Has anyone experienced an unexplained increase in insurance premium following a track day?

[matthewr87]

A few months ago my renewal came up and I received a notice of a 14% premium increase. No tickets, no accidents, no claims. The reason was "reclassification due to vehicle endorsement activity". I called the insurer and nobody could explain that to me; the folks on the phone had no idea and there were no notes anywhere. I could have challenged the increase but it was just easier to get a new policy with the same insurer; my new policy dropped the premium by about 30% from the original price before the proposed increase (crazy eh? same insurer, same cars, better coverage). The only thing I can think of is that the insurer somehow found out about a track day that I attended months before and decided to jack up the premium, which seems extremely shady. I registered on motorsportreg and bought track insurance from OpenTrack. I am preparing to attend another HPDE day and I'm worried about the same thing happening again.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

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[StealthFighter]

A few months ago my renewal came up and I received a notice of a 14% premium increase. No tickets, no accidents, no claims. The reason was "reclassification due to vehicle endorsement activity". I called the insurer and nobody could explain that to me; the folks on the phone had no idea and there were no notes anywhere. I could have challenged the increase but it was just easier to get a new policy with the same insurer; my new policy dropped the premium by about 30% from the original price before the proposed increase (crazy eh? same insurer, same cars, better coverage). The only thing I can think of is that the insurer somehow found out about a track day that I attended months before and decided to jack up the premium, which seems extremely shady. I registered on motorsportreg and bought track insurance from OpenTrack. I am preparing to attend another HPDE day and I'm worried about the same thing happening again.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

I think you answered your own question, your insurance company must have received notification of the track insurance rider and then raised your rates to "protect" themselves from a greater chance of you putting a claim in due to something that may happen while racing.
As far as them saying there is no record of this action .. well that's just BS, they must have that info , someones just fibbing.

 

[S550Will]

If you have drive side like I do with Allstate they track your movement speed through your phones GPS. If going to the track or going out for some fun turn your phone GPS off. Only thing I can think of.

 

[matthewr87]

That's a good point! However I do not have any car telemetry monitoring gadgets from my insurer.

 

[key01]

I agree that the track insurance information got around to your carrier. That industry is so connected it is scary. When you shop for new home or auto insurance, the application self-populates as if they know everything about you and your current coverages.

 

[matthewr87]

Yeah. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced the same thing. Perhaps it is an OpenTrack issue? Maybe I should try Hagerty's or another provider, but they are much more expensive.

 

[nefyre]

It is possible that it had nothing to do with that. Insurance rates are based on a formula derived from a number of factors. Such as crash rates, theft rates, payout costs, etc for the make and model.

On this point, I had a quote generated for a specific VIN prepurchase in December. I had another quote generated a month ago using the same VIN. The current quote is significantly higher than the previous quote despite no changes to my situation in the interim. I credit the difference to re-evaluation of the risk for the insurance company. Perhaps something has occurred that caused the data to be skewed that they were previously using to value a car?

I would suggest that collisions are costing the insurance companies far more than they had anticipated. Let’s face it, the GT350 is rather unique. Unlike ‘special’ Mustangs in the past that had components that were 10-20% more costly, this one has components that are 300-400% more costly. Carbon Fibre rims, wings, supports, etc for instance.

Just my thought.

 

[matthewr87]

Yeah it could be a coincidence also. The odd thing was that a new policy for the same vehicles from the same insurer was so much lower, more so than even my original rate before the increase. Ironically if they had not jacked up the rate so much I would have continued on with the same policy, which was still 30% more expensive than the new policy I have with them now. I suppose that is a teachable moment. Even if you do not want to change insurance companies it might be worth getting a new policy quote from the same provider rather than renewing the same policy. Insurance is such a scam.

 

[shogun32]

That's a good point! However I do not have any car telemetry monitoring gadgets from my insurer.

but you have the SyncApp snitching on everything you do, right? Turn that nonsense off.

 

[matthewr87]

but you have the SyncApp snitching on everything you do, right? Turn that nonsense off.

Nope no insurance apps or anything like that on my phone.

 

[shogun32]

Nope no insurance apps or anything like that on my phone.

I said SYNC. as in Ford Sync. Go into settings and kill all the telemetry settings that phone home to Ford. Your insurance carrier buys the data from Ford to spot "cretins" like you.

 

[Bluelightning]

I use Hagerty on mine, so I don't have these issues.

 

[matthewr87]

I said SYNC. as in Ford Sync. Go into settings and kill all the telemetry settings that phone home to Ford. Your insurance carrier buys the data from Ford to spot "cretins" like you.

Ah okay. I don't use Sync either but I guess the data is probably still transmitted regardless.

 

[matthewr87]

I use Hagerty on mine, so I don't have these issues.

That is what I am considering this time but they are quite a bit more expensive ($572) than OpenTrack ($378) or Lockton ($420). Any experience with Lockton?

 

[oldbmwfan]

I've purchased Lockton trackday insurance but never had to make a claim. I do know the business owner (or a former owner, not sure) was also a club racer so "got it."

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