Just had an email from car insurance warning me renewal is on it way.

I actually can't work out if you are being serious with your posts or not. You seem to be very naive as to how things work.

Don't forget to check the ones not on the comparison sites

Your posts read like you aren't very familiar with how cat insurance works. Have you never changed insurers before? You could have been over paying for years

Each quote is bespoke to you and the insurer depending on their attitude on that day to your risk, you aren't buying a generic product.

Since comparison sites became easily available to pretty much everyone thees no reason to not get the best value every year

They might not be able to

It's like when people ring my work and say can you not do it cheaper because the other place is? No. Go to the other place
Hairdressers, garages, dentists, buying a light bulb... they all vary and often you have to shop around

I've just bought a rug which ranged from £150-190 online
One had a discount code and I got it for £105 in the end but I wouldn't email the £190 company and say why can't you do it cheaper

I've just had my renewal through and the price has gone up about 10%. I was expecting a lot worse than that.
I get mine through an insurance broker so they do the work of finding the best price.

That’s got nothing to do with staying with the same insurer though. That’s you not claiming on any policy .

Maybe it's just me, but I get salty about their referring to it as a 'cancellation'. You bought a year's policy, which is now coming to an end, but you aren't going to renew it. That isn't you 'cancelling it'; however if anybody has 'cancelled' what could have been a longstanding relationship, it's surely them by changing the terms so unreasonably.

It equally annoys me when politicians and parties talk about 'losing votes', when in reality, the vote they won last time was only ever for the one set period and THEIR actions have caused the voters not to be fooled again!

I think, to be honest, the era of well-known insurer brands with a good reputation is going to be coming to an end soon. In the old days, you would pay a fair price for a policy with a trusted provider and feel happy with the deal; but now they're all rocketing and getting more and more unaffordable, I think we're going to see more people forced into just going with whoever offers the lowest price - whatever their bad reputation and poor reviews - and just desperately hoping not to need to claim.

With car insurance being a legal requirement - and I'm not suggesting that it shouldn't be - I can see it moving from being widely seen as a worthwhile, valuable product bringing peace of mind to an object of fear that people see as an unavoidable extortion racket that they are terrified to ever need.

Why ever would SHE take offence when YOU are the one whom her company had tried to grift for an extra £100 that they clearly didn't need to insist on once you didn't roll over and pay up?!

That makes me think of the other current thread, where a 'friend' has been stealing from the OP - but OP doesn't want to upset her by challenging her about it!

I had this last year, though I had no warning - just the shocking renewal increasing my £475 premium to £950! That was with Tesco.

I did a comparison on one of the comparison sites and found lots cheaper but with insurers I didn't know and with bad reviews. The "cheapest" decent insurer was about £650 so still more than last year, but a lot cheaper than Tesco.

I always do a comparison and almost every time I've done it before my current insurer matches the deal. The lady at Tesco just said "OK - I've processed the cancellation for you".

I wouldn't mind so much, but I've been driving for 27 years and have never had any points or accidents. Literally the only thing I've ever claimed for is 2 windscreens in 27 years!

Unfortunately since my last renewal we've had a load of car thefts in our close vicinity, so I'm dreading this year's renewal, even though all the cars stolen have been keyless entry, and mine isn't.

This happened to us.
They sent us a reminder with a message that costs would be rising.
Ds is on as second driver and the car has a black box fitted. So we hoped that his second year with excellent scores on the black box would be cheaper.
We stayed with the same company because although it was more expensive than last year it was the cheapest quote we could find.
Hopefully next year when he's 21 there'll be more companies who will insure him so more choice.

The insurance company I'd been with for 10 years wouldn't budge with a cheaper quote when my renewal was due last month - I was paying £300/year, the renewal quote was £1200/year! Best I could get on a comparison site was £400/year despite no claims, etc.

My insurance tried this, doubled my insurance, I went on compare the market and got insurance for just £30 a year more than the year before. I changed insurers obviously. Churchill currently but quite willing to switch in 3, if the renewal is silly

A lot seems to depend on the type of car. Mine is a hybrid and in the last two years the renewals have increased a lot. I've managed to keep it down as far as possible but even the cheapest quotes are increases over the year before.

Full EVs are even worse. Friends with EVs have all complained and one is even selling his 8 year old Tesla as the cheapest quote he got was over £2k! We're all middle aged, had driving licences for years etc.

Just been through this. They were going to put it up by £100. Im happy with my insurance so I checked price comparison then called them and said, I can get it cheaper elsewhere, can you match. She said no problem and brought it down to cheaper than the year before. Wasn't tricky, she didn't take offence or hard sell, so easy.

Mine was due to renew a couple of weeks ago. My 'then' insurer sent me their renewal quote - it had gone up from £295 a year (tiny car, 15+ years NCD, rural location) to £725!!Madness! That's a 146% increase - how is that EVER a justifiable increase?

I rang them and they wouldn't budge, even though I'd already gone online and got many quotes for around the £300-£350 price range (and actually better cover!)

Obviously I cancelled and went with someone else. I just don't understand why insurance companies do this! The guy even explained that if I'd been a new customer I'd get a better rate...makes no sense at all, they are just losing business.

I was complaining about our renewal coming in at £150 more and my friend laughed as hers had gone from £350 ish to EIGHT THOUSAND pounds!! She had phoned and queried it but that's what the computer said, so she went somewhere else and paid something like £300.

Absolutely not. Find out what others are offering first. If you then want to call your current insurer you have ammunition to use to get their best price.

Martin Lewis is your friend.

Mine must be the only one unaffected. I was preparing for a huge increase that didn’t happen. Swapped insurers anyway and it wasn’t any higher than last time.

I always use a cashback site to compare insurance. I never stay with the company I was with the previous year.

I've got around £40 to £65 cashback doing it this way, plus much cheaper premiums.

They were willing the reduce mine by £10 for ‘goodwill’

the renewal quote was £500 more than I was paying …. I got it somewhere else for less than I was paying before. It’s literally daylight robbery those renewals !

We are all with Direct Line , I checked with a comparison site before the quotes arrived , we also had the email about increases . When the renewals came in mine had only gone up about £10 , husbands £30 and our adult sons had gone down by £70 and all were competitive or better than on the comparison sites .

For as long as I can remember I've gone on the comparison sites which always give me something cheaper. I then ring my provider and ask if they can match it, and they always have done. My initial quote this year from them was £250 more than what I eventually negotiated.