Car Insurance renewal(same company)Can they 'beat' the price of competitors?Confused!

Danny_G

If you have received a letter from your current car insurer, which gives the quote for your car insurance coming up in a few months (lets say £400 - Elephant Insurance)

then this quote says £400, and then you tell them that you have been on comparison sites and are getting it for £350 (from other insurance companies)

and then you phone this current insurer and tell them you can get it cheaper, and they say "let us see what we can do" (as they want to keep you as a customer)

then they go through the quote again, details (name, age, how many years had licence, job, any accidents etc)

and after going through these questions again (Elephant Insurance that is), if the new quote is higher (lets say £500) than the original £400, then has that original quote of £400 been cancelled /void? or you can still say, actually I would like to stick with you with the original quote of £400, and pay them the £400.

In other words, does that new generated quote of £500 override the quote of £400, (which is in the renewal letter they posted months back) ?

don't really want to switch insurers so want to keep with this one, but want to check if the NEW generated quote will cancel the original one , or can we chose which one to have? - while speaking to the insurer on the telephone?


Has this happened to you? What happened ?

DoaM

What the quoted price will be is decided by the insurance company. The consumer then has the choice to accept it or tell them to FRO.

That said, I'd be surprised if they offered £400, you went back with a comparison quote for £350, they rechecked and then offered £500 and insisted on staying at £500 ... they'd KNOW they'd lose that customer.

If the customer stayed with them despite this then they'd also know they have a MUG customer that can be easily fleeced in future.

Insurance companies aren't your friends ... they're businesses seeking to maximise revenue and profit.

Andypandyboy

Trust me, it will be lower. They send out those standard letters to see who will just pay up without shopping around, many do, so they are quids in. When they re run the quote it may well be lower than you now have....

Danny_G

When i wrote they insurance company offer a quote in the post months in advance from the renewal date, I meant under 1 month ago, when they write to you for a quote for renewing with them.

AdrianC

Danny_G wrote: »

then this quote says £400, and then you tell them that you have been on comparison sites and are getting it for £350 (from other insurance companies)

don't really want to switch insurers

Why on earth not? It's not as if there's any actual difference between any of the multi-brand corporate insurers.

worried_jim

Andypandyboy wrote: »

Trust me, it will be lower. They send out those standard letters to see who will just pay up without shopping around, many do, so they are quids in. When they re run the quote it may well be lower than you now have....

Still mugs must be falling for this, I think in 25 years of driving I have stayed with a company just once. Always change, always a better price.

Joe_Horner

worried_jim wrote: »

Still mugs must be falling for this, I think in 25 years of driving I have stayed with a company just once. Always change, always a better price.

For mainstream insurance that certainly seems to be the case, and they're rarely interested in matching anything significantly lower than their renewal because if they lose you, they'll be picking up someone switching the other way on the next call.

The market is a complete illusion of "competition" with (maybe) half a dozen companies sitting quite comfortably behind all the different brands.

All we, as consumers of a legally mandated product, can do is play the game each year to avoid paying too much over the odds.

wgl2014

Op - Has this actually happened to you?

bigadaj

Annoyingly my renewal quotes this year for both car and house insurance were lower than any other quote I could get.

Still tried to ring and bluff a discount, unsuccessful on both occasions!

Galeeno

Your insurance quote might have fluctuated due to Brexit but that is if your renewal was around late June 2016.