Car insurance: Unbelievably cheap

[Honest]

Great

-Click-in price from webshop can be lower than price for 20+ years loyal customer with all possible and impossible discounts. Yes, they know that and it is so on purpose.
.

People who don't use internet (old and old-fashioned people) are very unlikely to discover these rip offs so no discount for them, clear exploitation. It shows how ethical businesses are nowadays.

[Rick1]

Soon you will have to be 16 hours a day on internet to just live your life and nobody is asking themselves; might it be going too far? Even governments cannot control their information but we giving parts of our life just away to uncontrollable networks/machines.

[tista]

Just changed my car insurance from Fennia to POP and saved 250euro per year thanks to the notifier.

[Upphew]

In the Good Old Days it would have necessitated multiple visits to some mysterious offices, begging for official traffic insurance proof stickers, stamps and whatnot...

Other insurances aren't that easy. But you can get rid of old insurances online too: https://popvakuutus.onnistuu.fi/

[sabsum]

Need a travel insurance. Don't know which one to choose POP or OP? Anyone has suggestions?

[harryc]

POP getting a lot of attention in this thread.

That's fine and I might be signing up with them myself.

But has anyone noticed they give 10-20% discount on their offers - I have asked and these discounts may well disappear after one year.

Has anyone here got their SECOND year bill from POP and can say what happens?

[Honest]

It's my second year with them for car insurance. The price is almost the same what I paid last year. Their first year discount disappeared but my bonus percentage increased so as a net result no increase in premium. Still paying almost half of what I would paying to IF etc. I don't have any experience of making any claim yet.

[harryc]

OK - tks for info - but the bonus belongs to YOU - not the insurance company - so you would get the bonus from any Finnish insurance company.

The significant thing is that they dropped the discount after the first year - and if you go back and look at the 'offer' made originally they don't tell you that - it's lost in legal text that says this is the offer for this year - it MAY change next year - they really should say it WILL change.

Pohjola has been running a 50% off the first year on Kasko - but don't say that explicitly.

[Honest]

The significant thing is that they dropped the discount after the first year - .

No that's not the significant thing. Significant thing is what you pay and what you save at the end of the day. A lot of people are lost in % discounts, they are useless if you end up paying more for the same product at another place without any listed discount. The main thing is I'm getting the cheapest possible insurance.

And nobody is tying your hands, if they increase the price just change your company.

Read previous posts, switching companies is not something hard to do.

[harryc]

I think you misunderstood

You would have gotten the same Bonus % discount from ALL companies

So the only basis for a relevant comparison is the list price of the particular insurance company and their discount and then the net price.

Let's say A was 100 less 20% first year - and your bonus % went up by 10% from 30 to 40

Net 56 first year -- net second year 60

++

Company B might have had list 90 at the beginning of your second year

Switching to them would then give net of 54

You can switch as often as you like.

++

That's why it indeed is significant to realize the bonus belongs to YOU.

So one just has to stay on their toes - and while they are watching insurance costs they can also keep checking on phones, electricity, etc.

[Oberon]

I went to chat to ask details of their packages and here's the response:

" If you want to have insurances from our company you should do documents in finnish and It means that you have to understand documents, terms and coditions in finnish? you can calculate prices in our web site if you understand finnish or you can call to us but language will be finnish."

That has never been an issue before. My current insurance docs are in Finnish, but they explained the package and after a few questions we had a deal.

Anyway, whatever policy they might have it does not make any sense. It appears that if I still sign up online (which is possible) and later I will need help from customer service I can get it in English. Why is then a problem to provide details about offers?

I won't post the whole chat here, but the customer service was really bad, no clear explanations, no good reasons.

Is any customer of POP (who does not speak Finnish) here? What are your experiences? I was considering to make a deal with them but now I'm a bit concerned.

[saika1984]

Anyway, whatever policy they might have it does not make any sense. It appears that if I still sign up online (which is possible) and later I will need help from customer service I can get it in English. Why is then a problem to provide details about offers?

This seems to become more and more common for insurances companies in Finland, for different types of insurance. I heard from a friend couple that LähiTapiola refused to sell them car insurance (they had done that before) since they don't speak Finnish. Like me, my friends' Finnish skills are more restricted in reading. The reason they said was it sometimes caused problem when the customer claimed they were no informed or they didn't fully understand the terms when they signed the contract. I had similar experience with IF when I was trying to buy travel insurance. IF had provided it before but now they refuse to sell at least travel insurance to people who don't speak Finnish.

I then got my travel insurance from Pohjola. Later when I needed a car insurance (I am a new driver), I asked Pohjola again. And even though the documents were in Finnish (which I can read, at least slowly), the lady still agreed to sign the contract with me after discussing in English. As recurring customer, I got some discount: higher-than-normal initial bonus was given to me (they also had a campaign which offered 50% discount for kasko for the first year). I am pretty happy and satisfied with them. The price was good. I compared the price with POP's online calculator, it's about same. The claim procedure is swift - sadly I have already used it. I will have my home insurance from OP too this summer (the benefit of having insurance from big companies is you can buy multiple products from them and get some discount, even with their banking products like in OP).

BTW if you are a member of a union, don't forget to check if the insurance companies have some offer to the members - such offers are mainly provided from big insurance companies too.

I guess insurance companies have their rights to choose to only serve targeting customer groups. I wouldn't complain too much. Finland is already more friendly for people who don't speak Finnish. In Germany for example, you can't even take a driving exam, theory or actual driving, if you don't speak German.

[betelgeuse]

I guess insurance companies have their rights to choose to only serve targeting customer groups. I wouldn't complain too much. Finland is already more friendly for people who don't speak Finnish. In Germany for example, you can't even take a driving exam, theory or actual driving, if you don't speak German.

They do not for the mandatory car insurance. By government degree they have to give you one:

http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/1959/19590324#P3

[Honest]

I have always communicated in English with POP but only in written form. Never tried to call them. But from other experiences (DNA etc) I can say that customer care is getting worse and worse day by day overall. Anyway I would take a bad customer service if I can save 3-4 hundred bucks every year in my car insurance.

[harryc]

Remember - the big part of the savings will probably be gone after the first year. POPs offers are based on a 20% discount which disappears after 1 year. Hopefully customers can press them on this. If the big increase they have just gotten starts to go away - they will have to do something.