Hasting car insurance renewal

CRISPIANNE3

Received my renewal quote from Hastings today and surprised it had increased by £90 and this would bring. the  cost up to £454. They confirmed this was the best price. I then went on the  Top cash back  site and got a great quote for £368 and £40.00 cash back. This also includes ncd protection. Also the new company said they did not require proof of non claims discount. I assume they must be able to check this automatically. 

olgadapolga

Hastings will match lower quotes, or at least they did when I renewed my insurance last year and had a much lower quote from another company.

Did you ring Hastings after you'd received the lower quotation?

CRISPIANNE3

olgadapolga said:

Hastings will match lower quotes, or at least they did when I renewed my insurance last year and had a much lower quote from another company.

Did you ring Hastings after you'd received the lower quotation?

Yes I did and and he said this was the best price. I did say do you not price match and he said no. We have been with them for about 10 years. Very surprised they could not look at the new. quote.

jamesperrett

Just been through a right circus with Hastings renewals. I could buy exactly the same policy (using last year's details) from Hastings for around £80 cheaper if I went through a comparison site. They don't make cancelling easy either. You can't cancel online and, if you call, the lines are only open for a limited period and there is a long set of questions you have to answer (far longer than any other insurance company I've dealt with) before you can even talk to a human.

Before I started the call I was prepared to negotiate but, by the time I reached someone, I decided I might as well cancel while I still could. I've now gone with a company that I've used quite a bit before - they may not be cheapest but their quote was cheaper than Hastings' renewal quote and they're easier to deal with.

CRISPIANNE3

jamesperrett said:

Just been through a right circus with Hastings renewals. I could buy exactly the same policy (using last year's details) from Hastings for around £80 cheaper if I went through a comparison site. They don't make cancelling easy either. You can't cancel online and, if you call, the lines are only open for a limited period and there is a long set of questions you have to answer (far longer than any other insurance company I've dealt with) before you can even talk to a human.

Before I started the call I was prepared to negotiate but, by the time I reached someone, I decided I might as well cancel while I still could. I've now gone with a company that I've used quite a bit before - they may not be cheapest but their quote was cheaper than Hastings' renewal quote and they're easier to deal with.

TBH the adviser I spoke the had the attitude take it or leave. In recent years they have always done there best to try and keep our custom. Perhaps it may be to do the fact their staff are working from home. We went to Darwin who are part of Direct line and offered us a good deal. Marsh Mellow were cheapest but the cheapest is not always the best.

nicenic

I recently got a renewal from churchill. The premium had only increased by £15 but a quick comparison showed that I could save £96. I called them and got straight through to a human and he confirmed that the renewal quote was the best offer. He cancelled the auto renewal there and then. I went with a comparison on msm but afterwards thought I really should have tried all the comparison sites (top 4 at least) to see if I could have got a better deal. Fortunately the deal I went with was in fact equal best (factoring in cashback). The difference between sites was not trivial though, for the exact same quote confused.coms best price was £53.90 more than the offer I chose. It's worth shopping around.  
OP I am interested as to why top cashback was your first choice, did you use any comparison sites?

CRISPIANNE3

nicenic said:

I recently got a renewal from churchill. The premium had only increased by £15 but a quick comparison showed that I could save £96. I called them and got straight through to a human and he confirmed that the renewal quote was the best offer. He cancelled the auto renewal there and then. I went with a comparison on msm but afterwards thought I really should have tried all the comparison sites (top 4 at least) to see if I could have got a better deal. Fortunately the deal I went with was in fact equal best (factoring in cashback). The difference between sites was not trivial though, for the exact same quote confused.coms best price was £53.90 more than the offer I chose. It's worth shopping around.  
OP I am interested as to why top cashback was your first choice, did you use any comparison sites?

I use Top cash back a lot for other things and was happy with the £40 cash and the price. I could have gone for Marsh Mellow which were even cheaper but when I knew Darwin were part of Direct line I felt confident I was going with a good company. 
However something to bear in mind for the future not just to limit myself to one comparison site.