Reminder to get new quote when renewing car insurance

gocat

Every January when my home insurance/car insurance is due for renewal, after I get the renewal quotes in the post I go online and get a new quote and save hundreds of pounds.

Last week, hubby renewed his car insurance just straight from the renewal notice. I only just found out and did a quick 5 minutes check online. The quote I got was nearly £100 cheaper than what he paid.

Im so annoyed :mad:

Sorry just needed to rant :embarasse

Overthetop

Mental note to myself to check household are following money saving rules!

chris_g

Hi i am new to moneysaving expert and have already saved a lot thanks to Martins great advice.My renewal for my car came in at £358,after using the comparison websites i got it down to £184,then used a cashback site and got £45 cashback,making an overall saving of £219!!!!!!!!!!!:T

raskazz

gocat wrote: »

Last week, hubby renewed his car insurance just straight from the renewal notice. I only just found out and did a quick 5 minutes check online. The quote I got was nearly £100 cheaper than what he paid.

There's no need to be annoyed - just exercise your 14 day cooling-off rights. Cancel the renewal and set up the cheaper quote.

You may have to pay a fee for cancellation and premiums for the time on cover since last week, but I'm certain that it won't outweigh the £100 difference in premiums.

gocat

Thanks for that raskazz. Was wondering if that was possible. It's with the same company too (Direct Line). Both our cars and house insurances are with Direct Line.
Wondering if they will be lenient with the cancellation charges cuz of that

BeeUK

Get ahead of the game...have a look at reminder services like http://www.free-minder.com/ which you can set to send yourself an e-mail next year a few weeks before renwal so that you know to start looking for quotes!

Ialwaysgetdone

gocat wrote: »

Every January when my home insurance/car insurance is due for renewal, after I get the renewal quotes in the post I go online and get a new quote and save hundreds of pounds.

Last week, hubby renewed his car insurance just straight from the renewal notice. I only just found out and did a quick 5 minutes check online. The quote I got was nearly £100 cheaper than what he paid.

Im so annoyed :mad:

Sorry just needed to rant :embarasse

I actually came on here to enquire about this very point. I have done this for years with my car and house insurances but this time when I phoned up to tell them to allow my home insurance to expire I was asked as usual why..I said I can get it cheaper by letting it expire then buying it again (just as I always tell them). This time though I was told my new insurance would be invalid if I did that because the 30% discount applies to new customers only (it does say that it's for new customers on most sites that do a discount other than just an online discount).
I am now wondering if my car and my wife's car insurances are valid
Does anyone know the legalities of this?
Edit>>> I am talking about allowing to expire and then buying from same company..I'm not sure if you mean that or not

gocat

Good point that "Ialwaysgetdone" . Yes I was talking about same insurance companies (in this case Direct Line). But surely they will lose customers that way as we can just go to another well know insurance company and be new customers

Hope someone can answer your query about the legality of all this.

Sorted out the difference in insurance. Wasnt quiet £100 but saved some pennies Nothing was said about us not being new customers but hubby did say we have been faithful customers for a few years now.

Ialwaysgetdone

Direct Line for me too. Home insurance is £174 and allowing it to expire then buying another from them is £122.

I see that Martin has a bit somewhere on this site that actually recommends that you do exactly that.

As I said, in previous years I've been told okay no problem when saying what I was going to do but this time was told my new policy would be invalid as I was claiming the discount as a new customer when I wasn't a new customer.

I can get round the home insurance one by putting it in my wife's name this time but not sure about my car and her car.

Hope someone can clarify the legalities and what the definition of a new customer is, maybe there has to be a 12 month break or something

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

usually there is no need to let it expire and renew... i do it most years with my insurance... just tell them you want them to match the current website quote.

I have never had any company refuse to do it for any typw of insurance..

Ialwaysgetdone

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »

usually there is no need to let it expire and renew... i do it most years with my insurance... just tell them you want them to match the current website quote.

I have never had any company refuse to do it for any typw of insurance..

I did ask them that but was told that they couldn't because the 30% discount was for new customers only and as I said earlier, I was told that if I bought it from the website at the discounted price it would be invalid as I was not a new customer.

I believe that the guy was just making that up but I would really like someone to clarify if legally it would be invalid in case I ever needed to claim.

If it is the case then all my insurances have been invalid for a few years now