Changing Car Insurer+Breakdown coverage

guysl80

Dear all,


I currently pay £90 per month for my car insurance(Tesco) and a yearly breakdown membership around £150 to RAC.

Vehicle: 2007 registered Manual 5 door Astra Hatchback
9 years No claim Discount

Last week received the renewal insurance letter stating that my insurance will be increased up to £130.
I been with Tesco since 2011 where my initial monthly payment was approx £60.
Reason to increase the insurance : Area I live is riskier and more accidents have occurred during the time

After one of my mates advised me to search for a new insurer using a compare insure website I was surprised to see quotes in the range of £50 per month inc Full Breakdown cover.

My question:

1) I have been with RAC for 8+ years and their service has been satisfactory. But is it a wise idea to cancel the membership with them and go for the new Insurer?

2) Any idea why Tesco is every year increasing my premium and the new insurer for the same details giving me a low premium?
Am i missing something here?

Cheers

EdGasket

Yes you are missing the fact that loyalty is not rewarded and instead you get penalised for just staying with your existing providers who will take you for as much money as they can get away with. You always get better 'new customer' discounts by changing; sadly!

Aretnap

The bloke who answers the phone wont have any idea why your premium increased. It's set by a computer program that he didn't write - he just plugs the details into the computer and sees what numbers come out. If he told you that there have been more accidents in your area that's just guesswork on his part - he might be right, he might not.

As above, insurers tend to give new customers discounts to attract new business. Additionally different insurers have different target markets and prices change over time. The cheapest insurer for a young person is not necessarily the cheapest for someone approaching middle age, and the insurer that had the lowest prices generally in 2011 won't necessarily still have the lowest prices five years later. As with everything else, if you're willing to put a bit of effort into shopping around you'll probably get a better deal than someone who just shops at the same place year in year out.

RAC have fairly good levels of service (and nicely coloured orange vans) but they're far from the cheapest when it comes to breakdown insurance, especially if you're not getting their new customer special offers. If you don't mind the fact that they'll send a contracter from a local recovery firm rather than an RAC man in a brightly coloured tow truck you should be able to find equivalent cover for quite a bit less than £150.