Direct Line, and their Automatic Renewal

lemonskinny

Hi

I just wondered if any other people have experienced the following:

Last November I bought Buildings & Contents insurance (online) from Direct Line at the very reasonable price of about £170.

Yesterday the automatic renewal notification letter arrived, letting us know that unless they hear otherwise from us, our policy will renew in three weeks time, at a cost of £297 (!)

This seems a ridiculous increase (we've not made any claims), so I decided to check online. And I don't mean at a price comparison site - I mean at the Direct Line site. So I requested the exact same level of cover/excess etc as we already have, and have a quote of £173.25. Much better!

I suppose I could phone them and argue it out that I want to renew, but at the much lower quote. But I am wary of their computer system/human error mucking things up and overcharging us, so I will probably phone them to cancel the automatic renewal, then quite separately buy a new policy at the cheaper quote.

So - is this renewal rip-off a common phenomenon, does anyone know?

lemonskinny

I'm answering myself - after a quick search, I found this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1911847&highlight=direct+line+renewal+quote

so it obviously IS common practice for them to try to rip people off at renewal time.

I've just called them to cancel, and they almost fell over themselves to offer me 40% discount! That brings it down to almost the same price as I got myself online, but apparently it includes a few extras such as basic accidental insurance and id fraud assistance blah-di-blah, so I decided to stick with them for another year.

But, I made my views known (very politely!) that it is a shame that many people will simply allow the auto renewal to happen without even thinking to ring them up and query the price.

dacouch

When you went with them last year they allowed you a new customer discount to get your business which would have made their premium competitive. When the policy is due for renewal they invite on their normal prices.

You will find the same thing happens next year

dunstonh

so it obviously IS common practice for them to try to rip people off at renewal time.

How do work it out to be rip off?

Year 1 you got year 1 discount. Year 2 you dont. You are told in advance what they are going to charge and its your choice to take it or not. There is no rip off there.

It also appears that you were not comparing like for like on the other price as accidental damage is a significant difference in policy cover and can increase the premium a lot (most claims fall under accidental damage)

mudgekin

Hi

I had the same issue with Direct Line a few months ago. The renewal cost was £140 more than the original. I went online and did a price comparison and found another quote (can't remember the company ) that came in around the original which was around the £180 mark.

I discovered that they were part of the RBS group also so I called the Direct Line cancellations and told them I was cancelling as I didn't see how another arm of their group could a offer me the same cover for £180 when they quoted £290 to renew. The lady asked if I could hold for a few minutes, went away and came back offering me it for £170 to stay with direct line.

Thriftwood

I got my renewal through today from Direct Line and saw it had gone up nearly £100 - normally, I am ashamed to say , I would just renew as I never seem to have time to shop about but as I'm off work today I thought I would have a look at the comparison sites and see if I could get a better deal.

I managed to get a quote on confused.com which was £120.96 cheaper than Direct Line for exactly the same cover. I rang Direct Line to cancel and a very nice man offered to have a look at the price for me - he came back with a price that was £124.11 cheaper than the renewal price!! He was very happy to look at reducing the price for me in order to retain my custom. Needless to say I have renewed at that price - and never again will I ever accept the renewal price that is sent through the post!! :eek: And I won't hesitate next year to check prices and ring them to ask them to try again!!

£124.11 into the piggy bank for us - yay!!! :j

dtaylor84

Thriftwood wrote: »

I got my renewal through today from Direct Line and saw it had gone up nearly £100 - normally, I am ashamed to say , I would just renew as I never seem to have time to shop about but as I'm off work today I thought I would have a look at the comparison sites and see if I could get a better deal.

I managed to get a quote on confused.com which was £120.96 cheaper than Direct Line for exactly the same cover. I rang Direct Line to cancel and a very nice man offered to have a look at the price for me - he came back with a price that was £124.11 cheaper than the renewal price!! He was very happy to look at reducing the price for me in order to retain my custom. Needless to say I have renewed at that price - and never again will I ever accept the renewal price that is sent through the post!! :eek: And I won't hesitate next year to check prices and ring them to ask them to try again!!

£124.11 into the piggy bank for us - yay!!! :j

Elephant.co.uk, Admiral and Bell Direct are all owned by the same group. Every year I get a renewal document through, every year confused.com finds a different insurer in the same group giving a significantly cheaper quote. Phoning up to cancel results in them asking who I've got a cheaper quote with, and then offering to match it... Always check for a cheaper quote!

jac29

My auto renewal quote came in this week for my building and contents insurance. Increased from £500 to £750!!
Went online and got the same cover for £350 (plus £25 to come from buying it through a cashback site).
Had saved a tenner a week to pay for it so have £170 for my Christmas fund plus £25 in the new year for next Christmas......... Thanks Direct Line!!
Worth noting that they did offer to try and match what i'd found it for elsewhere!?!?!
Always worth a quick check on a price comparision site before renewing.

instaunt

lemonskinny wrote: »

So - is this renewal rip-off a common phenomenon, does anyone know?

You will probably be able to haggle them down. But remember, most companies these days have huge discounts on new customers. Their no claims bonus gets a boost in the quote process and the 10% discount for buying online normally does not cover over to the next year either.

But yes, people often fail to check their insurance renewal price and assume that the best for them last year will be the same this year.

dacouch

Is it me or are instaunt either spamming for that noclaimsdiscount site (There have been a few spammers for them before) or an avid reader of their articles?