Annual Renewals and Loyalty Ripoffs

Narj

Narj

Narj

Soldato
Joined
19 Feb 2010
Posts
13,254
Location
London
A lot of my utilities and insurance contracts come up around the same time of year and I'm absolutely shocked by how much I've saved over the renewal quotes this time around.

I know this has been discussed before, but for Christ's sake look at your own outgoings and also get your relatives (especially elderly ones) to spend a few hours getting quotes from elsewhere instead of just renewing blindly.

On broadband, home & contents insurance and a few other utilities I've managed to lower the outgoings by £528 a year over what was quoted in total (some HUGE rises over last year from some providers that made no sense whatsoever - and they insisted that was their best quote!)

Why hasn't this been clamped down on? I remember rumblings about investigations for basically punishing loyal customers but don't recall anything actually happening?
 
Nasher said:
"Renewals" are always a rip off.
Click to expand...
Yep where it's an option, I say no to auto-renewal so they are a bit more motivated in writing to you or phoning you - it's more difficult to miss then (but do keep everything in a calendar). I absolutely hate this hassle every year but it's shocking how it adds up if you ignore it.
 
Last edited:
My house insurance went up by amount £60 this year and this time, they refused to be squeezed down over the phone! I’m planning to move and will get part refunded... so the question was whether is it worth an ~hour shopping around, filling in all those tedious forms etc for a new quote... not really when you have very few free hours... but I was particularly offended this time around!! Gits!!
 
I'm currently begrudgingly paying the out of contract rate with Virgin Media and it is a rip off. I'd change but I can literally see fibre outside my home so am waiting for that.
 
Just done broadband, it's never cheaper to stay in my experience, even the offer once they knew we were leaving wasn't as good so I don't really know why they don't stop the nonsense and offer a low price and keep it low. You also have to factor in cashback from sites such as topcashback as that made the switch better value.
 
Trifid said:
I'm currently begrudgingly paying the out of contract rate with Virgin Media and it is a rip off. I'd change but I can literally see fibre outside my home so am waiting for that.
Click to expand...
I used the fact that FTTP is now available in my area to negotiate a lower price with Virgin - got it a bit cheaper than the FTTP package I was looking at and it's faster so I was reasonably happy not having to go through the hassle of ISP change etc.

Just ring the support number, pick billing and that you're thinking of leaving - do this in the week on a workday to get through to a UK call centre. 20 mins work quoting a competing package and their new customer rates (broadbandchoices.co.uk) should get you a deal a few quid above the new customer rates - if you want to call their bluff and actually cancel chances are they will offer those rates but I couldn't be bothered (even though the Zen FTTP looks pretty good).

Nitefly said:
My house insurance went up by amount £60 this year and this time, they refused to be squeezed down over the phone! I’m planning to move and will get part refunded... so the question was whether is it worth an ~hour shopping around, filling in all those tedious forms etc for a new quote... not really when you have very few free hours... but I was particularly offended this time around!! Gits!!
Click to expand...
My quote went up by a couple of hundred quid which is insane - I cancelled literally on the borderline as I'd left it a few weeks.
 
Yup total sham, EE broadband.. "Your contract renewal is coming up, your £30/month bill will be going up to £40/month. Or call us and we can give you a £27/month deal."
 
yes the loyalty is for losers thing is very annoying ,ditched npower a while back ,saving maybe a quarter and tried a price match with car insurance but they wernt having it so ended up with £130 a year with lloyds ,not sure who house is with but 1mill buildings and 50k contents about £110 a year
 
moon man said:
yes the loyalty is for losers thing is very annoying ,ditched npower a while back ,saving maybe a quarter and tried a price match with car insurance but they wernt having it so ended up with £130 a year with lloyds ,not sure who house is with but 1mill buildings and 50k contents about £110 a year
Click to expand...
Yep I got a similar home & contents quote of ~£130 a year with Churchill. John Lewis wanted £528 this time around and insisted it was their best quote! :eek:

H&C seems a LOT cheaper this year. Maybe because burglaries are down what with more people working from home?
 
Last edited:
Narj said:
Yep I got a similar home & contents policy for ~£130 a year with Churchill. John Lewis wanted £528 this time around and insisted it was their best quote! :eek:

H&C seems a LOT cheaper this year. Maybe because burglaries are down what with more people working from home?
Click to expand...

Always had it pretty cheap here tbh ,back in Yorkshire with a slightly skanky neighbourhood nearby it was much higher ,weirdly on the car insurance lloyds on one comparison site was much cheaper than another comparison site for the exact same policy
 
My in laws are the typical type of people who get something and stick with it forever.

Just saved them £50 a month in their TV and broadband alone, now they've got an upgraded TV package and better broadband for much less money.

No such thing as long time customer loyalty.
 
Switched my gas and electric this week as my current providers wanted me to renew on a contract which was more expensive than some of the quotes I was getting. It was a no-brainer for me - why stay when you get it cheaper elsewhere?
 
They are all the same. Car, home, breakdown, mobile & landlord as far as I'm concerned. All these firms are looking for new business & they get the deals, while you pay through the nose if you stay.
Every year about Xmas time I usually do a comparison search to see if I'm getting a fair price for my car insurance. I used to be loyal to Admiral but the price increases were beyond belief. It was the same with the AA. Now I'm over 50 I'm with Saga but they try the same old tricks. :rolleyes: :mad:

Speaking of the AA, I got a years free AA Basic membership to start off with, I started paying for said membership when it had finished. I then started getting letters 'free upgrade to Silver Membership for x months & then it was gold. renewal time the price would go up :mad: I've go to the stage now where said membership is not worth it anymore especially with not doing the miles I used to in my car but I'm lazy & when I come home from work the last thing I want to do is argue with someone on the phone about cancellation. Also with the 'bug' doing the rounds are these kind of firms going to add T&C's to make it harder to leave?
 
Infuriating isn’t it. Currently coming to the end of a discounted deal with Virgin and not looking forward to haggling with them. The price literally doubles next month. No other options for fast reliable broadband on my street and my work needs a rock solid fast connection so I’m not in a strong negotiating position.

Admiral were well over for car insurance this year as well. Called them to say I would leave and they knocked over £100 off instantly....
 
The gym will be interesting .. as opposed to a yearly anytime, will they give some kind of tiered price based on usage you make ,given covid;
I underutilize the subscription at the moment but would be happy if price remained the same.

- does anyone know what their strategy is ?
 
I\m amazed that my car insurance renewal with RAC for the past few years has actually been cheaper than getting a new one. When i did comparisons the other options, who i had never heard of were a few quid cheaper, but didnt include the extras. Have been quite suprised.
 
It's called the loyalty tax. Ofcom and Ofgem and other relevant bodies need to look into this, as surely it's a waste of the customer's time and provider's time when customers switch providers. Customers should be incentivised for staying with a service.

I only found out about it a couple of years ago.

Virgin Media, medium internet tariff: started out at £25. Crept up slowly year-on-year like 50p, then suddenly they started slapping on an extra £2 which was too much to ignore imh. Sacked them off just before it got to £35 then went onto PlusNet via Quidco. £28 this time and got some cashback. When that contract ended, I went via Quidco again, this time to BT. Again £28 and more cashback. It was easier this time because both PlusNet and BT are phone-based internet where Virgin Media were cable-based. Once you're on the phone network, then Quidco does the cancelling on your behalf.

Mobile: as above, went from EE to Three, then to BT. Got cashback both times and they cancelled on my behalf. Managed to keep the same phone number which I've had since year 2000.

Utilities: went from British Gas to Scottish Power, even though I live in England :p Via uSwitch this time, and again they did the cancelling on my behalf. No cashback though. Dual-fuel bill went down from £75 to £60.

Home insurance: this was a more manual process. Signed up to Santander (same brand as my bank) and cancelled Nationwide (mortgage provider). £32 reduced to £14. Next time though I might try Quicdo.

A pity that I can't reduce my council tax though, with fewer and fewer services to show for it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom