No loyalty for car insurance customers

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Apologies for being off topic...but I just got my auto email with my renewal quote for 590 (including 10% discount for online renewal)
Went on to the site and entered details verbatim and quote is 420....

So much for customer loyalty!
 
As an aside, Charlie westons view that insurers are using big data to spot these customers is overstating it. All they need to know is who has automatically renewed last year (and maybe year before) and possibly who came direct rather than using a broker. In the words of the “Compare the market” meercats “simples”.
 
Apologies for being off topic...but I just got my auto email with my renewal quote for 590 (including 10% discount for online renewal)
Went on to the site and entered details verbatim and quote is 420....

So much for customer loyalty!

Dont renew with the same company. Vote with your wallet.
 
In my experience, you frequently don't need to move: just ring up your insurance company and ask for a better price (ideally after you get a quote from someplace else that's cheaper). They will frequently match it. It's always amazed me you can save a couple of hundred with one phone call, without having to move insurer.
 
In my experience, you frequently don't need to move: just ring up your insurance company and ask for a better price (ideally after you get a quote from someplace else that's cheaper). They will frequently match it. It's always amazed me you can save a couple of hundred with one phone call, without having to move insurer.

Every year my home insurance sends me out a renewal for about €500. Every year I ring them up and push them down to €450.

Charlie Weston's take on this is upside down. The only way competition works is if firms are disallowed from colluding on prices and if active customers shop around for the best price.

Charlie seems to think that '"vulnerable" customers who won't switch should get the same benefits as customers who shop around. But how on earth do prices get set then, if not by competition?

The alternative is of course a world where insurers collude to all set the same prices. This price would be very high of course, and I doubt Charlie would be happy then either!
 
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I agree with the lack of loyalty displayed by car insurance companies.

I'd be interested in reversing the question somewhat - are there companies that actually reward loyalty?! Examples please...….can't personally think of any off hand!
 
I don't know about rewarding loyalty, but my quote this year to renew with the AA was pretty much as good as I found anywhere. There was no messing around with getting a better price if I put in a new application online. Calling in still got me a small reduction.
 
I don't know about rewarding loyalty, but my quote this year to renew with the AA was pretty much as good as I found anywhere. There was no messing around with getting a better price if I put in a new application online. Calling in still got me a small reduction.
That's exactly what happened to me with AXA. The renewal quote has been pretty much the same the last few years and very similar to online quotes with other providers.
 
In my experience, you frequently don't need to move: just ring up your insurance company and ask for a better price (ideally after you get a quote from someplace else that's cheaper). They will frequently match it. It's always amazed me you can save a couple of hundred with one phone call, without having to move insurer.

I'm at a bit of a loss here.
Why would you want to continue doing business with a company that openly and blatantly tried to rob you ?

I have suffered the exact same over the years, did a bit of online searching and armed with a lower quote have rang my present insurers . When they, usually, match the lower quote I tell them where to go and why.
In essence what they have done is 'chanced their arm' with the inflated quote, happy to relieve you of as much money as they think they will get away with and then when questioned, effectively, admit that 'sure we had to try, but here is your real quote.........'.

That is what it boils down to.
Admitting they they tried to rip you off !

Nowadays, I don't even bother ringing them if I can get a cheaper quote (like for like) elsewhere. Its a few minutes on a keyboard and quite often quicker than hanging on a phone.
 
Get into the habit of changing your suppliers annually. Gas, electricity, insurance, everything.
Otherwise you are usually being fleeced.
The only thing I haven't changed is broadband, out of fear that competitors speeds will be slower than Virgin
 
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