Listen to this.... Churchill can I challenge your internet quote vs renewal quote please???

[RedHead81]

Listen to this.....
I was and still am rather annoyed....

Got a renewal quote from Churchill today for £300. with 4yrs no claims - so i looked for a cheaper deal online just now and by chance wondered if there was any difference in the churchill sitea and my renewal. We had our insurance online with them last year, so there should be no difference in theory....

However...
exactly the same insurance (I checked all the small print)
Renewal = £300
New quote = £219
WHAT!!!!!??????
HOW!!!!????

surely this is wrong???
The insurance is in DH's name so I even tried it online in my name with 0yrs no claims and it was still £20 cheaper!!!

This is so bad...
how can they be allowed to get away with this?

does anyone else think this is as wrong as i do?

They won't match it tho' if you call, just cancel one & take out the other if you're certain they are the same.

I did it with Esure or Sheilas Wheels a couple of years back. Maddening!

Martin Lewis said to always cancel your policy and rejoin because they are more interested in getting new customers than keeping old ones because generally people are fooled into thinking they have a good deal = they will always have a good deal.

Yes, we will be cancelling and then renewing! I was amazed that they had done it though!

Who is Martin Lewis???

He's a money advisor, has a website called Money Expert and often works for the BBC. I like him, he's quite young and makes everything fun - like explaining things by dishing out slices of cake to the studio!

Yes it nearly always happens.

They rely on people being lazy! I have always found that they will match though.. unless their internet service is oporated as a diffierent company (e.g. Admiral and Elephant)

just to contradict everything said, my dh had a better deal from keeping with the same insurance company this year. it was £50 cheaper than any other quote i got for him. plus i didnt have to pay deposits.

I normally get a better deal for my car insurance by starting a new policy rather than to re-new.

Well I paid zero attention to my house insurance for years until i got the renewal this year and it was £280!!! Got a new policy online for £70. They just keep bumping it up in the hope that you won't notice/do anything about it (like me )

I don't think a complaint would get very far to be honest as it's an industry wide practice that isn't even hidden. I guess it would have been in the past but now we have comparison websites people are smarter with their money and look around more.

Jura - all insurance companies do this - it's not an offence under TCF, because the FSA don't regulate on price, as customers have the ability to shop around (that's my understanding anyway).

Insurance is sold as a loss-leader in the first year, in the hope that you'll renew without thinking about it (like LLPJ).

i ahd the same thing with my house insurance which is through nationwide

might be underwritten by churchill

but i wanted to add the house i had buitl in the garden on and it was cheaper and more cover than my current price it wen t from 500 or so to 300 contents and buildings

so i insured a whole extra two bedroomed detached house for less than i was paying for the original and increased the cover

but they hadnt told me if i took out a new policy it would have been cheaper

Check the excesses! Honestly, I got some cheaper quotes, but the excess was rediculously high. If they are the same then I would make some noise about it!

how high is ridiculous, sockmonkey? I would rather have a cheaper quote and higher excess as chances of using it are slim and I wouldn't claim below a certain amount anyway. If you can afford to pay the excess, then you might as well save month to month!

Phone them and check all the details. I just saved £350 by calling Elephant and saying "will you match this Admiral quote?" and they said "yes, if the data is right".

Turned out that Elephant weren't aware MrNC and I were married (leads to big drop), that MrNC didn't use the car ever for commuting any more, and 'software engineer' is less risky than 'computer programmer' despite being the same thing!
So they were happy to match the quote even with 3 new points on MrNC's licence (twonk...)

Kids are computer programmers

Have a look at Martin Lewis's site, he has a thing for comparing jobs and making your job less risky.

jura - i work for an insurance broker, and it was one of the first questions i asked when i learned about tcf - and i was told it didn't come under tcf. obviously, with all the fines at the moment, staying on the right side of tcf is very important to us.

i'm not saying it won't become something the fsa clamps down on in the future, but i don't believe you would scare an insurance company with tcf on this at the moment.

(if anyone has evidence to the contrary, please let me know, because i do think it's pretty dodgy!)

I just thought, it's not just insurance that this happens in - bank accounts, credit cards, mobile contracts... No one is going to listen to a complaint, it's what everyone does.

You are best off cancelling and then getting a new quote and doing it al through quidco.com if possible as then you will get cash back too! I've just moved my home insurance to Birmingham midshires, much cheaper and I get £70 cash back through quidco too!

We had this with AA, internet quote was cheaper than renewal quote, they wouldn't match the renewal quote... then when the paperwork came through in full the actual cost was higher because of paying by direct debit.

Not happy (also cos DH was slow to sort things so we're stuck for the mo, but at least we're insured...).