Budget Insurance Renewal

Maharishi

This is weird, although I'll bet that I am not the first person to come across this anomaly...

The Scenario;

I received a renewal letter from Budget Insurance for my van asking for £211.99. 12 months ago I paid £154. My circumstances have not changed one iota save for the fact that I am now one year older, (obviously). I am retired and do less than 5000 miles per annum and the purpose is social domestic and pleasure only. That translates as 'taking garden rubbish to the local tip every so often'.

Having run the usual searches advised on this brilliant site, the best price is £138.24, with the second best at £151. Guess who is the top search? Yep - good old Budget! So I rang their freephone number, (courtesy of saynoto0870.com), and asked the chap to cancel my renewal, as they automatically charge your card otherwise, and why was their online renewal so very much cheaper. He didn't know. Mumbled something about a 'new customer discount that I shouldn't be getting now'. (Been with them for 6 years). He then said that if I could buy it cheaper online to go ahead and do so.

So I think I'll lapse my policy on Sep 4th and then take out this policy for £138 on Sep 5th, (or even 6th if I am not needing to go anywhere on the 5th), therefore making a gap in the policies. What I don't want, of course, is to renew at £138 and then get charged £211 down the line.

Any thoughts or advice please?

Quentin

You are doing the right thing.

When you give them your instruction to lapse ask them to confirm back to you in writing.

Maharishi

Quentin wrote: »

You are doing the right thing.

When you give them your instruction to lapse ask them to confirm back to you in writing.

Ah, damn. Didn't think to ask for that. Just done verbally during the phone call. I guess that credit cards give some form of protection if an erroneous charge appears...

Quentin

You can still ask them to confirm this back to you.

We see lots of posts where call centres deny getting telephone instructions!

Maharishi

Quentin wrote: »

You can still ask them to confirm this back to you.

We see lots of posts where call centres deny getting telephone instructions!

Are they likely to try to charge for written confirmation?

Quentin

No.

To do belt and braces, you could always send them a recorded delivery confirmation (unless you already have some watertight details of your phone call - eg. date/time/name/extension number/ref number of conversation etc )

Maharishi

Just a final follow up to this.

I let my policy lapse for one complete day and then re-did my search. In the end went with Swinton who were just about the same price as Budget. Paid £141 as opposed to £211 for IDENTICAL cover.

Great saving there and perhaps something that I will now do every year forward.

Kindest regards to you all...

InsideInsurance

Maharishi wrote: »

In the end went with Swinton who were just about the same price as Budget. Paid £141 as opposed to £211 for IDENTICAL cover.

Search on this forum for peoples views on Swinton, extra charges they find to apply etc and you may work out why they are cheaper.... hopefully you wont have those problems though

rs65

Maharishi wrote: »

I let my policy lapse for one complete day and then re-did my search.

There was no need for a 1 day gap. You should have continuous cover.

dalesrider

Maharishi wrote: »

Ah, damn. Didn't think to ask for that. Just done verbally during the phone call. I guess that credit cards give some form of protection if an erroneous charge appears...

Yes. So long as you have cancelled it could be chargedback.

But we always advise that when actioning a c/b on ins. That you could end up having to declare a cancelled ins policy.

Maharishi

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Search on this forum for peoples views on Swinton, extra charges they find to apply etc and you may work out why they are cheaper.... hopefully you wont have those problems though

Sounds like I need to be careful here then...