Legality of existing customers applying online for insurance renewal

gwapenut

Hi
Looking to renew MoreTHAN pet insurance, but new customer prices are much cheaper than renewal premium.

Where do you stand if you apply online via their website for a new policy, rather than accept the renewal? I see no boxes saying "I am not an existing customer" but I don't want them to be able to wriggle ...

MarkyMarkD

Obviously it's not illegal. As long as you correctly answer every question they ask, job done.

zzzLazyDaisy

When I renewed my house insurance this year, I pointed out to the nice man in the phone that the quoted renewal premium was TWICE the cost of me taking out a 'new' policy online... on his suggestion I cancelled the automatic renewal and accepted the online quote.

InsideInsurance

Unless there is a statement in the T&Cs or Assumptions that you are not an existing customer then you're good to go.

Many insurer's don't do anything to stop customers from doing this and those that are trying to stop people from doing it are doing it with Tech rather than T&Cs - ie it identifies you as a returning customer and either returns your renewal quote or simply refuses to quote.

huckster

gwapenut wrote: »

Hi
Looking to renew MoreTHAN pet insurance, but new customer prices are much cheaper than renewal premium.

Where do you stand if you apply online via their website for a new policy, rather than accept the renewal? I see no boxes saying "I am not an existing customer" but I don't want them to be able to wriggle ...

Make sure there are no implications on the cover for doing this. It will be a new policy and not a continuation of the previous, so make sure there are no consequences caused by taking a new policy.

bouncydog1

As it will be a new policy any pre-existing conditions will be excluded.

zzzLazyDaisy

That is a very good point. TBH where pet insurance is concerned my main focus is to ensure that the insurance is a lifetime policy and not limited to a specific number of claims/treatments for any one condition.

M&S used to have a great policy but after a few years they changed it to a much more restricted policy. I was okay as I'd made no claims and my fairly young cat was healthy, so I changed provider. But a lot of owners were stuck with a more expensive and less generous package because their animals had developed conditions which would not be covered if they changed provider.

I am now with AXA - the premium is reasonable and hasn't altered much since I first took it out. TBH I don't shop around as good cover is more important to me.

gwapenut

Thanks everyone for your replies, all good common sense and helpful.

I do think with pet insurance the continuation of life cover is sometimes more important then the premium - but there seems to be a pattern these days of insurers pulling out of the market and penalising those who've paid higher premiums for "life" cover.

FWIW when Nationwide (who use Churchill) couldn't get anywhere near Churchill's quote for home insurance, the Nationwide lady actively encouraged me, as she couldn't offer me better, to go in as a new customer and get a new quote. I didn't even ask her about that, it was just her last ditch attempt to retain my custom.