Earlier this year I posted about rip off insurance companies trying to jack up the price of house insurance, particularly for (ha-ha) loyal customers who don't switch. I hope and think that some of you were able to make better decisions after that - though I don't take responsibility if things didn't work out for you.
Now I face a slightly different situation with car insurance. I have used a broker for years, and mostly his service has been good. Now I find that I can possibly undercut him significantly by using comparison web sites. I have so far given him the option of matching or getting close to the online price, but there's still a gap of perhaps £50. If this were merely £20 I'd probably not bother, but £50 --- it'll buy a few things, CDs, beer, other stuff ...!!!
On the other hand, he also tries to scare me with warning me of hidden costs in the small print, or lack of good service if anything goes wrong. For me this is marginal this year, but I'm wondering what others think. I can imagine that using the on-line services I would get the benefit of "introductory pricing", but that if I tried to change the policy or repatriate back to my broker in a year or two I might be at a disadvantage.
I'm sitting on the fence at the moment, with a few days to decide. I also have been told by my broker that "we have a better help service, if problems arise", but to be honest, we haven't had any really major problems in the last decade, and such problems that have arisen have been poorly dealt with by any of our insurers. The last that were really any good were Frizzells, before they got taken over by LV.
We did notice one other car insurer which seemed good some years ago, as our car was hit while stationary as someone drove into an adjacent parking space. It was inconvenient for us, but whichever insurer the other driver was with sorted it all out.
Comments?
Now I face a slightly different situation with car insurance. I have used a broker for years, and mostly his service has been good. Now I find that I can possibly undercut him significantly by using comparison web sites. I have so far given him the option of matching or getting close to the online price, but there's still a gap of perhaps £50. If this were merely £20 I'd probably not bother, but £50 --- it'll buy a few things, CDs, beer, other stuff ...!!!
On the other hand, he also tries to scare me with warning me of hidden costs in the small print, or lack of good service if anything goes wrong. For me this is marginal this year, but I'm wondering what others think. I can imagine that using the on-line services I would get the benefit of "introductory pricing", but that if I tried to change the policy or repatriate back to my broker in a year or two I might be at a disadvantage.
I'm sitting on the fence at the moment, with a few days to decide. I also have been told by my broker that "we have a better help service, if problems arise", but to be honest, we haven't had any really major problems in the last decade, and such problems that have arisen have been poorly dealt with by any of our insurers. The last that were really any good were Frizzells, before they got taken over by LV.
We did notice one other car insurer which seemed good some years ago, as our car was hit while stationary as someone drove into an adjacent parking space. It was inconvenient for us, but whichever insurer the other driver was with sorted it all out.
Comments?
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