How to save money at renewal

damian_bailey

Last year I bought a car insurance policy for our new car with Esure.co.uk, and having had no claims in the year, was invited to renew at the renewal date.

However, the renewal schedule sent to me in the post had a renewal premium of £373. A friend of mine mentioned that if you re-enter all of your details into the esure web site, they will quote you a premium which is substantially cheaper than the renewal premium. I did so, and the premium quoted for the same car and same drivers was £325. A saving of almost £50.

Questions:
Is this fair?
How does the company justify this? Surely it costs them less to offer an existing customer a renewal than it does to process a new customer.
Are other companies doing the same? My inkling is that they are.
Would readers be interested to discover this money-saving trick?
Is it limited to car insurance, or shall we play the same game with house insurance too?

stormCat99

We've had exactly the same problem. Both with Elephant and Admiral, the renewal quote is always ridiculous, but then if you request a 'new' quote online it is usually up to £200 cheaper!!!

It seems they value new customers greater than existing ones.

plumb1_2

further saveing here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=30898

Ted_Hutchinson

I had a similar thing with A&L caravan insurance. When I rang round for quotes their's wasn't the lowest so I cancelled my renewal, but with their letter confirming the cancellation was a 15% off voucher which would have meant they were now lower than the competition.
So if I'm in the same position next year I'll tell my current insurer's I'm not renewing and hope they do the same.

JasonW_2

Most companies do this and for the reasons you have seen. Suck in customers with a low cost for a year, then give them not so good a deal at renewal = claw some money back. Nothing to stop you going with the cheapest quote though. They do make it harder for themselves though.

JW