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

[PassingStranger]

As above, but also warning me the cost has risen.
They have tried to explain why.
Now have to wait to get it in the post.
They just wanted to prepare me it seems?
How did you deal with the rise, did you phone them and try and get it down?
Do they expect you to ring them?

I can well believe this. I've heard electric cars described as 'laptops on wheels'. With things that are mechanical-based, it's very often easy to isolate the problem and find the faulty part, then replace it.

However, if you dropped your laptop on a hard floor and it stopped working, how would you begin to work out which parts were damaged and which ones were still fine? What would you realistically do except be annoyed and buy a whole new one?

I always do comparison sites then ring my insurer and they always pretty much match what I’ve found on comparison sites. They are also easy to ring up and I’m never waiting too long to speak to someone.

Ours rose by £200 despite the car being a year older this is the first time this has happened. We always do a price comparison through topcashback and normally get up to £50 cash back. This year the cheapest price was m&s who we were with already.

I would get online quotes via two comparison sites so you know what's out there and then phone your existing company. They might match the best offer you have from the websites if you sound like you're planning to move to that company.

Not all policies have gone up much. Mine is around £300/year and went up £20 despite a recent (no fault) accident. Sticking with my existing company was cheaper than moving.

I almost always change to get cashback from a referral site, sometimes even going with the same insurer but as a new quote not the renewal.

This year (Apr 24) my comparison quotes approx 3 weeks before renewal were around £80 to £100 higher than my previous year policy (£203).
My renewal email came through the next day and was £202, so v slightly less than the previous year.
I checked the comparison quotes again a week later and they hadn't come down, so I renewed with the same company.

annoyingly after we said we were leaving, they then said they could reduce it,
ring the company first

Are you absolutely sure you're not driving around with no car insurance?

I've been googling and can't find any credit card that includes car insurance, only some that give you free extra cover on rental cars abroad.

EV's are the biggest con going but insurers will push prices because they can, expect to see a huge increase in non insured drivers.

If you want to but only after you know the best deal you can get some where else.

If you call Keith Michaels their hold message is a lengthy explanation as to why premiums have/are rising.

I got a similar email and it was up by 20 quid from like 306 to 327. Happy to renew as the comparison sites were insane! The cheapest was a few quid cheaper then most were more up to ££££ crazy amounts. I do have max no claims mind you not sure if that made a difference.

Never. I go to a price comparison site.
Either my current insurer couldn't match my preferred provider/price (in which case it's a waste of my time to ring them) or it turns out they can in which case I'm too annoyed that they've tried to fleece me out of the difference

Nowadays I just switch, l don't think they are bothered about customer loyalty - it's just not how modern insurance companies work.

Just had my house insurance renewal through. Up by 30%, although only by £30 for the year. There is nothing cheaper on the comparison sites. My car insurance is due soon. Let's see what that quote is!

Why should you?

If they can reduce, they should offer you that price in the first place.

It's beyond insane for some of these companies to spend such a huge amount on blanket advertising to attract new customers, only to then deliberately bin all those new customers a year later by ramping the price sky-high and refusing to come back down, even if they do give you another chance and don't leave on principle because of your blatant initial attempt to rinse them.

Why is it that successful small businesses know the very high value of maintaining their good reputation and keeping the bulk of their customer base (obviously, you will always get some whom you have to let go for various reasons) - but some massive companies just don't understand this?

I worked at one stage for a FTSE 100 company in their accounts payable department. Their policy was to keep all suppliers waiting for as long as they possibly could before paying them - three or four months - the result being that they had to pay more of us to keep fielding calls from angry suppliers, along with all of the damage to their reputation and bad press that it earned them.

It occurred to me - an absolute nobody in business - that if they just took the hit one single time and accepted a temporary three-month profit dip (on paper) as they got up to date, they would very soon more than recoup it in staff savings (I know: turkeys voting for Christmas!) and reputation and goodwill; however all of the bigwigs on the board of this multi-billion company didn't ever seem to get this.

Maybe we should all agree in principle (easier said than done, I realise!) that, once they've tried it on with a huge price hike that they subsequently 'discover' that they can drastically reduce, but only once you tell them you're leaving and not before, we will nevertheless refuse to stay with them regardless.

Honestly, they're no better than these scum companies that purely exist to rip off elderly and disabled people with colossally overpriced accessible furniture and mobility aids for as much as they possibly can, only gradually reducing the prices (with a 'call to the manager') until they reach the highest amount they can manage to grab from you, regardless of the actual (far lower) price/value of the product.

Yeah, I'd definitely get that one double-checked. Without any other benefits of the bank account, £240 a year is still likely a bargain for car insurance these days.

What would they do if you had a 10yo Fiesta in your quiet affluent village and then swapped it for a brand new Aston Martin and moved to the middle of a big, high-crime city? Surely they wouldn't just still charge you a flat £20 a month regardless?

Are you sure this is for full car insurance? It doesn't sound right. There are offers with credit cards that give rental car extra cover abroad or breakdown service but I've never heard of a credit card or bank account that gives car insurance as part if the perks.

I just had mine come through, it’s gone up £300! Comparisons sites are saying the same.

So that’s 2k a year for one car with two drivers (second hand BMW).

Our premiums have always been on the high side as we have had two cars stolen from the drive, and someone crash into us (whilst we was legally parked in a car parking bay and in a shop).

Car theft is absolutely rampant around me, it’s so annoying that I am paying for it.

My sons renewal jumped from 1k to around 1800
its a fairly sporty BMW M3 but even so and he’s been with the same insurers for a few years 6 years no claims and he’s 30 this year

So nothing has changed at all

I got on the a few comparison sites and got it for 956 there were a few others around a similar price

funniest thing is it’s a subsidiary of his original car insurance company

He was originally with AxA and now with Moja who are part of AxA
only thing he’s not got is windscreen cover
but he’s got that on his AA cover

There had been so many worrying anecdotes about price hikes on car insurance that I was a bit worried last time around too - in the end, my renewal cost was only about £50 a year more than last year's.

Same every year.

1. get the letter from insurance with new (higher) premium.
2. if it’s not too bad I just pay it.
3. if it’s too high, I check on comparison sites to see if I can get it cheaper (always can)
4. ring existing insurer and ask if they can reduce the premium, quoting them the figures I’m getting on comparison sites
5. if they reduce (they always do), I pay it.
6. if they won’t reduce enough, I go elsewhere.

No - I refuse to renew when their prices are stupid, they should have offered me the lower price first!

Greedy arseholes

I do comparison sites and then phone my existing insurer to ask them to price match. They have done so far.

I think this is incorrect - I pay around £20 for my account, I get PHONE insurance, TRAVEL insurance and BREAKDOWN insurance not CAR insurance