Annual Renewals and Loyalty Ripoffs

[happy_2008]

Loyalty tax is certainly a rip off:

Virgin Media (Same deal)
New customer - £65
Current customer (Me) - £91

Insurance
Renewal - £361
New Insurance - £265

 

[Donnie Fisher]

A lot will stem from the company measuring on new sales and not much else as that what the bonuses will be based on, rather than measuring retention.

 

[BDEE]

The big problem with coming away from this system is that those of us who do seek out the cheapest deal every year would end up paying more if everyone else was doing the same.

Folk who get the cheap deals only get them because the companies can afford to offer those prices due to the numbers of people paying top dollar because of not moving. So, selfishly, my view is that if people can't be bothered to swap, then I am quite happy for the system to continue as it is so that I can benefit from it. The exception being the elderly / vulnerable, who I believe should automatically be put onto the cheapest deals.

Funny enough, my car insurance came through this week with a crazy price hike (especially considering the car insurance industry is having a bumper (lol) year due to the lack of people on the roads during lockdown, so profits are up massively. I was quoted £790, which is quite frankly a joke for someone with 17 years driving and full no claims, but after cashback and incentives got it down to £480 with about 30 minutes work.

 

[Puzzled]

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....

Same, need to ring virgin this week but I'm just fed up with having to do it each year.

Its ridiculous, if they could just offer a decent price longterm then I'd happily stay but they jack it up so much you have no choice but to threaten to leave each year.

I'm recording my calls with them now as they've offered me things in the past that have failed to appear in the renewal contract and then dismissed any claim that they lied to me.

 

[Nasher]

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

 

[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.

 

[Repta]

Interestingly in the last year I have found the opposite.

Esure renewal for car insurance was cheapest quote
BT Broadband offered the best (vodaphone was slightly cheaper but I refuse to use them due to awful service in the past)
Yorkshire energy renewal was cheapest for electricity
Virgin mobile has been cheapest to stick on monthly for last few years due the ridiculous deal they gave me
Santander contents insurance renewal was the best offer I could find.

Granted I was factoring in quidco etc in the decision as I find you can't rely on getting the cashback.

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

 

[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.

 

[413x]

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

 

[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...

 

[glenimp617]

Admiral wanted £650 this year for the TTRS. One phone call to them and they dropped it to £300

 

[benjii]

It's annoying to do the annual dance with car insurance and the like. You receive the renewal quote, you find it much cheaper online and then phone them up to see if they can beat it.

I use to change car insurance every year, but I've been with Hastings Direct for 4 or 5 years now. They still do the ridiculous renewal quotes, but to their credit, they've always beat the cheapest quote on comparethemarket when I ring them up.

 

[LeeUK]

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

This is what happened with me with eSure car insurance for the last 5 years. Then all of a sudden this year the renewal shot up and they wouldn't even budge when I phoned them up trying to get them to price match with Swiftcover.

 

[Captain]

"Renewals" are always a rip off. I rarely stick with the same company for 2 years in a row.

Not always, my car insurance renewal quote this year was cheaper than anything I could find online even after getting a quote direct.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

So, selfishly, my view is that if people can't be bothered to swap, then I am quite happy for the system to continue as it is so that I can benefit from it. The exception being the elderly / vulnerable, who I believe should automatically be put onto the cheapest deals.

Interesting point! As someone with almost no eyesight or hearing left, I struggle with the phone and prefer to use live chat. That made it difficult to cancel Virgin Media as it had to be done over the phone and they're pretty relentless about keeping you as a customer. It makes for an unnecessarily long phone call. Even cancelling AOL was easier than cancelling VM back in the day! Once that bit was done though, then I was happy to fill in the forms via Quidco or uSwitch year-on-year and they did all of the cancelling for me.

 

[HungryHippos]

I always shop about for deals on renewals because it can save a lot of cash.

Most places seem willing to entertain better prices if you are prepared to move to a different provider if they don't. Very few renewal quotes for me come in at good prices so it's bit of a song & dance.

Got my car insurance for £141 this year though (piece of junk car) which is the cheapest I've ever had it. Home and contents came in at £105 as well which is also the cheapest I've ever paid.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

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?

I love it when stuff comes up for renewal. It might sound sad, but I get a bit of a thrill out of squeezing these people and saving a load of money. £528 is great!

The one I look forward to most is car insurance, as that’s my most expensive bill aside from the mortgage and phone bills. I feel like that’s about as low as it’ll ever go at £400 a year, but I’m sure I can get a few quid off.

Fun times!

 

[dirtychinchilla]

Interesting point! As someone with almost no eyesight or hearing left, I struggle with the phone and prefer to use live chat. That made it difficult to cancel Virgin Media as it had to be done over the phone and they're pretty relentless about keeping you as a customer. It makes for an unnecessarily long phone call. Even cancelling AOL was easier than cancelling VM back in the day! Once that bit was done though, then I was happy to fill in the forms via Quidco or uSwitch year-on-year and they did all of the cancelling for me.

Out of interest, how are you reading and responding? You don’t hold back on any words or make your posts more concise to make things easier for yourself as far as I can tell. Merely an observation btw, certainly not a criticism.

 

[bobuk]

Tesco car insurance quote (Been with them for 2 years )£262. Tesco quote on Compare the market for the same policy £191.97.

 

[Ali195]

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.