Should I complain?

avantra

Yesterday I gave my insurer (Direct Choice brokers) a call to make few changes to my policy: 1. I've passed the British driving test (I drove on my international license for the last 9 month) 2. I am moving to sunny Stroud from Liverpool. 3. My girlfriend (2nd driver went back to work).

I was told that my insurance policy with Allianz Cornhill for my old 1.4 Almera is going to shoot up by £250 to the round sum of £488, well .. I said should I cancel and look for a new insurer.. Yes said the agent on the other line, let me check other policys for you, we represent a panel of 30 insurers.. Waiting on the line (0844) number for 14 minutes!!! Than she comes with another policy from Fortis which is about £20 cheaper than my current one (£218 compare to £238).

Now I am 36 years old with a clean license (and my girlfriend too) and I drive now for 18 years on my USA license (9 month in the UK), how surprised I was that the premium will go up and not down once I have a full UK license.

Anyway I said to the agent how much will I have to pay in order to cancel my current policy..? £68 she said.

As I really had no other choice I had to take this cold dinner she gave me and cancel with AC and take the "best deal" from Fortis. + Another 10 min of lousy music on 0844 number while she was “processing my payment”)

The interesting thing is that later I called AC directly and they quoted me only £16 more on top of my current policy.

I feel cheated and out of pocket as I had to pay a lump sum of £68 cancellation fee + a deposit for the new policy.

Is there any cheap way out of this? By going to Confused.com I was quoted the lowly figure of £156/year by another broker (Budget).

Astaroth

Not all insurers will recognise driving experience gained in other countries (and then they are selective on which countries they recognise) - you would have to check with the insurers you picked up on Confused to make sure that they would recognise the previous experience and wouldnt require you to be rated on someone who has just passed their test.

The only way out is to cancel the policy, pay the fee and move elsewhere but from your post it seems you have already taken out a new policy.

avantra

Well I did take another policy (one that recognise my experience but not as cheap as confused.com).
I gave Choice Direct a call and they said that the different between the quote they get and the quote the same insurer gives directly to customers is big indeed, and reflects a very poor value for money, they waived half the cancellation fee in order to keep me.

I kept my business with them even though it's £50 dearer than the confused.com as I can't be on the phone all day. Needless to say I will not stay with them once I'll get a newer car, which I consider buying in the near future.

Is this a lesson to me? I think it is, I will stay off brokers and deal directly with the insurers, and I might get a better deal!

Astaroth

It can go either way... some people get the best deal from brokers others from direct insurers (some insurers only sell through brokers).

It is always worth checking what the admin/ cancellation fees for a policy are as it is fairly common for the insurers who consistantly maintain the lowest quotes to charge the highest fees so if you are the sort of person that changes their details a fair amount it can be cheaper not to take the lowest quote.