Call and ask for a better deal when time to renew car insurance
LETTERS of renewal are an insurer’s way to make it super easy to sign on for another year. Of course, easy for you, also means more money for them, as Tim McIntyre discovered.
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RECENTLY I checked the mail and I had a letter from a major insurance company, informing me it was time to ‘renew’ my car insurance, which was due to run out the next month.
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It had the price I owed for my premium, including a discount for my good driving history and a number of easy, straightforward ways that I could pay the bill, online, by phone, or by mail.
How convenient! The only problem was that my existing insurance cover was with a different company. Yep, this new insurer was hoping I would be like the many Australians who think there is not much difference between the big insurers and they may as well just go ahead and pay the bill and get on with their week.
Luckily for me, this sort of thing is my job. I did my usual shop around, before getting back in touch with my previous insurer and securing a better deal by just shy of $100.
I have no doubt that this works for the insurers, or they wouldn’t do it. It serves as a reminder that there are a couple of things we need to know about insurance companies.
First, the only thing they make easy for you is to pay them money. If they are sending you an easy to pay bill, you can rest assured it is not their best offer.
Second, they do not reward loyalty. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Ever noticed how new customers seem to get all the big discounts, while you pay more despite being a customer for years? That’s because they already have you and don’t expect you to bother to call them out on it. They are counting on all of us to be complacent and apathetic. Don’t stand for it. If you get one of these letters, first call some other providers to ask them to beat that offer, choose the best one, and then go back to the company that sent you the ‘renewal’ bill in the first place and tell them they need to beat the best of the other offers.
Originally published as Call and ask for a better deal when time to renew car insurance