Received by post yesterday the C3 Picasso renewal quotation for next year from Aviva, starting in early December. Premium increase over last year is about 15% - no changes to risk other than increasing age. I am aware that some premiums have gone up this year, but is this typical?
I will shop around, but Aviva online has always worked well so I will only change if the saving is significant.
The odd thing in the letter is, and I quote,
"You have been with us a number of years. You maybe able to get the insurance cover you want at a better price if you shop around."
Is this a new honesty policy on the part of insurers or are they trying to get rid of me as a a risk?
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The chairman of Aviva recently said that the market was broken.
www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/breaking-news/the-market-is-broken--aviva-ceo-slams-insurance-overpricing-67313.aspx
This mirrored a discussion that I had with my director about 10 years ago, in which we basically ended up agreeing that in some industries, customer loyalty is means nothing and is in fact penalised.
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>> Is this a new honesty policy on the part of insurers or are they trying
>> to get rid of me as a a risk?
No its now a legal requirement statement. they also have to tell you how much you paid last year.
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>>
>> >> Is this a new honesty policy on the part of insurers or are they
>> trying
>> >> to get rid of me as a a risk?
>>
>> No its now a legal requirement statement. they also have to tell you how much
>> you paid last year.
>>
Yes, and some are playing around with the price you paid last year by adding interest costs if paid monthly or removing discounts. I understand that this is being clamped down on.
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I'd be calling them and asking if that's the best they can do, in a nice way. Both Direct Line and More Than have managed to shave a fairly significant lump off my insurances at renewals times, usually to something very close to the last renewal. That's why my insurance has barely risen over the past 5 or so years...
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"... at a better price if you shop around."
I've had a similar comment from SwiftCover earlier this year. In fact I saved £70+ by visiting the comparison websites and accepting LV's offer of £335, rather than more than £400 to renew..:-)
Nuisance, but strange when I'd been with SwiftCover for several years and also have house and contents insurance with the company. Again, it will be subjected to the usual comparison checks in February....:-)
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We had this notice on our new Axa renewal for the V90 a couple of weeks ago and have been with them for the last two years.
Despite running it through three comparison sites their figure of £363 was at least £40 cheaper than any other quote.
Pat
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I would recommend trying Direct Line.
They.re not on comparison sites.
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Direct line are on comparison sites under different brand names.
www.directlinegroup.co.uk/our-brands/brands.aspx
www.adrianflux.co.uk/blog/2007/08/who-owns-your-insurer.html
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 20 Nov 17 at 09:11
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Aviva are not on comparison sites, and well worth a call. Saved me £100 this year, and thankfully I've not had to use them, but been very impressed with the slick online portal for managing documents, amending cover, adding vehicles etc.
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>> Aviva are not on comparison sites, and well worth a call. Saved me £100 this
>> year, and thankfully I've not had to use them, but been very impressed with the
>> slick online portal for managing documents, amending cover, adding vehicles etc.
So was I, great initial quote, fantastic slick online portal, excellent at pushing up your premium after year two for no good reason. We went our separate ways.
Direct line are very much the same. Really screw longer term customers,
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>>Really screw longer term customers,
They do this because so much of the market is immobile.
New policy premiums are lower because people will usually only take the cheapest.
Renewal policy premiums are higher because people simply don't check around.
The more and more that people check around, the closer that renewal premiums will get to new policy premiums.
Loyalty to an insurance company is simply reduced cost of acquisition and higher profits for them and higher premiums for you.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 20 Nov 17 at 11:34
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>>Aviva are not on comparison sites, and well worth a call
Indeed.
Price comparison websites worry me a bit. They're not independent, there are hidden charges and commissions included and not all insurance offerings are included. They assume that all cover is identical, and that the service is always identical, neither are true. Claims handling, temporary cars, excesses, glass cover, usage, personal effects, entertainment system cover etc. etc. can all vary.
They definitely have their uses, and the more "standard" you are the more useful they will be. Unusual cars, more than one car, various driver combinations, history, health, etc etc all increasingly make a difference.
So do use a comparison website, but also call those not on comparison websites and also make sure that you are buying the required cover, not just what looks good/cheap.
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>> >>Aviva are not on comparison sites, and well worth a call
>>
>> Indeed.
>>
Aviva are on the comparison sites under the Quote Me Happy brand, very thinly disguised version of the Aviva portal, very similar features and benefits, though online only quote/sales/admin.
Aviva themselves are worth a call or online quote though, by far the best last time I renewed car insurance.
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The also have the General Accident brand for those happy to manage their Insurance online.
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There a generational side to shopping around. Mother in law had her quote last week and thought it high. She can't use a computer (though there's one in the house), but she cannot retain or grasp even what you use a mouse for, never mind use a comparison site. Not through stupidity or senility, just through unfamiliarity.
Anyway, I suggested I'd look for her. But after about twenty questions about driving record, how many miles a year, all the usual things you take for granted you are going to be asked, and still two pages to go, she gave up and said it was all too much hassle and so she just renewed on the phone, although they did come down a tenner.
She might or might not be representative of her generation, of which many are still driving (safely in her case, I should add). So that's a few million, probably, that don't argue about the quote at all.
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It could be that some older people have no mortgage, a comfortable pension, so more income than expenditure, and realise they can't take it with them, don't care about a few extra quid on the insurance as it is not worth the hassle?
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Mrs mobile is out of contract soon.
She got it from a secondary site and they called her today.
Upgrade to an iPhone 7 is only £37 a month! She happened to be browsing their website at the time and gave them an earful - on line the same deal was £27 a month!!!
She's going SIM only anyway.
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Just to complete the story....
QmH came in with a very low quote approx 30% less than Aviva but without some of the extras, inc 90/180 foreign cover and from memory I could not readily extend the cover.
I spoke with Aviva who were surprised that QmH was quite so low, but they managed a small discount to try to keep me. When I told them that that was not enough he suggested trying the Aviva Drive App which (on your mobile) creates a profile and score to give a discount of upto about 30%! Effectively a short term Black Box.
Reading the terms and conditions shows that it cannot result in an increase, I decided to try it, but it meant doing 200 miles over a relatively short period to the renewal date. Best laid plans, it snowed heavily on the weekend when I had planned to do the miles. So Aviva kept the business, I did not get the discount, but continued withe App. On completion of the minimum of 200 miles I was rewarded with as score of 9.2/10 and some complimentary comments which WOULD have given a discount of 20%ish! So I can keep that for next year.
Comments on the App.
It seems a bit flaky on the interface to GPS on my MotoG4, several journeys were only partially recorded. It gave me lots of Badges - but not the ' BrakeMaster' which was surprising as I expected that as being the easiest to achieve, given my style of driving. I suspect that if you anticipate correctly, leaving a large gap, and consequently very often end up slowing on the approach and not 'stopping,' and then accelerate through the hazard, eg bend, roundabout or red light, you do not come to rest, and hence it does not recognise it as a missed harsh braking opportunity.
It is not clear whether it monitors speed against speed limits.
It also gives you the opportunity to discount a journey after the event if you set it to auto record mode.
Has anybody else tried it?
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I used one of those apps a couple of years ago. It might have been Aviva, or it might have been LV.
In any event, I just downloaded it, forgot about it, did my usual driving and after a while it popped up with some sort of congratulatory message and gave me a code for 25% or some such, which I used. However, it did have the caveat that it was a one off, so I couldn't use it again for the next year.
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Insurance renewal - R.P.
