What is it with insurane companies ?

pmbuzz

pmbuzz

pmbuzz

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Been with Swiftcover for 2 years, my policy is up for renewal middle of next month, i get an email reminding of this, i open it and to my surprise the price of my policy has risen from £500 to £765 despite now having 3 yrs no claims, no change of address, the same job, marital status, car, mileage, no claims, no further convictions etc etc.....wtf ?

I contact them and the nice man goes through my policy in attempt to bring the price down, which he does........by £2 .... lol ?
So Swiftcover see fit to reward my loyalty and careful, claim free driving by whacking a further £265 to my annual policy, why you may ask........and i quote "due to statistical information and current trends", i ask him to cancel my renewal and suggest that others will be following my "trend" if they continue theirs.

Curiously a similar thing happened with a previous insurer, after 2 or 3 years my policy renewal price jumped from £350 to £800 odd !!

Anyway, found a new insurer at a much better price so maybe it's a blessing in disguise.

I bet a few people just let their policies renew automatically without checking and get stung by these companies crooked practice.
 
Mine would be auto-renewing at the end of the month if i wasnt required to change insurer. It would have been going down about £30 to £620 which i think is still quite a lot for 26yr old, 4 years driving & no claims, 1.8 190bhp car and a sdp policy. Instead the cars going up to 290bhp and have gone with a specialist insurer for only £770 with like for like parts replacement, needless to say i was very suprised at the price i got really. Yet to have a bad experience with car insurance but i guess its inevitable :)
 
Same happened to me. Admiral decided to increase my premium for no reason whatsoever, phoned them up to to contest it and all they could offer me was £40 or so off the renewal price.

Went with Elephant instead then for nearly half of what Admiral were asking. The retarded thing? They're sister companies.
 
I have this battle with admiral most years although unusually they didn't this time... for a up around 200. I tell them I have a cheaper quote. Then they come back down again.
 
This thread again :p

All insurance companies do it, they can make a bit of extra money from the lazy people who just accept their renewals without challenge.

I'm with Bell, and when it comes to renewal i get a quote from Admiral/Bell/Elephant and just let Bell know the quote ref, they match it there and then :) Yes, they are the cheapest for me :p
 
Skyboat said:
Same happened to me. Admiral decided to increase my premium for no reason whatsoever, phoned them up to to contest it and all they could offer me was £40 or so off the renewal price.

Went with Elephant instead then for nearly half of what Admiral were asking. The retarded thing? They're sister companies.
Click to expand...

LOL
 
Skyboat said:
Same happened to me. Admiral decided to increase my premium for no reason whatsoever, phoned them up to to contest it and all they could offer me was £40 or so off the renewal price.

Went with Elephant instead then for nearly half of what Admiral were asking. The retarded thing? They're sister companies.
Click to expand...

Noooooo, this is the clever part.

Look who you end up with at the end? a sister company. The money is basically going to the same Parent company in the end. If you didn't move, they make money, even though now you moved, they are still making money from you.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Noooooo, this is the clever part.

Look who you end up with at the end? a sister company. The money is basically going to the same Parent company in the end. If you didn't move, they make money, even though now you moved, they are still making money from you.
Click to expand...

Terrible way to treat your 'customers' though. I'm with the OP, there is absolutely no loyalty benefits to be had with these companies. They were lucky their sister company just so happened to be the cheapest - might not be again and whoops, off I go. Their loss.
 
Skyboat said:
Same happened to me. Admiral decided to increase my premium for no reason whatsoever, phoned them up to to contest it and all they could offer me was £40 or so off the renewal price.

Went with Elephant instead then for nearly half of what Admiral were asking. The retarded thing? They're sister companies.
Click to expand...

if a sister company gave you the same price whats the point in having a sister company. They all aimed at different markets, maybe people can not see this :confused:
 
Admiral have always matched Elephant for me if the quote has come up cheaper.
 
Skyboat said:
Terrible way to treat your 'customers' though. I'm with the OP, there is absolutely no loyalty benefits to be had with these companies. They were lucky their sister company just so happened to be the cheapest - might not be again and whoops, off I go. Their loss.
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But if there isn't even a sister company then they lose out.

At the moment, they lose out less!

p.s. Loyalty for insurance company don't exist. We are just a statistic.
 
Liquidfox said:
This thread again :p

All insurance companies do it, they can make a bit of extra money from the lazy people who just accept their renewals without challenge.
Click to expand...


Yes and it's a scam. Some companies (Utility companies for example) can get investigated over fair pricing, insurance companies can increase a premium by 50%. This always seems to happen going into the third year for me, well not 50% but a large incease anyway. So DYOR and shop around every year.

Insurance in my opinion is generally is a scam, including for example PPI or extended warranties. I only take out what's really necessary and car insurance is obviously one of those.
 
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Admiral people here are doing it wrong! :p

I have been with them for the last 5 years and yes each year they try and hit me each year with a higher premium. Elephant is usually cheaper so all you do is phone up and say its too expensive and Elephant are cheaper. They will then tell you that they are a sister company and will match the exact price.

Have the Elephant quote to hand as they will want the ref number so they can check you haven't changed anything to get it cheaper.

Did exactly this last week with the renewal at £494 but they matched £367 from Elephant.
 
I got a letter from me saying that the policy was being ramped up by 20%, effectively "just because". I know some of the reasoning behind it but I thought it was very poorly done.

I changed the type of policy I had with them instead, and cut it by 536%. Haha!
 
Lashout_UK said:
I got a letter from me saying that the policy was being ramped up by 20%, effectively "just because". I know some of the reasoning behind it but I thought it was very poorly done.

I changed the type of policy I had with them instead, and cut it by 536%. Haha!
Click to expand...

yeah, of course. A 100% reduction is free. :confused:
 
Yeah this is just old news, they always do this. Admittedly as I understand it the insurance business needs to be taken as a global thing and this whole mess in Japan isnt aiding our premiums.

Mines recently taken a huge hit from 900-1200 on my renewal quote from elephant through the post. Despite the fact im now 25 and have 2 years NCB. Called them and managed to get them down to 1050, in the end ive started an admiral multicar policy with the GF and her car, went down to 800. Still way too much but seems to be as cheap as I can manage.

Hawker
 
Weekly 'why is my renewal price taking the biscuit' thread :p

Of course they know a % of customers let it auto renew or don't have the time to get the best deal. Just phone up the existing company for the best price and compare to a couple of others.
 
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