esure car insurance renewal def worth a read

chayam

I recently shopped around for my renewal on my car isurance currently with Esure using confused.com and Esure came out the best with £70 cheaper like for like.
when I phoned Esure to find out why they were charging me more on my renewal than what the internet had quoted,
they said that the quote was for new customers not exsiting even though the car details are the same, so if I wanted this quote I need to cancel the old with them and start again as a new customer!! How strange,

lisyloo

You should be aware that there may be some differences if you deciede to become a "new" customer rather than a renewing one.

Firstly the max no claims for new customers is 70% but max for existing customers is 75%.
Secondly there is (or was) a fee for cancellation in the first year that doesn't apply in subsequent years.

It may still be worth being a "new" customer to save the money but you should investigate and be aware that there may be some downsides as above (note that my information could be out of date but hopefully you get the general idea).

chayam

Thanks for that I have investigated what you stated and with all that I still saved money it really was just a case of swapping the policy numbers over, when I asked esure why the extra £70 for exsiting customers she couldn't explain and laughed.

Shimrod

I was in the same situation with Esure a couple of years ago, with an online quote some £90 less than my renewal. I took out the policy on line rather than renewing (actually ended up doing it over the phone at the online price as there was a problem with the website).

Although you don't get the extra 1% discount for renewing this way, if you phone up after you get the new policy and quote your old policy number to them, they will actually maintain your 'number of years insured with Esure', so you have the potential to get an exta 2% discount with them for renewal the following year. In my case, it still worked out far cheaper to switch to another insurer!

Shim

Mikeyorks

lisyloo wrote:

You should be aware that there may be some differences if you deciede to become a "new" customer rather than a renewing one.

It may still be worth being a "new" customer to save the money but you should investigate and be aware that there may be some downsides as above (note that my information could be out of date but hopefully you get the general idea).

Very good point - and your information reflects my experiences, over the last 2 years, with them.

I inadvertently became a 'new' customer of Esure when, on my 3rd annual renewal with them I rang to pay (self and OH policies) in a lump sum .... rather than the instalments quoted. They made a total meal out of it .. and quoted increases of 20% on my premium and 22% for the OH ... simply for paying there and then. Which they quickly said they would 'refund' when I said they were being ridiculous and I'd go elsewhere.

But the net effect is that they had opened new policies for both of us, with commensurate loss of NCD - simply to pay in one sum. And the impact of that only became clear when I eventually sorted out the 7 envelopes full of papers that arrived from them over the next 10 days.

Cutting it short .... it has taken me 2 years to sort out the mess they made. And that only after I threatened to go to the Ombudsman. I now operate my policies via a direct number I have to one of their complaints people .. and will have to continue that for the next 2 years.Esure have had to admit they cannot rectify the errors their operative created within the database for our policies. And they now manually create the documents to give the right number of NCD years - and hence the correct price. Astonishingly they remain competitive for me - and I'm fearful to move in case of a repeat performance!

So it's wise indeed to say ..... be very careful before you become a 'new' customer .. for the 2nd time. It can bite.