Lesson Learnt

[march]

So I had my renewal from Admiral for the multi-car and house policy. Overall it had gone up by 30% (no claims, nothing changed). When looking into the breakdown the cars had gone up by atleast 20% and the house by approx 250%! So I rang them and haggled the car prices down, still a sizeable increase but OK but the house policy was still approx 100% higher and over 100% more than stand alone policies on the comparison web sites. Was getting a bit hacked off at this point with the increase and when asked was not given reason why.

So as the best price from Admiral had increased by over 20% I stated I would look elsewhere - So here's where the lesson was learnt. I got fed up of the whole process and gave up and went back to Admiral on the day the policy lapsed to ask to pay the agreed price but as the policy had lapsed a couple of hours earlier I was put through to their new business, fair enough I thought. But the new price had gone from the agreed £490'ish, past the pre-haggled price of just under £600.00, to £1100.00. The lesson was that if you ask for insurance the day you want it they try and screw you well and truly. After a little playing on the comparison sites I found that by just delaying the start of a policy by 1 day you save a fortune. Oh well lesson learnt and Admiral is off my Christmas list! 😀

[Chillidoggy]

Same old, same old.

Every time I ask why the premium has increased dramatically, in every case I have been told it's due to the previous price being an 'introductory discount'. I usually then say I'm off to get another introductory discount elsewhere. Sometimes the price drops, sometimes it doesn't and I walk away.

[philcool]

Every year I renew with the AA and each time the quoat goes up by at least £150 all I do is go on their website and pick the options as if I'm a new customer phone them up whilst on the laptop and ask them to match the price or I'm off and you get all the old sob  story of well that was introductory and you get European cover that I diddent ask for or ever used and for the last 12 years they always lower their price never fails 

[Neal H]

The insurance industry does seem to have a strange business model, but as they all do it I assume it works for them!

With my daily driver I pretty much switch comnpanies every renewal and save a fortune. Sometimes I'll call the existing one to see if they'll price match if I can be bothered to give them the chance.

[Techyd]

I was with Admiral last year and curiously they also put my renewal at £1100.00 (from £800 - which I didn't think too bad as it was my first year to have car insurance for some time due to company cars, so basically had zero no claims) and simply wouldn't budge!

I'm now with direct line at £500!

[electro_boy]

I think it was on Money Saving Expert website or something similar that said the magic date for insurance quotes was 21days before renewal gets you the cheapest quote.

I used to be with Admiral many years ago and every year the renewal quote was a joke, I'd ring up to complain and get an explaination and each time they would be "oh so sorry it must be a mistake!" and then reduce it to something competitive.   After a few years of doing the dance I got bored and went else where that just gave me a straight renewal quote with the dancing around.