Another b****y car insurance thread.

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Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
Car insurance up this week.
Quote from my present insurers.........(Hastings)........£325.00
Went online with normal comparison sites and..... who came out best at £250 ???............Hastings.
Phoned them up and yes, "we will match that quote"..........job done with £75 saving.
I know they try it on. I know lots of people fall for it. But WHY do they not just say.......this is our best quote and save us hours of trawling through comparison sites.
GRRRHHH Gnash.
Rant over.
 

Custom24

Über Member
Location
Oxfordshire
Because most don't bother. But....
When you have found a quote, it's often the same amount of effort to take the new policy and phone to cancel rather than haggle. That's what I do.
 

Dan B

Disengaged member
srw knows the numbers better than I do, but I think the answer is that they would not be profitable if they offered everyone the first year rate, and rely on the customers who just take the renewal quote to subsidise the price-sensitive customers such as you.

If they offered the first year at a realistic price? Well, they could do that, but I suspect the answer is that then they'd have no customers at all
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
srw knows the numbers better than I do, but I think the answer is that they would not be profitable if they offered everyone the first year rate, and rely on the customers who just take the renewal quote to subsidise the price-sensitive customers such as you.

If they offered the first year at a realistic price? Well, they could do that, but I suspect the answer is that then they'd have no customers at all
So what's the end game here? We eventually reach a point where almost everyone is churning through the market, changing provider each year and inflicting loads of admin costs on the insurers plus referral fees to the comparison sites and then what? It just ends up costing everyone more to cover those costs because the market is essentially broken? Or will some insurers start offering multi-year fixed deals? Or could some insurers go broke because too large a proportion of their clients are paying introductory rates? @srw? Anyone?
 

Threevok

Growing old disgracefully
Location
South Wales
Go Compare !!!!!! :whistle:
 

Beebo

Firm and Fruity
Location
Hexleybeef
Car insurance up this week.
Quote from my present insurers.........(Hastings)........£325.00
Went online with normal comparison sites and..... who came out best at £250 ???............Hastings.
Phoned them up and yes, "we will match that quote"..........job done with £75 saving.
I know they try it on. I know lots of people fall for it. But WHY do they not just say.......this is our best quote and save us hours of trawling through comparison sites.
GRRRHHH Gnash.
Rant over.
Well done, you saved £75 with very little work.
 

screenman

Legendary Member
Liverpool Victoria used to be a fairly well-behaved mutual but now they're just doing the same shoot as everyone else. :sad:

I think they were fair saying that I could get it cheaper, also when I did an online quite it came out the same. They also seemed to handle a recent claim very well.
 
Until very recently I never used to bother with changing, I had a "probably too much hassle" or a "I'm a loyal customer" approach; last month I decided to change car insurers and this week decided to change power supplier - total saving from these 2 changes has been almost £800 p.a.
 
Car insurance up this week.
Quote from my present insurers.........(Hastings)........£325.00
Went online with normal comparison sites and..... who came out best at £250 ???............Hastings.
Phoned them up and yes, "we will match that quote"..........job done with £75 saving.
I know they try it on. I know lots of people fall for it. But WHY do they not just say.......this is our best quote and save us hours of trawling through comparison sites.
GRRRHHH Gnash.
Rant over.

Hastings are a broker not an insurer. The renewal tends to be a renewal that comes to them via your actual insurer. Generating a new quote may mean a deal is better with another provider and thus is offered to you.
 
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