To be annoyed about my car insurance renewal letter?

[Hatespiders]

I've been with the same insurers for ages. Same car, nothing's changed except I'm a year older. Their renewal quote arrived and there's an enormous hike in the price. I mean very big. I've been on some comparison sites and found several a bit cheaper, but I thought I'd ring my present company to see what they'd say. A very nice chap said 'he'd see what he could do'. Fiddled about and then came up with my original price and even reduced the excess!
He was lovely but sounded as if he was doing me a big favour 'because I've been their customer for a long time'. I thanked him politely and accepted the new, much smaller payment, which I've always paid. I'm talking about a difference of about £180 per year.
AIBU to be very annoyed that these insurance companies do this? If I'd been daft (well, I may well be, but not that daft!) I'd just have let them renew automatically at this huge increase. I'm not cross with the telephone chap because he's only doing his job, and he was really kind and jolly. But I wonder how many customers they lose like this, as many folk now use comparison websites. I could also have got a little Meerkat toy for our neighbours' young family!

Sadly this is par for the course behavior for insurance companies. Never trust them and never agree to the renewal they send you.

I just received a renewal quote too. I went to comparethemarket & got a new quote for £120 pounds less with the very same company.

I took out cheaper policy, rang insurance co to tell them to not renew previous policy etc and they told me, oh next time just ring up and we will match renewal to cheapest quote etc.

Its all a big fucking drag but it is how they do business.

I call the AA every year for the same reason. Without fail, they reduce the annual breakdown cover cost to the same as that which a new customer would pay.

Insurance companies hope that you'll just carry on paying and not bother to shop around.

I always shop around then ring current company to see if they can match the comparison sites, i they get to within 20 difference I normally stay - but this year they couldnt get anywhere near so I left, I also got it a lot cheaper than last year with shopping around!

I received a quote from my existing company. Checked comparison sites and - as usual - it was cheaper. Phoned existing company and told them the price and they matched it to within a pound. I decided that the hassle of all the paperwork was worth a pound and stayed with the original company.

Anyone who trusts an insurance company renewal quote is going to be paying more than they should

You have to be so careful now as sadly, a lot of insurance companies just don't care - several years ago a neighbour's 9-yr-old threw a stone over the wall and it hit and scratched my husband's car. We wanted to know how much it would cost to claim from our insurance v asking the Mother to pay for a repair [she was willing to do so, so no friendships were affected!].

We called the insurance company, discussed it and then took it no further with the insurers, sorting things out between ourselves and our neighbour.

Several months later our renewal arrived and it was nearly twice as much! When we enquired we were told that as we had 'asked a question' about a damage claim, they judged that it would be more likely that we would actually make a claim in the future, hence the hike! This is all despite the fact that we didn't actually make any claim at all! We even threatened to renew elsewhere and they wouldn't budge, so yes we did go elsewhere.

It seems you can't even ask them a question without it having serious financial implications.

I don't renew with a company that are trying to rip me off aa a matter of principle - even if they do offer to match other prices. It's no real hardship to use a comparison site and most of them accept Ncd proof via email.

Thank you for all these replies. It sadly seems this is normal for insurance companies now. I definitely won't be tamely accepting renewal quotes in future, as it's obvious one has to push and shove to get the price down.
It's such a nuisance though isn't it?
Never mind, the crumpet was lovely, all dripping with melted butter... life still has its compensations!

I ended up going with quotemehappy.com which are part of Aviva. They have an app which I downloaded on my phone and simply used that to take a photo of my NCD proof and that was all I needed to do. Someone hit my car earlier this year and they were very good getting it all sorted out so I'm very happy with the service I've received from them.

I still think it's worth phoning the cheapest one from the comparison sites and asking if they can do better. Ask them their best price and tell them you will be ringing other companies for quotes even if you have no intention of doing it. You know then it is their very best price.

When my renewal came through this year i went online and my renewal was still cheaper than any quotes i could find for the same cover. I still rang them and they took about 50 quid off as a loyalty discount. Nice one Churchill

This is my 3rd year with them now

A few years ago I happened to see my parents car insurance renewel letter, they had been with the same local insurance company for car and home insurance for over 30 years and are of a generation that believe in customer loyalty. They honestly believed that the insurance company would make sure they had the cheapest price as they had been customers for so long so they had never shopped around.

Within 5 mins online I had saved them £400 on their car insurance alone.

i was coming in to moan about the bleeding AA..... every year we have a ridiculous letter come with the new cards, dh rants about it, phones them up and they reduce it back down.

and then they send us new cards. ffs.

This happened to me but it went up £400 in one year, they wouldn't reduce the price back down either, i went with someone else in the end and got classic car insurance which worked out cheaper anyway as the car im driving is 20yrs old.

I see my renewal letter as a starting point!! Free meerkat for seconds research. Win win!

We got our house insurance with comparethemarket, and qualified for a meerkat. But the blooming thing took months and months to arrive, and kept sending daft emails explaining where he was (silly places, with a map) Eventually it arrived, quite nice and wearing a little black plastic jacket.
We took it to the family 2 doors down, three young children, and they absolutely went mad. It's still their favourite toy and they do share him nicely. I would've liked that baby Oleg on Safari one for them!

My current insurer has given me a renewal quote which is £4 cheaper than the next nearest quote (been on every comparison site there is) and has a lower excess and more perks. Really can't believe they've given me such an excellent quote. Am planning on renewing and I can't remember the last time I did that. Esure BTW £164 car insurance fully comp £150 excess with courtesy car, lost keys and a few other things.

I'm waiting on a baby Oleg

Queried my renewal quote after reading this thread and they knocked another £120 off! Thanks :) still £740 though

Just had my car insurance renewal through. Last year it was £172.86 and this year it's £153.76. I will still shop around but have to say that I am impressed with quotemehappy.com as most companies increase it each year.

£740?! What do you drive? A custom-built Ferrari? A combat tank (includes overseas cover)? Or is it for the 24 ct gold leaf paint job on your Fiesta?

the cost of insurance can be more about where you live that what you drive.

Also how expensive YOUR car is, is only one factor. Any old cheap banger can HIT a Ferrari and cause extremely expensive damage.

I live in a high density expensive car area - so though I drive a 10yo Polo, my insurance is still pretty high. I guess because of all the damage I can potentially do to a Maserati, Porsche or high end Mercedes.

Dh was insured with swinton for about five years he hasn't claimed for years he was still paying about £100/month car insurance this year the price hadn't come down at all he renewed Direct choice and his premiums have gone.down by 50% our adress us one of the reasons car insurance is so high.

Just be careful when you do shop around that you are getting the same cover. I had taken out Tesco car insurance and only realised when I was renewing it the following year that I was only covered for 2 weeks' use of a courtesy car if mine was off the road. That's no use to me, I need my car for work and we only have one car so I need to have a replacement for the duration. I recognise it was my mistake (and thankfully I didn't have a need for a courtesy car during that year) but I wanted to make sure no-one else falls foul of that.

Now, renewing house insurance on a Grade II listed house is another matter altogether...