O/T Insurance companies definitely ripping us off.

My home insurance was up for renewal on 29th Set. I was shocked to see that last year I paid £203.00 and this years renewal had rocketed up to £273.00, yes a whopping £70 increase! I gave them a ring and they said yes that's correct with no explanation as to why. Naturally, I said I would shop around.

I went through all the websites and ironically my initial quote still came out the cheapest. By now my renewal date had expired so I rang them and they had to set me up as a NEW customer. Well imagine my surprise when they told me the price was only £215.33. I asked why did they quote me £273 and now it had dramatically dropped back to £215?

Reason - I was classed as a new customer so my quote was heavily discounted for me to take it out, I couldn't get my breath!
It just goes to show how Insurance companies rip you off if you stay as a loyal customer and expect you just to renew.

Next year i'll be doing the same.

Unemployment is going to rocket which means more crime including burglaries so understandable really.

So they just lump on a 33% increase and expect me to just accept it? Plus if anyone wishes to burgle my home and I'm home, I won't be calling the police! Enter my home as a burglar at your peril. If I wasn't at home and was burgled but I found out who did it, my court of justice would deal with the scum at a later time.

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Originally Posted by Brin

So they just lump on a 33% increase and expect me to just accept it? Plus if anyone wishes to burgle my home and I'm home, I won't be calling the police! Enter my home as a burglar at your peril. If I wasn't at home and was burgled but I found out who did it, my court of justice would deal with the scum at a later time.

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Scum always seems a decent bloke when he posts on here Brin. ;D. I change every year Brin but for the last 2yrs I've been with Direct Line for all my insurance,House & Car,they even sent me £50 for not using the car as much during lock down.

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Originally Posted by Lolmorgan

Scum always seems a decent bloke when he posts on here Brin. ;D. I change every year Brin but for the last 2yrs I've been with Direct Line for all my insurance,House & Car,they even sent me £50 for not using the car as much during lock down.

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XD, didn't think of it reading like that. Good of your Insurance company to reward you like that.

Just had to shop around to get our Home & Auto combined policy here for $2,750 after our existing insurer came in at $4,000 (up from $3,000 last year with no claims). To add insult to injury, checked my latest CC bill and the cheeky buggers charged me twice :blue:

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Originally Posted by CAMiller

Just had to shop around to get our Home & Auto combined policy here for $2,750 after our existing insurer came in at $4,000 (up from $3,000 last year with no claims). To add insult to injury, checked my latest CC bill and the cheeky buggers charged me twice :blue:

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You've too much money if you've only just seen that charge from a year ago ;D

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Originally Posted by Brin

My home insurance was up for renewal on 29th Set. I was shocked to see that last year I paid £203.00 and this years renewal had rocketed up to £273.00, yes a whopping £70 increase! I gave them a ring and they said yes that's correct with no explanation as to why. Naturally, I said I would shop around.

I went through all the websites and ironically my initial quote still came out the cheapest. By now my renewal date had expired so I rang them and they had to set me up as a NEW customer. Well imagine my surprise when they told me the price was only £215.33. I asked why did they quote me £273 and now it had dramatically dropped back to £215?

Reason - I was classed as a new customer so my quote was heavily discounted for me to take it out, I couldn't get my breath!
It just goes to show how Insurance companies rip you off if you stay as a loyal customer and expect you just to renew.

Next year i'll be doing the same.

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This is standard for most services, utilities and insurance.

The reason is customer acquisition is expensive, and most companies expect (know) the majority of customers will not bother to shop around after the contract is up.

Customer acquisition for companies has to involve signing up incentives or they just can't gain new customers. They don't really have a choice.

So you're kind of right and kind of wrong... they're not necessarily ripping you off, because if they charged everyone renewing the new customer rate they'd in many cases operate at a loss.

The better way to think about it is if you shop around every year or service/contract renewal (using cashback sites in particular after looking on price comparison) - the lazy customers who never switch are actually subsiding you for a heavy discount.

Broadband, TV, car insurance, breakdown cover, mortgages, savings accounts, credit cards (anything with an intro rate), bank account joining rewards (£100+), gas and electric, mobile cashback deals - if you invest the time and effort in switching/claiming incentives it can really add up. Like many hundreds of pounds a year.

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Originally Posted by John2

This is standard for most services, utilities and insurance.


The better way to think about it is if you shop around every year or service/contract renewal (using cashback sites in particular after looking on price comparison) - the lazy customers who never switch are actually subsiding you for a heavy discount.

Broadband, TV, car insurance, breakdown cover, mortgages, savings accounts, credit cards (anything with an intro rate), bank account joining rewards (£100+), gas and electric, mobile cashback deals - if you invest the time and effort in switching/claiming incentives it can really add up. Like many hundreds of pounds a year.

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Absolutely
When I got my car insurance renewal quote I looked around and got a quote for £50 less in about 5 minutes. I did it through Quidco and got a further £45 cashback (I have had over £2000 cashback on various purchases)
I pay 3 mobile £8 a month for my mobile contract - unlimited calls/texts 8gb of data, free calls from abroad (not just Europe) but, for signing up to a 12 month contract I got £45 cashback. So actually £4.25 a month.

Me and Mrs W always look for the best deal for everything - we change fuel suppliers on a regular basis and it really is easy.
We found a better deal for home insurance, called the current supplier and they matched it bar a few quid - we stayed put for the sake of continuity.

However - the FCA is working to cut out the practice of insurance companies charging existing customers more than new ones. So, in theory at least, renewals for the stay-putters should come down (we'll see)