My renewal quote went up from the just-sub-£200 I was paying last year to over £360 *EDIT - actually £177-£360, so more than doubled*.
Best alternative I could do on the comparison sites was about £260.
I used to knock it down by putting my ex as a named driver but obviously can't any more... tried a female friend which initially worked however the quote went up as soon as I clarified that she'd only been a UK citizen for 20yrs, not her whole life
I've also reduced quotes in the past by putting my mum on them, however sadly it seems she's now past the age where she's seen as more of a risk than a benefit, so that pushed the quote up to... can see why tbh
So.. a 45% hike and I had the pleasure of the previous insurer (esure) auto-renewing prior to the renewal date (as usual with me everything was last minute), without notification or documentation; meaning I didn't notice until I saw it on my bank statement weeks later.
The anxiety of having to fight these f*ckers for a refund haunted me over the holiday while I couldn't contact them.. to be fair I got a full refund after "only" an hour spent listening to their inane and irrelevant hold drivel on the phone... finally getting some joy with their online messaging facilty.
To be fair once I got to speak to someone they somewhat surprisingly rolled over pretty quickly; probably because they know they have no right to take the money and make enough from those who don't complain about their policies being auto-renewed at exhorbitant cost.
To compound this, before renewal I checked my policy in my online esure account and there was zero documentation present.. not recommended and tbh the only good thing about dealing them was not having to fight them too hard to get a refund on money they should never have taken anyway... although it still wasted an hour of my life.
A number of reasons. Keyless thefts massive rise, inflation and difficulty sourcing parts pushing up repairs are all major factors. Add in insurers' greed and that's the world we now live in. Apparently a number of JLRs were returned to showrooms earlier in the year as the owners in some postcodes simply could not get any insurance.
Great - so we all have to subsidise the folley of all these shallow d*ckheads in their brand new Chelsea tractors?
Mine went up £140 or 60% with Direct line for an 8 year old ford c max. They offered to half it when I haggled. However, I used Martin Lewis site and got a quote from RBS for £10 less than I’m currently paying. Been with Direct line for 20 years so sad to leave them. One tip from ML is to shop around about 20 days before the expiry date.
Don't get attached to any of these companies - customer loyalty is no longer valued; in fact if you look at the whole "out of contract" / renewal situation it's apparently viewed with cynicism; even active contempt. Like banks, mobile phone providers etc, these people are not your friends and will wring you out for the last penny given the chance - don't make the mistake of treating them any better.
This is also one of the advantages of PCP'ing the car: easy returns.
On a side note: I notice car drivers going to the shops and then putting steering locks on their cars. That must be inconvenient. They have a car with the convenience of keyless go, then they make it extra inconvenient with the steering lock. I would rather just not have keyless go.
It's ridiculous and echoes the inherent stupidity of the constant marketing-driven "tech for the sake of it" nature of consumer goods; including bikes. Products are loaded up with spurious, often pointless and even detrimental rubbish that adds cost and complexity in growing desperation to fleece punters into "upgrading" to the latest model.
What is it with customer loyalty these days? It's like none of these companies give a crap.
Indeed - as above.
Well, that was a cheery thread to start the day on!
