The Renewal Quote Isn't The One To Beat

I can only think of insurance these days a huge huge rip-off, what almost amounts to a (mafia type) protection racket - It's not that they come round and break your knee caps if you don't cough up the dough, it's the way that they extract money from you and do everthing possible within the law to avoid the responsibility of paying out.

I am not entirely happy with many of the comparison services, as insurance policies have huge contracts with a great deal of terms which include a significant number of exclusion clauses. Until these comparison sites can list ALL of the difference between these policies, then there is no benefit since the best premium might have much tighter exclusions and compensate less well than a policy costing 5% more.

I have noted that there is a tendancy for car insurance policies to quote benefits in relation to a no claims bonus, I am puzzled as to why this is not the case for other forms of insurance. I am also curious as to what happens if someone has accumulated significantly higher no claims - 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 years - do they for fit this all if they move?

This for me is a problem - if I am to acquire insurance for something, I (perhaps naively) want to know that the money I have invested in the insurance is ALL going to be counted towards my no claims if I need to move the insurance.

The original concept of insurance was that everyone puts a fair amount of money in a pot and the pot is used to help those who need it.
These days it seems that Insurance companies are just interested in how quickly can they pocket the money, and that would essentially be the case if you move.

I think that there should be some changes to the way that insurance companies function.

-They should operate as non-profit businesses similar to Building Societies.
-Insurance premiums rates for 1st and successive years should be advertised. The market would change if Insurance companies were compelled to advertise rates! e.g. A advertises rate Year 1£175, 10Years Total £5000 - B advertises rate Year 1 £225, 10 Year Total £3000.
-Policies should be treated as Bank Accounts, if the Policy is moved, then the money accumulated should be moved.
-A claim would forfit some but not necessarily all money in such an account.
-Insurance should perhaps be linked to Pensions, such that the Insurance contributions bump up the value of the Pension and are included in the money paid out from the pension.

I personally see a market here for a new kind of company. A well informed Insurance Consultant can act as a proxy between Insurance companies and customers. For a minimal charge, the Consultant can record the customers minimum requirements in relation to each kind of insurances and can then automatically arrange for the customer to be moved from insurance policy to insurance policy each time a better value policy is made available. The customer should a recieve regular a report indicating for example the Top 20 companies meeting their requirements. Of course this does not mean that any one insurance company will corner the market, however it would take the hassle out of insurance for many people who are otherwise unwilling or incapable of moving.
It would also force insurance companies to rethink their strategy of making easy money if all their customers move after the first year!
Of course the insurance consultant who does take up this could perform this kind of work almost single handedly, since most of the effort in working out the best policies and arranging insurance could be automated with a computer, so the consultant can offer very lean rates and still make a very good income by virtue of the fact that thousands and thousands of insurance customers would take advantage of such a service.

Hi Lancashirelass,
Thanks for your comment. I guess an important point to make is that it's rarely a case of "one size fits all" for car insurance and the best insurer for you might not be the best for someone else. So although the Post Office's £50 worked out the best deal for you it might not necessarily mean it will be the cheapest for everyone. Even taking the £50 discount into account it wasn't one of the top 10 cheapest insurers for my circumstances for example.
However it's great to see you are shopping around and using comparison sites - this rather than falling for marketing tricks is the route to the best policy.

Hitman101 said: "I can only think of insurance these days a huge huge rip-off"
what is so special about "these days"? Insurance companies have ALWAYS used their small print in order to get out of making payments, yet their marketing gives the impression that they are covering more risk scenarios than they actually are.
As an industry spokesman said not too long ago: "but you bought yourself peace-of-mind"!
Ask yourself how much a false peace (of mind) is worth, and make sure you don't pay a penny more for that aspect of your insurance - or should that be don't pay a penny?

"these days" was just a turn of phrase, anyway I don't disagree with nvoka421, I'm just no that old!

One thing I take from dmarr51 and agree, that I didnt say was that insurance should not punish non-claimants, rather claimaints should be the ones paying higher premiums after their claim - though fair is fair, they should not be made to pay rip off rates with a view to returning all the money they have claimed, just a slightly higher rate.

What many people don't seem to be aware of is that regardless of what the customer pays, any insurance paid out is often recouped by the insurer through other means. If the claim involves multiple parties as in for example car accidents or mortgage defaulters, the insurer companies will often sue to recover any money paid out and cost to boot. In the case of mortgage defaulters not only does the bank get a handsome handout, plus the money form the sale of the property, but the former owner probably never sees a penny of the money from the sale, and may get sued by the insurer...

Is it me or is the Finance Industry stacking the odds of customers with loans, mortgages or insurance?

Perhaps I should start my own bank/insurance company - it sounds like easy money!!!

I have never believed those claims of "if we can't beat your renewal premium we will give you £x back". Surely all they have to do is beat it by £1 (or even less) and they have fulfilled their offer. Under what circumstances are they ever going to give you £x back? In addition you can probably bet that it will be very difficult to match like for like exactly which gives them another getout.

Beware of asking if something is covered by your policy. It is registered as though you had made a claim and you lose your no claims bonus.I am not the only one who has had this experience, so I am warning everyone. Don't trust the insurance industry. They are as straight as corkscrews!

I have this very problem every year with Direct Line. E.g. My premium last year for combined buildings and contents insurance was £334. I received my renewal notice two weeks ago and the premium had increased to £750. I called the, said I was outraged at such an increase, they said the best they could offer was a 40% discont, making it £459. I went to the Direct Line site, pretended I was a new customer and got a quote of £307. I accepted the quote and cancelled my old policy. I do this every year but why do i have to jump through so many hops to get a reasonable deal as a loyal customers. These companies should be subject to some form of regulation. I'm sure there are some people, often the elderly who can't afford to be ripped off like this, who just pay the renewal premium without questioning it.