Car insurance renewal increased by 40%! Are they completely nuts.

[Headperson]

I haven't put fuel in it since February!
My mileage will probably be halved this year.
This is with m&s or whoever their underwriters are.
I phoned them and they got it down to 444 from 504 but I've already found others who will do it for less than 300.

Yep, get on a comparison site. My renewal quote was almost double . Used compare the market, and got it lower than the previous years. Rang them to cancel, and amazingly then managed to find a loyalty discount to get it close the the renewal price I'd found. I still cancelled. Tge discount should gave been there initially

Just change providers. I shop around every year for everything.

Welcome to inertia pricing. They put it up because some people will blindly accept the renewal because they don't realise they need to shop around every year to avoid sleepwalking into massive bills after a couple of years.

So it's boring but necessary to spend a bit of time on the comparison sites to get yourself a better deal.

Direct Line have reduced mine for the duration of the lockdown. I had to apply online but it was very easy to do.

Negotiate. Companies somehow manage to reduce their quotes when you mention you are moving.

Insurance companies often don't care if you leave. It's not like Sky and such where they try and retain you. In my experience they might knock a bit off but in general they are happy for you to go elsewhere.

@0blio

Direct Line have reduced mine for the duration of the lockdown. I had to apply online but it was very easy to do.

Thank you so much for this. I hadn't realised they were doing that and have now applied. I only do about 3 miles a week a the moment!

My renewal was higher this year. Usually I look for the cheapest, change and then cancel. This year I tried to cancel before taking out new insurance and my old company brought the price right down with multiple discounts - really pissed me off that that don’t just offer a good price to start with.

Just change providers. There's only so much that can do on the price.

Just shop around.

It could be that your previous price was making a hefty loss for them to get you in (actually, most car insurance contracts are loss making) and now you’re up to where they think they should have been charging you initially. Or perhaps they don’t want your business and are full on your postcode / type of car, risk profile etc ... insurers will try to keep a diversified book. I’ve had one fairly niche policy go up by 500% once (no claim) - clearly they just had too many people on the books for that product that looked like me.. no biggie

You do know that you can shop around and swap to cheaper insurance?

My car insurance went down but I got a better price elsewhere. Home insurance has gone up nearly £50 a year, our current provider but all the others are the same. We haven’t made any claims. Bizarre.

you do know that you can shop around and swap to cheaper insurance

Yes but why should you have to? And why should the insurance company start off with the ridiculously high renewal price that they will instantly reduce if you phone up to query it.

If they can offer a lower price once you've threatened to go elsewhere, or even just asked why it's gone up when you haven't claimed etc, they can offer the lower price straight off.

It's an exhausting, boring waste of everyone's time and penalises the vulnerable who don't have the time or mental energy to play the game, or are older people who are from an age where companies like banks or insurance companies were respectable, not dishonest sharks trying to take their customers for every penny they can. Every so often you read stories about elderly people paying many times what they need to for their home insurance, because they've just renewed each year and never claimed a penny back. It's disgusting that they exploit people in this way.

Doesn't everyone change providers every year? It takes such a short amount of time to go on a price comparison site and get a better quote- hardly any time at all if you make an account on them and your details are all saved there for you. It's not like price comparison websites aren't heavily advertised, I can't imagine there are many people left who are unaware of their existence and who have never come across an article discussing the need to do this and the way insurers et al fleece you at renewal.

yes, inertia pricing - an unwanted side effect of excess competition. Although it takes a little bit of time to switch providers, think of it as paying you the huge extra premium that you are avoiding.

record in this family is a 60% increase on an insurance premium. Bye bye...

Yes but why should you have to?

Yawn.

So dont then?

Change providers it's very easy to do.

Why not go to a broker? I've always used them.

Mine was around the same as last year so I went on a comparison site and found £120 cheaper. I was surprised that Direct Line then reduced my renewal by £100 as they've never done it before. I stayed with them as I couldn't be bothered to move for the sake of £20.

I'll have to change next year though as DH is no longer with them so I'll lose the discount for that.

A little tip I saw on money saving expert is to get a quote 24 days before your insurance runs out, apparently it can make a difference rather doing it on the last day.

I love shopping around for quotes!

We use a broker too. We pay a tiny bit more than the cheapest deal on the price comparison sites but they call us every year rather than us having to remember, input all the information and we can pay in two instalments without it being more expensive.

Loyalty doesn't pay and companies will try and rip us off if they think they can get away with it. Because all too often they do get away with it. Car insurance is an egregious example but not the only one.

We have to shop around every year to not get skanked.

as I said, side-effect of too much competition. As many people do not bother to check, easy money. I don't think any on here would turn away easy money; if you tell your customers you are charging them a big increase and they still keep paying, why wouldn't you do it?

trick is not to be one of those who doesn't bother. It's not like the info isn't there, and with 80+% having permanent internet access, most people have the ability to shop around.

do your internet-less family a favour and shop around for them too.