New car policy via Quidco instead of renewing?

ericthelobster

Got a motor insurance renewal quote from esure, which having checked around, still represents the best deal for me.

However, I notice that if I were to take out a completely new esure policy via the quidco cashback site, I'll get a quidco cashback of 45 quid!

So the obvious query arises - is there any reason why I can't just let my old esure policy lapse and start up a new one?;)

davetrousers

That's the way I'd do it. How much is a 'new' quote with esure rather than the renewal quote?

ericthelobster

davetrousers wrote: »

That's the way I'd do it. How much is a 'new' quote with esure rather than the renewal quote?

The new quote was £242, versus £280 for identical cover on the renewal docs (yeah, go figure!), but esure have already said they'd honour the lower price if I renew the existing policy. Obviously that way I wouldn't get the extra quidco £45 though. So, just wondering whether there was any reason not to start up the new policy?

lisyloo

There are a few.
I could be out of date on this but these points are worth checking.

Esure used to start "new" customers with 5 years NCB, so you can only go up to 10 if you are a renewal customer.
Some of their fees used to be higher in th first year.

The third thing to note is that you'd be getting a "new customer" discount that you are not entitled to. I have not heard of it happening but there is a small risk they could demand it back (depending on what basis it is given).

So you have to check out whether these risks are valid and whether it's worth taking the risk for £45.

lopbri

Not sure they would pay out, as has been pointed out you are not a NEW policy holder , just renewing, tread carefully

lisyloo

Not sure they would pay out, as has been pointed out you are not a NEW policy holder , just renewing, tread carefully

From what I've picked up on these boards (raskazz in particualr) they would not be able to refuse to pay out, but they could certanly ask for the discount back if it's given on a false basis.

I think you have to consider both morally and otherwise whether it's worth taking this risk.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for insurers who treat new customers better than loyal ones, but if the discount is given on the basis of being a new cutomer then you are obtaining it on a false basis.

ericthelobster

All very weird.

I decided to take a punt on getting the quidco discount, so visited esure again via quidco in order to take out a new policy - taking care to use a different PC to avoid any cookie conflicts, and entering all my data into esure from scratch.

However, the quote came back this time as £274! Huh? That's gone up by £32 since last night! So I'm wondering whether they've detected the quidco thingy and bumped up the quote to compensate... to check, I quit and enter all the details yet again, not going through quidco, and guess what? Gone up to £290!! Sheesh... Ok, one more time, not via quidco again - this time it's £281.

Just what's going on? I'm absolutely sure I entered all the details correctly, ie for identical levels of cover, excesses etc, so how can they vary so much? Do they just pick a number out of the air?

Anyway - I can't get near to the original 'new' quote of £242 which I got yesterday, and thankfully saved, so I thought fine, I'll just forget quidco and just accept that price over the phone (which the renewal team have already said they'd match)... So I've just phoned esure to do that, and today's operator says to me, "Sorry, no can do; if you want to get the lower new customer /online price, you'll just need to let your current policy lapse and take out a new one."

Hahahahaha....

So I've done just that. (In fact I opened yesterday's saved quote of £242 via the quidco site, so although I'm not holding my breath for a cashback, you never know!!)

Sunnyday

Strangely enough i had exactly the same happen to me with esure & quidco.

In the end i didn`t use esure, i went with another insurer instead which was only a couple of pounds more expensive.
The multiple different quotes with esure put me off.
SD