Changing insurer

neemish

Hi all,

I know this has probably been done to death but my car insurance with AXA is up for renewal.
Liberty is 100 quid cheaper while its4women.ie are 160 cheaper.

Has anyone experience with either of these companies? Wondering why there might be such a variation in price.

Thanks,

N.

coylemj

Your renewal is based on the fact that a large number of people pay up without shopping around, there's plenty of threads on the topic. Ring Axa, mention the other quotes and listen to them dropping their price.

The renewal quote is always negotiable, that's my point.

The fact that insurance companies are prepared to risk losing existing customers like you by sending out inflated renewal quotes gives you an idea of how it makes commercial sense to screw people who are too lazy or stupid to shop around for a better quote and obviously there's enough of them out there.

biko

Sometime I feel they just don't want to keep old customers.
See my thread here about Axa. Massive price difference for no good reason. Needless to say I kicked them to the kerb.
It does not pay to be loyal to insurance companies.

mickdw

Axa appear to be very expensive of late. Even after bargaining with them, they were twice the cost of allianz on home insurance. My car insurance renewal quotes tend to be high too from them but they usually come down to average levels with a bit of a struggle.
My car insurance is up in early april. Might move this year as I cant be arsed with fighting them. First Ireland seem to be very very cheap.

Chriscl1

mickdw wrote: »

Axa appear to be very expensive of late. Even after bargaining with them, they were twice the cost of allianz on home insurance. My car insurance renewal quotes tend to be high too from them but they usually come down to average levels with a bit of a struggle.
My car insurance is up in early april. Might move this year as I cant be arsed with fighting them. First Ireland seem to be very very cheap.

have to agree here. axa almost doubled my premium this year:eek: and after a phone call they still couldnt match last years premium!!! first ireland came in really cheap in comparison 450, fully comp with ncb protection, hire car etc compaired to axa's 950.

neemish

Chriscl1 wrote: »

have to agree here. axa almost doubled my premium this year:eek: and after a phone call they still couldnt match last years premium!!! first ireland came in really cheap in comparison 450, fully comp with ncb protection, hire car etc compaired to axa's 950.

What I've decided to do is make my own list of what I want from the policy rather than let the companies decide (i get confused with all the 'stuff' they throw at me on the phone) ... Lowest price that fits all the criteria will get my business

chinwag

neemish wrote: »

What I've decided to do is make my own list of what I want from the policy rather than let the companies decide (i get confused with all the 'stuff' they throw at me on the phone) ... Lowest price that fits all the criteria will get my business

It's not all about the premium, insurance companies offer different types of policies. As you rightly say, decide first what you want, but try to ensure that the lowest price provides decent cover as it can be worth paying a little bit more for a better policy.

eddieham

Similar to OP, I had the same issue with Axa at renewal time.

Go to axa website and complete for a new online quote.
I did this last month for one car and am just about to do same for our second.
On last months, renewal letter was 475 and renewed at 327 for exact same policy, online quote came in aprox 360 but got a follow up call from them and they reduced it to 327 when pushed.
When asked for proof of no claims, sent them back the letter they sent me !!
second policy due this month is working out about the same with aprox 30% difference between new on line quote and renewal notice

ongarite

Same thing for me.
Got renewal in post from AA for €750 through RSA.
Went to the AA website and filed out form with same details as current policy and get quote of €505...

JohnBoy26

biko wrote: »

Sometime I feel they just don't want to keep old customers.
See my thread here about Axa. Massive price difference for no good reason. Needless to say I kicked them to the kerb.
It does not pay to be loyal to insurance companies.

I know someone who has had the same experience with them. They were competetive at the beggining but at every renewal they got more and more expensive.

neemish

Liberty coming in at 475. AXA just came down a whopping 120 euro from 610 to 490. How on earth is that possible?
Anyway, crunch time. Interested in hearing about who is easier to deal with, although AXA doesn't instill confidence by pulling tricks like this

eddieham

its not just Axa , seems to be the norm now, new customers given a low quote to entice your custom and price is then hiked at renewal time.
Has happened to me with Axa,123 and AA. Have heard of same with aviva and quinn / liberty

coylemj

Can I repeat my original point.....

It's obvious that enough people pay the renewal amount so the insurance companies don't care about losing people.

People talk about how they're getting screwed around even though they've with company XX for YY years. Hello, this isn't marriage we're talking about, it's insurance. Yesterday's business is history.

I take no notice of the number on the renewal quote, I shop around then phone Axa and they always drop the price. Yes, it's a hassle but I'm happy that there are mugs out there who are effectively subsidizing my policy because they pay the quoted renewal premium.

eddieham

insuring cars on own policy for over twenty years and longest I have stayed with one company is 3 years, well now 2 weeks into 3rd year with them!
insurance companies don't care about loyalty so I'm not going to
last year I called them and said x is quoting aprox 30% less than your renewal quote and they matched it. I hadn't called or got a quote from anyone, just reduced theirs to a figure close to previous year which I was comfortable with.
No hassle and took less than 5 minutes and 1 call

johndaman66

As at least one other poster was mentioning you really need to shop around and play one insurance company off against another.

I renewed within the last month. My renewal quote came in over 2 months ago from 123.ie. To give a bit of background I took out insurance with them last year in a 1.6 litre 4 door carina. The premium was €312. I changed my car about half way through the year to a 1.6 Avensis 4 door. What I'd essentially consider to be the same car just a more modern version. I valued the both of them the same at a grand which was in and around the value of them. They wanted another €105 as I recall. I was a bit annoyed over it. I knew there would be an extra €40 admin fee beforehand but wasn't expecting that. However, it was what it was, I just paid it and got on with it. Its not like they would have rebated me pro rata if I were to cancel the policy anyway.

So my renewal quote came in two months ago from 123.ie for the avensis. It was €403 for the same cover. A few weeks before my renewal date aon insure rang me (they must have had my details following a quote I got off them last year as they assumed I was still driving the Carina). I gave them details of my new car and all my particulars and they gave me a quote of €367 for very similar cover to 123.ie. I was thinking that might nearly be my best bet at that stage as knew motor insurance had gone up in general.

In spite of this I rang AA and the an post crowd. They were both well over €500. One would negotiate somewhat on the price but other wouldn't. Even so, they couldn't bring it down enough to justify me going with them. I called FBD (who I always found very expensive to get a quote off). Gave them my details and they gave me a quote of almost €450. I told them I got a quote of €367 of aon insure. Straight away she said I can give you a 10% discount bringing it down to about €400 odd. I said nah, thats still more expensive than aon insure. She said hang on a minute until I speak to my manager and put me on hold. She came back to me saying that they could give me a 20% discount bringing it down to €365. They were giving me somewhat better cover than aon insure. Fire and theft claims would not affect my ncb and they were to cover replacement locks up to a value of €1000 if I lost my keys so I decided to go with them.

Few days before I was due to renew 123.ie rang me to ask was I renewing with them. I told him no as firstly I was a bit annoyed about the charge for changing car last year but apart from that I was getting cover for €365 from FBD. Straight away without checking anything he said oh we can match that. I asked how come he was able to tell me that there and then and why they didn't provide me with that quote in renewal letter. He mentioned something about rates changing daily...fair enough but that didn't particularly tie in with what had just happenend. However, I said no you'll have to beat FBD and beat them considerably under the circumstances. He said they couldn't so I just said good day to you sir and hung up the phone:P

Went with FBD in the end. A few days after I renewed somebody was mentioning to me that 25plus were quite competitive. Out of curiosity I went online and got a quote of €317 from them...ah well the cover wasn't as good as FBD anyway. Might have being 50:50 which one I would have went with if I got 25plus quote before I renewed.