I guess we've all experienced this when your insurance company notfies you of your renewal, be it car, or home insurance, or whatever..sort of... "click here to have your premium hiked to greater than that we'd quote a new customer." It was always tiresome ringing them up and complaining and getting them to reduce it a bit. But today was the last straw. LV sent me an e-mail to say my house and contents was going up by 20%. So as usual, I had a check round and found better deals, so rang them and asked for a reduction. I got all sorts of offers to "fine tune" my policy, but a reduction in the premium? No chance. So I said , "Fair enough." "So you'll want me to apply the renewal?" said the nice young lady on the other end of the phone. "Oh no," I replied, "I'm cancelling the direct debit as we speak and I'm going elsewhere, bye!" I've gone back to Churchill, who I dropped a few years ago to go with LV, because they were cheaper for the same cover at the time. I'll now be paying less than I did last year. I guess there's enough people who don't query the renewal to make it worthwhile hiking thje premiums by so much. I'm aware that these call centre operators are on a bonus if they can sell you a policy, Churchill actually tell you in a recorded message whilst your waiting for someone to answer the phone. I guess they are also on a bonus if they can get you to renew at the price quoted, but this seems counter productive if they completely lose the business. As a general principle, I've always found that if you phone for a quote on any insurance, it can be cheaper than the same cover from the same company, if you search on-line.
It's the same with gas and electricity suppliers. We have to change to a different one each year and it saves us quite a bit of money. It may be a hassle making the calls but it's well worth it!!
