Insurance companies!

[andy_b_123]

This isn't a whinge about the price (although the cost for many is ridiculous) but about the manner in which they do this online saving crap.

So my mum's insurance renewal quote comes through from LV @ £365. She was fine with renewing but i said no, i think i can get it cheaper for you so used a price comparison site. Sure enough the cheapest quote was £217. Then i looked down the list and there was LV, almost identical policy but with an even lower excess for £250.
Thats strange, I think, so I tell mum to call them, explain the difference and see how they feel about matching one of the cheaper quotes, thinking they'd rather give a discount to a 55 year old woman with 25 years ncb than lose her money.

So she calls, explains the difference in price between the post quote and the online quote and gets passed from one phoneline to the next. Eventually someone manages to explain it, telling her that online quotes get an online discount, this one of which is £115! Mum tells the guy that as she's paying for the phonecall they may as well sort it out now at the online discount price. The guy refuses to offer her the quote, and tells her to buy it online. Mum looks at me totally bewildered, i say to her "tell him straight up that they aren't the cheapest online, and that if he will not offer the discounted price on the phone you will go with another company" which she does, and he refuses.

So mum renewed with another company, LV have lost a customer.

What kind of business model instructs its staff - when they have just been told by a customer that if they tell them to buy online that they will go with another company - to tell them just to crack on and take their money elsewhere?! To literally have a customer on the phone with their credit card in their hand with a quote that YOUR company gave them and to tell them they cant have it on the phone?!

Utter farce, god knows how these companies stay in business.

[weebster]

Never fails to amaze me how these companies work this shite out .....one big con imo,and £300+ for someone with as much ncb as your dear old mum is daylight robbery.

[Egg]

My wife's insurance is up for renewal next month. As this is the start of her 2nd year driving with no claims and she's now 33 she did some quotes on the price comparison sites - the online price came up with a quote of £285, fully comp.

Now, she gets a call the other day from the current brokers, Swinton, who say "Hi Mrs Egg, we notice your policy is up for renewal in Feb. Due to the cost of fraudulent claims, your current premium of £600 will need to go up to £725". Obviously my wife's a bit nonplussed at this - a massive price hike AND no discount for no claims, no discount for reaching the grand old age of 33 AND having got over the 2 year new driver hurdle. "WTF?" she politely asks - the miserable sod at Swinton grudgingly offers £700.

Saturday AM she gets a call - this time from the AA who were the brokers in the first year - they offer a very handsome package: fully comp, full AA membership with the whole rescue/recovery magilla - all for the princely sum of £290!

As with you Andy, I cannot for the life of me work out how there was such a discrepancy of pricing from the online quote-me-happy, the AA cold call and the laughable offer from Swinton.

[andy_b_123]

I've put it down to one simple thing with any insurance.
They are liars and swindlers and you should not trust them.

That pretty much sees me through any dealings I have with insurers.

A friend of mine got a letter a few weeks back:

Dear Mr H
Your insurance is due for renewal.
The good news is that now you have 5 years ncb your policy has only gone up by 12%.
We look forward to your renewal.

Liars! Liars and swindlers who are not to be trusted!!

[Jack]

I was with direct line, was £1,230 for the year, then at renewal time hiked it to £2,400. I searched online and found cheapest was £800. Im only 21 but have been driving almost 4 years now and have 3 years ncb! I think if insurance is something you legally have to have they should have a price cap, or set out price bands.

Sent using my Nokia 3310

[jolo-bolo]

I have over 15 years ncd wife and I had joint policy with admiral just got renewal quote mine had doubled to 800 wife's was 700 huh I drive a zafira wife a disco so got on line and direct line mine went down to £290 wife's down to 500 phones admiral and say match or we move they managed to reduse it by £100 we moved

[The Robin]

Admiral did the same to me a few years back and it had nearly doubled, rang them up and they dropped there price but not enough so i moved too. I was driving a Astra and had 7 years no claims and they wanted just short of £800

Drive a Ford Focus C Max and got our lass on it and it's less than £420 now

[milek]

It makes little difference to an insurer whether you stay or go to a competitor as motor insurance is not profitable, fact is currently they are making a loss. If the premium is high then they will make an effort to keep you. Personal lines (car/bike/home) business is nothing like as crucial to an insurer as is commercial insurance is so they treat it as a loss leader to gain your other business opportunities. This has been brought about due to increased personal injury claims and fraud.

Our company distributes the rates for all risks to all the insurers brokers so we are fully aware of the loss they are making and the hardship they are facing (so they say).

[Jack]

It annoys me that they're 'making a loss' even tho I've paid about £4,000-£5,000 worth of insurance and had nothing back. Hmm.

Sent using my Nokia 3310

[lee hughes]

a good mate of mine got laid off before xmas he got on the computer for some insurance found out he was paying 90 pounds more because he was out of work,started work last week so phoned insurance company up to see if he could get his 90 pounds back guess what they said,put it in a nut shell they are all ripping us off