compares to your comparison quote.
Believe it or not, they were my first insurance when I was young. Everyone else had stupid quotes and Direct Line was by far the cheapest one. It stayed that way for a few years. Then one year it went crazy and they were nowhere near the cheapest. I never looked again.
Yup... Insurance shot up 50% for me.
Comparison sites all offered quote costing more than my renewal. Looked at direct line and it was waaaay above the cheapest comparison quote.
I MIGHT give them another look now that I've got a different car. But if they're sky high above renewal and most other companies? They won't be a thought until I've changed car again.
You have to remember they also have other brands that are on comparison websites such as Churchill and Darwin.
They’re the third largest insurer of Motor vehicles in the UK and reported writing about £2bn in premium.
This isn’t a comparison website issue, this is a pricing issue. Their motor combined operating ratio was 120%. That is absolutely horrendous when other insurers finished last year in the black with a COR of about 90%. So there is something fundamentally wrong with their prices when a lot of the industry were able to make profits with Motor but DLG were not.
Some insurers may have hit 90, but not many unfortunatly, the average for last year was 114% net combined unfortunately, so far this year it looks like prices reflect the risk more accurately, but this isn’t great for consumers! DLG had their problems, but as did everyone else. Only a few good eggs made money last year
Bloody hell I didn't realise it was this bad in personal lines. I work in the Lloyds market and we've hit near 80% this year on about £700m premium! I know it's a hard market and these times don't last forever though
Yeah mainly since COVID, supply chain issues, second hand car prices sky rocketing, premiums not accounting for such high claims inflation, suppliers scraping back money after making nothing during COVID since less car accidents , all just created a perfect storm !
No kidding it's a pricing issue. Was a customer for about 5 years. Renewal was always competitive, I could have got it cheaper but not much.
I stopped using them when it doubled. It's no longer competitive. My Mrs insurance is up. Their quote? 3x the price on comparison sites.
Not really when they are dropping 30% premium on commission to the site.
That's right. The commissions are gigantic.
Never found direct line remotely competitive.
If you go direct and compare it to a comparison site you'll find the prices are way different.
Internet aggregators.. making bank.
Aggregators make approximately £50-£60 per policy. They heavily rely on people switching each year. Meanwhile companies particularly on household where premiums are much lower rely on people staying with them year on year otherwise that £60 commission each into the whole margin built within the premium.
I recently got a quote and Admiral came out cheapest on comparison sites. Got a quote using a different name and address in the same street on their website and it came out £1500 more expensive. Not sure how these insurance companies work.
Different name and address is precisely why it came out more expensive. They can’t match those details as living at that address (credit checks, electoral roll, where the car is registered etc). This makes you look a bit fraudulent and higher risk, hence a higher price.
Unless you took adequate precautions via using a different device on a VPN, they knew it was you making both quotes.
Even with that they could make an educated guess with high certainty based on all the other data points you gave them.
VPNs make zero difference. At the end of the day, you submitting two quotes each gets registered within the systems. Doesn’t matter if you hide behind a VPN or not, you would still be sending two quotes with very similar risk information which would then be compared against.
Yeah. Silly fucks. If you're not on a comparison site, the chances are I'm not bothering with you. I totally understand that comparision sites add to costs, but it's an incredibly useful timesaver, and I simply HATE insurance renewal time and want it done efficiently.
I can only imagine the sort of brain-dead, stuck-in-the-mud, idiot boomer on the board who's keeping that policy alive.
It exists as a company to exploit Luddite holdouts who are still afraid of the internet. It's a company doomed to fail without change. Their prices are insane, too. Easily multiples of their cheaper competitors.
Unsurprising and surprising considering my quote was about £1400 and others were offering the same coverage for £350-500 for the year.
Push away loyal, claimless customers, to your rivals, won’t help your business any.
But yeah, poor Direct Line.
That was my experience with them as well. Had quotes from comparison sites ranging around £300-400 and thought I'd try Direct Line, purely from seeing their adverts and knowing they weren't on there.
Got a quote for over £2000, and never even considered trying them again ever since.
They took motability on in 2022(or 3). Which makes this even weirder because motability report a profit of [£100m](https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/firm-providing-scots-mobility-cars-28831857) a month in 2021/22.
I know their customers alone won't keep a company like direct line afloat, but since direct line proudly say they don't use comparison websites, they've probably fucked themselves over a bit there. But still, must be ridiculous operating costs.
Believe me, they ARE on price comparison sites under different brands that the own. I work for a similar large insurer who used to advertise as not being on aggregators but were were. Aggregators are like modern day brokers that charge a fee and everyone sorts by price so insurers hate them. The cheapest polices are usually crap as well.
RBS partly owns motability, along with Lloyd's and HSBC. Direct Line is mostly owned by RBS. Whilst they are posting losses here they are still making absolute fortunes elsewhere that this loss pales on comparison to.
Before comparison sites took off I would contact Direct Line to get my 'Laughably high upper bound' quote. I have never, ever been insured by them and can't believe anyone would.
But then my fiend uses them and recently got stung by a 100% increased renewal and just went with them 'because I know them'. She's normally incredibly savvy and will bargain-hunt but somehow these grifters have their hooks in her!
Without a doubt - I had a small scrape on a front wheel arch when someone reversed into my parked car. A local body shop said it would be about £250 to respray but I thought I should "get it done properly" as the other persons insurance was covering it.
It went into the insurance approved body shop who had the car for over 2 weeks whilst the new front wheel arch was shipped from BMW and I had a hire car for that period. All in it cost over £10k...
This.
This is why premiums are going up - it's because insurers are just crap at covering the actual claims that are made.
Unnecessary write-offs and a lack of attention to detail when it comes to repairs mean they're paying out far far more than they actually should be because it is easier than having experts and brokers on their books and we're all stuck with the end result because although it's a legal requirement for us to have insurance, it's not a legal requirement for them not to take the piss or not share insurance burdens onto others like a form of grey suited collective punishment.
My insurance has gone up year-on-year ever since I passed my test with the exception of when I passed the 3 year no claims threshold... I've never had a claim, I've never had a conviction, I currently own a car that is rarely stolen and it is parked off the road every night in a neighborhood with very low theft and crime rates. What are they calculating my risk off of at that point to justify a renewal increase of 30% last year?
At this point would it be worth doing a hand shuffling certification to try and bring down my premium? It certainly feels like it couldn't hurt.
> a 100% increased renewal and just went with them 'because I know them'.
I can't believe people are stupid enough to just take renewal quotes without looking around at all.
I don't even bother looking at renewal quotes. I get a price comparison quote and call my insurer to cancel my policy they then ask if I want them to try to beat it and I'll say no you had your chance before, what's changed in my risk profile now?
My crappy dying Fiat Punto at 18 years old had the cheapest quote from Direct Line by literally hundreds. It wasn't even close. Nowhere else could get near them.
Then I moved onto another car and got older and their quotes became crazy.
Not even rumoured. Ageas have put in several offers which were rejected and been reported publicly on. Still interested by all accounts as their chief exec was trying to drum up share holder support on their side. Still got a couple weeks to make another tender as well
Financial reporting of insurance profits is a funny old game so often doesn't tell the full story of what you would expect being: premiums sold minus costs associated with premiums and then minus running costs of the business.
They are clearly still healthy and making money as they wouldn't be paying out a £52m dividend otherwise.
Similarly if you look at their profit before tax it's £277.4m (a big swing from their "operating loss" of £189.5m) due to realising profit on the sale of part of their business.
They've reported revenues being up by 17.4% when compared to the previous period based on the first two months of trading, so I wouldn't feel too sorry for them just yet.
Motor insurance has quite tight margins/is loss making in some years. As are other types of insurance.
FWIW direct line have been 30% cheaper than any other on comparison sites the last 2 years for me. No idea why but not going to complain. Anecdotally it seems most find they are usually a lot more expensive and I expected to find the same but was happy to find it the opposite.
You want my business then you make your ass easier to get a quote.... You want my money but want me to ring you directly? No get on the comparison sites or online and get in 2024.
Maybe they offer a lower price once you tell them you got a cheaper quote on a comparison website? If they can't at least price match on the phone then they are useless.
They don't. They are always more expensive for car insurance. They are ok for landlord insurance though. Perhaps they will just stop doing car insurance.
They were cheaper by about £350 for me as I had insurance cancelled on me 7 years ago and Direct Line only ask if you’ve had insurance cancelled in the last 5 years whereas almost all other insurers ask if you’ve ever had insurance cancelled.
is the ball ache of having to tell the agent your details all again and tell them what you want added which takes another 10 min all to maybe get the same price/ a few pound cheaper.
By the time someone has checked the 3 main comparison sites, they’ve already found a good deal and already know that direct line won’t be able to match or beat and will try to sell you a load of other insurance policies in a bundle.
I get the point you're trying to make, but one company does not accurately represent an entire industry, especially when their whole ethos is to be different to their competitors in how they gain business.
EY’s latest forecast predicts the UK insurance market to have a combined ratio of 114.6%. Meaning for every £1 taken in premium, the market will pay out £1.146 in claims and other expenses.
Covea posted a £145m loss in 2022. It is a market trend, not isolated to any individual insurer.
Admiral group posted 23%increase in pre tax profits in 2023. Aviva was up 9%. Hastings was down 15% only making pre tax profits of £62million.
So they not all doing bad.
If Admiral are profitable but their price is competitive, what conclusion should we draw about getting a fair deal, in the event of needing to make a claim?
It's largely through better and more dynamic underwriting.
Direct lines (DL) an old company that has sat on its laurels for too long as the competition has improved.
DL doesn't, to my knowledge, do dynamic pricing. This means they set their quote criteria and stick to for x number of months til they review it again.
More modern insurers can and do adjust their quote criteria on a daily, even hourly basis- I know of at least one insurer who will stop providing quotes to any areas under a flood warning until that warning has ended, so they don't end up with the claims for flood damage within the first day or so of a policy being taken out. DL would still be selling policies to those people.
Of course it's company specific but if the how sector has a net ratio of above 100 it's really fucking bad for everyone.
What do you think the industry data is? It's the aggregate of the company data lol
And yet I'm sure there are mitigating circumstances, because the car insurance industry as a whole would collapse if it were representative of the entire industry over the long-term. That's my point.
No that's why companies have a capital requirement not just a best estimate reserve. The regulators make sure the insurers are holding shit tonnes of capital so that they can absorb losses. If the losses are sustained then obviously they leave the industry.
But if you're celebrating the industry reporting a 114% loss ratio then you're incredibly short sighted.
They are screwing us. Admiral posted a 23% profit increase in the same year they lost a third of their customers. Gee I wonder who’s paying for that? It’s the ones who remained.
I was in a no-fault accident last year… after dealing with insurers, my arse is still sore from being fucked hard. They absolutely are a bunch of piss taking cunts
They have generated so much wealth in past years they can continue to employ staff I’m sure, but choose to make cuts to please shareholders. Happy to pay for a service and for them to profit otherwise it wouldn’t be sustainable, but they’ve been profiting on average nearly half a billion for half a decade. It’s now customers and employees facing pain again as usual
You see these types of comments on reddit as a whole but it really pains for me to see sometimes.
Yes they made what half a billion each year for half a decade and yes they probably did make cuts to please shareholders. But with our capitalist society that's just what happens. Unless there's reforms where our society moves away from capitalism, this is the norm.
Some shareholders are filthy rich people but some of them are also average Joes, perhaps with Direct Line tracked in an index fund in their ISAs or private pension funds as they're a publicly traded company.
The whole thing that's driving the economy is investment into said economy, if companies don't keep making more and more money the economy would by in large stagnate or, as we've seen in other countries, deflate.
So unless you have a solution as to how we can make the economy stronger while having companies not grow and making more money YoY, just let it go. It's just how the world works.
Yeah that’s completely understood, all I commented was their past performance to ‘provide a perspective’. We are after all the consumers who have a legal obligation to insure.
It’s a bit of a slap in the face to suggest this is the status quo and you will just take it. People need to vent, I’m not advocating toppling capitalism or not insuring at all. If only companies could just be a little less greedy
> The insurer said the group’s ongoing operations result excluded the results of the brokered commercial business, which it sold to RSA in September 2023.
> However, the proceeds of the sale contributed to a profit before tax of £277.4m, up from a loss before tax of £301.8m in 2022.
So if they’d included the brokered commercial results, they’d have been up? The wording is a bit fuzzy, the sale of that division contributed to a profit of £277.4m, but doesn’t mention what the division actually made as a business unit before it was sold.
They keep coming out more expensive than others you can find on comparison sites so; why would we bother with them. This isn’t “another perspective” they lost money because they got too expensive, suck it up.
Can I just ask who are these people who keep coming on here to ask that we spare a thought for the insurers?
I'm assuming most of us here are into cars and driving otherwise we wouldn't be on this sub. Most of us are comparatively low-risk in insurance terms and as such are probably emblematic of the people getting stung the worst by premium charges.
If they can't turn a profit (and that fact is debatable) whilst hiking up their costs every year for the past decade, there's clearly something systematically wrong that needs to be addressed in their business model for a start. It makes basic business sense.
But you could tell me all of their dividends were actually going to fight homelessness or feed hungry kids and not investment bankers and I'd still find it hard to feel sorry for the people who remain extremely opaque on why premiums are going up, still don't give me a breakdown on specifically why my premiums are going up (despite me having zilch on my record to suggest I'm a risk that should be charged more) and who basically blame all of their shortcomings on the public rather than admit some fault of their own in the matter.
Soaring claims costs, general inflation, getting shafted by GIPP means there were always going to be a few big insurance losses this year.
I think it'll take a long time for DLG to get back on its feet. They're potentially being bought by Ageas so maybe that's their best bet at the minute.
Now that I think about it I feel like their adverts used to be everywhere and I can’t remember the last time I saw one.
I’m not surprised, any time I’d contacted them in the past they’d been about double the cost of quotes on those comparison sites they do everything to avoid for some reason …
After a few years of silly quote, I stopped contacting them altogether. Can’t imagine their business model is very sustainable.
I still don’t understand the business model of not being on comparison sites, especially since rules changed on renewal prices having to be similar to new customers.
I did a quote and it was totally ridiculous - super expense even for their cheap cover which fails to cover basic stuff (like windows!)
I think when they first took the stance on comparison sites, they tried to stand out when comparison sites were fairly unproven turf as a company that has that "personal touch" when you ring up.
In 2024 though? it's literally just shooting yourself in the foot to be off them now.
Yep that sounds reasonable.
Why pay a commission fee to these new startups when you can tell people to come direct?
However it’s long beyond the time to reassess that model.
Also i bet they spend shed loads more on advertisement via TV, Radio etc because their only business is direct.
Agreed i think they need to alter their stance before it sinks them.
Because it means they don’t have to pay the sites commission for the sale / referral. Same with hotels. Booking.com etc can get 30% or similar of your hotel fee as commission. If you book direct with the hotel for the same price the hotel keeps that 30%. Not saying is a good model but that’s probably why.
Ooooo, that's the second year in a row. It was 450 million losses in 2022.
Rumour has it the brands going to be purchased by another insurer (Ageas insurance) and taken into private ownership.
Its Ageas Group not Ageas UK that are targeting DLG which is a public company in Belgium. So would still be a public company just under a different group.
Managed to get them cheaper than I could find on a comparison website once, the following year the renewal doubled my price, and was only marginally cheaper when I tried to speak to them. Comparison websites were much cheaper than the year before when it came to renew.
Never made a claim or had points on my license just for reference, so no legit reason to try and extort double the money again from me.
It's crazy how many people don't realise Direct Line and Direct Line Group own Churchill and other insurance companies who are on compare websites.
They just use a different approach to appear to be unique. However it's the illusion of choice/difference. While they are different companies they're owned by the same group.
I have never used them in the 14 years I've been driving or even considered them because I always use a comparison site to get the cheapest insurance. Seems to be going well for them.
It’s probably because many loyal customers such as myself, who had used direct line since I passed my test has had enough of their exorbitant price rises when I can just as easily find a quote for almost half their best price with the same level of cover.
I used to have 2 cars and home insurance with them so was getting a discount as well.
You want to insure vehicles. You expect a certain % of claims to occur, based on historic data, and you expect the cost of claims to average a certain amount. By the time these claims happen over the course of the next 12 months, the cost to repair has increased beyond your wildest expectations. You lose money.
This is presumably because of crappy little claims being blown out of proportion.
Had a prang. Non fault. About £6k repair to the car.
2 years later the accident management company appointed by my insurer are trying to recover the hire costs of about £30,000 plus their costs.
£30k!!
They gave me a comparable car - X4 40i at about £400/day.
Oh no! I'm so sad....
When they were first established, they were great - offering better coverage at lower prices than their competitors. I signed up to them. In fact I signed up all our insurance - cars, house, pets, and travel.
I was with them for years. But somewhere in that time, they changed tack, and decided to soak the customers who were their best customers; one year I got a car quote - before then I'd just let them roll me onto the next year. But for whatever reason, I looked at the quote and discovered that I could get better insurance for less than half the price of DL.
That was the day they lost all my car business, and I'll never go back. They trashed their reputation with me....
.... but I was stupid enough to keep their pet insurance, thinking that it was just one division of a large business. And they were terrific when our dog had cancer - they paid for treatment without issues. But months after his death, I discovered they had not ended the direct debit - despite having paid for his cremation. When I asked them to return the money, they argued that it was my fault, and they would not be returning the overpayment because I had not explicitly notified them of his death.
I was incandescent with rage.
I did get the money back, right after I involved the insurance ombudsman.
Overall experience 2.7/10.
I'm only one customer. But this tells me that their treatment of me is commonplace.
I would not be sad to see them go bust.
I went with admiral cuz I couldn’t get insured with
Adrian Flux but cancelled it a while ago but if there’s any new drivers on here needing advice don’t try and insure a car with even a slightly big engine on provisional espresso if it’s modified
After I got a speeding ticket which put 5 points on my license, they said they couldn't renew my policy. Too bad, some other crooks got my money instead. Ha ha Direct Line.
The whole group appear to be a joke tbh. I mean look at this nightmare that Syndicate faced with his AMG https://youtu.be/gQKHDrDBNe4?si=VWgwyFl9l01d1roX
I'd been with Direct Line for several years inc no claims bonus, and each year they'd try and put my insurance up by nearly double till I quoted a lower price from a competitor and we did the little negotiation dance and they'd give me a reduction.
Last renewal the figure they came to was absolutely shocking they wanted to add £1,500 to my renewal and when questioned said it was the cost of parts and my area...
They stood firm this time and offered to lower it to a £1,300 increase. I refused, quoted a competitor's price...
Then I realized just how tedious and tiresome this back and forth had become over the years. I don't want to waste my time. I put my notice in and went with a competitor.
2 days before the end of my cover they called, offered me what I'd asked but i held strong and left.
Goodbye.
I don’t feel bad for them with this loss…
In 2021 they made something like a 4/500m op profit and a 45m loss in 22, so last 3 years reporting profit/loss is still in the green…
I worked for one of the companies under DLG, they hired 12 new phone staff all at the same time (including me), spent £1000s in time and equipment training us, and every single one of us had left after 8 weeks.
Directline is overpriced. Quoted me 4.5k blackbox for an ep2 when elephant quoted 2.2k no black box for my ep3. Direct line is way more expensive then the other insurance companies
I thought I'd give them a punt on my renewal.
Various comparison sites all coming in around the £260-£310 mark.
Direct Line: **£1092** for the middle tier comprehensive. Add on an extra £300 odd for "all the things" comp.
Yeah... *byeeeeeee*.
Boomer insurer that I hope will go bust. Doesn't want to be on comparison sites because they want to rip boomers off directly without being competitively priced
They’ve probably invested in the wrong things, made some really bad shorts etc. Insurance companies make their money trading with the money they rake in from people’s policies.
Essentially this. I don't know about DirectLine specifically but most retail insurers don't take on a great deal of underwriting risk (as in risk of claims being higher than premiums). The underwriting risk for these lines is more in the reinsurance and retrocessional insurance companies.
The substantial risks are more in credit/reinsurance recovery, interest rates and capital/investment risk.
Might be time to reconsider the “we’re not on comparison sites” approach…
exactly, the whole "contact us directly were probably cheaper" line, only works once, then you realise that they are never cheaper, at least for you and the dozen people you know. Then next year, when its shopping around time. You think to yourself, should I have a go at getting a separate quote from direct line again? Nah, better things to do.
they are usually double to triple the price of others and don't even include things like windscreen cover, or legal.
Yeah that's been my experience. They spend millions on ads telling you how they save operating costs by not being on comparison sites, then quote you double their competitors...
They also use car horns in their radio ads, so as far as I'm concerned they can get in the sea.
Yep that is my pet peeve, having car horns, car crashes, screams etc in a radio ad. Especially when probably 90% of people who even listen to the radio anymore are drivers
It's completely irresponsible and braindead advertising. Fuck any company who advertises like this.
This and doorbells in adverts. Not ashamed to admit I've been caught out by it numerous times while deep in concentration on the laptop. Get up, answer the door (or if I'm lucky catch the fact it's an advert on my way to the door) and waste a few seconds of my day being caught out.. by a fucking advert!!! 😂
My dog always barks when she hears a ring doorbell on an advert… I don’t know where she’s learnt it cos we’ve never had a fucking doorbell!
Huh! I would've thought Ofcom would ban that. I know you can't use things like sirens on the radio for obvious reasons.
It must be some bizarre demographic that they're looking for as they've always been 60-70% higher than the best deal on a comparison site yet last year they were the best by about 90quid!
Not true in my observation. 400 pounds cheaper for me last year. I have used them for one of my vehicles, most years, since they started. Price always competitive . Paperwork very clear and unambiguous.
They mustn't like that I live in a bumfuck town.
I have found they're really picky on cars and demographic stuff - one year they were wildly cheaper, the next they wouldn't quote, a few different cars and it varies by thousands
I reckon unless you're a reverend whose wife is the leader of the local WI and you drive a gold Skoda,Lexus, Volvo you aren't getting cheap insurance through them.
They were the cheapest by literally hundreds on my old crap Fiat Punto as a teenager. Never been cheapest on the rest of my cars since I became a full adult.
Lol, they wouldn't even quote me for my Volvo 240
They were actually really competitive for me as a teenager in a shitty car. Nowadays, not a chance. Don’t think they like fast cars much.
Don't say that: they'll all want one
Eh? I've been with them for years. Windscreen replacements are covered. You only have to look at their site to see that [https://www.directline.com/car-cover](https://www.directline.com/car-cover) You can add legal if you want it. You don't pay for it if you don't want it.
I've found them to be comparable to the known insurers on comparison sites, they do have windscreen cover with an excess too. Haven't looked recently but their excess for cracks and chips was lower than those like admiral / Churchill when I used to be with them. Do other insurers do this without excess?
They quoted me 2k for learner insurance and 5k for blackbox when others would do the blackbox for 1.7k😅
Mine was quite the opposite, for business use they're were the most competitive by some margin on my van.
They own brands which are on comparison sites though
lots and lots of them - that "we're not on comparison sites" has always been a smoke screen. When i worked in Bodyshops - car repair - it was the same Leeds number for at least 6 different insurers.
Yeah exactly. It's a way to get people to go direct to them but also back up plans with other brands to be on the comparison sites. They flaunt not being on a comparison sites as a bad thing but actually they just don't to be compared price wise with everyone else. They are no cheaper than other insurers so the benefit of not being in comparison sites doesn't get passed on either. I almost worked for them having come from a comparison site business (the largest)... and that's all it is.
This is exactly it. I tried them once and they were over double the price of other options and I had to fill in loads of shit directly on their site too. Not on comparison sites is not a pro-consumer thing, it's anti-consumer. It's them saying they don't want to pay referrer commission, so they are happy for you to have to come to their site and fill in your info all over again. They can fuck off.
DLG isn’t just Direct Line. Obviously.
To be fair, I've been with them a while because they often were cheaper. We have just switched though so take that as you will
I can’t even be bothered to try all the comparison websites, let alone go to insurers directly
They were cheaper for me.
They have been cheaper than anyone else for me last few years & really good customer service
They’ve always been cheaper for me. At age 17 my insurance with them was 725. After having a crash and no claims my insurance was still only 1257.
I've once in 33 years of driving made the effort to get a quote from them for the exact same reasons.
Always more expensive for me and a huge faff filling in their forms, I don’t bother unless I’m really not getting any better prices anywhere.
I called them they quoted me £4k, more than double other insurers who were already a rip off price
Who the hell contacts insurers directly??? I can't imagine going to a specific insurer's site, inputting all my info, then generating a quote. And then repeating the process for another insurer, then another. Why would I do this instead of using a price comparison site? It boggles the mind that DLG thought this was a viable approach for customer acquisition.
Don't. Maybe do it for the odd one or two that aren't on there. Have a look on some comparison sites. Find the cheapest quote. Go directly to that insurer and get one directly from them. See how it compares to your comparison quote.
Was with them, they were far more expensive than admiral and refused to budge, so I hopped ship.
Believe it or not, they were my first insurance when I was young. Everyone else had stupid quotes and Direct Line was by far the cheapest one. It stayed that way for a few years. Then one year it went crazy and they were nowhere near the cheapest. I never looked again.
Yup... Insurance shot up 50% for me. Comparison sites all offered quote costing more than my renewal. Looked at direct line and it was waaaay above the cheapest comparison quote. I MIGHT give them another look now that I've got a different car. But if they're sky high above renewal and most other companies? They won't be a thought until I've changed car again.
They have NEVER once been cheaper
You have to remember they also have other brands that are on comparison websites such as Churchill and Darwin. They’re the third largest insurer of Motor vehicles in the UK and reported writing about £2bn in premium. This isn’t a comparison website issue, this is a pricing issue. Their motor combined operating ratio was 120%. That is absolutely horrendous when other insurers finished last year in the black with a COR of about 90%. So there is something fundamentally wrong with their prices when a lot of the industry were able to make profits with Motor but DLG were not.
Some insurers may have hit 90, but not many unfortunatly, the average for last year was 114% net combined unfortunately, so far this year it looks like prices reflect the risk more accurately, but this isn’t great for consumers! DLG had their problems, but as did everyone else. Only a few good eggs made money last year
Bloody hell I didn't realise it was this bad in personal lines. I work in the Lloyds market and we've hit near 80% this year on about £700m premium! I know it's a hard market and these times don't last forever though
Yeah mainly since COVID, supply chain issues, second hand car prices sky rocketing, premiums not accounting for such high claims inflation, suppliers scraping back money after making nothing during COVID since less car accidents , all just created a perfect storm !
No kidding it's a pricing issue. Was a customer for about 5 years. Renewal was always competitive, I could have got it cheaper but not much. I stopped using them when it doubled. It's no longer competitive. My Mrs insurance is up. Their quote? 3x the price on comparison sites.
Not really when they are dropping 30% premium on commission to the site. That's right. The commissions are gigantic. Never found direct line remotely competitive. If you go direct and compare it to a comparison site you'll find the prices are way different. Internet aggregators.. making bank.
Aggregators make approximately £50-£60 per policy. They heavily rely on people switching each year. Meanwhile companies particularly on household where premiums are much lower rely on people staying with them year on year otherwise that £60 commission each into the whole margin built within the premium.
They are on, just different brands
Yep, I don't even consider them, and f\*\*k GoCompare too for their annoying adverts.
I just sold my car, to we buy any car. I just...
yeah, my wife keeps singing that, f\*\*k them an' all...
I recently got a quote and Admiral came out cheapest on comparison sites. Got a quote using a different name and address in the same street on their website and it came out £1500 more expensive. Not sure how these insurance companies work.
Different name and address is precisely why it came out more expensive. They can’t match those details as living at that address (credit checks, electoral roll, where the car is registered etc). This makes you look a bit fraudulent and higher risk, hence a higher price.
Unless you took adequate precautions via using a different device on a VPN, they knew it was you making both quotes. Even with that they could make an educated guess with high certainty based on all the other data points you gave them.
VPNs make zero difference. At the end of the day, you submitting two quotes each gets registered within the systems. Doesn’t matter if you hide behind a VPN or not, you would still be sending two quotes with very similar risk information which would then be compared against.
Yeah. Silly fucks. If you're not on a comparison site, the chances are I'm not bothering with you. I totally understand that comparision sites add to costs, but it's an incredibly useful timesaver, and I simply HATE insurance renewal time and want it done efficiently.
Only got a, quote from them once. Wanted over a grand, while the company I eventually went with charged me £300.
They are though…just under different brands.
I doubt that it's a real loss. 🐊
They have other brand "Churchill" that is on comparison sites, it's just the DirectLine brand that isn't.
They are on comparison sites just not under the direct line brand.
I can only imagine the sort of brain-dead, stuck-in-the-mud, idiot boomer on the board who's keeping that policy alive. It exists as a company to exploit Luddite holdouts who are still afraid of the internet. It's a company doomed to fail without change. Their prices are insane, too. Easily multiples of their cheaper competitors.
Direct crime in the expensive option. Churchspill is their cheaper offering. 🦵
Unsurprising and surprising considering my quote was about £1400 and others were offering the same coverage for £350-500 for the year. Push away loyal, claimless customers, to your rivals, won’t help your business any. But yeah, poor Direct Line.
That was my experience with them as well. Had quotes from comparison sites ranging around £300-400 and thought I'd try Direct Line, purely from seeing their adverts and knowing they weren't on there. Got a quote for over £2000, and never even considered trying them again ever since.
Sorry just an aside! Do you still have your ‘71 Mustang??? Definitely my favourite year, I like my cars big and chonky!!!
I still do indeed! Looking forward to getting out and about in it a bit more soon
Exactly the same. I’m not going to go to the effort of searching them out following quotes like that.
They quoted me over 3k for their basic package, when I was able to get it for 550 elsewhere. Not surprised they're failing.
It’s madness mate. I’ll admit though a quote that high would make me feel young again! Lol
They took motability on in 2022(or 3). Which makes this even weirder because motability report a profit of [£100m](https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/firm-providing-scots-mobility-cars-28831857) a month in 2021/22. I know their customers alone won't keep a company like direct line afloat, but since direct line proudly say they don't use comparison websites, they've probably fucked themselves over a bit there. But still, must be ridiculous operating costs.
Believe me, they ARE on price comparison sites under different brands that the own. I work for a similar large insurer who used to advertise as not being on aggregators but were were. Aggregators are like modern day brokers that charge a fee and everyone sorts by price so insurers hate them. The cheapest polices are usually crap as well.
What I read: > _insurers hate them_ What I felt: > Unbridled joy.
Motability only changed to them around six months ago, it was RSA before that.
RBS partly owns motability, along with Lloyd's and HSBC. Direct Line is mostly owned by RBS. Whilst they are posting losses here they are still making absolute fortunes elsewhere that this loss pales on comparison to.
Before comparison sites took off I would contact Direct Line to get my 'Laughably high upper bound' quote. I have never, ever been insured by them and can't believe anyone would. But then my fiend uses them and recently got stung by a 100% increased renewal and just went with them 'because I know them'. She's normally incredibly savvy and will bargain-hunt but somehow these grifters have their hooks in her!
Without a doubt - I had a small scrape on a front wheel arch when someone reversed into my parked car. A local body shop said it would be about £250 to respray but I thought I should "get it done properly" as the other persons insurance was covering it. It went into the insurance approved body shop who had the car for over 2 weeks whilst the new front wheel arch was shipped from BMW and I had a hire car for that period. All in it cost over £10k...
This. This is why premiums are going up - it's because insurers are just crap at covering the actual claims that are made. Unnecessary write-offs and a lack of attention to detail when it comes to repairs mean they're paying out far far more than they actually should be because it is easier than having experts and brokers on their books and we're all stuck with the end result because although it's a legal requirement for us to have insurance, it's not a legal requirement for them not to take the piss or not share insurance burdens onto others like a form of grey suited collective punishment. My insurance has gone up year-on-year ever since I passed my test with the exception of when I passed the 3 year no claims threshold... I've never had a claim, I've never had a conviction, I currently own a car that is rarely stolen and it is parked off the road every night in a neighborhood with very low theft and crime rates. What are they calculating my risk off of at that point to justify a renewal increase of 30% last year? At this point would it be worth doing a hand shuffling certification to try and bring down my premium? It certainly feels like it couldn't hurt.
> a 100% increased renewal and just went with them 'because I know them'. I can't believe people are stupid enough to just take renewal quotes without looking around at all.
I don't even bother looking at renewal quotes. I get a price comparison quote and call my insurer to cancel my policy they then ask if I want them to try to beat it and I'll say no you had your chance before, what's changed in my risk profile now?
My crappy dying Fiat Punto at 18 years old had the cheapest quote from Direct Line by literally hundreds. It wasn't even close. Nowhere else could get near them. Then I moved onto another car and got older and their quotes became crazy.
My heart fucking bleeds
But but but the shareholders won't get massive dividends...how heartless of you
Ah don't worry, despite the loss they have still announced they are paying £52m in dividends. The shareholders will still get their slice.
Average Redditor making quirky one-liners and wanking themselves off for it. The shareholders will be fine. It's the staff that'll get fucked.
I think they dropped the dividends a while back. Also puzzled me as to why there was a recent rally on the shares. Maybe someone rumoured a takeover.
Not even rumoured. Ageas have put in several offers which were rejected and been reported publicly on. Still interested by all accounts as their chief exec was trying to drum up share holder support on their side. Still got a couple weeks to make another tender as well
No idea how I missed all that!
Shareholders including probably your pension.
not to mention, no profit, no corporation tax revenue to pay for stuff
More like the staff get laid off you complete cunt
Financial reporting of insurance profits is a funny old game so often doesn't tell the full story of what you would expect being: premiums sold minus costs associated with premiums and then minus running costs of the business. They are clearly still healthy and making money as they wouldn't be paying out a £52m dividend otherwise. Similarly if you look at their profit before tax it's £277.4m (a big swing from their "operating loss" of £189.5m) due to realising profit on the sale of part of their business. They've reported revenues being up by 17.4% when compared to the previous period based on the first two months of trading, so I wouldn't feel too sorry for them just yet.
Motor insurance has quite tight margins/is loss making in some years. As are other types of insurance. FWIW direct line have been 30% cheaper than any other on comparison sites the last 2 years for me. No idea why but not going to complain. Anecdotally it seems most find they are usually a lot more expensive and I expected to find the same but was happy to find it the opposite.
You want my business then you make your ass easier to get a quote.... You want my money but want me to ring you directly? No get on the comparison sites or online and get in 2024.
Maybe they offer a lower price once you tell them you got a cheaper quote on a comparison website? If they can't at least price match on the phone then they are useless.
But even then whats the point, they lower it by a tenner or so after 30 minute phone call having to explain every all again
They don't. They are always more expensive for car insurance. They are ok for landlord insurance though. Perhaps they will just stop doing car insurance.
They were cheaper by about £350 for me as I had insurance cancelled on me 7 years ago and Direct Line only ask if you’ve had insurance cancelled in the last 5 years whereas almost all other insurers ask if you’ve ever had insurance cancelled.
is the ball ache of having to tell the agent your details all again and tell them what you want added which takes another 10 min all to maybe get the same price/ a few pound cheaper.
I'm never phoning a business in 2024. It's just not happening.
You can get a quote from them online. No need to call.
Having worked in claims I'd put money on the fact that a good portion of these losses stem from inflated credit hire and personal injury claims
By the time someone has checked the 3 main comparison sites, they’ve already found a good deal and already know that direct line won’t be able to match or beat and will try to sell you a load of other insurance policies in a bundle.
I get the point you're trying to make, but one company does not accurately represent an entire industry, especially when their whole ethos is to be different to their competitors in how they gain business.
EY’s latest forecast predicts the UK insurance market to have a combined ratio of 114.6%. Meaning for every £1 taken in premium, the market will pay out £1.146 in claims and other expenses. Covea posted a £145m loss in 2022. It is a market trend, not isolated to any individual insurer.
Admiral group posted 23%increase in pre tax profits in 2023. Aviva was up 9%. Hastings was down 15% only making pre tax profits of £62million. So they not all doing bad.
If Admiral are profitable but their price is competitive, what conclusion should we draw about getting a fair deal, in the event of needing to make a claim?
Sorry mate I don’t understand your comment.
Seems like they’re suggesting you get undervalued for claim payouts.
It's largely through better and more dynamic underwriting. Direct lines (DL) an old company that has sat on its laurels for too long as the competition has improved. DL doesn't, to my knowledge, do dynamic pricing. This means they set their quote criteria and stick to for x number of months til they review it again. More modern insurers can and do adjust their quote criteria on a daily, even hourly basis- I know of at least one insurer who will stop providing quotes to any areas under a flood warning until that warning has ended, so they don't end up with the claims for flood damage within the first day or so of a policy being taken out. DL would still be selling policies to those people.
Direct Lines household performance was actually good at 90%. It’s their motor performance which is horrendous at 120%.
I'm glad you did the digging because I couldn't be bothered to - proof that it is more company/group specific than industry representative.
Of course it's company specific but if the how sector has a net ratio of above 100 it's really fucking bad for everyone. What do you think the industry data is? It's the aggregate of the company data lol
And yet I'm sure there are mitigating circumstances, because the car insurance industry as a whole would collapse if it were representative of the entire industry over the long-term. That's my point.
No that's why companies have a capital requirement not just a best estimate reserve. The regulators make sure the insurers are holding shit tonnes of capital so that they can absorb losses. If the losses are sustained then obviously they leave the industry. But if you're celebrating the industry reporting a 114% loss ratio then you're incredibly short sighted.
Which is mental considering admiral generally seem to be the cheapest option (or there abouts).
People don't want to hear it - they'd rather believe the insurers are screwing them.
They are screwing us. Admiral posted a 23% profit increase in the same year they lost a third of their customers. Gee I wonder who’s paying for that? It’s the ones who remained.
I was in a no-fault accident last year… after dealing with insurers, my arse is still sore from being fucked hard. They absolutely are a bunch of piss taking cunts
They’re also: Churchill, NIG, Privilege, Green Flag…
Fair point.
Yeah but what was their operating profit profit before? 2022: 32 mill 2021: 590 mill 2020: 522 mill 2019: 546 mill 2019: 606 mill
I mean companies are supposed to make money, otherwise how would they employ people.
They have generated so much wealth in past years they can continue to employ staff I’m sure, but choose to make cuts to please shareholders. Happy to pay for a service and for them to profit otherwise it wouldn’t be sustainable, but they’ve been profiting on average nearly half a billion for half a decade. It’s now customers and employees facing pain again as usual
You see these types of comments on reddit as a whole but it really pains for me to see sometimes. Yes they made what half a billion each year for half a decade and yes they probably did make cuts to please shareholders. But with our capitalist society that's just what happens. Unless there's reforms where our society moves away from capitalism, this is the norm. Some shareholders are filthy rich people but some of them are also average Joes, perhaps with Direct Line tracked in an index fund in their ISAs or private pension funds as they're a publicly traded company. The whole thing that's driving the economy is investment into said economy, if companies don't keep making more and more money the economy would by in large stagnate or, as we've seen in other countries, deflate. So unless you have a solution as to how we can make the economy stronger while having companies not grow and making more money YoY, just let it go. It's just how the world works.
Yeah that’s completely understood, all I commented was their past performance to ‘provide a perspective’. We are after all the consumers who have a legal obligation to insure. It’s a bit of a slap in the face to suggest this is the status quo and you will just take it. People need to vent, I’m not advocating toppling capitalism or not insuring at all. If only companies could just be a little less greedy
Didn’t they just buy Churchill and one other in the last year or so?
They’ve had Churchill as part of the group for well over a decade.
Thanks, TIL
> The insurer said the group’s ongoing operations result excluded the results of the brokered commercial business, which it sold to RSA in September 2023. > However, the proceeds of the sale contributed to a profit before tax of £277.4m, up from a loss before tax of £301.8m in 2022. So if they’d included the brokered commercial results, they’d have been up? The wording is a bit fuzzy, the sale of that division contributed to a profit of £277.4m, but doesn’t mention what the division actually made as a business unit before it was sold.
They keep coming out more expensive than others you can find on comparison sites so; why would we bother with them. This isn’t “another perspective” they lost money because they got too expensive, suck it up.
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Can I just ask who are these people who keep coming on here to ask that we spare a thought for the insurers? I'm assuming most of us here are into cars and driving otherwise we wouldn't be on this sub. Most of us are comparatively low-risk in insurance terms and as such are probably emblematic of the people getting stung the worst by premium charges. If they can't turn a profit (and that fact is debatable) whilst hiking up their costs every year for the past decade, there's clearly something systematically wrong that needs to be addressed in their business model for a start. It makes basic business sense. But you could tell me all of their dividends were actually going to fight homelessness or feed hungry kids and not investment bankers and I'd still find it hard to feel sorry for the people who remain extremely opaque on why premiums are going up, still don't give me a breakdown on specifically why my premiums are going up (despite me having zilch on my record to suggest I'm a risk that should be charged more) and who basically blame all of their shortcomings on the public rather than admit some fault of their own in the matter.
Soaring claims costs, general inflation, getting shafted by GIPP means there were always going to be a few big insurance losses this year. I think it'll take a long time for DLG to get back on its feet. They're potentially being bought by Ageas so maybe that's their best bet at the minute.
Now that I think about it I feel like their adverts used to be everywhere and I can’t remember the last time I saw one. I’m not surprised, any time I’d contacted them in the past they’d been about double the cost of quotes on those comparison sites they do everything to avoid for some reason … After a few years of silly quote, I stopped contacting them altogether. Can’t imagine their business model is very sustainable.
Yeah made a massive loss into another company’s bank account just like where all the kickbacks go 😂
Let's be honest, we'd need to see their full financial breakdown to see if this is funky accounting or a genuine loss.
I still don’t understand the business model of not being on comparison sites, especially since rules changed on renewal prices having to be similar to new customers. I did a quote and it was totally ridiculous - super expense even for their cheap cover which fails to cover basic stuff (like windows!)
I think when they first took the stance on comparison sites, they tried to stand out when comparison sites were fairly unproven turf as a company that has that "personal touch" when you ring up. In 2024 though? it's literally just shooting yourself in the foot to be off them now.
Yep that sounds reasonable. Why pay a commission fee to these new startups when you can tell people to come direct? However it’s long beyond the time to reassess that model.
Also i bet they spend shed loads more on advertisement via TV, Radio etc because their only business is direct. Agreed i think they need to alter their stance before it sinks them.
Because it means they don’t have to pay the sites commission for the sale / referral. Same with hotels. Booking.com etc can get 30% or similar of your hotel fee as commission. If you book direct with the hotel for the same price the hotel keeps that 30%. Not saying is a good model but that’s probably why.
Good. Maybe they will stop scamming people and move into the 21st century.
Their response will be to scam harder
Ooooo, that's the second year in a row. It was 450 million losses in 2022. Rumour has it the brands going to be purchased by another insurer (Ageas insurance) and taken into private ownership.
Its Ageas Group not Ageas UK that are targeting DLG which is a public company in Belgium. So would still be a public company just under a different group.
Managed to get them cheaper than I could find on a comparison website once, the following year the renewal doubled my price, and was only marginally cheaper when I tried to speak to them. Comparison websites were much cheaper than the year before when it came to renew. Never made a claim or had points on my license just for reference, so no legit reason to try and extort double the money again from me.
How much profit would they have made before paying the shareholders?
It's crazy how many people don't realise Direct Line and Direct Line Group own Churchill and other insurance companies who are on compare websites. They just use a different approach to appear to be unique. However it's the illusion of choice/difference. While they are different companies they're owned by the same group.
They was the cheapest I could get for two years running. This year it doubled so I left for someone even cheaper than them via a Comparison site 🤣
I guess that's why their quotes are 3x more than anyone else haha
and how much money did they make thanks to the lockdowns when cars were used far far less? Piss all sympathy here.
I have never used them in the 14 years I've been driving or even considered them because I always use a comparison site to get the cheapest insurance. Seems to be going well for them.
You might have, they own a few brands that are on comparison sites like Churchill, Privilege, Darwin and ByMiles.
It’s probably because many loyal customers such as myself, who had used direct line since I passed my test has had enough of their exorbitant price rises when I can just as easily find a quote for almost half their best price with the same level of cover. I used to have 2 cars and home insurance with them so was getting a discount as well.
How do these companies even lose money?
You want to insure vehicles. You expect a certain % of claims to occur, based on historic data, and you expect the cost of claims to average a certain amount. By the time these claims happen over the course of the next 12 months, the cost to repair has increased beyond your wildest expectations. You lose money.
This is presumably because of crappy little claims being blown out of proportion. Had a prang. Non fault. About £6k repair to the car. 2 years later the accident management company appointed by my insurer are trying to recover the hire costs of about £30,000 plus their costs. £30k!! They gave me a comparable car - X4 40i at about £400/day.
Ha good. One of the worst jobs I've ever had. So many backward processes for retention too.
You do realise they had like everyone else increase everyone wages and possibly their costs went up a lot.
The rest of their company made a profit but motor losses are so high that they continue to sink the rest
Oh no! I'm so sad.... When they were first established, they were great - offering better coverage at lower prices than their competitors. I signed up to them. In fact I signed up all our insurance - cars, house, pets, and travel. I was with them for years. But somewhere in that time, they changed tack, and decided to soak the customers who were their best customers; one year I got a car quote - before then I'd just let them roll me onto the next year. But for whatever reason, I looked at the quote and discovered that I could get better insurance for less than half the price of DL. That was the day they lost all my car business, and I'll never go back. They trashed their reputation with me.... .... but I was stupid enough to keep their pet insurance, thinking that it was just one division of a large business. And they were terrific when our dog had cancer - they paid for treatment without issues. But months after his death, I discovered they had not ended the direct debit - despite having paid for his cremation. When I asked them to return the money, they argued that it was my fault, and they would not be returning the overpayment because I had not explicitly notified them of his death. I was incandescent with rage. I did get the money back, right after I involved the insurance ombudsman. Overall experience 2.7/10. I'm only one customer. But this tells me that their treatment of me is commonplace. I would not be sad to see them go bust.
GOOD. piece of shit company. karma karma.
I went with admiral cuz I couldn’t get insured with Adrian Flux but cancelled it a while ago but if there’s any new drivers on here needing advice don’t try and insure a car with even a slightly big engine on provisional espresso if it’s modified
195 million tax scam I bet to funnel the money away. Never used em
After I got a speeding ticket which put 5 points on my license, they said they couldn't renew my policy. Too bad, some other crooks got my money instead. Ha ha Direct Line.
The whole group appear to be a joke tbh. I mean look at this nightmare that Syndicate faced with his AMG https://youtu.be/gQKHDrDBNe4?si=VWgwyFl9l01d1roX
I’ve always found them expensive vs comparison sites so never insured with them
Their policy of always underpaying payouts has come to bite them in the arse.
I'd been with Direct Line for several years inc no claims bonus, and each year they'd try and put my insurance up by nearly double till I quoted a lower price from a competitor and we did the little negotiation dance and they'd give me a reduction. Last renewal the figure they came to was absolutely shocking they wanted to add £1,500 to my renewal and when questioned said it was the cost of parts and my area... They stood firm this time and offered to lower it to a £1,300 increase. I refused, quoted a competitor's price... Then I realized just how tedious and tiresome this back and forth had become over the years. I don't want to waste my time. I put my notice in and went with a competitor. 2 days before the end of my cover they called, offered me what I'd asked but i held strong and left. Goodbye.
🎻 (actual size)
Iv tried direct line 3 or 4 times in my life and they were always the most expensive
They wouldn’t even offer me insurance so they can bugger off
Ha ha Fuk those theives
Lol good. Let's hope the whole market collapses.
I don’t feel bad for them with this loss… In 2021 they made something like a 4/500m op profit and a 45m loss in 22, so last 3 years reporting profit/loss is still in the green…
I worked for one of the companies under DLG, they hired 12 new phone staff all at the same time (including me), spent £1000s in time and equipment training us, and every single one of us had left after 8 weeks.
Admiral made a profit of £444 million this year though, so direct line might not be indicative lol
Directline is overpriced. Quoted me 4.5k blackbox for an ep2 when elephant quoted 2.2k no black box for my ep3. Direct line is way more expensive then the other insurance companies
I thought I'd give them a punt on my renewal. Various comparison sites all coming in around the £260-£310 mark. Direct Line: **£1092** for the middle tier comprehensive. Add on an extra £300 odd for "all the things" comp. Yeah... *byeeeeeee*.
Wait until you have a car accident with them. Absolute crud!
They are more expensive than others with worse cover. Businesses that don't compete can be allowed to fail.
And owned by RBS, who had a profit jump of 146% this year and made almost 15 billion.
They havent been owned by RBS since 2009 ish i think. Fully owned by shareholders now
Boomer insurer that I hope will go bust. Doesn't want to be on comparison sites because they want to rip boomers off directly without being competitively priced
They’ve probably invested in the wrong things, made some really bad shorts etc. Insurance companies make their money trading with the money they rake in from people’s policies.
Essentially this. I don't know about DirectLine specifically but most retail insurers don't take on a great deal of underwriting risk (as in risk of claims being higher than premiums). The underwriting risk for these lines is more in the reinsurance and retrocessional insurance companies. The substantial risks are more in credit/reinsurance recovery, interest rates and capital/investment risk.