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I have a very modest, cheap to run, small car. I am a very modest, cheap to run, small person! But what I also am is really, really annoyed about the way my insurance company tried to rip me off today, then made the most feeble excuses about why it might have happened.
My car insurance runs out in approximately 10 days’ time, and as they do, my insurers sent me an email about renewing my current policy. They actually sent it about a month ago, but as I’m a bit of a ‘last-minute Lottie’ and today is ‘admin’ day, I didn’t even open the email until this morning.
I wasn’t at all impressed with the increased price, up from £282.00 to £335.00, and increase of over £50, which being a Girl on a Pension, I can least afford. I have to budget my finances very carefully.
So off I went in search of a different, cheaper insurance provider, via that handy site called confused.com
Apart from a change of address, none of the details I had previously used on that site had changed, (no sadly I hadn’t got any younger) so they were automatically filled in for me to do a new insurance quote search.
Imagine then my surprise, when the second cheapest quote was from…..my current insurance company. I was even more surprised when it turned out to be £192 cheaper than the renewal price they had sent me by email.
I quickly ticked the BUY button, and my details were accepted, and I was given a new policy number.
But me being me, couldn’t just leave it there, I had to have a rant about the unfairness of it if I had just accepted the renewal quote, as I’m sure many people do.
It’s so hard to go into one when you get a perfectly nice, friendly person on the other end of the phone, so I toned it down and explained what had happened. She had all the details in front of her, the old policy number, and the latest one which I had just signed up for.
There was a minor kerfuffle when I told her I’d moved, as apparently there could be a price increase to cover the next 10 days on the old policy. It’s very important, that the details are changed, as my policy may be void if my details are not completely correct. There could be a charge she said. There was. An additional 20p, that’s 20 PENCE, but they don’t charge it if it’s under £1.00. Well, that’s generous.
But I do admit to nearly losing it when I questioned why the renewal figure, was £335, but the price for taking out a brand new policy was only £143.00, a difference of £192, (call it £200), she commented ‘oh yes but you’ve had a change of address, that does make a difference, ( but it was only a 20p increase for 10 days, so at 2p a day, that makes it around £7.30 for 365 days worth of insurance, not £192!) and you are buying the policy online too, and they offer special deals.
I’ve moved around 4 miles from my previous address, it’s rural, it’s in the country, and I bought the last policy with them, online in the first place. So how that makes a difference of £192, I have no idea!
But the point is this. People are busy. Busy being parents, busy with their careers, busy just handling the stresses that just living life at the moment brings with it. It’s so easy just to look at a renewal price, have a little moan about it going up, and just letting it automatically renew.
But if like me, those same people thought ‘hang on a minute, I’m not having that’, and did a bit of research on the comparison sites, they’d save themselves quite a bit of money. Imagine people with gas guzzlers or top-of-the-range vehicles who drive miles and miles every year. Their premiums are probably sky-high already, without being ripped off any further.
It’s so annoying, and verging on a scam that insurance companies try it on like this. So be warned, all insurance policies have to be renewed year on year, no matter if it’s for a car, house, or travel. Don’t ever just accept the renewal price, shop around, you could save yourself loads of money.
