Two of my recent examples…
Wifes car.
Renewal £512 … Online price through Compare the market etc = £322 SAME BIG INSURANCE COMPANY as original renewal quote! Same details…
Home insurance
Renewal £439 … Online price through Compare the market etc = £202 SAME BIG INSURANCE COMPANY as original quote! Same details…
I bet a fair number of people just pay the renewal and tut tut about rising prices - and the big players rake it in to the tune of £200 at a time, for nothing…grrrr
was it the same underwriter though?
Good point - well the renewal was direct and the other was a comparison site so I guess not - do they even use an underwriter when they deal direct?
yup
Insurance companies do a discount for “new” customers. If you take it through the comparison site you might find everything will stay the same but you will have a new policy number.
^^^^^what he said.
the renewal will lose the discount and automatically add an inflation based price rise, its an arse but always get a new policy, on everything, every year.
there was a thing on moneybox on radio 4 about it a while back, some granny had just been renewing her household insurance for something like 15 years and it had got to up over £1500 per year for a little 2 bed house. her son went through her finances as she had got poorly and found it, got a new policy for her for less than £200. she complained and took it to the financial ombudsman and I believe they gave her some money back, but not much and certainly not all of it.
With cars and bikes the inflationary rise is disguised by the discount thanks to your no claims going up, so you wont notice till you achieve the full NCD.
I’ll go for a new policy number at 50% discount!
Not surprised about the little old lady - they must be making £millions out of them all over the country.
Yeah, just got my renewal quote, £150 up from last year. I mean seriously…
