Thread: Car Insurance Quotes

Not so much a question as an experience with NU and maybe some advice.

I used to be a customer of NU for car insurance. Last year, unusually for me, I decided to shop around for car insurance quotes before the renewal notice appeared. As I wanted to compare NU I filled out an on-line quote form and got a figure roughly what my existing rate was.

Then the renewal letter came and the actual figure was around £200 more. So I ring the renewal number and end up talking to some numpty in India - I'm not biased against Indians, my wife is one but even she can't stand these call centres.

I queried the difference.

At first I was told that I hadn't put on a claim and a speeding fine but I pointed out that both of those occurred outside the 3 years (or whatever the period was) the on-line form requests.

He then tried to convince me that the quote was because I was an existing customer and the system "knew this", plus we have 2 cars - interesting as I thought that would mean a discount maybe ?

Anyway I changed the address to next door - retired couple with 1 car - and the figure remained unchanged. By this time he was getting flustered and said I could have a £50 discount if I renewed there and then - still £150 more than the online quote.

Shockingly I declined.

I then rang the number on the new on-line quote, explained that I was uncomfortable with buying over the web and a nice lady, maybe in Norwich itself, signed me up for the lower figure - she even left the online discount in place.

The point is that I didn't leave NU (I have now because business use made my insurance too expensive) but was made to jump though hoops just to get the better price.

If and when you do get your renewal, just try to sign up online to see if that really is the best price.

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Sounds like a common issue (differences in rates that is!).

In alot of cases, insurance policies already written cannot re-rate themselves on 'New Business' pricing.

Most insurers will see their rates fluctuate on a daily basis taking into account claims information amongst a myriad of different factors.

The renewal price will often be set taking into consideration the previous years premiums as well as the changes to risk the company has seen from one year to another.

An online brand new quote on the other hand, looks solely at New Business rates and current risk trends to establish a premium.

Then adding the internet discount (as well as the already existent problem of retention due to a competitive market) into the fray often makes policies cheaper.

The insurance company is not trying to fleece you (hard as it may be to believe sometimes) they are simply unable to tell you what your policy would be at New Business without actually taking you through a brand new quotation. They normally won't agree to do this over the phone, thus internet is your best bet.

The best thing to do is what you already have. Get someone in the insurance company to compare both the policy and the new quote. If the company applies common sense - they will simply match the premium and retain your custom. There's no point putting you out as a customer by making you cancel one and set up the other - plus it normally costs them more to do that anyway.

At least, that's my understanding of it. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I'm glad you got yours sorted. It does pay to shop around, even if it's with the same company.

Yeah I got it sorted.

If the difference was say 10-25% then I would agree, I understand this business has to be placed somwhere etc.

But the difference was almost 45% of the original policy value, so it looks more like a method of getting new customers with a benefit and relying on existing customers paying more - I was a customer for 4 years by then.