Insurance companies - loyalty?

pvr

pvr

Dutch
 Ruler of the South East UK
I have had my cars insured for the last 20 years with Churchil, beating them down on price every year. This year I am not getting anywhere near the cheapest quote with them, so the question is regarding loyalty.

If I would need to make a claim, am I more likely to be treated better by an insurance company who has had my business for 20 years or am I completely diluding myself with that thought and they would make it as complicated as any other company would?

The best quote I get now is about £100 cheaper on a like for like basis (with the other company providing green cards which Churchill no longer does).
 
I've never stayed with the same insurer 2 years in a row, I take their vastly increased renewal quote as a token of how much they value my custom.

You'd think that 20 years of custom would give you some clout, but who knows with Insurers? It's in their interest to wriggle out of anything they think they can.
 
I have used Norwich Union (now Aviva) for many years. When they send me the renewal I always check on the web for the cheapest and to date they have matched it. Accident response is pretty good with loan car on the day or the next (if you opt for it) and repairs by BMW.
 
AlanJ said:
I have used Norwich Union (now Aviva) for many years. When they send me the renewal I always check on the web for the cheapest and to date they have matched it. Accident response is pretty good with loan car on the day or the next (if you opt for it) and repairs by BMW.
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id check that, i used to work for norwich union, and loan car was only if you used their approved repairer (and had it on your policy of course), you could use bmw by all means but nu wouldnt give you a car, they would reffer you to drive assist to provide cars who at the time (2 years ago) were useless.

on the loyalty thing, when i was processing claims it was never a case of how long you were a customer (well if you had just taken a policy out and then pranged the car it was flagged as possible fraud) just as long as the policy was valid.
 
PVR what happens if you get a quote on line with Churchill as a new customer, as with all things new customers seem to get a better deal
 
I did the new insurance deal (as always), that was already over £100 cheaper then their outrageous renewal quote.

Was just wondering if it was worth paying more for that bit of extra "loyalty" cover or not ...
 
If my renewal doesn't go down then I shop around.

I've only ever claimed once and the company tried to settle 50:50 even though it was clearly the other driver's fault. I eventually found out it was because the 'other' company was actually one & the same, and they simply wanted to recover as much from their policyholders next time as they were paying out the same amount wherever the blame lay.

There's only 2 companies I'd NEVER use again: the little red telephone with wheels is one - although I thought it was illegal to phone & drive; and capacitor on a certain DeLorean is the other (mainly due to some stuff I won't repeat on here in fear of being accused of libel - even though it's fact).
 
pvr said:
I have had my cars insured for the last 20 years with Churchil, beating them down on price every year. This year I am not getting anywhere near the cheapest quote with them, so the question is regarding loyalty.

If I would need to make a claim, am I more likely to be treated better by an insurance company who has had my business for 20 years or am I completely diluding myself with that thought and they would make it as complicated as any other company would?

The best quote I get now is about £100 cheaper on a like for like basis (with the other company providing green cards which Churchill no longer does).
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Imho, the proof is in the pudding with insurers.

Only when you have to make a claim, or have a total loss payout, does their worth become known wrt fighting your side, doing the admin work, and so on.

Loyalty won't effect that important aspect of the process I don't think.

If the insurer were a broker who insured directly, and they referred to under-writers, then loyalty might be worth while, but a big insurer then I doubt it is ever evident. Ie, my last broker insurer knew me by my voice when I rang up and got one of three people, most often Sue, who knew who I was straight away when ringing up/dealing with queries etc.

Dave
 
Just looked at the swiftcover website, don't like what I see. Have to go to their repairers network, recycled parts used etc. Yuck.
 
Recycled parts? As in they buy good condition 2nd hand panels etc from breakers, or crappy pattern parts? Might not be the case with rarer to find BMW ones anyway... but still worrying.

I decided against them for the same reason. Good cover for people who just have a car to get from A to B, the last you would choose for your P&J...

I am with Aviva/Norwich Union, they seem pretty good.

Zurich are good, with you being able to choose your repairer, and even windscreen replacement company (£100 excess vs £60 in the event of a new screen) with some of the options!

Axa are also pretty good with the right policy, my brother had a claim recently on a business insurance policy through them and they were absolutely fantastic... bent over backwards to get everything sorted and fought his corner so well on what I thought might go 50:50 (wasn't his fault but you know how they can go), to him getting 0 blame!

Dave
 
I had a few years where my cars and house insurance was with one company.... The still tried to put them up the next year...

I was trying to knock the Z4 price down in June this year and one company gave me a better price and then said "shall we set this up?" I said no i think its only fair to let my current insurance match or better it...
The bloke on the line sounded all hurt and said "we only ever give our best price first" .. I replied well you didnt last year...

They are happy to screw me so im happy to return the favour!

Move bet they give you a better price next year.

Cheers

PaulN
 
It is the smallprint that worries me when I read the websites. Such as that you HAVE to use their repair centres and if you choose a franchised dealer, they will only pay repair centre rates and you have to pay the difference etc.

Interesting that none of the specialist insurance companies could do anything - Adrian Flux was £150 more expensive and the forum sponser did not want to quote once they heard the renewal prices I had.
 
PVR have you looked at esure, would be interested to know what you think of them, both our cars are with them, you can choose your own repairer, and they paid out when Mr's H. totalled her Zafira earlier in the year. It was worth 2k, thought they would probably offer 1.5k, but first offer was 2.9k so snapped there arm off as I didnt want to haggle and end up with less.
 
esure came out more expensive then my current Churchill policy (not much, about £25 more).

Sequence was:

Swiftcover: 299
More Than: 358
Privilege: 408
esure: 421
kwik fit: 431
 
When I renewed last year morethan were the same price as esure but when I called them (india) to advise the mods they said all fine but it didnt give me the confidence, as I'm sure they didnt know what half of the mods actually were.

Esure customer services (english) fine with everything but had to check with underwritters about runflats, but gave me the confidence that I would be covered.

As always though will check again when up in December and Mrs. H. in September :(
 
Ive given up on loyality on anything from insurance companies to mobile phone providers - they seam to do business on the pretense of "you need us" rather than "we need you" and they stick it in your face and its not nice.

For example, i was with elephant for quite a number of years in my younger driving days and went to insure my e46 when i got it in 2005. Their quote was silly and dispite spending over 7k in previous years, they would not price match a similar compnay for all of £200 quid - so i left.

The same with mobile phone providers, gone are the days when you used to be able to haggle a deal - you want it, you pay top wack!
 
I have one business principle: Any company that uses India will not get my business. When I kicked BT out, the woman I spoke to (Scotland) actually was quite pleased when I told her the reason.
 
pvr said:
I have one business principle: Any company that uses India will not get my business. When I kicked BT out, the woman I spoke to (Scotland) actually was quite pleased when I told her the reason.
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I prefer places that don't use foreigners too. If they can't speak good fluent English and understand regional dialects, they are no good, imho. The time you need comms to be 100% right is when you need them to be 100% right!

Dave
 
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