LOL - Car Insurance

[Matblack]

Bloody car insurance renewal is coming up and Elephant have sent me a letter saying they want ~£470 for the next year

Well a quick look on the net tells me that that is £80 more than I would get for a new business quote, admitedly the renewal had £20s worth of personal accident on it but I'm not that fussed about that. What the renewal DOESN'T have a 3 point conviction for reckless endangerment of human life (under the age of 4) AKA SP30 AKA doing 40 in a 30, may god have mercy on my soul.

So to review

Renewal is £460 + £20 not including my conviction

Online quotes

Elephant: £389 does not include PAI (£20) and I told it I'm naughty
Admiral: £387 details as above

So I give them a call, speak to the nice man and tell him of my evil child murdering ways and he goes to speak to his boss and they come back with a price of £391 which TBH is close enough for me to give them my credit card number however I say to the chap 'I presume that doesn't include the PAI?'. No Mr Bannister thats everything on the renewal you were sent and the conviction added.

Soooooooooooooooo lets examine this

For making a 36p phone call (10 minutes at 3.6p/ minute) I have just knocked ~£80 off exactly the same quotation but adding a conviction which would cost (and I ran this through Admiral and Elephant) ~£50. Thats a £130 saving. £130 that if I hadn't called them would have been taken out of my bank account and been added to Elephants profit, yet they let go of it on the slightest hint I might go to a sister company.

Odd, very odd

Oh well I'm happy, thats a group 18 car insured for another year for under £400, there are some consolations to getting older :)

MB

[Zirax]

I had the same experience with my medical condition. Suddenly after ringing Admiral I go from a quote of £380 down to £270! Previously they wouldn't budge, so I rang the renewal hotline and gave them the hard sell "ie I have my credit card right infront of me, are you SURE you can't do better as Elephant were cheaper"

They are betting on the fact that you wont ring them up to check so they whack up the internet / renewal prices, they must be making even more of a fortune! Also the reason its so cheap for you is because you drive like my dad :p

[Mark]

What he said - they bet on habit and laziness like just about everyone else. Not just confined to the insurance industry either. Why on earth they think this is acceptable to customers is beyond me, but they all do.

[Garp]

All of my family have had similar experiences. Phoning up the companies always beats just trusting the online price (but get the online price first, and negotiate from that).
My father uses a specific broker generally because they wrangle IAM discounts with more insurance companies than you can get over the phone.

[Blackstar]

My renewal for the vectra with direct line was £630, did a few online quotes which were around £500 phoned DL and they bluntly told me "we do not beat quotes". Fine! I told them i would not be renewing there and then. Phoned admiral oh we'll do that for £450 if you go with diamond our sister company, that'll do me! Phoned up DL to get my proof of no claims (which took them 3 weeks and 4 very angry phonecalls "we've sent that out to you now" - lie. Don't think thats too bad, saved £180. Wouldn't recommend DL to anyone, they were diabolical to deal with.

[Haly]

Nice one :D
I tend to still stick to online but that's mainly because of quidco. Once I'd thrown in quidco, I managed to get my Ka insured for about £180 which was stupidly cheap for me considering everywhere else the quotes were £300+