Don't renew your car insurance

Yes they are all fuckers.

As it goes I am with the post office insurance and this lot have been the only ones that did a renewel cheaper than the year before.

No doubt next year they will have me though. I was with 'More than' for a year, the next year it went up 60 quid even though I had no accidents. The guy on the line simply said, 'You are not a new customer any more sir'

I said, 'wrong, I am not a customer any more, bye'

But the truth is they don't give a shit. Same with phone companies now, I got shirty with Vodaphone because they wanted to put my rate upto 13 quid a month from 11. I threatened to leave, they said, ok then. Haha.

I saved 55% moving away from direct line.

Thnaks for th timely reminder Rasher, my renewals due in ten days. Will have a bit of a hunt-about first I think...

As ALL the insurance companies say that you can save"up to X 100s of £s". Buy going to all of them shouldn't one of them not end up paying you?

H

quote:

But the truth is they don't give a shit. Same with phone companies now, I got shirty with Vodaphone because they wanted to put my rate upto 13 quid a month from 11. I threatened to leave, they said, ok then. Haha.

If they are only getting 11 quid a month out of you I'm not surprised!

Rasher,

You did not mention who you ended up getting insured with. I saved a lot by moving to eSure, and now have both our cars with them. Something to do with who they choose to insure i.e. age/location/type of car/make of stereo equipment. Sorry made the last bit up.

Regards

Nic

I used to work on the customer retention (aka renewals) team for a major insurer (Ohh yes!).

Whilst I deplore all the "let's get you in for this year" special discounts, you'd be amazed by the number of folk who maintained that "nothing had changed since last year" but were telling all the other companies about their new job, lower mileage, and the fact they now park the car in the garage.....

All these are risk assesment factors... if the info has changed then it's your responsibility to advise your insurer immediately (not at renewal - see "Duty of disclosure" in your documentation).

I used to have this discussion 10 times a day, and 9 times a day the change in the policyholders details balanced their renewal to the competion.
3 times a day the new info had actually changed 3 years previously, but they'd blindly renewed two years on the trot without bothering to raise the point that, for example, they'd retired and stopped doing a 20 mile a day commute!

Insurance companies are just like betting shops... it's all a gamble and risk assessment.

At the end of the day though, you don't want a cheap shyte cover with a company who can't deal with your claim or even worse go under halfway through your policy.

When I left the industry I tried to avoid ever being insured by any part of my former employers' empire.

Unfortunately, with a tuned classic car that's also a daily driver I had a choice:

£300 a year on a policy that I knew I could rely on, but which put money in the purses of my previous overlords

or

£600 a year on a backstreet broker operation whose policy documents should be perforated, two ply, and on a roll with puppies pictured on them!

I can be petty, but I'm not stupid.

Do look around folks, but do make sure your renewal info is correct!!!!



PS
Letting a policy lapse and then starting a new one with the same company is virtually impossible.
Insurers ahve to allow for "late renewals" and offer to renew the policy up to 14 days after the lapse date - but of course it'll be the same old policy, not a shiny new one with shiny new discounts...
On the other hand, to deliberately leave oneself with no insurance for 15 days is both foolhardy, and of course illegal if the car is driven.
Sure you know this, but wise to make sure it's nice and clear to all

Of course, switching the policy between spouse's each year, or between two brands that are underwritten by the same company... there's a neat trick.....

Did you know that Churchill, Direct Line, Privilege, Tescos and NIG are all part of RBS Insurance..... just with slightly different underwriting criteria? And they hide this by using the brand UKI

A word of support for Direct Line. I've had two car claims (neither my fault I hasten to add) and a very long, complex and expensive house claim involving legal expenses etc.

On each occasion they have been the model of efficiency. They did not quibble at any point, and made the latter complex claim as simple as possible. They were easily contactable by phone (no awful long automated queuing system) and had my case file to swiftly each time I rang. Top marks.

It is hardly unique to insurers that they do a variety of marketing dodges to attract new customers. Credit card companies? Mobile phones?

I think we have a particular grudge against insurance companies becasue 99% of the time we are giving them money for 'nothing'. When it comes to making a claim though you may be glad of an established and reputable company rather than a fly-by-night cut price one.

Don't get me wrong Bruce - I agree that quality of service is important, and the benefit of insuring under the RBS/UKI is that their claims procedure is fantastic.

Unfortunately your analogy to credit cards is spot on.
RBS have done exactly the same trick with insurance - they are the Nestle of the financial services sector!

During my time working for that organisation I never once had a problem with the way the company treated its customers.
How it treats its' staff though is a different issue!

I'll echo Bruce's comments.

My wife has had two no-fault claims on her car. Direct Line have dealt efficiently with these claims.

I have previously claimed on the contents - new cartridge - cheque received next day.

I have also found their pricing competitive.

I too have no quarms with Direct Line service, but will not renew for all the reasons mentioned above

I saved £300 by not doing so with my home insurance (moved to Lloyds) and have previously saved a fortune on car insurance by not renewing and moving to Esure and Lloyds.

I also saved £600 when I added another car and was quoted over £1200 by Direct line and Esure wouildnt quote because I had 2 windscreen claims last year. Lloyds did it for £270!!

I re-iterate DONY RENEW

That reminds me my 5 year fixed mortgage deal ends next month

quote:

Originally posted by nicnaim:
Rasher,
You did not mention who you ended up getting insured with.
Nic

That's just it Nic, I bought new insurance with Direct Line, on-line. The same policy, the same company, but £170 cheaper.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bosh:


I also saved £600 when I added another car and was quoted over £1200 by Direct line and Esure wouildnt quote because I had 2 windscreen claims last year. Lloyds did it for £270!!

I re-iterate DONY RENEW

/QUOTE]

There is a good reason for this advice.

Many companies engage in a practice known as "Inertia Pricing". This means that the renewal quote (to an existing customer) will be more than the equivalent price to a new customer (to attract them in) with the exact same risk profile. This is despite the fact that expenses incurred in attracting and processing a new customer is much higher than retaining an existing customer.

The UK institute of Actuaries has written a position statement paper on the topic, see

http://www.actuaries.org.uk/Display_Page.cgi?url=/news/inertia_pos.xml

This provides useful background to the topic for those interested!

Regards P

quote:

I think we have a particular grudge against insurance companies becasue 99% of the time we are giving them money for 'nothing'. When it comes to making a claim though you may be glad of an established and reputable company rather than a fly-by-night cut price one.

Hi Bruce

As I do make my living within the insurance industry, please don't encourage people to not pay their premiums!!!

You guesed it, I work in the area of setting premium rates!!!

Regards P

What's the name of that website that advertised on the TV recently that compares hundreds of Motor Insurance companies and tells you the lowest quote?

I've forgotten its name but it should be useful to people in this situation.

Jonathan

confused.com

I've often used it and every time the cheapest quote hasn't been the cheapest by the time you add things you've already said you want i.e. protected NCD etc.

Also it has a habit of telling you certain companies won't insure you when they actually will, but for some reason can't provide a quote off the details Confused have passed them.

Paul