Saga lie

home_alone

I have both my car and home insured with Saga and as my house insurance is up for renewal next week I thought I would shop around to see if Saga were competitive. I tried 3 other firms and Saga came out 3rd, before doing anything I contacted Saga to price challenge as they say they will beat all other like quotes, I asked them if they could they said no, bye bye Saga, by the way best quote was from RIAS.

gary

Ted_Hutchinson

It's a pity you didn't follow the advice Martin Provides here while I'm sure you may think that getting the best of 3 quotes is a good idea I suspect that putting you details in both the comparators Martin links to, and them following up on the supplementary advice will beat whatever quote you currently have.

Saved me a good bit and I thought I was pretty clued up on how to get a bargain but the fact remains Martin really does know his stuff.

Froglet

Have just renewed hubby's car insurance with Saga,they price matched a better quote.I then got them to quote for mine and they were really competitive,by about £45 .They also charge only a very small amount for admin if you need to change any details mid term.Something worth bearing in mind when you shop around,as some charge a great deal,wiping out any savings.

I have done my home insurance with Rias for two years running as they did work out the cheapest,but they were much dearer for the cars.It is interesting that it varies so much for us all.

Some of the companies i rang were really pushy and i did not like dealing with them.Saga by contrast were really friendly and helpful.

Ted_Hutchinson

What I don't understand is why you have an objection to using Marin's advice Get the shopping around done automatically via: InsureSupermarket* and Confused.com* More...
he really has done his homework and it really does let you see the best quotes based on the same information from far more firms than anyone would ever compare by phone. The prices really do vary enormously and until you've tried you really won't be convinced. I started off with a quote about £480 for my new car and using Martin's advice ended up paying £154.

You really do need to get the lowest price from the price comparators before you start haggling. My original price £480 was from my current insurer. The lowest onscreen price was £174 but with Martins POSTOFFICE tip I chose a £204 plus £50 cashback, so down to £154. If I'd just picked 3 at random I doubt I would have found anything as cheap as I ended up with.

home_alone

Its not rocket science and I do not do haggle they either beat or match my lowest or its goodnight Irene, final quote was 70+ cheaper and not all companies are acceptable to me because of house size and limits they impose but thanks all the same. Cars are pretty much the same, restrictions most companies impose on my car only leaves a handful of them.

gary

Ted_Hutchinson

home_alone wrote:

Its not rocket science and I do not do haggle they either beat or match my lowest or its goodnight Irene, final quote was 70+ cheaper and not all companies are acceptable to me because of house size and limits they impose but thanks all the same. Cars are pretty much the same, restrictions most companies impose on my car only leaves a handful of them.


gary

What underlies rocket science is the intelligent use of computers. The fact that you choose to avoid rocket science and the benefits of a computer searching through all the possible online providers, means you cannot be certain you've found the actual cheapest best provider available.

If they all have the same information on which to provide a quote then you are (providing you read the small print,) comparing like with like. In the end I had a choice between a Norwich Union policy via one broker or the same Norwich Union policy from a different broker but as the policy was identical from the same Insurance Company it was a simple decision but the time taken to fill in the online comparators is minimal and is probably less than the time you took to give all the information over the phone.
Look at the chart Here and you will see how little time it takes and how many more providers you would have had quotes from.

I also don't understand your "take it or leave it " policy. I think it's only polite to ring the company you previously dealt with and give them a chance to reconsider their quote in the light of the lowest provider you are considering moving to. If more people did this then prices would come down. You don't have to be aggressive or even cheaky but there's thing that's certain, "If you don't ask you won't get" and if it's not a big deal they may well be prepared to put themselves out to retain your custom.

I'm sure they would rather try to meet your request, than have you moan about them online. Do try next time round and you may well be more than pleasantly surprised.

home_alone

I did return to Saga to see if they could at least match my lowest quote they went away and a few seconds later came back and said no. It would be impossible to say if you have the lowest quote available due to the amount of insurance companies and brokers that abound, as I had a reasonable renewal quote from Saga I knew that to beat it the saving would not be in the hundreds. The use of IT in your search will give you ideas of the savings that could be had but there is no better weapon than a personal person to person talk on the phone to get that little bit more, computor quotes a final.
You mention Norwich Union they undercut Saga by £50 pounds and they underwrite for Saga.

Ted, you make assumptions that I have not tried various methods of selection you are wrong I give myself about a day to research and thats it, at my time of life its not what I want to be doing I find it tedious.

gary - have a nice day everyone

missile

I have never gotten a decent quote from Saga for any of their insurance products - waste of a phone call IMHO worse still you end up with more junk mail than reader's digest

Mike_S_8

I've enquired about Saga "products" - a number of times. You can usually find equivalent deals, at lower cost, if you hunt for them. And you don't have to look much further afield.

mike_the_bike_2

I think they've been rumbled..My experiences when trying to get quotes for things like travel insurance and home insurance for my mother who is in her 80's is that Saga were extremely expensive..I suspect that in the past and probably now they rely on their "friendly pensioner image" to get a lot of their business

home_alone

I did have both car and Home with Saga, although getting quotes from them for many years they were not competitive until about 2 years ago when they gave me quotes that were extremely low, was this the "hook" because they are climbing up the ladder again around £70 off lowest quote (in my case) this year for my home the car is due about 4 months time.

gary