Annual insurance shuffle - Standard practice?

[ch108]

I was with Admiral for 11 years. Each year no one could get near their price. Then last year my renewal crept up quite a bit. (Despite no claims in that time).

I went with Directline who were quite a bit cheaper than Admiral, which was unusual as for years Directline were always miles more expensive than anyone else for me.

So certainly this year it did pay to compare prices, there isn't really any reward for loyalty these days.

[texaxile]

Last year Halifax quoted me £370 for my house insurance. I went to Churchill and got it for £159. I insure the cars in the family with A Plan, every year we go through the same "dance". They quote me , I make a few calls and then challenge them to beat the quote.
Often they can't beat it but match it to keep the business.

Same happened this year with the exception of the Lancer Turbo, the premium was exactly the same as last year, but then again Classic Insurance is often subject to different rules etc.

Shop around , it's always worth the extras legwork and these days it's even easier.

[Mound Dawg]

Hackney said:

It's mind-boggling that all the businesses listed prioritise new business over loyalty.
Customers are incredibly frustrated that they have to do this research, phoning around etc every year, when what they would prefer is to stick with the current supplier knowing their loyalty counts for something.

I used to work for the a very large motor insurance broker until 12 years ago. Our marketing people told us that it cost about £90 to snag a new customer but about £10 to renew an existing one*. The commission rate was the same 20%. So if you sold a new 300 quid policy it cost the company £90 in admin to earn £60 commission. Renew the same policy the next year and you netted 50 quid profit.

Yet the emphasis was on getting new policies. Sales staff were allowed to discount 10 or 15% at the drop of a hat (taken out of the commission) to get a sale but the people dealing with renewals had to "sell the benefits not the price".

Barmy.

• These numbers will have changed now because most new business is transacted on line with the customer doing all the data entry and printing their own documents.

[CaptainSensib1e]

caelite said:

I have been with Hastings for the last 3 years. Every year they have bumped my policy up by around 50%. The first 2 years I just cancelled the policy and took out a new quote via confused.com. Last year when I called them up to cancel my renewal they said they where actually able to match the confused quote for the first time on my ongoing policy.

They chance it because people are lazy and it's easy money.

I just had my renewal through from Hastings and not only was it cheaper than last year, it was better than any quote I got on a comparison website. Quite impressed.