Renewal Haggling!

Sazzy17

I received my renewal email from AXA yesterday.  I'm 43 with 20+ years protected no claims, I declared 2 past claims within 5 years but as I said I have PNC.  I always go for legal protection, courtesy car & £0 voluntary excess.  Last year I paid £396.05, this year they've quoted £491.33.  In the spirit of MSE, I got some like-for-like quotes & Ageas fit the bill nicely with only £377.04.
I called AXA to see if they could match or better it, the chap on the phone sounded as if he had a script to go through & said the best they can do is £482, just £9 cheaper than their renewal quote even though I hadn't claimed with them at all in the past year.  So no only have I switched to Ageas, but I've saved over £100 on my renewal quote & it's even cheaper than the original AXA price!  Sometimes it pays to haggle, but it can also pay to switch.

WillowLeaf

Well done, that £100 can be saved or spent on you, rather than them.

I always switch rather than haggle, it rewards the new company. It irks me when I ring the old company to cancel, and they only then start lowering their price. 

You have to make sure that it really is a like-for-like comparison of course.

Ayr_Rage

Were you a really savvy MSE and purchased the policy through a cashback site too?

I change most years and find that the premiums on comparison sites and direct with insurers are almost the same as going through Topcashback where I get a bung and end up paying even less.

jackieblack

WillowLeaf said:

I always switch rather than haggle, it rewards the new company. It irks me when I ring the old company to cancel, and they only then start lowering their price. 

I agree. Whenever I ring to cancel, because I have a better quote with a different company, and they say “can we have an opportunity to review and give you our best price”, I feel that they already had that opportunity when they sent their renewal quote 

chrisw

My 26yo son's renewal came through for £250 from quote me happy which I thought was cheap, but he found a quote  from Tesco for £205 and insisted on changing. He went online to cancel the auto renewal with quote me happy and it immediately came back and offered him a £90 discount to stay. So he ended up paying £160 comprehensive, no excess, windscreen cover, courtesy car, doc, etc. I guess he's just hit the sweet spot.