Insurance renewal a joke, always shop around.

paddedjohn

I know most people do shop around when its time to renew their car/van insurance but there must be some who dont bother, this thread is a reminder to them to wake up and save cash.

Just got my renewal notice from Gladiator Insurance (part of Admiral) and it was up to £471 from £300 last year, I phoned them and after a bit of toing and froing we ended up at £447.

I went online and lo and behold I find a price for exactly the same cover off Gladiator for £290, a saving of £157 but they were still dearer than Direct line who quoted £245 so by doing a little research I saved over £200.:D

Moral of the story, shop around and DONT accept the renewal quote.;)

CKhalvashi

My renewal quote has been the same as the new customer quote for the last few years, and this has worked out cheapest (I'm youngish, driving a 275bhp car, previous 2 cars were 200bhp, insured for 100k mi/yr).

This isn't with a specialist insurer, believe it or not, it's through the bank:eek:. I ran the quote through after the EC ruling, and for the first time since I left teaching, my insurance is sub-£1k!

It is, however, important to shop around

CK

paddedjohn

My vehicle of choice is my Van and putting my wife as a named driver saved me £17 even though she will never drive it.

busicat

paddedjohn wrote: »

Just got my renewal notice from Gladiator Insurance (part of Admiral) and it was up to £471 from £300 last year, I phoned them and after a bit of toing and froing we ended up at £447.

I went online and lo and behold I find a price for exactly the same cover off Gladiator for £290, a saving of £157 but they were still dearer than Direct line who quoted £245 so by doing a little research I saved over £200.:D

I noticed a Guardian journalist talking about the Insurance Fraud Register which started last year. He suggested the above overcharging of existing customers falls in the same category as fraud. Maybe he's right that the time has come to get a register of insurers doing what you've described. But then it wouldn't be as good for active switchers.



There's market pressure on car insurers to price at a discount to attract new customers as it's such a fiercely competitive market and most people making an active choice pick the cheapest. And the mad thing is that for 17 year in a row, UK car insurers have been running at a loss overall. So while enough people (probably 85%) haven't the energy or time to switch (or re-apply as if an new customer) every year, which is a real pain, it will keep seeming to make sense to compete for market share by underquoting for new business and overquoting for existing business, unless something changes.


In the Gladiator example, the real price with them averages out at £444 if 85% don't switch. Average claims ratios in UK suggest £342 of that is needed towards claims. So even with zapping costs of dealing with the unnecessary 15% switchers' activity, just guessing, the premium can only drop to around £400 for new and existing to pay the same.



So maybe it's better for us money activists to keep the status quo and get over 50% off every year, thanks to the majority subsidising us by paying an extra 20%??:cool:

GolfBravo

Received our renewal quote this morning from Citroen Insurance for our family shopping buggy (C5 estate).

It is up to £871(!) from £485 last year. 6 years NCB, no claims, no accidents. Been with them for 5 years now, usually renewal quotes were up/down each year within £20.

Hahaha! Ringing them tomorrow to cancel.

AXA are quoting £438 including EU roadside cover, 28 days courtesy car, and legal cover.

Gra76

My renewal came through from LV a couple of months ago and it was cheaper than anyone else after checking all the comparison sites and going direct to the few that weren't on there. It was even a couple of pounds cheaper than their own online quote which was odd.

Long may it carry on. It does obviousl pay to shop around most of the time though, just wasn't any point for me this year.

System

RIAS house renewal quote (with L&G) £540
L&G online quote £234
AXA online quote £192.

I rang up RIAS and the best they could do at L&G was £450. I asked why they marked up the same policy by 100% and they said "Overheads" !

I'm going with AXA.

System

9 years NCB
Comparison site offered a renewal of £574. £600 saving from previous year.
My current insurer was second on that list for £1 more. Decided to hang about and see what their actual renewal offer would be. Otherwise getting them to price match or cancelling and renewing as a new customer would have been the plan.
6 days before the comparison website offer was due to expire. I called my insurer to price match the offer on the comparison site because their actually renewal was £989. Thats a £200 saving from the previous year. Whoppdidoo!
When I called, they said they couldn't honour the comparison sites £575 price due system failure etc. Plus when they went through my details with me over the phone there was a discrepancy between what the comparison site asks you and what it means to the insurer.
All in all they offered me £808 in the end.

I said no thanks. Cancelled my renewal.
Paid in full to the cheaper insurer (turns out to be their sister company), and sat back.
Turns out I sat back too far because I had a car accident 5 days later.
When making the claim my current insurer, re-instated my account and gave me a new renewal of......£1300. £100 more than the previous year.
And took away five years of unprotected NCB! FIVE years!!
I wasn't having that at all.

I updated my claims details with the sister company and thank god, they said my premium wouldn't increase even though the crash was decided to be my fault, somehow.
I think this is due to paying in full, that they didn't decide to increase the premium.
In the end I've saved close to £700 on the previous year.... and this year!
Moral of my story?
Don't crash your car.
Pay in full if you can.
Keep an eye on NCB claims policy changes.
Shop around.
And keep proof or a paper trail, for quick referencing later on.
Oh and don't speak to them on the phone when it comes to policy details.

rs65

RedEye2008 wrote: »

I updated my claims details with the sister company and thank god, they said my premium wouldn't increase even though the crash was decided to be my fault, somehow.

The premium didn't increase despite NCB dropping from 9 years to 4 years?

Who is the sister company?

mickgrimes

I personally can't stand any branches of the Admiral company. They once told me, and this is a genuine word for word comment from the highest manager working at Admiral at the time that " If you where to put a Volkswagen badge on a Ford, technically it would be classed by us as a Volkswagen and therefore insured as such"

I'd explain the whole situation that made them say this but it would take too long to type. I'd never recommend anyone to a subsidiary of Admiral, a joke of a company.

forgotmyname

Alternate situation insured with Direct Line for many years, Then they tried increasing the premiums to silly levels. 1st year they dropped the price back down. 2nd year they wouldnt budge.

I was curious this year and got a quote off them. Almost £1000 when my renewal premium was under £500.