MSE News: Car and home insurers to be banned from charging existing customers more than newbies

Sandtree

[Deleted User] said:

It will mean a slightly different new policy every year, with the old one getting a big price hike.

Level of difference has to be more than just slight and such an approach comes with very heavy operational costs, just ask any providers of annuities or other long term insurance about the pain of running decades of slightly different T&Cs concurrently. 

roddydogs

Well, it hasn't worked for me, had to change both home and car insurance due to high renewal. The AA for example hide behind "new customer discount" but it so easy to change as  comparison sites have details already stored.

Sandtree

roddydogs said:

Well, it hasn't worked for me, had to change both home and car insurance due to high renewal. The AA for example hide behind "new customer discount" but it so easy to change as  comparison sites have details already stored.

What do you mean it hasn't worked for you?

The expectation was always that those that shop around each year will continue to have to do so and that their premiums will probably go up. It was meant to work for people who'd been with the same insurers for 20 years and so were paying significantly above market rates as a penalty for their loyalty. 

Grumpy_chap

Since the change on renewal uplifts came in both my wife and I have found that our car insurance has been offered cheaper as renewal than via the comparison sites.  On that exposure, it would seem as though the new rules are being correctly followed.  Others may have different experiences.

dunstonh

Effectively, those that were still in a period of early discounting (which wasnt always just one year but could be a step down over a number of years) will be worse off in most cases as that type of discounting has now gone for new business and removed for existing.

Those that were outside of early year discounting (or already with a provider that didn't have that) should be better off or neutral.

However, the commercial impact is still not known by providers and their pricing models may take a few years to settle once they understand what retentions are like over the next few years.

numbersugn

There seems to be some insurances left out of this new law. My British Gas home cover is £41 per month but new customers are currently being offered a rate of £23.00 and a £30 gift card. Think there is still work to do 

Aretnap

It only applies to home and motor insurance. Not to boiler insurance, pet insurance, travel insurance, gadget insurance or any of the other two dozen roses of insurance you can buy.

Beki88

Does anyone know how to complain to the FCA if a company is still doing this? 
Got my renewal for house insurance through via email, I did my normal routine of checking the comparison sites in the recommended order as per MSE, and also checked my current provider as a new customer quote.
The new customer quote came through cheaper than the price quoted on my email. To ensure everything was the same I went through all the questions in the renewal via the providers site, and double checked all answers matched the new customer quote answers, which they did, and checked the policy was exactly the same, which it was. The newly produced renewal quote was still higher than the new customer quote. Everything the same bar the price, generated only minutes apart. Which by the FCA's ruling should not happen, but it has. It's frustrating to know that it's still happening, as a new customer I'm saving around 34% compared to the renewal price which is just crazy.
I tried to google who to complain to but was not getting any clear answers. I could complain to the company directly but they aren't likely to do much about it. 

GadgetGuru

This got me. 
Im 42 years of age, with 17 years no claims discount on my main car. No claims. No convictions - the ideal insurance customer, right?
Vehicle is a BMW X5. Located in East London (so used to a higher premium!).

Been with my current insurer for that last 2 years. Last years price was £731.
This year my renewal is £1460!
They applied a discount for me and bought it down to £1408!

So I shopped around and cant find any cheaper. The rest are £2k and beyond! I don't understand it. This was supposed to make prices fairer, werent they?? Mine have sky rocketed for no reason at all!
Looks like I will have to suffer the renewal price

MorningcoffeeIV

IftiBashir said:

I don't understand it. This was supposed to make prices fairer, werent they?? 

Yes. Fairer. Not cheaper. And not immune to rising costs.