Car insurance renewal

[#1]

Been with the same firm for several years for my car insurance, renewal quote arrived today £ 296.

Looked on compare the market .com and entering my details it came up with a figure of £ 224. for same company.

Phoned my insurance company and advised them of the figure given by compare the  market.

Conversation went like this,

ME: you give me a renewal quote of £296 but through ms the figure is £224

IC: Well we can reduce the price to £ 276

ME: But I can get it for £224

IC: We can do it for £276

Everything I said she simply repeated the quote so I told her not to renew the policy when it expired

Then I went on to moneysupermarket.com and accepted the quote but on entering my card details it came up with an error but message appeared to phone if there was a problem.

Next phone call,

ME: I wish to insure my car for the price of £224 but it will not accept my card details.

Operator: No problem we can do it at that price

ME: Am I speaking to someone at the insurance company, if so how come your colleague could not offer this price in the first place?

Operator: We can offer a better discount than the person you spoke it.

Has anyone else had to put up with this silly nonsense when renewing their policy ?

[#2]

Yes   LV..  did the same thing to me...  wouldn`t accept it over the phone...and told me to go on line and do it... so I did..  

a week later I got a reminder that my insurance would not be renewed if I did not phone them...  ( that was referring to the original letter and quote ! )

[#3]

When I receive my paper renewal notification, I always do the silly performance of doing the internet thing.

Always comes up cheaper, so I phone LV and they invent an excuse so that they can almost match it.

So I accept.

[#4]

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@shutter wrote:

Yes   LV..  did the same thing to me...  wouldn`t accept it over the phone...

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Strange, I've had this situation with LV for the last couple of years - comparison sites giving a lower renewal. When I've phoned to renew I have got a CS agent who could pull up both the renewal and comparison site quotes. They have always honoured the lower price; in fact this year after a pleasant chat with the young lady at the other end she gave me an extra £10 off without any haggling on my part (just my natural charm I suppose)

[#5]

A sober story, thanks for sharing. 

Just goes to show what a urine taking industry motor insurance is - figures quoted certainly have no basis in reality. What do they do, toss a coin or pluck a figure out the air?

What a disgrace, but what's new. 

[#6]

It's really tiresome this auto renewal. Every year having to ring up and cancel it then, as everyone has already said, renew it online for usually around £50 less with the same company.

I was even told once when getting a quote over the phone that I would automatically get at least 10% cheaper if I did it online. Maybe the phone sales people get paid commission which is directly added to your quote.

[#7]

The longest I've been with any car insurer over the past 10 years is 2 years (Saga, but they went for a 40% hike in renewal price too so I dropped them.) M&S tried the same thing after a year but promised to try to match a lower quote when I rang them - after repeating every single detail of my proposal they finally came up with exactly the same quote they'd already given me! Am currently back with Churchill having dropped them about 5 years ago.

'Free' add-ons are getting at bit silly too - at one point last year I had 3 separate RAC recovery packages on the go despite only having one car (one came with the insurance, one from the garage I bought the car from, and 1 from the Ford dealer when I had the car serviced! Utter madness! )

Renewing house insurance, and even buying another year's subscription to Radio Times requires similar time-wasting diligence if you want to avoid paying through the nose just to renew the same product you had last year.

 The speed, choice and sheer convenience of buying services on the internet, eh?

[#8]

I didn't mention the name of my insurance company in the op

No prizes for guessing.....yes it was LV !

Problem with switching companies is the hassle of having to enter all the information again, sure it's worth it to get the savings but annoying.

Amazed they haven't insisted money supermarket prices are for new customers only.

[#9]

Isn't this part of the same 'churn rate' philosophy that even the likes of plusnet engage in?

The idea that in order to attract new customers you get this contrived discount and when you apply on-line to your existing insurance company or provider as a 'new' customer you get the same sort of dangling carrot.

Fair business practice, or unfair charges to those who cannot be a****  to shop around each year or at the end of a contract, and hard cheese for those comfortable in ignorance?