Home insurance query

sweet_chilli

I wonder if anyone has any thoughts our problem? Earlier this year I used a comparison site to get some quotes for our building and contents insurance, as we felt our policy with Lloyds was getting ridiculously high. Having looked at a variety of cover similar to what we had, there were plenty of quotes considerably less than what we were paying. In fact we ended up decreasing our annual premium by over two thirds with our new insurer, saving hundreds of pounds.

As we had been with Lloyds for a few years, it seems we will have been paying over the odds for some considerable time. We had noted that their annual increase in premium seemed high for a couple of years, but unfortunately we didn’t investigate other policies as we had other more important things to deal with at the time (our first child, and a family bereavement). So we realise we are a lot at fault for not doing the research sooner. Though having said that, we were surprised just how high our Lloyds premium was in comparison with other insurers when we did do the research. And that our seemingly high premium wasn’t flagged within Lloyds, so that they could provide us with a better alternative (if one existed).

So I contacted Lloyds to that effect, and was effectively told that it is down to the policy holder to make the decision to renew their policy. What is irritating about this response, is that in the same literature Lloyds make statements about their great customer service and competitive pricing. Well the pricing certainly wasn’t competitive. And if their customer service was as good as they think, we wouldn’t have ended our policy feeling ripped off. Like I said earlier, we know we are at fault, but feel that Lloyds should have been more involved.

Has anyone had a similar experience, or have any advice on whether we should pursue this further? Or is it just a case of a hard lesson learned, and to move on? Arguably Lloyds haven’t done anything wrong. They just haven’t done anything to ensure a good service for their customer.

Quentin

You can keep on pursuing your complaint but it's likely to fall on deaf ears.

Your fault entirely.

InsideInsurance

Most insurers offer significant discounts to new customers so they get their marketing messages about being competitively priced and get to the top of the aggregator lists but these drop off over then next 1-4 years.

If you go back to the Lloyds website you may well even get a much lower quote than your renewal, though some websites are smart/ integrated enough to identify returning customers and either decline to quote or only present the renewal quote.

Loyalty counts for a little bit with insurance but its no way to get good pricing. Insurers are under no obligation to give you the best price possible, they simply offer a price and its up to you if you accept or not. If you are buying via a broker rather than insurer then there is more of an argument that they should rebroke the business if prices are going up but then their own margin may well go up each year too as per direct insurers

sweet_chilli

Thanks for the comments.

InsideInsurance - That's pretty much what I expected, so it's useful to get some confirmation. It's frustrating, but we don't want to waste our time (or anyone elses) trying to pursue a probable lost cause.

Sadly sometimes you just have to prioritise what is really important in life, and other things go by the wayside.

*Scarlett

sweet chilli - a hard lesson but at least now you know to keep a watch on your renewal prices