Renewal confusion

batesy2000

Hi. Last year I took out my car insurance with Hastings Direct and this year their renewal quote is £321 which is cheaper than last year but doing a comparison on Confused.com comes up with the cheapest of......Hastings direct at £275. I have checked all details on my policy and what has been inputted into the comparison website and it matches.

My question is how can this happen and what can I do about it as obviously I'd rather pay £275.

FreddieFrugal

Morning mate, insurance companies seem to generally offer their best rates to new customer and attempt to profit from current customers not bothering to check around by bumping up rates. It is far easier for them to keep you as a customer and just renew than it is to sign up a new customer.

So take the price you found online, give Hastings a call or send email and ask them to match the figure. They almost certainly will as competition is high between insurance companies. Especially if you include another price that's lower than your renewal from another company and say you'd be happy to switch if they don't match their online price.

Mine is the same this year, online comparison price is £370 but renewal quote is £675. Which coincidentally is exactly the same price I've found elsewhere for both mine and OH's cars, needless to say I'll be switching companies this year.

batesy2000

Thanks. Will call them tonight

FreddieFrugal

batesy2000 wrote: »

Thanks. Will call them tonight

Let us know how you get on

Mr_K

Even if they won't match it - just take out the new policy at £275, and make sure the other doesn't autorenew. You're doing nothing wrong. And don't go via a comparison site -try a cashback site and you can pocket a bit extra too. Used to do this for years with Zurich - more fool them.

superbigal36

This happens to me every year and frustrates the hell out of me.
My insurer One Call (A broker) actually take my new online quote and convert it to a renewal to save the stupid hassle of supplying no claims info they already have.
They charge an admin fee £25 for renewals though and I can never argue my way out of that one as the new price is usually with a new insurer as opposed to the continuation of insurer on the original renewal.

kingstreet

If people stopped using aggregators and started paying attention to quality of cover, service and renewal prices, the gap between the cheapest price on the comparison sites and renewal premiums would be narrower.

People are driving this race to the bottom. Lowest premium means lowest quality cover, no add-ons, admin and cancellation fees etc.

By going for the cheapest every year, you are ensuring this ethos continues.

My insurance is with Zurich via CSIS (Civil Service Insurance Society). It is not the cheapest. It has a reasonable excess. It charges me nothing extra for monthly premiums. It charges nothing for alterations and amendments. Driver's legal protection is included in the normal premium, as is a decent courtesy car.

At renewal time, it increases slightly. Not by a great deal. I've renewed with them twice.

You either continue the race and accept you are changing every year, or you get off the ride and rejoin sanity.

I accept I am lucky I can do this as I'm a middle-aged bloke in a rural area with 13 years no claims.

Mr_K

kingstreet wrote: »

If people stopped using aggregators and started paying attention to quality of cover, service and renewal prices, the gap between the cheapest price on the comparison sites and renewal premiums would be narrower.

People are driving this race to the bottom. Lowest premium means lowest quality cover, no add-ons, admin and cancellation fees etc.

By going for the cheapest every year, you are ensuring this ethos continues.

My insurance is with Zurich via CSIS (Civil Service Insurance Society). It is not the cheapest. It has a reasonable excess. It charges me nothing extra for monthly premiums. It charges nothing for alterations and amendments. Driver's legal protection is included in the normal premium, as is a decent courtesy car.

At renewal time, it increases slightly. Not by a great deal. I've renewed with them twice.

You either continue the race and accept you are changing every year, or you get off the ride and rejoin sanity.

I accept I am lucky I can do this as I'm a middle-aged bloke in a rural area with 13 years no claims.

I think what all the above that means is that he overpays on his insurance each year , through apathy/ having too much money to care, and is hacked off that others take the time to shop around and get the best deals.

Of course you should take the level of cover into account when renewing and comparing, however cheaper doesn't always mean worse. I've just taken out home insurance with Esure (was with Sheilas Wheels - which is Esure anyway ! ), for cheaper for more cover than I had (plus some cashback, thanks guys...).

Its insurers who play games with different marketing names, 'new' customer discounts and inflated automatic renewals. They, and apathetic punters, can't complain if enlightened customers decide to play the game to their own advantage.

kingstreet

I think what all the above that means is that he overpays on his insurance each year , through apathy/ having too much money to care, and is hacked off that others take the time to shop around and get the best deals.

Wow. That's a considerable leap to that conclusion from what I wrote.

No. I was talking about a "rebalance" of the market. I may not have made the point clearly enough.

batesy2000

Hi everyone, apologies for such a late response but it has taken a while to contact Hastings and after numerous comparisons I got the price down from £321 to £259.

Finally got through and explained my findings. Renewal quote went to £257.11 which was cheaper than others I'd found so as you all knew, it was definitely worth calling and even the horrible music I hate to listen whilst waiting was nearly worth it (they played One Direction).

Thanks All