bloody insurance idiots

so, i have been insured with company a for a few years, been pretty good, although their approved repairers were pants for service. had my renewal through, which went up, naturally, as I'd had a claim.

on a whim, started shopping around, and found another big name company b, would give me the same cover for less than company a were charging last year.

(overall a £260 saving!!)

when i ring up company a to cancel the auto renewal, I am asked why I am leaving. Gave the answers (poor service from repairer, inordinate wait on the phone, and cost), firstly he apologised for the poor service, then asked if I was aware there were 180 people in the queue and they were extremely busy, to which I replied I was only interested in one call (mine). I was then asked the price for company b, and they offered there and then to drop £200 on the renewal price, but couldn't get as low as the total £260 saving. Still wanted to know why I was leaving. I told them to add to the list of reasons they had took the p*ss on the renewal, if they had started at £200 cheaper I probably wouldn't have shopped around.

divs

So why do they do this ? Surely the lost business is worth more than the difference in premium. In the industry I work in, you get one shot at the price, you give your best price at the start, end of.

We deal with a broker for all our insurances, private and company. Online is a bit of a lottery, and they will put the premium up in the hope you won't notice.

Peter

I've changed insurers every year at renewal.

For some reason insurers don't give discounts for being loyal to them, nor do they seem care if you leave them for a cheaper company.

its become like the old joke of the number 62 bus,
dont matter if you miss it, as another will be along shortly....


seems we are like the 62 bus, if we go elsewhere, no worries, another punter will be along shortly....

nickp3003 said:

I've changed insurers every year at renewal.

For some reason insurers don't give discounts for being loyal to them, nor do they seem care if you leave them for a cheaper company.

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+1 on that, I had the same thing with mine.
As you stated loyalty doesn't come into it anymore unfortunately

I used to change every year until I insured with Nationwide (LV) about 6 years ago. Since then their renewals have been within £20 of the best quote I can get from the comparison sites. I still do a half hearted search at renewal time though in case they were just trying to lull me into a false sense of security

sneaky feckers too, check the policy carefully to see if its DOES autorenew, my dad has 2 vehicles, both through the same mainstream supplier, one vehicle autorenewed, the other didnt, he only noticed when the yearly payment didnt go from his bank, because they send you the cert etc before renewal.
to be fair, my current insurer has been the same since I got the landy, I do shop around eveyr year, and my insurer was within £10 of the nearest competitor, for a tenner I couldnt be arsed with swapping about.

yep same again, my auto renewal came in at a grand dearer, the said because i became a widower i was a higher risk and had me down as unemployed instead of disabled,

told them to poke it

then got a quite for 500 fully comp, with full breakdown cover inc mods

i think with regards to price is, on the first year they give a big discount for new members then try and get that discount back on the second year , all thieving gits and never seen to care anymore about loyalty and customer service as they know we have to get ins

nice the internet is around now so we can compare a lot of quotes and not having to ring round like we useto

nice the internet is around now so we can compare a lot of quotes and not having to ring round like we useto[/quote]

Yes the good old days,

The yellow pages,a car mag, the local paper, a large peace of paper, a pen and a telephone is all you needed back then,

Oh and a spear day

Iann said:

nice the internet is around now so we can compare a lot of quotes and not having to ring round like we useto

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Yes the good old days,

The yellow pages,a car mag, the local paper, a large peace of paper, a pen and a telephone is all you needed back then,

Oh and a spear day [/QUOTE]
Is the spear to encourage them to drop their prices

Don't know how that haaened, looks as though I'm posting Iann's words

It's well worth phoning to negotiate a lower price in my experience. Both times I've done this the cost for a year's insurance has come down around £200, as I've told them that other companies are offering cheaper deals. So even though I'm just talking to bog standard call centre staff, they do have some discretion to offer discounts.

flatlander said:

Don't know how that haaened, looks as though I'm posting Iann's words

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Its all gone pear shaped, you've quoted me quoting some one else,
I think

And sorry it was spare day not spear day

timtheenchanteruk said:

sneaky feckers too, check the policy carefully to see if its DOES autorenew, my dad has 2 vehicles, both through the same mainstream supplier, one vehicle autorenewed, the other didnt, he only noticed when the yearly payment didnt go from his bank, because they send you the cert etc before renewal.

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Auto-renew is a right con. I specifically state to Adrian f**ks every year that I do not want auto renew - ok - noted on account - comes round and wham, they auto renew, absoutely blew off at them last time, they said I hadn't told them to not do it as it would be noted on account so told them to go away and listen to the voice recordings then come back to me... surprise surprise, they couldn't find the recordings on their system but admitted it may have been there fault and refunded me. I'm going to take all 3 of my policies to my business insurance broker this time round i think and see if he can sort me anything out, fed up with dealing with ins. companies.

Iann said:

The yellow pages,a car mag, the local paper, a large peace of paper, a pen and a telephone is all you needed back then,

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Aye - just make, model of vehicle - no need for the actual registration number either.. soon find out if a Fiesta was cheaper than a Mini etc. etc

Yup, you've got to be quick with Admiral - I try to remember to call them as soon as the renewal reminder arrives in the post otherwise they'd take the full fee automatically.

D....t l..e charged me £70.00 to change from one 300tdi to another 300tdi,won't be renewing with them.

Iann said:

Oh and a spear day

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The fuzzy wuzzys don't like it up em!

most, if not all insurers charge for amendments to policies.

For 25 years I was with Macphersons in Weston super mare, they were good, I often found I was with a new company, as they did all the "ringing round" for me. I did try myself to beat their quotes but never did. Then they got taken over by Bennett's and the quotes kept going up by large amounts and they were charging for services that were free. Luckily within a couple of years the internet came in and shopping around became easy. So I cut my quotes by over 200 pounds, then I became over 50 and Saga became amazingly cheap for most insurances.
The Q