Absolutely appalled

brynm

Yesterday I received my annual car insurance renewal quotation. To say extortion is too mild. The cost has hiked £174.19. (I don't think my pension will rise that amount). This was from the NFU who I have been with for years. I run a very old car, social and domestic use. I have never in over forty years driving, had an accident or claim. Well NFU if thats the best YOU can do Bye Bye! and good riddance.

Loyalty out of the window. Thanks to this site I have secured insurance with another company, slightly higher than last year, but not robbing me blind.

I did ring the NFU in case of mistakes etc. The waffle and excuses were unbelievable. Is it any wonder people can't afford to insure their cars when the cost of insurance outweighs the worth of the car. Yeah, get it crushed, buy another - cheaper than insuring for a year. Just insure for a month to tax it and 'Run the Gauntlet!'

Surely the way to encourage people to insure is to make the thing affordable. How long will it take for some 'bright spark new clean-sweeper') in government to come up with this revolutionary idea. Durrrrrrr.

_Andy_

Shame on those nasty insurance companies for daring to make a profit.

DCFC79

_Andy_ wrote: »

Shame on those nasty insurance companies for daring to make a profit.

how very dare they make a profit ?

_Andy_

Exactly. We all know it makes perfect business sense to put your prices down year on year. Or keep them the same even if your costs are rising.

triticale

1. Loyalty is for family and friends. Insurance companies do not care about loyalty.

2. Nobody should ever accept a renewal quote.

3. If you can't afford to insure a car then you can't afford to run a car. It is not a right.

4. Welcome to the forum.

catgil

Stupid answers. Don't let it put you off posting here again :beer:

dunstonh

1. Loyalty is for family and friends. Insurance companies do not care about loyalty.

Consumers do not care about loyalty either. It works both ways.

Is it any wonder people can't afford to insure their cars when the cost of insurance outweighs the worth of the car.

So, when someone in a £600 car causes an accident that writes off three cars costing £50,000 each and injures someone causing say £800,000 of payout or kills another causing multi million pound payouts, you think that the value of the car really makes a difference?

Surely the way to encourage people to insure is to make the thing affordable.

Seeing as it is largely loss making currently and has required cross subsidy for many years (which worked for a while in the growth years but that benefit has been lost since the credit crunch), how would you make it cheaper?

Also, you do not insure with NFU to have the cheapest. You insure with NFU because you want quality cover and options and good service that do not exist on the cheapest plans.

InsideInsurance

triticale wrote: »

1. Loyalty is for family and friends. Insurance companies do not care about loyalty.

Insurers do care about loyalty, retained business is much more profitable than winning new business.

A former mass market client aimed at the mass market about 3 years ago calculated that to win a new business motor policy cost them in the region of £130. A renewal customer cost on average about £8.

That's all before you factor in the fact that the longer someone stays the more inert/ elastic they become and so the more likely they are to stay each year.

The "problem" as has already been pointed out, is that insurers are there to make money and they try/ do complex calculations to balance premium -v- retention to get the optimal return.

opinions4u

A former mass market client aimed at the mass market about 3 years ago calculated that to win a new business motor policy cost them in the region of £130. A renewal customer cost on average about £8.

Do they charge new customers £122 less?

InsideInsurance

They certainly charge new customers less even though the cost they represent is higher - from memory I'd guess it was about £70 less if everything else was equal, so to the company they effectively get an average of £200 less on the bottom line compared to a renewing customer.

Somerset

triticale wrote: »

Nobody should ever accept a renewal quote.

I always thought the same, but yesterday I 'sorted' my insurance on a car insured by Sheila's Wheels due for renewal at the end of the month. Duly did my confused.com thing/TCB cashback review. Checked my renewal premium - it was slightly cheaper than the second best quote (first was first central - ignored) and bizaarely it was also cheaper than their own 'new customer' quote.

First time it's ever happened.