Car Insurance Premiums, one of the greatest rip offs known

The.Far.Tall.Knight

Isn't it odd that although I've been with Aviva for multi-car insurance for the last year that when they sent my renewal quote it was £648 so I shopped around, and found that if I broke off the policy and "didn't renew" I could get the same policy through TopCashBack for £490 saving £158!

Even without the added bonus of the £60 cash-back thats a great saving (eventually I will realise a premium of £430!) but one thing that confounds me is that despite my initial and somewhat gentle protest of "is £648 the best they can do" to which it they stuck by there guns with a firm "yes Mr FTK" I said ok I will not renew with Aviva I will shop around as I already knew I could do better elsewhere, so I went through TCB and low and behold I can leave Avia at midnight on 14th and return at 00:01hrs and basically nothing has changed except I'm £158 better off with another £60 expected.

I could've just rolled over and said "ho-hum so be it, heres my £648" but it just goes to show loyalty to a particular insurance company will cost you dearly:T

[Deleted User]

The.Far.Tall.Knight wrote: »

Isn't it odd that although I've been with Aviva for multi-car insurance for the last year that when they sent my renewal quote it was £648 so I shopped around, and found that if I broke off the policy and "didn't renew" I could get the same policy through TopCashBack for £490 saving £158!

Even without the added bonus of the £60 cash-back thats a great saving (eventually I will realise a premium of £430!) but one thing that confounds me is that despite my initial and somewhat gentle protest of "is £648 the best they can do" to which it they stuck by there guns with a firm "yes Mr FTK" I said ok I will not renew with Aviva I will shop around as I already knew I could do better elsewhere, so I went through TCB and low and behold I can leave Avia at midnight on 14th and return at 00:01hrs and basically nothing has changed except I'm £158 better off with another £60 expected.

I could've just rolled over and said "ho-hum so be it, heres my £648" but it just goes to show loyalty to a particular insurance company will cost you dearly:T

I'm sorry to see this and would like to look into it for you. Would you be able to email me at social@aviva.co.uk with your

Full name
Date of birth
Post code
Policy number
MSE Username so I can link your email to this post.

I will ten be able to see what happened and why.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Dave
Aviva Social Media Team

RantMan

Hi The.Far.Tall.Knight,

I'm in the same position - my Aviva multi-car renewal policy is for £592 pounds (which includes a £20 discount for renewing on-line). This is on top of a £70 increase in my home insurance policy - I guess that it shows staying with your current insurer is a bad idea - they clearly only want new customers. Could I ask how you managed to make sure you got the same policy? Was is basically recording the details of the current policy, and then getting a quote saved as a new customer, ready to go live on the 15th?

Thanks

[Deleted User]

RantMan wrote: »

Hi The.Far.Tall.Knight,

I'm in the same position - my Aviva multi-car renewal policy is for £592 pounds (which includes a £20 discount for renewing on-line). This is on top of a £70 increase in my home insurance policy - I guess that it shows staying with your current insurer is a bad idea - they clearly only want new customers. Could I ask how you managed to make sure you got the same policy? Was is basically recording the details of the current policy, and then getting a quote saved as a new customer, ready to go live on the 15th?

Thanks

Hi RantMan

I'm happy to look at your quote and renewal for you as well if you can send me the same details I have asked The.Far.Tall.Knight for.

I'll then see if there is anything we can do.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Dave
Aviva Social Media Team

[Deleted User]

The trick is to do some comparison sites a little before your renewal is due. Aviva will see you shopping around and offer you a competitive price instead of the usual rip-off renewal price.

I logged into the Aviva site about a month before my renewal and they were listing the price as about £550. I did some searches and waited, and the letter came through with an offer of £280 which was close to the best I had found. I also got £30 back from a third party's insurance to cover the rise resulting from a no-fault claim against them.

JustinR1979

Every year my Elephant renewal quote is more than if I go online and input same details. This time I went on confused.com and Elephant were cheaper still.
Is annoying how a comparison site is cheaper than their own site.

The.Far.Tall.Knight

RantMan wrote: »

Hi The.Far.Tall.Knight,

I'm in the same position - my Aviva multi-car renewal policy is for £592 pounds (which includes a £20 discount for renewing on-line). This is on top of a £70 increase in my home insurance policy - I guess that it shows staying with your current insurer is a bad idea - they clearly only want new customers. Could I ask how you managed to make sure you got the same policy? Was is basically recording the details of the current policy, and then getting a quote saved as a new customer, ready to go live on the 15th?

Thanks

Yes indeed it was a like for like policy, RantMan. To be precise last year I insured my Passat 2ltr Tdi & my wifes Golf 1.6Match with aviva multicar and price was ok, this year I insured the same cars under the same T&C's and even got courtesy car and protected NCD as a bonus whereas last year I didn't, but if I'd just accepted their renewal quote without question it would've been £648 so I did a quote as if new customer and the quote was £490 (TCB says cashback is £60 but have since said its been enhanced to £70

The.Far.Tall.Knight

Well, I got a reply from Aviva Company Representative, but in my opinion as for being plausible it had more holes than a british motorway

The.Far.Tall.Knight

Just a quick update my £70.70 cash back from TCB arrived about a week ago, so indeed I dunno what Aviva company representative was on as I, (A) knocked my policy down, getting the same policy through TopCashBack for £490 instead of the renewal quote of £658 thus saving £158! and a further £70.70 from TCB knocking it down in real terms to £420 by effectively leaving by the front door and coming in the back (or visa-versa whichever way you want annalise that)

InsideInsurance

To use nice round numbers, for people like you the insurer probably needs to achieve an average premium of £600.

One way to do this is to charge everyone like you £600. The other way is to discount new business prices to £500 and fund this by charging renewing customers £650 and given there are more renewing than new customers still achieve the required average premium.

Personally, I know I'd rather pay £500 over £600 and so dont complain too much that I have to shop around each year.