Aviva shareholder, car insurance discount

mr_rush

Just FYI incase anyone is a Aviva shareholder, this gives you an additional discount.

My premium (which was already the cheapest after using 3 price comparison sites, direct line etc) dropped a further 20% when I called to give my shareholder details.

EalingBadger

I have just got off the phone after the third year in a row trying to cut through the smokescreen on this one.

Yes, Aviva offer a shareholder discount but no, it will not enable you to get a better price than anybody else because you can have the various discounts available to the general public (multi-product discount etc.) *OR* you can have the shareholder discount but not both.

Result: you pay exactly the same as anybody else regardless because the two discount structures are identical in numerical effect!

At first I couldn't believe it - which is why I tried it three years in a row with different call centre staff each time in case they were making a mistake, but, after the third attempt, I am forced to accept that it really must be true and not just the product of under-informed call centre staff.

Consequently, I have now raised an official complaint with Aviva and it is insulting to the intelligence of their customers to behave in this highly disingenuous way.

Weighty1

How is it disingenuous? If you weren't aware of finding various "offers" open to members of the public but you WERE a shareholder so they still provide the discount it sounds pretty good to me.

Novice_investor101

If they really would give a 20% discount for already being a customer (my works pension is with them, so I am one by default) & then an additional 20% discount on top of that for being a shareholder then I'm off to my Fidelity account to buy 1 Aviva share for £4 odd.
Unfortunately, I think you're being ridiculous.
When I got my car insurance (best price by far) with them I was asked if I was a shareholder or had any other policies with them - or being the operative word.

It's the same smokescreen all insurers use - complicated discounts masquerading as loyalty rewards when it was probably overpriced to start with & the discount price is actually the "real" price.
Blimey, I bet even the people who work there don't get that kind of discount!

EalingBadger

It's disingenuous because their advertising implies that the discounts are in addition to the publicly available discounts but when push comes to shove this turns out not to be true.

I was always aware of the publicly available discounts and had indeed had these applied to my Aviva insurance products.

I was thus rather taken aback when, after many years of not getting around to it, I finally connected up my shareholding records with their insurance products records only to find to my utter consternation that the price remained exactly the same and that this was because when they apply the shareholder discount they remove the other ones.

This "feature" is never mentioned in their blurb.

That's disingenuous by anybody's reckoning in my eyes.

paddyandstumpy

EalingBadger wrote: »

It's disingenuous because their advertising implies that the discounts are in addition to the publicly available discounts but when push comes to shove this turns out not to be true.

I was always aware of the publicly available discounts and had indeed had these applied to my Aviva insurance products.

I was thus rather taken aback when, after many years of not getting around to it, I finally connected up my shareholding records with their insurance products records only to find to my utter consternation that the price remained exactly the same and that this was because when they apply the shareholder discount they remove the other ones.

This "feature" is never mentioned in their blurb.

That's disingenuous by anybody's reckoning in my eyes.

The irony of a shareholder moaning they are paying too much into the shareholding company...

The alternate (and your dreamworld) means the company gives shareholders an additional discount, loses money as there isn't enough premium to pay the claims and make profit. and you don't get a dividend and your share devalues, as the company loses money.

EalingBadger

I didn't mention 40% - you did, and so for this I can certainly agree with you that that would be ridiculous.

But it isn't what I said.

I simply pointed out that an additional benefit is implied but is not actually available.

I thought all advertising was supposed to be legal, decent, and honest?

And yes, of course, the cynic in me is aware, as you are, that they are all at it, but that doesn't mean that I have to be any less irritated about it and every now and again, just occasionally, I try and hold these companies to account.

garth549

An additional discount (higher than 20%) would likely take the policy close to or below cost price vs the risk. ie They'd make an overall loss on these policies so why would they?

I don't see why you should get an even bigger discount for being a shareholder.

hildra

I don't know of any company that will give you more than one promotional offer for the same purchase. Somewhere in their blurb it will tell you this.

Sandtree

hildra said:

I don't know of any company that will give you more than one promotional offer for the same purchase. 

Lots of companies do... look at 90% of the insurance companies or credit cards on Quidco where there is the offer of cashback plus then the online/new customer discount or 0% APR promotion. 

Aviva used to give a very generous employee discount that took premiums well below the public prices but slightly harder to manipulate that one -v- a shareholder discount.