Car Insurance Renewal

albionrovers

My new car due in September is dropping 3 x insurance groups, from 12 down to 9. My policy runs from May => May. I plan to stay with Direct Line.

Anyone out there know if it's cheaper to :

1 - Cancel the old policy, get my partial refund and start a new policy from September => September.
2 - Take the adjustment figure that they offer me and keep May => May.

I bet the 2 figures won't be the same. :mad:

Thanks.

ArsenalFC

No one will know this unless u call your insurance company to find out.

Wig

Ask your insurer (without mentioning the complication of the 12 to 9 scenario) just say you might need to cancel on Sept 31 whatever...
Ask them what refund you will be given on such and such date. = £A Then ask them how they arrived at that figure, i.e. what charges have been included.

Then when the group has fallen i.e. in September obtain a new online quote before cancelling your existing policy.

Divide the new quote by 12 and mutiply by the number of months you have remaining on your existing policy as of Sept ?? should be about 7 months
= £B

If £A is greater than £B you will save the difference.
If A is less than B you will lose that amount.

If you do find that you can save money by doing this, I would then recommend that you phone direct line and ask for "retentions" Tell them your plan to obtain a saving. Then tell them that you are prepared to stay with them if and only if they do not charge you the one months premium cancellation charge that they most likely will have factored into £A

Thus you will make £A an even bigger amount, saving you more money.

If they don't play ball at first, just remind them that you could cancel and change insurer (for a similar renewal premium) and still be saving money. So they will lose you.

Insurers want to retain good customers, they pay a lot of money in referral fees to get new customers, so once they have them they want to keep them. If you have a plan that will save you money they will eventually agree to your demands that the fee be waived in order for you to stay with them.

It benefits both parties, they get to keep you, and you don't have the hassle of starting fresh with someone else.

The amount of times I have asked insurers to waive a fee, and they have said "I can't do that" then I threaten to leave them if they do not waive the fee, eventually they have ALWAYS waived the fee, you just have to be persistant and ask to speak to someone who is authorised to waive the fee. If they claim there is no one who can, ask them for their retentions department, and start again.


If they ever refused to waive a fee for me, I would on principle leave them and take my business elsewhere (It hasn't happened yet). I do not agree to fees on insurance changes. And if everyone does what I do we wouldn't have the fees anymore.

raskazz

Wig wrote: »

And if everyone does what I do we wouldn't have the fees anymore.

No fees = higher premiums for everyone. I don't want to subsidise others who make changes to their policy, thanks.

Wig

That's a myth, competition keeps premiums to the minimum. You've also been hoodwinked into believing there is a significant cost to make a change to a policy, it takes a couple of minutes on the phone to make a change, the computer does the rest. Don;t talk about call centres, the call centres have always been there and probably always will. And if they wanted to eliminate a lot of the traffic to their call centres they could allow online policy changes and cancellations, again the computer does virtually all the work - no significant cost involved.

The alternative arguement is that I don't want to subsidise your low premiums by having any changes charged for extortionately.

nickj_2

my last renewal from direct line was £100 dearer than the cheapest equivelent on a comparison.com etc , i rang them up to see if they could better it and they knocked off £80 - why they didn't give me that to start with is anyones guess
i've just renewed my house ins with sheilas wheels who were £160 cheaper

banger9365

because they like making money for doing nowt and because most poeple do not shop around like they should

stugib

I've been with DL for about 5 years, and when I've moved to a 'better' area or got a lower insurance group car, I've never had a refund back from them, even though the premium should be lower. I just wait until the next renewal date and if it's not gone down I'd go elsewhere if cheaper.

In fact last time I did it a couple of months ago my documents said there was a £10.51 reduction in premium because of the car change, with a £10.51 amendment fee. Can't win!