First Direct Car Insurance 10% guarantee

dacouch

See how helpful Lewis is when you get the ERS renewal through next year as the true premium eg without the new customer discount.

notafan

Hlog wrote: »

First time I called the First Direct Colchester call center got a lady who was singularly unhelpful, so I was going to give up with them. A few hours later I thought, what the hell, i'll give them one more go. This time got a guy called Lewis, Mr Customer Service personified - polite, knowledgeable and helpful. He sorted the discount - 10% less than my Aviva renewal as promised, I was surprised because I hadn't been able to beat my renewal quote after hours of following the Martin Lewis method but I really wanted to leave Aviva after experiencing their appalling customer service (They tried to pull the old 'We never got copies of your renewal docs showing 9 years NCD, so we'll just help ourselves to another £500 from your credit card' Despite the fact I had their letter in my hand stating 'Thank you for sending us your renewal doc's' their Indian call centre said such a letter 'did not exist' - but that's for another forum, suffice it to repeat what has been said many times on this consumer site and others - avoid Aviva!) Anyway to cut a long story short my advice when calling Direct Line car insurance - Ask to speak to Lewis!

First Direct don't have a Colchester call centre, there's one in Leeds or Hamilton.

The insurance is just branded as first direct on the web but as I'm sure other people have already mentioned its done through another company 'equity red star' who by all accounts have appalling reviews when it comes to claiming. Although they were pretty professional sounding when I spoke to them i didn't use them because i needed to swap a driver on my policy and they would only offer to beat the quote by 10% on the exact same details of the renewal, they wouldn't accept the new price from my insurer with the amendment because it wasn't the original renewal.

Suppose the moral is if your wanting to make any changes for the upcoming year on your car insurance do a month before with your current insurer before the renewal pack is sent to you, that way if you want to you can still take advantage of the FD 10% better.

nettynettynetty

The offer is good, they genuinely knock 10% off your renewal price - and if you have 2 cars to insure then they will do 10% off the cheaper one, and 15% off the most expensive.
Excess etc. has to be the same as your renewal terms - and no knocking a few squid off your renewal price as they will want the paperwork sending to them once the policy is in place. So if you have skimmed as bit off the top you'll end up paying it back!

Twosheds55

I remember phoning them years ago, with their promise to beat my renewal - they couldn't. I thought i'd give them another go this year, and tried online, and this time they have beaten it by 10%. This is for an Accord Type R, so high insurance group, haven't gone through with it yet, thought i'd give my firm a chance to beat it. But so far its about £100 cheaper than anyone else (excpet my renewal)

Hope the customer service isn't as bad as people have said, but tbh when i get insurance i only want the cheapest, as long as its legal!

CockneyBrum

I'm caught up in a similar mess with them. There was nothing in the original covering letter when you joined to say that you needed to send them your proof of NCB, which is the case with other insurers.

Whilst out of the country, they sent us several threatening letters saying we hadn't sent the proof and the premium had now increased by over £300 as a result.

Upon sending them proof of NCB when we returned to the UK, they now say that the price I bought the policy at (£199) wasn't valid because I was asked to input my current renewal price (not best quote, which is what I took it to mean) when you are in the process of buying insurance from them.

First time I've ever had that happen and have now cancelled the policy with them.

Won't be going back ever again for any of their services.

techs

Thanks for the link. It did what it said and saved me 10% even after fiddling with my quote and reducing my excess. From £300 to £270. I wish I had said my renewal was only £250 or summat. Defo worth a shot.
techs.

lizb3112

Only saved 5% on my renewal but as my renewal was the cheapest quote I'd got First Direct were still the cheapest.
:beer:

JParker

As promised First Direct beat my car insurance renewal quote by 10%, so I went back to Saga and they beat that quote by £1. deal done £41.60p saved. :j

sezzie24

They have quoted me 10% cheaper than my renewal which is great because I tried all the comparison sites first and nothing came close.

I'm currently with Tesco, going to ring them tomorrow and see if they can beat it. Last time Tesco couldn't beat the renewal quotes I'd found from comparison sites so they gave the equivalent difference in clubcard vouchers which was even better.

helphelphelphelp

Firast Direct beat my renewal premium by 10%, but I got my previous insurer to give me their best price in writing first (which was £30 better than their original renewal price) so was able to get 10% off that, saving more money which I was pleased about.