Are Insurers Stupid?

[Senna(Dan)]

Having had my first renewal quote from Carole Nash I had to laugh at the guy on the phone, did the usual comparison webistes and got £240 for both bikes insured.

Carole Nash wanted £495 for just the F4. This is £165 more than I paid last year and have had no accidents or tickets in the mean time.

I don't understand why companies seem to want to charge more to existing customers than other companies will if you want to switch.

[Swanny]

Not stupid just greedy, hoping you will just auto renew

[Wes]

Agreed, as Swanny says, even if 20% renew automatically, its easy money, online quotes are cheaper as they dont have the handling fee, worth mentioning if you speak to them direct.

[Snowy]

I think its more the underwriters rather than the brokers. Last few years I have alternated between Equity Red Star and Aviva every year as they always give new business discounts. Having said that, for the first time in ages they were within £50 of each other through the brokers I use which tend to be Carole Nash and BMW Motorrad.

[Burbler]

No, they are not stupid, they are rip-off machines.
I was with the same company for years. Up a few quid each year even down a few quid sometimes. Then one year it went up 70% for no reason. I queried it and they said like it or lump it. Since then I have changed insurer (both on the bike and the car) every year.
Also it is not worth making a claim for a few hundred quid or so as they will rake that back and a load more over the next few years in premiums.

[Mal103]

Swinton wanted to charge me a fortune to change bike, i spoke to them saying i had cheaper quotes for the whole year than the extra premium, they searched for new insurance and were still over double so they lost my custom for ever. Now happily paying much lower but what is daft is its the same back company red star?
My vote goes to greedy.

[WR6133]

Swinton wanted over £100 to swap my policy with 4 months remaining from my 125 to my 250. New policy for a year cost me under £100 (not with Swinton)!

[DC]

Insurance companies are far from stupid.These are financial institutions we're talking about here.They rely on a reasonable sector of the market being lazy and ignorant and they'll get away with whatever we allow them.I remember my very first large CC insurance application (Suzuki RF600r).I read an article in Which Motorcycle Magazine that advised readers to ring around 6-10 companies getting the lowest quote then ring absolutely any one of them back removing between 15 and 20% from the lowest quote and you'll get a result.
My initial quotes for that bike were between £600-£700 and eventually settled on £169.That was 3rd party 20 years ago
Two years ago I was paying £120 fully comp then after an accident in 2012 incurring over £2000 worth of damage to the bike my premiums went up by £20,my renewal has just come in and it's back down to £120 fully comp with low excess and all the whistles and bells.
I always use a High Street broker now and within reason you can more or less tell them what you want to pay :cool: