Insurance rip off

[spurs 14]

It happened again , car insurance renewal came today from Halifax , usual don’t worry sir we will renew automatically for only £35 more than what you paid last year despite having not claimed !!!! Not a chance , ring to cancel suffer usual taped **** for ten minutes then in a line for ten minutes , finally get a Human on the line ! 

Oh let me check that for you , you may be entitled to a discount £30 straight off price ,no thank you please cancel ! 

Why cant they offer the best price in first place instead of trying to rob them .? Do that many people just renew without checking ? Can’t believe it’s not good business practise but there you go 

On to compare the market again and got same price as last year ! 

[Paddy Galore!]

I feel your pain, just had something similar, I changed bikes last week, that cost me £30 amendment fee plus an additional £50 policy surplus, plus tax that's the thick end of £90, for a slower bike. not only that but I sold my car and got hit with a £50 cancellation fee plus another months instalment of £22. been an expensive month with bloody insurance companies.

 

[biketestace]

Done mine today, existing policy company wanted £557

Compare doo dah £320

When i rang to cancel they said "oh lets sort this out" i continued to cancel and explained that they were to late...

*******

[ph5172]

I have had this a few times and always asked why they couldn’t do a decent price first off. 
The response from multiple agents for different companies is the renewals are computer generated where as they have some discretion and ability to apply discounts that an automated system can’t 

 

apparently!!???

[Bigbob]

I asked the same with direct line as I've been insured with them for over twenty years  and have house and recovery with them , and I said what about a loyalty discount , the guy said we only offer that when u phone ?

[spurs 14]

Seems like a lot of companies have no idea about customer loyalty! Keep your customers happy and they stay with you ! Not rocket science , why are all the super deals only available to new customers ? Same with the tv companies in the last seven years we have had sky , bt and virgin , same with car and house insurance change every year ! 

[williamwansbeck]

Insurance companies same as banks thieving ba"t"ads,

[WestonSalop]

As someone who sells the types of systems that could deliver the kind of change we all want (and insurers don't want to hear) I can guarantee you that the reason they don't take a pro-active stance on this is down to greed. Technology is such these days - and has been for years - that creating a strategy which maximises customer retention, as well as ensuring a reasonable level of profitability, is relatively easily achieved. But no, shareholder value i.e. maximum profit, wins out every time.

[PPP]

This is both a complicated and simple matter...

First off, insurance works differently to how you expect, it’s a pool of money to fund everyone’s losses, not just yours, so if the pool behaves poorly, everyone pays a proportional contribution appropriate to their risk and the performance of the pool, most motor insurers expect to make a return including investment income of positive to negative 3%.

If it were solely based on your risk and you submitted a £100k claim for damaging someone then you couldn’t afford to repay that, hence why the pool works, equally if someone else was in the position that they couldn’t afford insurance and hit you then you could be out of pocket which isn’t fair (hence mid levy)

The true costs of insuring a male new driver, in a boring car, is over 10k when you look at low costs, it’s just subsidised by everyone else, same as people who are over 70, although not £10k initially

When the market performs poorly (which now it always does as new entrants and buyers chase the cheapest premium) rates go up also the cost of cars, repairing cars, injuries also increases year on year which has an impact on the pool performance.

Within this some insurers buy business in and then try to recover costs in subsequent years (like a loss leader model)

Its unlikely overall that the insurance company is making 5% margin overall, so far from robbing people.

[spurs 14]

 

Still not bad return ,5% on the millions that they turn over , no major overheads as in factory’s or buying in stock or actually manufactured goods ,robbing people may be harsh but what else can you call it when you’re offered one price , turn it down and they immediately offer you a better price 

[PPP]

Agreed, poor practice indeed! However 5% alluded to is a dream for most ...

[bruno22rf]

So when insurance companies have a good year - everybody's premium goes down? - Not in my 30 + years of driving has a company reduced my premium on renewal. Might also be worth mentioning that only approx 50% of your premium is needed to pay claims costs - the remainder pays running costs and investments.

[PPP]

On 03/01/2020 at 17:46, bruno22rf said:

So when insurance companies have a good year - everybody's premium goes down? - Not in my 30 + years of driving has a company reduced my premium on renewal. Might also be worth mentioning that only approx 50% of your premium is needed to pay claims costs - the remainder pays running costs and investments.

If not less... 30/40 goes to promoters (sometimes 50) 15 ish expenses including reinsurance ..

[southeastpete]

Insurers can print their own money I think.

i had a car policy, and several years no claims discount on motorbikes. A few months into the policy they rang me and said we’ve decided your motorbike no claims doesn’t count towards your car policy!

if they don’t count bike ncd to car policies and vice versa, then they can count bike accidents towards car policy.

robbing picks the lot of them...

[bruno22rf]

Oddly enough - after not riding my bike (XV1100) for 4 years I have just looked for insurance - my 10 ncd is no longer valid yet the premium has only gone up by £6/year.

[Pistol p]

I was told that when I get to 25 my insurance will go down. It did once. An then they tried to bend me over for the next 20 years.

[norfolk dumpling]

On 3 January 2020 at 12:53, spurs 14 said:

 

Still not bad return ,5% on the millions that they turn over , no major overheads as in factory’s or buying in stock or actually manufactured goods ,robbing people may be harsh but what else can you call it when you’re offered one price , turn it down and they immediately offer you a better price 

When you say 'no major overheads' don't forget the multi- million pound claims which are an all to regular feature for all motor insurers. In my last days as an underwriter one of my risks managed to let a Latvian (with no driving licence) use a van to ferry his colleagues (some illegals) to their place of work and crashed killing 3 and seriously injuring a young lass - reserve was £3m. Even though technically there was no insurance we were on for the full amount as 'insurer concerned'. How many £500 premiums do you have to collect to cover those incidents??

[ferguson_tom]

On 02/01/2020 at 22:41, spurs 14 said:

Seems like a lot of companies have no idea about customer loyalty! Keep your customers happy and they stay with you ! 

Most people wont, regardless of the deal I get offered from my insurance company i still always go online to compare and if i can get it cheaper i switch, if my current insurer is cheaper (after the phonecall when the renewal comes through) i stay. Gone are the days loyalty is rewarded as customers simply are not loyal any more.