Insurance Renewal Advice - buy cheap.........

[B'stard Child]

Of course I'm talking about car insurance before this gets shipped of to homes and gardens (sorry mods )

So it's that time of year again

Existing insurer renewal (used to be a local (to me) City Union) comes through £279 and it's not much different to last year (makes a refreshing change to not be paying for their name change)

Do an on-line quote with same insurer and it's actualy more expensive £283 (also a refreshing change and a first)

Compare the annoying "meerkats" and getting "confused" as well as go to one company that's not on any comparison-website hmmm £383 will be why

So compares and confused offer policies starting £100 cheaper but I'm sure the cheapest companies don't have the best reputation company service wise (internets agrees with me after a quick google) so I'm inclined to give them a miss

Moving up the prices brings companies into play that I'd probably have a bit more faith in providing some support in the event of an issue and lets face it that's when you need a good customer service and for the first time in my insurance quoting history that naval ranking company has provided a competative quote.

So I guess what I'm interested in is..............

At what point do people consider staying put - I used to say within £50 and I'd rather stay put with my broker but price forced me away from a broker 2 years ago ending a 15 year relationship where I'd always felt a valued customer admittedly I moved for "more than" £50

Interested in what other Ph'rs think

[mrmr96]

Two reasons to buy insurance: legal requirement, and to get a payout. Which do you need?

[TRB]

I ditched my broker a few years ago when the comparison stuff really started taking off. Broker couldn't get close.

These days I'm back with the broker as he recently has beaten any quote I can find elsewhere.

[James_N]

Always go with the absolute cheapest for me. Whilst I appriciate a lot of people here have expensive metal, I run a banger, so would never claim on the insurance even if I crashed it.

My renewal in november was coming out at £330, but with a combination of shopping around and using quidco, got it down to £200 fully comp

[nagsheadwarrior]

Ring up current insurer,tell them the best quote you've had and they'll normally match it or at least come closer.

[B'stard Child]

mrmr96 said:

Two reasons to buy insurance: legal requirement, and to get a payout. Which do you need?

interesting point

Of course it's a legal requirement and whilst I haven't had a fault claim for over 15 years I'm not a driving god and the driving stds of those I see driving around me isn't getting any better and that worries me a lot that it used to..........

[B'stard Child]

nagsheadwarrior said:

Ring up current insurer,tell them the best quote you've had and they'll normally match it or at least come closer.

Done that already - I have their best quote and there was no likelyhood of carving £100 of the renewal price

I didn't pursue the get close option - maybe I should

[caiss4]

nagsheadwarrior said:

Ring up current insurer,tell them the best quote you've had and they'll normally match it or at least come closer.

Not necessarily. My renewal this year with a company offering multi-car policies failed miserably to respond to the challenge even when I presented them with individual quotes from them (same company) for the cars involved.

I used to give one year's grace. Now I'll shop around every year.

[A13]

nagsheadwarrior said:

Ring up current insurer,tell them the best quote you've had and they'll normally match it or at least come closer.

This. My renewal came in at £600.
Told them i got a quote for £400 and they matched. Easy.

[B'stard Child]

[redacted]

[A13]

B'stard Child said:

Current insurer did that when the online "new quote" from the same companny was cheaper but that wasn't the case this year - genuinely surprised you got a drop of 33%

So was I to be honest.
My mum was on my insurance, and made a claim which increase my premium. Taking her off the policy gave them a 'reason' to reduce.
In the end the doc's came through with her still on it, so don't know what happened there!