We moved house in November – I phoned Saga, our contents insurer, the day before, and gave them the new address details. “Oooh” said the woman on the phone – it’s going to be quite a bit more. She promised to phone me back the following week, but didn’t, and I never got round to chasing it up.
This week, I finally got around to doing the domestic paperwork for the first time since the move, and discovered Saga had put the insurance premium monthly payment up from £55.25 to … wait for it … £139.20. I rang, and was Polite. The chap I spoke to had great sympathy, said that of course I should have been phoned back, that they had sent out a new pack with details to this address (I never got it), and that if I wanted to cancel a) there’d be no refund, and b) there’d be a £35 cancellation charge, just to add insult to injury. He advised me to write in with the details, which I have done, and they can sodding whistle for the cancellation charge.
We were also paying £23 per month to Northern Rock (god bless ’em) for house insurance. They wrote and said that they were now moving it to Axa, who would bill direct at £28 per month.
So I went on to confused.com and got a quote for contents and house insurance. Have just signed up with someone for £48 per month (which is a substantial saving of *£119* per month, which I find utterly astonishing.
So fuelled with success, I dug out the car insurance renewal docs (it falls due on Tuesday); last year I cut about £300 off the premium using Confused.com, but we had a much less sedate vehicle then. But I thought I’d have a look – saved £120 by moving from Chaucer.
So that’s FOURTEEN HUNDRED QUID saved this year by just not accepting these things – insurance companies make their money from customers’ inertia, so don’t let them!