Insurance renewal nonsense!

Draeger

Draeger

Draeger

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My renewal landed on the doormat this morning, from Hastings. They want £163 for exactly the same policy as last year.

Now, I thought to myself 'Wut? It was under £100 last year, I'm pretty sure?'. So I checked and yes indeedy, it was £87 Fully Comp, protected NCB for a 2000 RSV Mille. So I jumped on Go Compare for a butchers at some other quotes, I'm fairly mercenary me, don't mind chopping and changing every year to get a better deal. Best quote was with Bennetts surprisingly, who were very expensive last year I recall - £88. But guess who was number two in the list? That's right - Hastings Direct at £89. I looked at the details and again, it was exactly the same policy.

Why do they do this? It's utterly bonkers? I can only assume they score off people who can't be bothered taking 10 mins of their time to change insurers? Needless to say, phoned them up and when quizzed about it the fella said 'Ah yes, but that would just be an introductory offer for new sign ups'. Hmmm. 'Ok, so you won't match it then?' - 'We can't, sir, sorry'.

I'll give you three guesses whether I renewed or not. :rolleyes:
 
Draeger said:
I can only assume they score off people who can't be bothered taking 10 mins of their time to change insurers?
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Answered your own question here :)

So for you alone, that was almost double the price of other quotes you got. If there's every 1 in 20 people who can't be bothered to search for a quote and will accept the renewal, then of course insurance companies are going to try it on.

All i say is more fool to those who can't be bothered to spend 5 mins searching for a quote. It's hardly hard work these days.
 
Strange they didn't match it though, normally once they get caught out they'll just give it to you at the sensible price as it's still money in their pocket.
 
Draeger said:
Now, I thought to myself 'Wut? It was under £100 last year, I'm pretty sure?'. So I checked and yes indeedy, it was £87 Fully Comp, protected NCB for a 2000 RSV Mille. So I jumped on Go Compare for a butchers at some other quotes, I'm fairly mercenary me, don't mind chopping and changing every year to get a better deal. Best quote was with Bennetts surprisingly, who were very expensive last year I recall - £88. But guess who was number two in the list? That's right - Hastings Direct at £89. I looked at the details and again, it was exactly the same policy.
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Hastings did exactly the same to me last year. I ended up cancelling the policy and then taking a new one out with them. I hate scummy insurance companies...i.e. all of them.

Semple said:
All i say is more fool to those who can't be bothered to spend 5 mins searching for a quote. It's hardly hard work these days.
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It's unethical behaviour at best IMO, especially when they say it's their "best" quote when they are blatantly lying.
 
wazza300 said:
They prey on you being lazy
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This. There are a lot of people that wouldn't bother phoning around to get a better price and people that can't be bothered to move, they earn a lot of these people.

BikeSure did it to me last year. Sent a renewal through, but couldn't even come close to matching previous year's price or prices from competitors. Moved to Principal this year for cheaper and will move again next year if I need to.
 
I've started up my own personal blacklist (that includes Hastings Direct, funnily enough), mostly of companies that do this. Even if they'll match when you call them up on it I won't stick with them, unless they're drastically cheaper than anyone else (which they never are) why should I give any money to a company that has tried to rip me off?

So far it's worked ok, there's enough brokers out there that there's no lack of choice and mostly within a few pounds of each other. And occasionally you'll get a company that doesn't immediately try to rip you off, my last renewal, from Bennetts, came in within a tenner of the cheapest and around the same as the Bennetts quote on the comparison site, so I stuck with them for a second year, been a good while since that's happened :p
 
Happens plenty.

For my car mine went up, did an online comparison and Adrian Flux, whom I was already with, were £100 cheaper. Called them and took the online price. Different underwriting company but still with Flux.
 
I'm with Hastings Direct and last year they tried to up mine from £87 to £125.
like you I looked online and there policy was still 87.
so I rang them up and they dropped it back down to the £87
 
I remember the days when i had to ring up each insurance company and give each one the same info time and again! No internet then!
 
koolpc said:
I remember the days when i had to ring up each insurance company and give each one the same info time and again! No internet then!
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Likewise!! I also recall a long time ago when I was 19, insuring a BMW K100RS and it costing me £940!! :eek: And I actually paid it!! - Double :eek: :eek:
 
just had my renewal in, £400 more than last year rang to cancel, did'nt eve try keep me as a customer,ended up costing £239, happy with that.
 
dsb said:
just had my renewal in, £400 more than last year rang to cancel, did'nt eve try keep me as a customer
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See, this is what I can't get my head around. I can see the way you would think it would work, them operating like this - as in they just hope that out of every 10 customers they try and screw over, 6 are too lazy to do anything about it and stick with them, paying the extra premium. But then surely some of that business logic would get cancelled out by the fact that a certain percentage of people will indeed cancel/not renew with them because they feel they are being ripped off?

If they wanted to make a little extra profit, then maybe adding £10-£20 onto the premium for a renewal might be easier to swallow. But almost doubling the price? It's just nuts!! :eek:
 
Draeger said:
If they wanted to make a little extra profit, then maybe adding £10-£20 onto the premium for a renewal might be easier to swallow. But almost doubling the price? It's just nuts!! :eek:
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Absolutely, makes no sense to me either. A £20 laziness tax would probably be accepted by most, but 100%+ increases are just taking the wee.
 
The way I understand it insurance companies have an ever changing "ideal portfolio of risk" to suit their model for that moment in time.

Last year they may have been lower on the demographic that you fit in too. This year they clearly have too many so have raised the price as they're not fussed if you leave but if you stay they're milking you.

That's why some years 1 insurance company might be expensive and the next cheap. It's ever changing based on who's on their current books, profits, projections, last year's claims etc

Bottom line always run a search! :p
 
Every insurance company will try to rip you off.
Bennetts made my blacklist when they told me how they would save me 30% on my insurance... by bumping said insurance up by £180 more than last year.

That took me to Carole Nash, who are great unless you have to change even the slightest thing, whereupon they hit you with some of the industry's highest Admin Fees. When it costs £50 for 20 seconds work, you start to look around...
 
Draeger said:
My renewal landed on the doormat this morning, from Hastings. They want £163 for exactly the same policy as last year.

Now, I thought to myself 'Wut? It was under £100 last year, I'm pretty sure?'. So I checked and yes indeedy, it was £87 Fully Comp, protected NCB for a 2000 RSV Mille. So I jumped on Go Compare for a butchers at some other quotes, I'm fairly mercenary me, don't mind chopping and changing every year to get a better deal. Best quote was with Bennetts surprisingly, who were very expensive last year I recall - £88. But guess who was number two in the list? That's right - Hastings Direct at £89. I looked at the details and again, it was exactly the same policy.

Why do they do this? It's utterly bonkers? I can only assume they score off people who can't be bothered taking 10 mins of their time to change insurers? Needless to say, phoned them up and when quizzed about it the fella said 'Ah yes, but that would just be an introductory offer for new sign ups'. Hmmm. 'Ok, so you won't match it then?' - 'We can't, sir, sorry'.

I'll give you three guesses whether I renewed or not. :rolleyes:
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I had this exact thing with Hastings just last week, I just phoned them up and told them not to auto-renew and send me proof of no claims, I then went to pay for the new Hastings policy on the meerkat, but it screwed up and wouldn't go through, probably because I'm already a customer.

So then I phoned them again and just said I tried to pay for a new policy but it didn't work, then they completed the payment.
 
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