Reply With QuoteThis is nothing new and has been standard practice for donkey years. You need to get alternative quotes every 2 or 3 years.Originally Posted by deepreddave
Just got my renewal quote for Home and Contents insurance from a very reputable insurer I've been with for 10+ years.
After a quick moneysupermarket compare, I called them to discuss and saved £200. £70 of that came from reducing the vol excess by £150 (we haven't ever claimed so I'll take the risk) but the remaining £130 came from their being able to match the moneysupermarket quote from a competitor.
Now I know it's not unusual and that it's everyone's responsibility to check their premium each year but it still feels a pretty grubby process and leaves me wondering just how many other people pay the renewal without checking - I appreciate they're subsidising my cheaper premium in a way but a number will undoubtedly be old or less able to check.
This is nothing new and has been standard practice for donkey years. You need to get alternative quotes every 2 or 3 years.
When I did a comparison quote on line recently I punched in different excess amounts and was surprised that there was no difference in premium between £200-£500 excess!!!!
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I know but it doesn't make it 'ok'. I usually check every year but the 'ease' of the reduction this year just made me wonder about the practice (I won't mention morals) of charging c75% above their best price in the hope that the elderly, less able or apathetic etc pay it. Such is life etc but it feels 'wrong' and suspect we'd be slating any tradesman who tried a similar tactic (and I've encountered plenty who do as part of my job).
Excess loading depends greatly on your age/risk. If you're deemed low risk there will be very little to be saved from a higher excess.
Just renewed car insurance with DirectLine - got £50 off by asking to leave, they matched the best equivalent quote I had elsewhere
All my insurances... bike, car, and home are all put out to the comparison sites every year because after I take out a policy at a reasonable price a year later at renewal time they simply load the renewal price and I have to go through the whole rigmarole again. It's a bloody nuisance and an insult to my intelligence, in fact.
Rob
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Just renewed our annual travel insurance. Using the 30% discount code for a loyal customer in the renewal email, got quoted £145. Used moneysupermarket.com and got the identical policy with identical terms from the identical insurer for £78. That's not a nuisance, it's dishonest.
I've got a small flat that I let out. Landlord's insurance has been with Direct Line for years and was always around £200. This year the renewal notice came in as usual, "here's the new policy, do nothing and we'll renew in a few week's time". Only difference was this time it was £1,200! I couldn't believe that they'd raise the premium by a factor of six and not even highlight it in a letter. I travel a lot with work just now so could easily have missed seeing that in time. I phoned to see if they'd made a mistake, but apparently they had now software for calculating flood risks and that was why the premium had gone up. Wouldn't drop the price at all so I cancelled and it took all of ten minutes to go online and get another policy at £200.
Just got the renewal quotes through for my and mrsmjc1216 cars and mine has gone up £5 and hers up £8 with LV.
I think now they have to tell you what you paid the previous year along with the renewal quote this should stop this madness but time will tell
I don't usually give them the opportunity to price match. If I think it's gone up too much I ring round and if another company gives me a better quote I go with them (as near same cover as possible).
When the original company ring and say they could have done better I just say it's too late. They should have been competitive in the first place.
Ian
Er… I think you'll find it pays to get alternative quotes every year.
Renewal quotes from the same company are not unkown to jump by three figures in the space of a year, despite no claims. This is the whole point of the thread – that we're forced to do this every year for all our insurance cover.
I'd usually advocate this but my insurer was good when a car was vandalized and offers a good package and includes bikes, watches and travel insurance so I balance that with the excessive renewal though. Incidentally it's Directline who I note are mentioned below so they're either the TZ ompany of choice or one of the greatest offenders based on comments thus far!
By law insurance companies now have to show the previous years price for comparison. Though to be fair surely the new price in itself would have alerted you anyway with that big a jump.
There have been a couple of threads on all this recently and the advice now is use comparison sites and even your existing insurers website to get comparative quotes. Both for car and house this year we have renewed with the same insurer at much lower rates simply through doing this. They even have records in their system from me doing this from both sites. In the case of the car insurance they took the price they had from the comparison site rather than that from their own site as it was the cheapest. It is all mad but I imagine they make millions through people just auto renewing so why wouldn't they. It is the same with gas and electricty you need to check and switch each time a lock in period ends and never go onto the standard tariff.
I applied for pet insurance.
As my dog once had a 24 hour episode of mild diarrhoea, throughout which time he was quite well, PetPlan have added an exclusion on any/all future gastrointestinal disorders.
My dog also once had a harmless skin crust which fell off after a couple of weeks, just as the vet said it would, without any treatment. PetPlan have also added an exclusion on any/all future "tumours, growths, warts, lumps or abscesses".
Insurance is the biggest legal racket out there.
Sadly I play this game with every policy every year (and gas/electric etc). I wish I didn't have to but the way they all bump the prices up in year 2 means I have to
I hope that tones down the practice considerably.
Why did they need to know about a simple case of diarrhoea? I'm interested in this as we now have a cat but I suspect I'll be treating the pet insurance like I treat the car insurance, e.g. if the vet bill is below a certain number it won't be worth claiming as the insurance will stiff you come renewal time.
A few years ago some tosser took out the wing and bumper on my car while it was parked outside the house. It also knackered the power steering reservoir which I had to get fixed same day as we were about to travel for Christmas holidays. After ringing round and finding someone who could fix the bodywork for £250, I considered calling the insurance company. Then I came to my senses and just paid up. That £250 claim would have pushed my premium up for the next eight years, whichever company I went with. The problem is, you can never know how much the increase will be. It could have been £10 more per year, or it could have been £100 more per year. Anyway, that Christmas cost me nearly £500 all-in because of the selfish knob who didn't have the decency to own up, and because the insurance company have me by the balls, in a grip of fear for premium hikes.
Unless the bills are catastrophic, insurance is useless.
This year for me was the first where it was different. I normally look at what the premium would be on the comparison sites and also my current insurer (direct line) who are not listed on these sites. Normally I can get the cheaper price by being a new customer and I ask them to match this price, this year however the renewal quote was £80 less than I could find on the comparison sites and all of those was roughly £130 on top of my previous years insurance.
Criminal, especially as there were no claims or changes to my policy.
Well on the initial quote process they asked has your pet *ever* been to the vet for *anything* and knowing how insurance companies work I thought nothing less than full honesty was needed, otherwise they might invalidate a claim in the future for not declaring everything - anyway, based on me saying "yes - for a minor bout of diarrhoea and for a scabby spot, both of which required no treatment and I was told I was worrying over nothing" they asked for all his notes to be sent to them, and then they basically came back with a list of exclusions, most of which are very tenuous.
e.g. the breed is known to have weepy eyes - it's a normal breed variant - I didnt know this and asked the vet about it when he was a puppy, the vet duly recorded it and said it's normal, but now they have excluded "all conditions relating to the eye".
It's just a scam and unfair. I understand their reasoning but they must be getting enough business elsewhere to not need anything that even vaguely looks risky.
I'm not paying £600/yr when it seems that 50% of the things that could happen wont be covered on these grounds.
Just out of interest, do people add watches as specific items on contents policy. My renewal in also due so along with contents and an extra £7500 cover high value items £1000, and £5000 of cover for personal items away from the home, I have listed three specific watches as being high (ish) value (this includes cover away from the home). This adds £52 to the premium which seems a lot.
Does anyone else list watches seperatly under their contents or just take the risk and include under general high value items?
Funny you should say that, as I had the very same experience. I knew that rates were likely to go up across the board, so was pleasantly surprised by the renewal quote. Very odd.
I check comparisons each year for all my insurances, most companies try it on at renewal time so I go with the cheapest like for like.
mike
Insurance is one of those things people seem to be afraid to move. It's a commodity which should be reviewed annually and loyalty shouldn't come into it.
I always shop around for all insurance and will always find a better deal. I then use this to drive down the price of my existing quote.
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I really dislike this business model.If you're savvy and up to speed you will be ok but I have some concern about those bit more elderly/ trusting .
Agreed and a significant part of my concern. In my experience elderly people can often be very trusting and disinclined towards or fearful of change generally.
Theyre just relying on customers ignorance/laziness
Last year's DL premium £400. Same car, extra year no claim. Renewal quote £500+. Rang this afternoon and they weren't interested in making any move to my LV quote of £395. Lack of loyalty is a two way street.
I personally enjoy the 'for your convenience we will auto renew', yeah right it is for my convenience!
My F56 Mini JCW renewal came through £200 higher from the same company this morning, given it started at £300 that's taking the Michael somewhat.
I never get insurance car groups though, my Z4M is significantly faster and more tricky on the edge than the Mini, yet insurance is a pittance for it. I'm guessing statistically with a relatively rare car vs a modern boy racer type vehicle that they are crashed less frequently / much cheaper to repair.
I think your right, get something fast/powerful and rare, maybe a bit older and as there are not many examples left on the road, therefore not many claims for damages being recorded you then fall into a low risk category, result!
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Absolutely it's borderline dishonest. Insurance companies and banks have decided "all's fair.." with customers, knowing people (to an extent) trust them. Of course it's not sustailable - most people get wise. So it's very short term as they've effectively cashed in their goodwill.
What's even worse is that the AA who claim to be acting for you/shopping around do the same thing. My neighbour challenged their renewal quote and they suddenly were able to find another one £200 cheaper which (surprise!) matched the one he got independently.
I know one old lady who because she automatically renewed through the AA ended up paying 3x more for her Honda Jazz than ! was paying for my Mercedes 300SL as they stuck something more on year after years.
As i say, borderline dishonest *****
I always do the comparison sites for each and every policy, used to be a pain before as you'd need to enter your details but these days as the previous quotes are retained it' takes just a few clicks to get a new quote.
I guess what annoys me most about all this - as a bleeding heart libtard - is that it's the vulnerable and less-informed in our society who pay for this.
I'm alright Jack because I do it (and as above it's no major chore) but I suspect I am underpaying on the back of the poor and the elderly who are getting ripped off. Maybe I should take a principled position and just pay the auto renewal price?
I've just paid off my mortgage and as that's a big change in my financial circumstances, I've been reviewing everything. So far I've managed to achieve the following savings:
Mobile phone - move network to a £17.50 pcm tariff that increases my data and minutes. Saving £15.22 pcm.
Home building & contents with the watches specified - moved from Nationwide to take advantage of a SAGA deal - saved £400 on the year for better cover!
Car insurance - stayed with Tesco Bank but took a deal from Moneysupermarket.com rather than their own renewal - saved £100 on the year.
Electricity supply - moved from Scottish Power (useless winkers) to M&S electricity - no direct debit, I estimate I will save £300 a year.
Virgin Media are next when my annual contract expires in a couple of months.
As MakeColdplayHistory says, there must be loads of people sitting on dreadful deals, without the nouse or means to make and act upon the comparisons. I've just reviewed the same items for my aged parents and they've saved some money, especially on their car insurance, but without me helping them on their computer, they would have been clueless.
The thing that annoys me most is that loyalty is not rewarded, instead you pay for staying with a company.
My daughter's car insurance renewal came through Saturday.
She's 24 (nearly 25) with a few years NCB now.
The car is a 1.6 Astra SRi.
Renewal figure was £1650!
2 minutes on Money Supermarket and she had multiple quotes for around £500!
Talk about no loyalty to existing customers!
When she rang to cancel the renewal, they offered to cut it to £1200...
I always check my renewal against the comparison sites every year (except my classic car insurance, but that's virtually the same every year and under £100) - I move car insurers fairly often as a result, home insurance, less often, but only because the quotes seem vary less.
I'd been on BG for electricity and gas for years, but switch from them a few months ago - Will probably save a couple of hundred pounds in theory, but as the power people seem to work a cartel, I'm not convinced on that...
M
Last edited by snowman; 14th August 2017 at 11:50.
From another thread, Sky have the same practice but in their case it seems to be accepatable. tbh, if it was me, I wouldn't want to deal with any company with, as you say, such grubby practices.
It's outrageous isn't it - if you are over 50 the SAGA deals seem quite good, especially on the house and contents.
D
Are there any providers that are particularly cheap/good for watch cover? I'm with Hiscox and they've stuck and extra £300 on to cover my watches.
Yeah, my old man's had a couple of good deals through Saga, car & home.
Just had my home renewal through which has gone from £330 to £450. It says "you may have changed some variables recently". Ehh....no!
But the one variable I'll be changing is my insurer!
My neighbour is one of those who does nothing except renew, really annoys me as he has 4 grown up kids, one year I sat one of them down and showed him how easy it was to get new quotes. Needless to say say the neighbour came round the next year as his kids couldn't be bothered. ☹️
My insurance renewal was up £160 on last year, managed to find £100 cheaper quote and surprisingly my insurance matched the cheaper quote with special staff discount.
Same here 930 Porsche cheaper than Renault Megane1.5 DCI go figure.
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