Insurance Loyalty Penalty

Had my renewal for Direct Line (multicar) just before Christmas. Fair enough it had gone down.

Had a quick check anyway and saved a further £160 a year. That was with Admiral, who I left last time for Direct Line.

It's a merry-go-round industry.
 
I show the insurance companies about as much loyalty as the show me.

Hastings after 2 years suddenly couldn't insure my house despite no claims, so Quidco esure at a cheaper price and £25 cashback.

Our 2 cars are on a multicar policy with LV over £300 cheaper than direct line would go and £35 cashback.


Always pays to shop around.

The other bonus is my wife spends a lot of time in her job dealing with insurance companies and claims departments so I always ask good/ rubbish.

If they're poor at dealing with her department then I wouldn't want to be a customer
 
A few years ago a neighbour worked for LV and apparently they pay out a higher percentage of cases than most insurers.
Churchill on the other hand when I was in the middle of a pileup on the M1, twice said they never received my claim.
The third time I rang up first and asked the person who answered if they had a fax machine.
I faxed it the rang them back to make sure.
 
Why even bother phoning up and asking to price match?
It's a lot simpler to just find a cheaper quote online and go with that.
 
Why even bother phoning up and asking to price match?
It's a lot simpler to just find a cheaper quote online and go with that.

Agree. I never phone them up anymore, other than to cancel.
They aren't interesting in keeping customers, just getting new ones.

Fortunately my current insurer always seem to send favourable renewal prices. I always do a comparison online anyway, but the last couple of years they have come out cheaper.
 
Fortunately my current insurer always seem to send favourable renewal prices. I always do a comparison online anyway, but the last couple of years they have come out cheaper.
Accounting for Quidco/TCB cashback too? Who is it? I've never had a great renewal quote. That's just industry SOP.
 
Agree. I never phone them up anymore, other than to cancel.
They aren't interesting in keeping customers, just getting new ones.

Fortunately my current insurer always seem to send favourable renewal prices. I always do a comparison online anyway, but the last couple of years they have come out cheaper.
Since I started driving 7 years ago, I've only ever renewed with the same company once, this year actually, as they offered £20 off renewal if I went with them again
 
Accounting for Quidco/TCB cashback too? Who is it? I've never had a great renewal quote. That's just industry SOP.

It's Admiral. Yes, accounting for the cashback too.

Since I started driving 7 years ago, I've only ever renewed with the same company once, this year actually, as they offered £20 off renewal if I went with them again

I'm normally the same, been driving 20+ years (wow that makes me feel old) and only stayed with the same company once or twice. But for some reason Admiral seem to like me.
 
Unfortunately they weren't too great with my parents' home insurance renewal last year (I sort out all their insurance and utilities) ...

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And there was a further £70 from Quidco off that £197.83 original premium ...

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EDIT ... correction, no that cashback was from the year before, and that £197.83 was actually haggled down from £257.11 (up from original premium of £234.68 where I earned the £70 from Quidco).
 
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Have been with them for three years now on my car insurance, not because I'm an auto-renewer, but they've instantly price matched the best deal (including cashback from Quidco/TCB) for my last two renewals when I asked for it. Last time I also cheekily droppped the competing quote by £20, no probs. Both years Hastings' revised price was about £150ish cheaper than their auto-renew quote since they matched the competing quote minus cashback.
Have to say I'm now deeply disappointed with Hastings. Part exchanging my 03 Focus for an 18 Focus on Tuesday and was hoping Hastings would give me a competitive enough quote to stay with them, based on my earlier dealings with them.

Full cancellation incurs a £45 admin fee, after which I only get a pro-rata refund of £31. Keeping the same policy but changing car incurs a £150 premium top-up (incl £21 admin fee) for the remaining 4 months of the policy. Taking out a brand spanking new policy incurs no fees but also is discounted by the full £76 pro-rata refund from the earlier policy.

Now that last option sounded good until the quote ended up being about £700. Now I was expecting an increase due to a newer higher value vehicle, but that was ridiculous. I then shopped around for competitive quotes, finding good ones from Morethan and Cooperative, both around £350-370 after Quidco/TCB cashback. Went back to Hastings as I've done before and they wouldn't drop a penny!

So it's goodbye to them and a poxy £31 refund after pinching £45 off me for tapping on a few keys.
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Check LV.
A neighbour back in Bristol worked for them an recommended them.
No daft renewal prices plus the neighbour told me they are amongst the best if you do have to make a claim.
They aren't owned by someone else (unlike Churchill, they were good but the rot set in quickly when they were acquired.
 
My premium with aviva went up from 350 to 500 , shopped around and got it for 300 with 30 cash back , they are rough figures but close enough 😡😡😡
 
May last house and car renewal quotes have been pretty much in line with inflation.
A bit more, probably because of things like parking sensors in bumpers push up repair costs.
 
Just allowed RAC to auto-renew at £126 versus £122 last year. Cannot be bothered to try to beat that if I'm honest! And that's with a third party claim mid year which I thought was going to beggar things up a bit...
 
Just allowed RAC to auto-renew at £126 versus £122 last year. Cannot be bothered to try to beat that if I'm honest! And that's with a third party claim mid year which I thought was going to beggar things up a bit...
Thats low, what car?
 
Thats low, what car?

Mitsubishi Colt 1.4 2009 fully comp SD&P, 2 drivers, no points, 10+ years NCB, parked on drive

Also have a 7 seater Peugeot 5008 1.6 turbo, 2014 costs around £160ish with Admiral.

Postcode has a lot to do with it :)
 
Insurance admin fees are such are scam. I wonder if there's been a Martin Lewis campaign against them as with letting agents?

What admin fees? When you want to change your policy and they have to re-assess the risk?

The 'scam' where they tell you before you take out the policy what the admin costs are? In what way is that a scam?
 
£126 / year for car insurance :eek:
 
Usually your own insurer will beat/match any quote from a rival you bring up. Funny that, shows how much profit they making. Plus then saves you the hassle of swapping.

In aggregate, insurers make very little profit on car insurance. In the 14 years between 2005 and 2018, only 3 years showed an underwriting profit (2015, 2017, 2018).
 
In aggregate, insurers make very little profit on car insurance. In the 14 years between 2005 and 2018, only 3 years showed an underwriting profit (2015, 2017, 2018).

They must make enough if my renewal quote by email is say £500 if I do nothing, but when I phone to haggle, they can magically reduce it to £300 🤔

How many people do you reckon just auto renew and don't worry about the price.
 
In aggregate, insurers make very little profit on car insurance. In the 14 years between 2005 and 2018, only 3 years showed an underwriting profit (2015, 2017, 2018).

Presume that you work in the industry then?
 
They must make enough if my renewal quote by email is say £500 if I do nothing, but when I phone to haggle, they can magically reduce it to £300 🤔

How many people do you reckon just auto renew and don't worry about the price.

They can afford to reduce the price for some people, not for everyone. They rely on a certain proportion of people not looking elsewhere and accepting the renewal price. Of course there is a trade-off between charging too much (writing a small number of very profitable policies, but not covering overall costs) or charging too little and making underwriting losses.

My point was simply that, in most of the period 2005-2018, the premium charged was insufficient to cover the claims costs, which is not what most people expect.
 

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