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Cobra

Cobra

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Do they really think we are stupid? I guess the answer is yes!
(either that of lazy of course)

I changed cars in the latter half of my policy, and it was +£60 to swap, on just over a £300 policy.
My renewal came through today £510! WTF.
Now where did I put that Meerkat?

Even their own site (LV) came in at £350.
Hastings Came in for a "better" deal @ £268 ..
Guess which one I am going for?

I phoned LV to say that I didn't want them to renew, and the guy said "I guess its price"?
I told him the figures and he said " that's cancelled for you, Have a nice day" :D
 
i had the wied one from hastings myself this year.
been with them for about 3 years now.
renewal cam though at £380 which i though was a lot.
did a gocompare and £310.

rang them up and we settlled on something like £330

odd stuff

i call up and query everything now my list is

energy gas/leccy (scurrent sainsburys off to e-on next)
mobile phones (both on sim only deals with EE probably going to virgin media next )
broadband (wind virgin media up every 12 months)
car insurance (hastings still the best)
bike insurance (back with bennets silly low quote this year from them)
house insurance (hastings still best again)
 
I check online and if it's cheaper eleswhere I just go there. The way I see it, if they can drop their quote they didn't need to put it up in the first place.

That said, last year's quote was £118, this year it's £165 and the cheapest I can find is £151, nothing's changed for me except I'm a year older so can't figure out the big price hike.
 
No surprise there, quotes are always around twice my previous premium with the premise of "We've shopped around for you and our best quote is..." so you just go elsewhere.
Gets very annoying though that you get penalised for your customer loyalty. Same with RAC/AA. I flip flop between them every year as the introductory offer for a couple is around £160, with £60 back through top cashback. Both for the second year try to stitch you around £240
 
Steep said:
I check online and if it's cheaper eleswhere I just go there. The way I see it, if they can drop their quote they didn't need to put it up in the first place.
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Totally agree! if they say "let me see what I can do, I just say too late, you should have given me your best price to start with!
And in these days of compare sites, its dead easy.


Steep said:
nothing's changed for me except I'm a year older so can't figure out the big price hike.
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According to a news item recent, there has been an "across the board" rise in premiums.
IIRC it was 9% that still doesn't account for your price hike though!

Mr Bump said:
off to e-on next
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I was with them for years, and then they started playing silly buggers with the price,
SSE saved me £30 / month.

Byker28i said:
Both for the second year try to stitch you around £240
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I had that last year too, I phoned them up and said I'm off to the AA they are half the price.
Oh said the RAC man, I didn't realise, I can match that :rolleyes:
In that instance I did stay, I have AA assist & fuel card for the firms van, and twice out of the 3 times I've called them they were hassle,
took forever to turn up, and in one instance when I phoned them, the call had been cancelled! Seriously WTF?
 
We were with Direct Line, went up a bit so was going to renew but that I would let them know my wife is now working, the price went up by £220, so I told them to cancel.
We had a joint policy for two cars, they cancelled my one but not her.

A day after the renewal date got the certificates for her car so called them to cancel, was told they had cancelled my policy, wtf did they not cancel my wife's or ask if both need to be cancelled.

Now moved to Aviva and saved over £400.
 
Cobra said:
I suspect that they knew what they were doing ;)
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I presume so as when I called them to cancel they said I have to pay for the 1 day and a bit day we were insured. As it was £1.10 I have agreed so will wait and see what they deduct.
 
sep9001 said:
As it was £1.10 I have agreed so will wait and see what they deduct.
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At least they never slapped you with the £50 cancellation fee (y)
 
Cobra said:
At least they never slapped you with the £50 cancellation fee (y)
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Might have been because I had exported the web chat when I cancelled the first time.

Most web chats you have an option to email the chat after you have finished, but on this one they did not have it, so I copied the text and saved it to a document.
 
i'm sure they get plenty f people who just allow it to renew. I saved £130 on my renewal for the car, and £80 on the bikes from ringing round. I never get involved in the "we will match it" conversation. If they could do it cheaper they should have done that in the first place.
 
Cobra said:
there has been an "across the board" rise in premiums.
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Yep, I read that a couple of months ago, then when renewal notice came last month from Direct Line it had gone up nearly £70

So ......online search/comparisons etc (same every year) but apart from the odd £10-£20 from insurers I didn't know, I couldn't save. :rolleyes:
I rang DL to ask why it had increased so much & could they do any better before I searched around, but they weren't for budging, so had to renew :(

I reckon all the companies have un officially `fixed` their increased prices! :bat:
 
Someone has to pay for all the fraudulent claims for whipcash. As always, the honest people pick up the tab for the others.
 
challenge everything
that is my approach
calling people and bugging the service desk chimps is free
 
Very true Rick but I also think insurance companies should query garage quotes. Try taking your car for a quote for repair as I did and when you say thats more than I expected I will put it through my insurance the price seems to at least double.
 
My sister in law was with Sheila's Wheels and her renewal was £577 yet a quote on comparison site came out as £260. My house insurance nearly doubled yet I hadn't made a claim when I phoned and said I was going elsewhere they dropped it to less than my previous year
 
neil_g said:
Always expect to shop around and/or challenge renewals.

I gave VM some grief last week about my monthly payment compared to the new customer deals and they agreed to knock £5/month off.
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We've had a lot of issues with our internet/tv again. I've ended up with the new modem, two new v6 boxes and £35 off my monthly bill (and 3 engineer visits)
Virgin Media don't tell you about the new deals, you have to ring up
 
DavidMartin said:
My sister in law was with Sheila's Wheels and her renewal was £577 yet a quote on comparison site came out as £260. My house insurance nearly doubled yet I hadn't made a claim when I phoned and said I was going elsewhere they dropped it to less than my previous year
Click to expand...

It seems to be a common insurance company scam, I don't think it can be called anything else as they all do it.
"Oh we've checked and this is your best deal" but it isn't - they are trying it on and when you ring up "Ah premiums have gone up 30% this year" excuse. No they haven't and that doesn't explain it doubling.

It also doesn't explain how when challenged you can give me a more realistic quote along the lines of the rest of the market.
 
I use a specialist broker for modified cars and my renewal has been the same for the last 3 years.
 
OldCarlos said:
Yep, I read that a couple of months ago, then when renewal notice came last month from Direct Line it had gone up nearly £70
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I heard it was (Circa) 9% you must have a really "expensive" car to insure ;)

OldCarlos said:
I reckon all the companies have un officially `fixed` their increased prices! :bat:
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I'm sure they wouldn't do that, isn't "price fixing" illegal ? :D
rick448 said:
Someone has to pay for all the fraudulent claims for whipcash. As always, the honest people pick up the tab for the others.
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In the same report they said that they are cracking ( :D ) down on those sorts of claims, ie investigating fully, I'll believe that when I see it
Graham W said:
On that subject, I don't really believe that "Whiplash" is an issue anymore, not with car seat/headrest design as it is now.
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Agreed but then isn't it always "older" cars filled with uncles aunts sisters and toddlers that seem to get rear ended? ;)
And they were probably bought at auction for a couple of quid with a month or two's MOT left.
(I'm not cynical btw :D )
 
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neil_g said:
depends on the impact imo.
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Again, agreed, and I'm sure that there are one or two high speed genuine cases,
among the 100's of low speed impacts that are ( well were at least ) all the rage, not so long ago.
 
Cobra said:
Do they really think we are stupid? I guess the answer is yes!
(either that of lazy of course)

I changed cars in the latter half of my policy, and it was +£60 to swap, on just over a £300 policy.
My renewal came through today £510! WTF.
Now where did I put that Meerkat?

Even their own site (LV) came in at £350.
Hastings Came in for a "better" deal @ £268 ..
Guess which one I am going for?

I phoned LV to say that I didn't want them to renew, and the guy said "I guess its price"?
I told him the figures and he said " that's cancelled for you, Have a nice day" :D
Click to expand...

I changed vehicles through the course of a Hastings policy. Has cost me £00's and i have 2 separate complaints live at moment.

Been with them before but no changes no claims as they were cheapest on like for like. Getting to actually dealing with them mid renewal has been frustrating and expensive mistake. Hope your experience better than mine.
 
Jim_Tod said:
I changed vehicles through the course of a Hastings policy. Has cost me £00's and i have 2 separate complaints live at moment.

Been with them before but no changes no claims as they were cheapest on like for like. Getting to actually dealing with them mid renewal has been frustrating and expensive mistake. Hope your experience better than mine.
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I've always been wary of cheap quotes, been with the same company for years and never been overcharged for changes etc.
Only claim I ever made was dealt with without any problems.
Having said that I recently got a home renewal from Tesco for £500 for contents of £30,000 (under-insured I bet)
so asked the same company and now pay £108 for increased cover and better all risks on my camera gear, I used
them before I moved to Tesco a few years back and once again only ever claimed once and that went smoothly too

I look at insurance in the same way I look at other trades, cheapest is not always the best, sometimes you get
what you pay for and you don't find out till it's to late.
I recently needed a plumber, got a recommendation from a local parts supplier, was then told *He;s expensive"
I didn't think the cost was high and the workmanship was superb, plus a pleasant, helpful, honest guy, a friend went for a
the so called cheap option and has had loads of problems, she has ended up paying out more
 
Jim_Tod said:
changed vehicles through the course of a Hastings policy. Has cost me £00's and i have 2 separate complaints live at moment.
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BUGGER! :(

Jim_Tod said:
Hope your experience better than mine.
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And I hope so too!


Gremlin said:
Having said that I recently got a home renewal from Tesco for £500 for contents of £30,000 (under-insured I bet)
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I was with Tesco for years with a couple of insurance policies, until they suddenly became very expensive.
Doubled both Policies at the next renewal!
(Oh and their BB kept creeping up, but that was a whole new thread :D )

Gremlin said:
cheapest is not always the best,
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With my car insurance, on Meerkat, all the quotes were within a few ££ ( less than a tenner)
Hastings had the lowest excess and windscreen cover thrown in, a few others didn't include that.
 
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Cobra said:
...
I phoned LV to say that I didn't want them to renew, and the guy said "I guess its price"?
I told him the figures and he said " that's cancelled for you, Have a nice day" :D
Click to expand...

Actually that says they were straight up with the price.

I expected the punchline to be that they offered you a much lower price.
 
Phil V said:
I expected the punchline to be that they offered you a much lower price.
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I expected them to say that too.
But being nearly twice the price I guess they just "held their hands up" ..
 
We also have the added complication of the recent Ogden rate changes which will increase premiums. Long story short - the Ogden rate is used to determine lump sum payouts for personal injury to take into account the investment return an individual could expect on that amount. It was previously set at 2.5% and has been reduced to -0.75% i.e. it is now thought that any (risk averse) investment would not keep pace with inflation. It is the MOJ who set this rate. Better explanation below...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...back-crazy-personal-injury-rate-change-share/
 
Daysleeper40 said:
We also have the added complication of the recent Ogden rate changes which will increase premiums.
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Well lets just hope they investigate "Whiplash claims" far more thoroughly ( as they are apparently) that'll knock millions off the payouts for a start off.

And the premiums can fall again ... ( or not ;) )
 
Cobra said:
Well lets just hope they investigate "Whiplash claims" far more thoroughly ( as they are apparently) that'll knock millions off the payouts for a start off.

And the premiums can fall again ... ( or not ;) )
Click to expand...

Whiplash is a whole different beast... Ogden relates to big personal injury claims. Government have scrapped any plans there were for whiplash reforms re minor claims though which won't help. IPT has been on the rise as well... and repair costs have gone up something like 30% in the last few years. Insurance companies are also increasingly reliant on underwriting profit rather than investment profit. Lots of factors at work - I predict the market will stay hard for some time to come.
 
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I change providers virtually every year.

It used to be the case that your current company came in more on the renewal than you could get it for elsewhere and they would match.

These days they don't seem to care and are happy for you not to renew, I guess they are losing money by reducing it a lot.

My partner and I paid £710 for both policies last year, plus £80 cash back. Will see what happens come renewal time..
 
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