Insurance renewal

MNM2903

Just had my renewal through, went from approx £500 per year up to £950.

Done a quick compare with the same details and i can get a renewal for £525. Phoned them up and they honoured it.

I just wondered if anyone else experienced this and if anyone else thinks this is a dirty trick from insurance companies.

Johno100

It might be easier to seek responses from those it hasn't happened too.:D

I think the term is 'consumer inertia' with companies relying on individuals being too busy or lazy to shop around and renewing at the inflated price. And of course it's a dirty trick.

wiltsguy_2

i get this every year on both of our cars, we have been with our insuarnce company for years, they send out an automatic renewal and say do nothing but the price has increased greatly since last year, i log onto compare the market and get lots of competitive quotes, always including my insurance company! i then phone them and take out the cheaper quote for same level of cover......? i dread to think how many people just renew:o

InsideInsurance

Last year when you bought there will have been lots of adverts about Online Discount, New Customer Discount, Save X%.

This year you arent any of these so the discounts drop off and premiums increase

MNM2903

They matched the price on the go compare site so im happy with that as they were cheapest anyway, its just a dirty trick and wether your a new customer or not this shouldnt be a factor when taking insurance. Your insurance should be based on the car, the location, your history etc not based on wether your a new customer or not.

robbies_gal

funnily enough not happened to me well not the past couple of years only went up 40 pounds and when i checked comparison sites they were roughly all the same

adrian1982dragon

Insurance customer retention is becoming more and more important for companies due to the cost of comparison sites being very pricey for insurance companies. Saying that in my experience it is still always better to shop around rather than renew as the market changes daily and you may find that you were once a good 'risk' for one company only to find in a years time you are actually no longer a desirable 'risk'.

sillygoose

My system is simple, never renew.

I run my details through a couple of comparison sites to find the best price/feature combination deal, but the cheapest is not always best.

Usually one a little further down the screen already includes a hire car after an accident, protected NCD, legal cover, full windscreen cover etc. The cheapest one comes to more if you add on these extras.

Never go through the comparison site, close it and go through a cashback site like Topcashback instead to your chosen insurer. The comparison sites offer you a £3 stupid stuffed toy. Topcashback can pay anything from £20 to £70+, why give the comparison site £17 to £67 and you get a cheap toy?

Simple - each year my insurance comes to less than the previous year even with all the bells and whistles added.

I know some people will say well the comparison sites will go bust, maybe but most makes many millions in profit from the less clued up, I say let them make it off someone else not you, your under no obligation to go through them.

rev_henry

I think of it as all the people who auto renew subsidising my own premium.

Rambosmum

I had a few years where my renewal was much cheaper than anywhere else but it's now started going up, but so has everywhere else. Some companies won't match prices though, which I find irritating, but it isn't that hard to switch, just a bit annoying.

Le_Kirk

Amazingly this seems to happen every year!! It's almost as if the insurance companies know we all suffer from insurance inertia. Mine came through and seemed quite high, so ran a "Get New Quote" on the same insurer's web site - well, it was considerably cheaper so I phoned the insurer and asked why. After speaking to a "supervisor" operative came back and said nothing they could do as they hadn't been given any "wiggle room" by the insurer. They had no answer as to why their own web site offered a cheaper quote but I suspect it would have been with a different underwriter. Anyway, I said if they did not match the web site quote or get near it, they would lose the business. [Dramatic pause] They've lost the business! AND I got a better deal on the European driving cover for less money.