House insurance.

[gwaithcoed]

I have been with the same company for house insurance for the last 40 years. The insurance is paid monthly by direct debit and is on auto renewal. I have never paid a bill in the 57 years we have been married as my wife has always taken care of them. When the renewals came in she would say its gone £2 may £3 pound a month and we have left things as that.
However my daughter was visiting last week when the house renewal came in and I opened it, which is something I rarely do, as if it's a bill I pass it over to my wife and and tell her it's her department.
When I read out the amount £676 my daughter went mad and said they are ripping you off. She changes supplier to get the best deals each year but because my brother got ripped off some years ago when his insurance company folded we have always stuck with the same one.
My Daughter then went on to the insurance web site of our company and did a like for like insurance quote which came back as £282.
So being a loyal customer for 40 years and in all that time have only had to claim for a camera that I dropped (around £120 ) I am charged £676 while a new customer is charged £282.
I rang the company and closed the auto renewal, rang the bank to cancel the direct debit and took out a new policy with the same company for £282 saving me £394.
Now I can't wait for my car insurance, RAC and any other that we auto renewal to come in as I will be looking closely at them.

Now what tools can I buy that I didn't know I wanted?

Alan.

 

[MattRoberts]

Yep, it's the way the insurance industry works. They often make a loss in the first year, and rely on people auto renewing with an increased premium.

I use money supermarket and so around every year for insurance and energy, often goin for the same provider for way less like you have.

Such a stupid industry. They've outbid each other in price wars to the point where this is the only way they make money

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Don't forget to do your energy as well. If I were on the same tariff as my neighbour in an identical semi detached bungalow who can't be bothered to change (her words, not mine) I'd be paying over £400 p.a. more for my electricity.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Not just the above - but also broadband/phone and car insurance.

I suspect the internet is to blame - winning new customers is easy via comparison sites where initial price rules. But companies adopting this tactic can only make money by racking up prices after the first year. Approx 70% of energy customers are on standard tariffs as a default typically £2-300 pa more expensive than fixed price deals. Give yourself a pay increase

 

[BearTricks]

Don't forget to do your energy as well. If I were on the same tariff as my neighbour in an identical semi detached bungalow who can't be bothered to change (her words, not mine) I'd be paying over £400 p.a. more for my electricity.

Not sure if I've mentioned this before but I give my energy readings every month. We've used, on average, 200-ish kwh each on gas and electric. I forgot to give my readings for whatever reason, a few times. The times I forgot, they 'estimated' my usage at about 3400 kw/h. I'm not sure what they based this estimate on, but as I was on a fixed price tarrif, this imaginary overuse went in to a debit section on my online account and started adding up. I think I owe them approximately £150 now.

I received an email off them a few weeks ago informing me that my usage was above what I was paying for and I could either pay the owed amount in one payment, or they would automatically raise my direct debit to upwards of double what I'm paying now in three weeks time. This is conveniently less than the five weeks it generally takes to switch. The ridiculous thing is that my usage has always been below what I have been paying, and any money I 'owe' them is based on figures that they themselves plucked out of thin air.

Fortunately, I consulted with moneysavingexpert and they claim that you can claim a refund where you have overpaid. I have already started the switching process, but they don't know that yet, so I'm going to see what I can get back.

It's OVO, if anyone is interested. The price and customer service was fantastic for a year, but after a year everything suddenly went down the toilet. I'd probably recommend them, but switch as soon as you've milked their good deals.

 

[Lons]

Absolutely right, flatly refuse to allow anyone to automatically renew, they will do so by default if you don't tell them not to and shop around every renewal date as it's well worth the time for the money savings.

As a personal preference I don't use any of the comparison sites as I really hate the cr*p you invariably get (however much they say they don't), once they have your details and I prefer in the case of insurance to deal direct with an insurance company rather than a broker.

As an example though just last week insurance was due on my A4 with renewal at £307 including the usual additions, a phone call got the price reduced to £224 but I went with another major company who I've used in the past for £197. This was a saving of £110 for 30 minutes work, how many workers don't get that for a full day hard labour!

For electricity I have a discounted fixed rate on monthly ddr and I get ea email every month asking for a meter reading which takes me all of a few minutes following which I'm billed for exactly the amount I've used so no overcharging. If I'm away on holiday then they'll estimate that month and adjust the following.

Broadband & phone, mobiles, sky, I negotiate very aggressively just before the end of every contract.

It really pi**es me off that all of these companies penalise loyal customers but after all if those same customers weren't lazy, they wouldn't get away with it.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes. I asked my neighbour if she earned five million a year - because that's what she would have to earn for the time spent on the phone not to be worthwhile, worked out on the unit differences between our bills.