Direct Line Con

[Roger Cardy]

Just had a frustrating day sorting out house insurance. Last year I got house and contents insurance through Direct line, on line. The cost was reasonable. Now when the reminder comes through this year the premium has increased by £140 . So I phone them up and ask why. "Well sir we gave you an on line discount and a 50% introductory discount on your contents". Thats very nice but im now a loyal customer with no claims and you put up my premium by 30%, Ive checked on line and I can get it £120 cheaper. "Sorry sir, there is nothing we can do about it, I suggest you complete the on line application, and cancell your new policy".
Well after a bit of effort i did just that, and saver £120 into the bargain.
Direct lines excuse is that it's cheaper to process on line, but my renewal was automated so im a bit confused.

The moral is always check your renewals by completing an on line application, you may just save yourselves a packet.

Now what to do with that money, something shiny and stainless i think .

[quoggle]

Did the same for my Car Insurance the renewal.
Their Renewal was £320 and a 9% direct debit charge.
Renewal online for £270 and no % for direct debit.

AT least we have got the measure of the Barstewards now

[steve6690]

Admiral were the same for our car insurance. Got the renewal through in January and they wanted £754 which was a shock so I phoned and was told there was nothing they could do. I went online and got a quote as if we were new customers. It was £600.54. I wrote down the quote reference, phoned them back up and they agreed to honour it. I doubt they'll get my business next year though..

[triplefin]

Sounds like its a pretty widespread practise thx for the info

[divechuck04]

Direct Line and the others are into the repeat business market. They count on people just accepting the renewal without bothering to check.

These guys on the other hand have always been relatively cheap and extremely helpful:

QUINN-direct: Car Insurance, Van Insurance, Business Insurance, Home Insurance

May not suit everyone's needs, but I've used them many times and it is nice for a change to be able to spread the word about real customer service and value.

Divechuck

[wilbo]

Originally Posted by divechuck04

Direct Line and the others are into the repeat business market. They count on people just accepting the renewal without bothering to check.

Bingo.

Exactly this. They rely on you being lazy/forgetful. "Surely they will offer me the best price.. they tell me so in their adverts.. I've been with them ages so they 'know' me.."

Wrong. You are just business.

Whenever you take out insurance in the first place - make sure you tell the sales person that you do not want automatic renewal and you do not give permission for automatic renewal payments to be taken from your account. This won't make much (if any) difference to renewal quotes - but at least you won't get automatically overcharged next year.

Do the research and play them off against each other.

my tuppence.

[adamr]

Did the same with me not long ago. Got quoted 1400 quid for car insurance (i'm young) and a 30% pass plus discount which then made the policy reasonable. When I come to actually claim it they say I'm only entitled to 10% because I've had a 20% introductory bonus..... I said this was nice but it isnt noted on any of the documents...... so tbh they could say well we have given you a 50% discount but its all a load of cobblers

:

Cheers

Adam

[laterontoday]

I change car insurer every year to get the benefits of being a new customer. Starting to get back to the start of the circle now.

Its easy just use the web to get the quotes. 15-20 mins of individual quotes or simply use a site such as Cheap UK Car insurance and home insurance quotes comparison from Confused.com. which is what I did this year.

There are no customer loyalty benefits for staying with the same insurer, in fact there are more for moving.

The really daft thing is that one year I switched from admiral to elephant.co.uk only to find that elephant is underwritten by guess who......yes admiral. So nice big savings for simply switching to a different name with the same insurer.

[Noel Johnson]

Priviledge wanted over £300 to insure the Landie, so I went on to "Go Compare" and found the cheapest and then rang them up - They matched it

[[BoB]Bandit]

thanks to the poster :-)
i got my renewal from Direct Line today for home insurance::::

they quoted me £368.00 buildings and contents !!!!!!!!!!

i went online and it dropped to £112.00 for the same cover !!!!
i rang and got the same answers--ITS BECAUSE YOU SELF MANAGE ONLINE !!!

its a disgrace--needless to say i have saved a packet :-)

regards
Tommy