Home Insurance

kellys_eye · Post by **kellys_eye** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:33 pm

Just had our annual home insurance renewal quote in....

it's up 300% from last year. Not a typo - THREE HUNDRED PERCENT rise!

Argyll · Post by **Argyll** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:40 pm

That's why you change every year. They love the people who can't be bothered looking for better deals.

etaf · Post by **etaf** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 4:04 pm

i change every year, our insurance only went up by 15% this year, but still changed and the same cover cheaper at Direct Line - usually they are a lot more expensive , I used to be with them, but each renewal went up a lot.
I do the same with car insurance, change every year , unless the current insurance comes back down in price, which they have a few times in the past
I start with the comparison sites to get an idea of prices.

my mother-in-law hadnt changed for years and was paying almost a £1,000 a year !!!!!!!! , which we managed to reduce to just under £200 ..... as Argyll says , they love people on autorenewal and dont have the time to change

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 4:20 pm

I have been with LLoyds for some years. Every year the quote is much higher, I ring and moan and it miraculously drops to a few quid more than last year. The same is true of my motor insurance. You have to phone and see what they will do and if necessary go elsewhere. They work on lethargy, some chumps allow auto-renewal.

DWD

Rorschach · Post by **Rorschach** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 5:23 pm

Customer loyalty, doesn't exist.

My car insurance renewal is always much higher than previous years premium, sometimes double. A new quote with the same company is usually about the same as previous year, maybe cheaper.
In every year of the going on for 15 years I have been driving I have paid a lower price each year than the previous, I almost always have to switch though.

kellys_eye · Post by **kellys_eye** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 6:31 pm

Totally agree on the reasons. We only got the renewal in yesterday so no time to call them to 'discuss' (i.e. rant) but that will be done tomorrow since a casual browse of t'internet shows the exact cover can be had at the OLD price.

I want to hear their side of the argument - before telling them to eff off no matter how low they make their counter offer. Lack of customer loyalty works both ways.

etaf · Post by **etaf** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 6:44 pm

my experience is it's not an argument or justification.
having done this every year for many years now , for my house and someone else
I would expect it to go something like

You say your not happy with the renewal price , and you can go elsewhere for the same cover and get it cheaper then their renewal quote
call handler will apologise , and ask is the cover required still the same, do you want to add/change anything , excess etc , they will then look at the price and offer you a new price, they may even put you on hold and talk to the underwriters and come back with a new number...

if i dont take up the new price , which I have done sometimes , then i make sure before i leave the call that any Auto Renewal is OFF
Even if i may go back to them later and renew

I usually have some actual real quotes from other companies available , like for like, voluntary excess is key, along with the actual cover.

wine~o · Post by **wine~o** » Mon Oct 18, 2021 5:39 pm

I've been with LV for some years, no hugr hikes in the annual renewal, just little ones. Tried various comparison sites, none cheaper like-for-like that I'd ever heard of.

kellys_eye · Post by **kellys_eye** » Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:29 pm

Would anyone be surprised to hear my provider is British Gas??? Anyway, getting through to them to cancel is as good as impossible - as many, many others have discovered and commented on.

We emailed to demand the auto renewal be stopped and queried why the rise was so steep. They actually responded! Said there 'were various reasons but nothing they could be specific about' and offered a number of lame excuses with a final discount of ....... £3.00. Yep, three quid off the quoted renewal price. £389 instead of £392 (last years was £136).

Off we went to the Post Office for a new policy. Same(ish - £140) price as the old policy, same terms etc.

stevei · Post by **stevei** » Tue Oct 19, 2021 5:49 am

Been with Saga for a good few years now. Their renewal prices have always been competitive and if not, they will price match. I still use Comparethemarket.com and Confused.com just to make sure.

etaf · Post by **etaf** » Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:52 am

That sounds about right for a lot of companies i dealt with, offered £3-15 off quite normal. Only once have i got near to a price from a comparison site and that was last year for car insurance , and they knocked over £50 off to meet the price.
I used to be with Saga but thier prices went up a few years back , so maybe I should have another look at saga , car's insurance due in Nov & Jan , Unless of course Hasting Direct match again on price, like they did last year. I tried to contact them this year for house insurance and see as i had cars with them if they did a multi deal, but could not get through and online the quote was much more expensive. I know Direct Line prices went silly a few years back, as i had been with DL for House & Cars & Travel for quite a number of years , probably 6 or more, then the price went really high, possibly to pay for the adverts on TV Anyway , this year I went back to DL as the offer was much better than my current deal and cheaper than last years cost.

Also new customer introductory offers, not sure what happened here as there was talk a while ago about the government banning that, so any offer had to also be available to existing customers.

London mike 61 · Post by **London mike 61** » Tue Oct 19, 2021 8:24 am

On the subject of insurance, my golf insurance which we used to have added onto our house insurance ( they don’t do that anymore

) is with golf care and last year it was under £100 but the renewal was £158 !!

Anyway I gave them a call and said how could they possibly justify such a rise when for most of the previous year all golf courses were closed so they didn’t have to ‘insure ‘ anyone because we were stuck at home. In the end I agreed to pay the new premium but got three months extra cover.
I thought there was a new law coming out sometime this year to the effect that insurance companies could not charge existing customers more than new customers. Anyone know any more about this ? I can’t find anything online.

Mike

Someone-Else · Post by **Someone-Else** » Tue Oct 19, 2021 10:38 am

London mike 61 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 8:24 amI thought there was a new law coming out sometime this year to the effect that insurance companies could not charge existing customers more than new customers. Anyone know any more about this

Sorry, wrong year and, it starts Jan 01 2022 it's only car and home insurance, as yours was for golf it would not apply.

London mike 61 · Post by **London mike 61** » Tue Oct 19, 2021 11:48 am

Someone-Else wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 10:38 am
London mike 61 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 8:24 amI thought there was a new law coming out sometime this year to the effect that insurance companies could not charge existing customers more than new customers. Anyone know any more about this
Sorry, wrong year and, it starts Jan 01 2022 it's only car and home insurance, as yours was for golf it would not apply.

Ok, thanks

Mike