Car insurance renewal

Definitely time to ask for other quotes. Direct Line did this to my wife a couple of years ago and we had no trouble to find insurance from someone else for less than the previous Direct Line price, let alone their renewal quote.

best

David

Thanks Dave. I will start looking

Ken

Try the usual comparison websites....................strangely, when I did this a couple of years back, the cheapest quote came from my existing insurers, some £90.00 cheaper than their original renewal figure........................eh?

I've been with MoreThan for years now, and been quite happy, the above notwithstanding.

Thanks Dave, I will check them out and interesting comment on the cheapest quote being your existing insurer.

Ken

Definitely use a comparison site . 18 months ago my motorbike insurance was due with MCE and I got the "special customer" call which took forever , the premium came out about £500 higher with no change in circumstances , so phone down and onto a comparison website which resulted in a reduction of my premium by about £50 with MCE again .... Same story as Dave above . Lesson learnt and there's no point speaking to anyone these days it seems .

Direct line and Churchill are owned by the same people. Both give approx 30% discount for applying on line.  I usually swap from one to the other each year to get the discount, luckily our 2 cars and house renewal dates are within 5 days of each other, so it makes things pretty simple.

Note. I don't think you can check Direct line or Churchill prices on comparison sites.

dave marshall posted:

Try the usual comparison websites....................strangely, when I did this a couple of years back, the cheapest quote came from my existing insurers, some £90.00 cheaper than their original renewal figure........................eh?

New customers get a discount.

Changing insurer every year is the way to go.

Insurance companies trying to scam customers? Who has ever heard of such a thing? I'm shocked. Next thing you know they'll be trying to deny claims!

Thanks for your comments.

I checked a couple of companies on line including Direct Line and it was £30 cheaper than they quoted me.  More Than and Admiral were both more expensive so I went back to Direct line and they offered me the on line quoted price which I have now accepted. I shall alway check in future.

Ken

I always tell insurers not to auto-renew my policy. It's a bit of a PITA to have to look for a new quote every year, but like everyone else, insurance companies now see your loyalty as an excuse to increase prices, and offer the more competitive prices only in order to generate new business. I once met an insurer who admitted that they had a carefully calculated price increase strategy for renewals, with increases they judge to be just small enough that most people will renew most of the time for around 3 years - by which time the cumulative increases will be big enough that they expect to lose most customers as they will then usually compare prices. So shop around, or expect them to milk you... 

Investigate others, call DL and tell them you won't renew with them.

On the basis you have an excellent claims history then they will highly likely reduce - I speak from experience on both home and car this year. You can negotiate.

I stopped the AA sub this year after they sent me another ridiculous increase for renewing - last year it was reduced from ~£170 on their renewal note to ~£90 after some extensive push-back from me. 

If you're over-wise happy with your present insurer but just don't like the renewal quote;

before going though the hassle of changing, tell your present insurer to run your details back though as a new customer, or else you will leave.

It worked for me, instantly saved about 90 quid iirc

Debs

It's a dance we seem to do every year to get the renewal quote down to what you can get elsewhere - and it's a bit silly when a multi-car policy is supposed to be cheaper, but at least it tests the market. 

I always look around. Don't usually save much but do for the most part avoid having my pants pulled down. You will usually get a better deal as a new customer and hopping around once a year - if necessary - isn't a big hassle. I also take a little trouble to not agree to any automatic renew feature. I was speaking to Hastings Direct today because I needed to increase the annual mileage on my policy (because my latest car is such big fun that I'm driving it more) and it took longer to get the auto renew function deactivated after I paid than it did to change the policy and schedule. Naughty.

I've had a number of arguments with insurers over auto-renew. I've had them blatantly ignore the request and charge me, even though I'd bought another policy. I've been given a premium rate phone number to call as the only way they'd accept cancellation, etc. They always back down eventually, I just hate wasting my time having to deal with their underhand BS.

ChrisSU posted:

I just hate wasting my time having to deal with their underhand BS.

That's it summarised perfectly,  unfortunately their is nothing given for loyalty..... Only for New customers.... 

Loyalty isn't rewarded. Like most of the financial sector, spivs are constantly looking for mugs and since this seems to have been a practical working model for as long as I can remember, the spiv to mug ratio must be favourable.

"If you are stupid enough we will take your money".  

I've been sorting out a couple of pensions with "financial advisors" recently. Con men the lot of them.  Give you half the facts and try to take all your money. It's almost as bad as the record industry.

I used to ring up my insurance  companies if the renewal went up, to see if they will reduce it, but nowadays I just do a quick comparison search each year and go with who I think is the cheapest with the best service. I'm sick of energy, car, home, photography insurances, mob contracts,  playing these farcical games and now treat them all the same. Home insurance takes a little longer, but the other comparisons can be done in less time than it takes to ring your existing suppliers. I'm obviously old school and expect loyalty discount (or at least not a large price hike), but that's obviously not the way now. 

I'm less inclined to bounce around on home insurance because I am with a supplier who states in writing that I have the cover I require to fully replace contents. Important for valuable stuff like HiFi/AV, music, clothes and jewlery.  It should not be necessary to cover things like this under a different policy and I will pay more for what appears to be better cover. But I'll never be totally passive. Car insurance is different. It's like buying fish fingers as long as all the basics are covered.

Harry posted: 

I've been sorting out a couple of pensions with "financial advisors" recently. Con men the lot of them.  Give you half the facts and try to take all your money. It's almost as bad as the record industry.

I used to use financial advisors up to 10 years ago. Always took their advice and always felt something was slightly not 100% efficient (if that makes sense). At that point, my mortgage tie-in came to an end and they advised me on a new one. I Googled deals and found some that were dramatically better and couldn't see any downsides or catches in the small print. It was easily the correct decision and gave me the confidence to look at my other finances and do all my own research. I changed my pension funds and a started shares isa. looking back, it was the best thing I could have done. Yes, I've found all financial advisors a complete waste of time. I can't think of any time they've benefited me. I've saved a lot and my all funds have performed way better than the advisors' choices.

I used to do the annual websearch for cheaper rates, but 4 years ago went back to using one of our local insurance brokers, and got a cheaper quote.   Finished up with AGEAS insurance.  Would you believe they actually REDUCED my premium this year?  Cost me only £330 for fully comprehensive (one driver only) on my now 3 year old BMW 320D.  I'd have to go and check my documents for the excess, but it's not huge.

re. One driver only.

I've found most insurance companies charge less if spouse included on policy.

can't think why, but true.

I went back to a broker for three years. I was with BMW Insurance. When we bought an Alpina, BMW Insurance didn't know what it was  and couldn't quote - LOL! We found a broker who knew more about BMWs than BMW and stayed for three years until  their best deal, tailored just for me, which they had cut to the bone and couldn't possibly be beaten was about twice as much as the identical cover I ended up buying elsewhere. It always pays to look around.

fatcat posted:

re. One driver only.

I've found most insurance companies charge less if spouse included on policy.

can't think why, but true.

Ah, but SWMBO is a non-driver, in spite of all my urging for her to learn.  

Dungassin posted:

fatcat posted:

re. One driver only.

I've found most insurance companies charge less if spouse included on policy.

can't think why, but true.

Ah, but SWMBO is a non-driver, in spite of all my urging for her to learn.  

Put her on the policy anyway .. it'll show you care.