Halifax Home Insurance renewal won't haggle?

collington

We've just got our Halifax home insurance renewal and it's gone up 50%!  (We've never had a home insurance claim, ever.  In 20 years.) I followed Martin's steps and got alternative quotes and I can find 30 cheaper ones but I find it impossible to know the quality of those insurers.  (if I have to make a claim, is it going to be painless?) So I'd like to stick with Halifax.  I rang them to discuss our renewal with my 30 like-for-like cheaper options in my hand. But they said they can't offer any discounts on renewals.  I presume this is part of the new legislation around not charging renewals more than a new customer, but I didn't think haggling would be unavailable (!)... and haggling is still in Martin's guide.  Is this true of all insurers (that they can't haggle) or is this just Halifax being particularly difficult?

Chris_English

They aren’t being difficult, they’ve just given you a fixed price.

dunstonh

But they said they can't offer any discounts on renewals.  I presume this is part of the new legislation around not charging renewals more than a new customer, but I didn't think haggling would be unavailable (!).

Yes.  It's not new legislation but new FCA rules.  

and haggling is still in Martin's guide. 

the guides on this site have very often been behind.   The site guide on pensions many years ago was still referring to a product that hadn't been available for over 8 years.     

Is this true of all insurers (that they can't haggle) or is this just Halifax being particularly difficult?

They are not being difficult.   Premiums from the insurer are fixed and the only way to get them reduced is for the distributer to take less commission.  However, if the distributor does that, they have to provide details of that to the FCA.   The FCA have already sent out a return 2 weeks ago asking for a breakdown of plans where that has happened.

In the past, the haggling was effectively trying to get the early year discounting reapplied to your policy.  That usually meant those policies were loss making.   The cost of that was passed to those that continued to renew.  That was considered unfair and there is no early year discounting anymore.

csgohan4

seems the end of hagglling, I enjoy my yearly haggling phone calls. Oh well

dwsjarcmcd

collington said:

We've just got our Halifax home insurance renewal and it's gone up 50%!  (We've never had a home insurance claim, ever.  In 20 years.) I followed Martin's steps and got alternative quotes and I can find 30 cheaper ones but I find it impossible to know the quality of those insurers.  (if I have to make a claim, is it going to be painless?) So I'd like to stick with Halifax.  I rang them to discuss our renewal with my 30 like-for-like cheaper options in my hand. But they said they can't offer any discounts on renewals.  I presume this is part of the new legislation around not charging renewals more than a new customer, but I didn't think haggling would be unavailable (!)... and haggling is still in Martin's guide.  Is this true of all insurers (that they can't haggle) or is this just Halifax being particularly difficult?

Given you haven't made a claim with the Halifax, how do you know their Claims service is painless?  I'm not saying it isn't painless but this just seems a strange reason for staying with them when you haven't tested it.

If there are 30 cheaper quotes, depending on how much cheaper they are, I would be tempted to research customer reviews on some of them first and comparing the quality of cover via their Defaqto rating and comparing these against the Halifax.  These ratings are often included on comparison sites for each policy.

My personal opinion is to stick to Insurers - RSA, AXA, LV= etc rather than brokers but as I say, that is my personal preference.

74jax

collington said:

We've just got our Halifax home insurance renewal and it's gone up 50%!  (We've never had a home insurance claim, ever.  In 20 years.) I followed Martin's steps and got alternative quotes and I can find 30 cheaper ones but I find it impossible to know the quality of those insurers.  (if I have to make a claim, is it going to be painless?) So I'd like to stick with Halifax.  I rang them to discuss our renewal with my 30 like-for-like cheaper options in my hand. But they said they can't offer any discounts on renewals.  I presume this is part of the new legislation around not charging renewals more than a new customer, but I didn't think haggling would be unavailable (!)... and haggling is still in Martin's guide.  Is this true of all insurers (that they can't haggle) or is this just Halifax being particularly difficult?

You never know how any claim is going to be, it's all individual. 
Make sure your policy covers what you want and I would go with the cheapest (if they are all like for like of course). 

LondonScot

I phoned Zurich about my renewal, having found much cheaper quotes.  They offered to try to find one from their panel.  My feeling is that they should have done that before sending the renewal letter with the high quote.

DullGreyGuy

LondonScot said:

I phoned Zurich about my renewal, having found much cheaper quotes.  They offered to try to find one from their panel.  My feeling is that they should have done that before sending the renewal letter with the high quote.

Zurich is an insurer not a broker and pulled out of the personal lines market, even before that they didnt sell directly. They do however remain capacity providers for some MGAs. 

Not sure who you spoke to but on the basis you mention panel its some form of intermediary. Some will rebroke the business others will get a renewal from the existing provider. Some have a primary provider and secondaries that they fall to if the primary cannot offer terms. 

Annemos

RSA is in the process of pulling out of the Home Insurance Market.