If you insure your car on-line, a few weeks before the due date, you'll get a renewal notice by e-mail, giving you your new, usually increased premium, and all you have to do is click on the link and the job's done. This is called "accepting the loyalty penalty." That's what they want you to do. I'm sure many people do that assuming it's the best price they'll get, or don't want the hassle of shopping around. Older people, might also renew automatically, there's a genuine fear that some companies have an upper age limit. Neither General Accident nor LV would insure me, who I have been with before, due to my age. But there are no end of companies who will. I've been with the same company for both car and house insurance now for a few years. Like many, I go on, "Go Compare" (or wherever) before the e-mail arrives and find some other quotes. But you have to carefully match them with the cover you already have, as the lowest quotes will miss stuff out. I have all the extras, as I think it's worth it. Mine arrived today. So "I phoned them," I say phoned them, but like most, I was put through to an Indian lady probably working from home in the foothills of the Himalayas, with an intermittent phone connection. They always try to be helpful. I said, as usual, I say it every year, the renewal quote was too high and didn't compare with others I'd received. They'll ask you which companies these are, but they will know already what the competition prices are. So there's no point doing it. I said I hadn't time to go through all that, but, if they didn't lower their price, I'd go elsewhere. So I got a 20% reduction, "which strangely enough" was slightly below the best alternative price I'd found. I'll have to go through the nonsense again in March when the house insurance renewal is due. It was further complicated as the Insurer's system wouldn't accept the number of my new card, which I've had for a couple of weeks and otherwise works fine. So instead they used the number of my old card which they had on file. As it won't get charged until early in December, it won't show up as "pending" in my account. So I checked with my bank and they said it wasn't a problem, as the charge will "migrate" to my new card.
Riley—What an account that was to read. It is a pity that more folks are not discerning. As for call centres…wellllp. Don’t get me started. There is a consumer show on the telly over here that features products, “lables”, product names and how things are made. A portion of each episode shows the presenter having a conversation with the inept call centre workers. Sometimes I feel a little sorry for them.
