Annual Renewals and Loyalty Ripoffs

[Narj]

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?

 

[Narj]

"Renewals" are always a rip off.

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.

 

[Narj]

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.

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).

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!!

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.

 

[Narj]

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

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!

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

 

[Narj]

The dumb thing is you can just make a new quote on a comparison site and the same company will be right up there with a competative price lol

Yep I did that to make a point for one firm and they refused to budge on the phone.

I reckon there comes a point where they no longer want to take the chance on you if you have a number of years no-claims.

ie: "we have your money, now **** off!" - it's mental.

 

[Narj]

Seem the above was just pure luck, was hoping things were changing but going by everyone else replies guess not!

I had several years of Elephant being the cheapest by a mile for my car insurance then one year they almost doubled the quote for no reason so I moved to Churchill, who have been very competitive for a couple of years now.

Tonik energy have been ok for a few years.

Those are my only real exceptions.

 

[Narj]

Bank switching is my favourite renewal. I regularly do this. It's so simple and often nets you 100!

I hate switching my main account, however I've been thinking it might be worth setting up a second current account which I pay the minimum into each month, and pay netflix/amazon out of just to bounce it around...

 

[Narj]

Be careful. For 3 years I was with Extra Energy, which were cheaper than all the big gas/electric providers but them & many more went bust when the markets didn't go their way.

Thankfully the likes of moneysavingexpert.co.uk do provide notes on utility providers regarding those sort of risks as well as customer service surveys! Obviously do your own research too.