Insurance - 50% increase?!!

[LongDarkTeatime]

Just got our home and contents insurance renewal.
Nearly soar my tea out when I read it - it’s increased 50 f*ing percent since last year.
We have never made a claim, no changes to circumstances, no crime wave (small area, we’d have heard about burglaries).
Did a search and most quotes were significantly higher than last year, but not as bad as 50%
Dreading car insurance renewal now.
What has happened? I’m mean … 50% 😲

They can’t offer Joe bloggs a more competitive price as a new customer than they do on his renewal. That just means they’ve bumped up new business prices. And no the person on the phone doesn’t care they hear it 20 times a day

Always use comparison sites - but this year my car insurance has gone up by 20%, house by 15% and my landlord policy by 60!

Increased cost of building materials is a major factor

This always happens when they change underwriters. You just need to do compare the market or something.

Most customers used to cost insurance companies money in the first year what with all the discounts they used to give out to lure you in. That’s part of the reason why a new quote is also surprising people - you aren’t getting those discounts any more

We have been with same ‘big brand’ provider for a number of years due to not having the head-space to haggle, previously bereavement then Covid last year at renewal time. So if anything we were paying over the odds anyway prior to this 50% increase.

Ring them up and negotiate it down… that’s what I always do with renewal quotes they’re just hoping you accept it and don’t contact them.

When we bought our first house after the first couple of years the buildings & contents went up by around 400%.

We decided they didn't want us as customers and found another insurer.

Don't forget to use a cashback site too.

Strangely my car insurance renewal last month was cheaper than the year before. This has never happened before and I've been driving for 25+ years.

My Admiral multicar policy went up from £1300 to £1700. Shopped around and got all the cars and house insured separately for £1200. So much for the multicar discount!

I'm so sick of insurance companies doing this. When I get an increased renewal quote I go online and find a cheaper one and buy it. Then I call my 'old' insurance company and tell them I don't want to renew because I've found a cheaper option. They then offer to 'see if they can offer me a reduction' at which point I tell them it's too late because I've already bought from a new company and if they were able to offer me a cheaper price then they should have done so in the first place! I refuse to play their stupid game

They're not allowed to do that anymore. They can't charge new customers more than existing ones. I found that despite my renewal being a substantial increase, it was still as good a deal as I could get on comparison sites.

Shop around amd use on of the cashback sites - got £35 cashback on my car insurance renewal.

There is apparently an optimum time to look for your renewal prices according to Martin Lewis, for car I think it's around 25 days before to get the cheapest deals. Not sure about other insurances though.

Exactly this. The insurance needs to be updated for all the 2022 inflation which wasn't fully priced for last year because our crystal balls were broken, and also for the 2023 expected inflation.

Sorry, feel free to blame Putin.

I was expecting mine to be a lot more this year as I think MSE martin mentioned insurance going up recently (due to reasons explained by pp above) so was pleasantly shocked with I got my quote for this year as being a few quid cheaper. I usually compare and switch every year but won't bother with that.

My car insurance renewal came through last week, it had increased from £387 (last years amount) to £815 for this year. I have had no claims in the year.

Went on the compare sites, paid £344. fully comp, will have a black box fitted to monitor my driving.

I have been driving 40 years this month 🤣