Age UK exploiting the elderly over home insurance?
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DrPaul
Posts: 51 Forumite
My partner is a pensioner and for the past few years she has had her house insured with Intune, in association with Help The Aged.
She recently received a letter saying that her insurance would not automatically renew this year as, with the merger of Age Concern and Help The Aged to form Age UK, Intune effectively no longer existed.
The letter said that she "should" phone a given number in order to obtain a new quotation. This was because:
"Age UK Group can offer you home insurance with great benefits. This insurance is provided by Aegis [....], offering you an award winning customer and claims service.
What to do next
Call the Age UK Home Insurance team on....."
I called the number for her and was answered by an Aegis sales rep who took all of the details of the property and came back with a quotation (buildings and contents) of £185. I was also asked if I wanted to immediately proceed with cover, but I declined.
I then went through the usual MSE comparison site process and 10-15 minutes later I had like-for-like quotations starting at £97! There must have been at least 20 quotes under the £150 mark.
Now I remember that the previous Intune premium (via LV) had always been pretty competitive, so what the heck has happened with Age UK?
Looked at cynically, Age UK Group are exploiting the very elderly people that they are meant to be protecting! OK, maybe I'm pushing that a bit to stimulate debate, but think about it.
How many pensioners are adept in the art of Internet price comparison? How many would trust a letter that carries nothing but the Age UK branding, and who would trust Age UK to have "done right by them" when arranging an insurance deal targetted specifically at the elderly?
Maybe I could live with it if they were quoting, say, £120 or so compared to the best possible price, but virtually double? Sorry, but that makes me pretty angry (and we've told Age UK so).
The best new quotation is from Endsleigh BTW, so it's not some "no name" operation.
Has anyone else found that Age UK's "new deal" stinks somewhat, or are we the exception?
She recently received a letter saying that her insurance would not automatically renew this year as, with the merger of Age Concern and Help The Aged to form Age UK, Intune effectively no longer existed.
The letter said that she "should" phone a given number in order to obtain a new quotation. This was because:
"Age UK Group can offer you home insurance with great benefits. This insurance is provided by Aegis [....], offering you an award winning customer and claims service.
What to do next
Call the Age UK Home Insurance team on....."
I called the number for her and was answered by an Aegis sales rep who took all of the details of the property and came back with a quotation (buildings and contents) of £185. I was also asked if I wanted to immediately proceed with cover, but I declined.
I then went through the usual MSE comparison site process and 10-15 minutes later I had like-for-like quotations starting at £97! There must have been at least 20 quotes under the £150 mark.
Now I remember that the previous Intune premium (via LV) had always been pretty competitive, so what the heck has happened with Age UK?
Looked at cynically, Age UK Group are exploiting the very elderly people that they are meant to be protecting! OK, maybe I'm pushing that a bit to stimulate debate, but think about it.
How many pensioners are adept in the art of Internet price comparison? How many would trust a letter that carries nothing but the Age UK branding, and who would trust Age UK to have "done right by them" when arranging an insurance deal targetted specifically at the elderly?
Maybe I could live with it if they were quoting, say, £120 or so compared to the best possible price, but virtually double? Sorry, but that makes me pretty angry (and we've told Age UK so).
The best new quotation is from Endsleigh BTW, so it's not some "no name" operation.
Has anyone else found that Age UK's "new deal" stinks somewhat, or are we the exception?
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Comments
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If I do a quote for home insurance I get quotes ranging from £230 to £800, if I do the same for car the range is even wider.
If the mrs similarly does a quote for car insurance she also gets a massive range in prices but if you look at who are in the top 10 of the cheapest insurers there is not one brand that appears in both our top 10s.
Every insurer has their own pricing, generally coming from a combination of target markets and previous experience. Who is good for one isnt always going to be good for someone else. Plus products in the home insurance market vary massively so you can get a very low cover product thats cheap and a full cover policy that offers much better value for money.
The likelihood is that Age UK Group have selected an insurer that is well priced for its age group but they will also have looked at ensuring the policy itself is at the right level, their customer service (in theory) is at the appropriate level as well as commercial and practical considerations.
Endsleigh is a broker for one, have you actually cross compared the level of cover? Have you seen the feedback Endsleigh get on here in comparison to Fortis or Ageas (depending on if you remember they've changed their name or not)? Cheap is sometimes cheap for a reason!0 -
You are basing your comments on one quotation for one customers requirements. You cannot draw the conclusions that you have, as to do so would be unfair. If you wanted to make a case you would make up say 10 different ficticious customer details, based in different parts of the country, with different sums Insured. Then obtain quotes with Age UK (Ageas) and then compare them with others available. That is what I would do, if I were to make an allegation that Age UK via Ageas were deliberately targeting elderly people with uncompetitive Insurance products. I would also make a comparison of the cover that was provided by the various products and the excesses that applied.
As your MSE ID is prefaced by DR, I would have thought you would have been a bit more scientific in your approach.The comments I post are personal opinion. Always refer to official information sources before relying on internet forums. If you have a problem with any organisation, enter into their official complaints process at the earliest opportunity, as sometimes complaints have to be started within a certain time frame.0 -
Well I DO qualify as a pensioner.
I have Age UK contents insurance. I did a comparison initially (yes even on the net) and found them competitive. More so because they were willing to insure for a small amount and charge accordingly - unlike many out there.0 -
Looked at cynically, Age UK Group are exploiting the very elderly people that they are meant to be protecting! OK, maybe I'm pushing that a bit to stimulate debate, but think about it.
How many pensioners are adept in the art of Internet price comparison? How many would trust a letter that carries nothing but the Age UK branding, and who would trust Age UK to have "done right by them" when arranging an insurance deal targetted specifically at the elderly?
Maybe I could live with it if they were quoting, say, £120 or so compared to the best possible price, but virtually double? Sorry, but that makes me pretty angry (and we've told Age UK so).
The best new quotation is from Endsleigh BTW, so it's not some "no name" operation.
Has anyone else found that Age UK's "new deal" stinks somewhat, or are we the exception?
We had a similar problem. My hubby is a pensioner and he rang Saga after receiving a letter through the post offering a quote. (We knew that were were paying too much with LV). When hubby rang them, he was given the hard sell saying that the price was only valid today, etc. Hubby was told him that he had to discuss it with me but bloke on phone said he would ring back in an hour or so. I told hubby that we needed the quote (or rather what we were covered for) so I could do some price comparisons. When the bloke rang back he eventually accepted he wasn't going to get the sale on the phone and did send the quote by e mail.
The quote came in around what the price comparison sites were offering but have decided to go with M&S as theirs appears much better cover (Cycles and sports equipment) for around the same money.
I was not happy though with the hard sell from Saga.Ditch 100 in January Challenge 100/100
Ditch 100 in February Challenge 114/100
Ditch 100 in March Challenge 100/100
Ditch 100 in April Challenge 75/1000 -
Saga are a commercial company, to say they are profiteering is even odder than claiming Age UK, a charity is.0
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Saga have a very agressive marketing policy, I made the mistake of getting an online house quote. The T&C (which I didn't read as I was only getting a quote) say they will pass your details between the different groups of the company and there is no option to opt out.
So for years afterwards the post man was delivering offers of all sorts from them.
I ended up writing to the MD asking to be taken off the mailing list.
And the quote wasn't that cheap anyway so I didn't purchase!0 -
I've had exactly the same problem with AgeUK car insurance. InTune is no more. Insurance moved from LiverpoolVictoria to Ageas.
Premium? Goes from £400ish up to £900ish ! For comparable cover.
Complaining to AgeUK gets nowhere despite their Finance Director Michelle Mitchell berating the insurance industry and saying last year:
"older consumers (are being) forced to pay over the odds".0 -
Just looking to see if there were any comments about Age UK as I heard from an elderly customer of mine today that she had been quoted £660(+/-) for house insurance by this company (I was also shown the letter). I think I was more shocked than she was as they are apparently affiliated in some way with Age Concern! Doesnt sound like they are that concerned based on that price. Apparently they said it's as high as that because of the area she lives in which is as very hard to believe.
The lady in question has had one or two other quotes come her way, one through barclaycards insurers and they were much less, somewhere in the region of £360 I think. I have suggested she does a proper comparison (She has access to a computer) and also tries Aviva directly. Her current insurer is Direct Line I believe.
Going back to the question of Age UK - It looks to me like they might be exploiting the elderly if this example is anything to go by.
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Financial products sold via Unions, consumer groups or affiliates linked to various bodies are often very expensive and low quality. It shouldn't be when you think of what they represent but they are just cash cows for the body involved.I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.0
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Financial products sold via Unions, consumer groups or affiliates linked to various bodies are often very expensive and low quality. It shouldn't be when you think of what they represent but they are just cash cows for the body involved.
First I agree with Raskazz, now I'm also agreeing with you.
Scary.:eek:0
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