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Insurance underwriting has gone all technical..........

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Dod101
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Insurance underwriting has gone all technical..........

#394572

Postby Dod101 » March 11th, 2021, 11:51 am

........as in check what the market will bear.

My house insurance is due for renewal on 25 March and a week or so ago I got my renewal notice. The premium was being increased from £343.84 to £392, an increase of 14%. Once I had calmed down (this having been a year as we all know when most of us will have been at home much more often than usual), I checked around to no great avail.

Yesterday I called my current insurer and gave them several good reasons why I was unhappy and was looking around for other insurers. After he went through all the usual stuff, nothing has changed, are the sums insured still fine and so on, he said 'I will see what I can do sir'. A minute or two later he said the best he could do would be £316.96,(that is a reduction of around 8% on the current premium). That is called rebasing when applied to dividends but I am happy with this sort of rebasing. Obviously, having checked that that was the best he could/would do, I accepted that.

How technical can they get? Sticking a finger in the air is the only other way I can think of.

Dod

monabri
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Re: Insurance underwriting has gone all technical..........

#398812

Postby monabri » March 25th, 2021, 9:05 am

Dod101 wrote:........as in check what the market will bear.

My house insurance is due for renewal on 25 March and a week or so ago I got my renewal notice. The premium was being increased from £343.84 to £392, an increase of 14%. Once I had calmed down (this having been a year as we all know when most of us will have been at home much more often than usual), I checked around to no great avail.

Yesterday I called my current insurer and gave them several good reasons why I was unhappy and was looking around for other insurers. After he went through all the usual stuff, nothing has changed, are the sums insured still fine and so on, he said 'I will see what I can do sir'. A minute or two later he said the best he could do would be £316.96,(that is a reduction of around 8% on the current premium). That is called rebasing when applied to dividends but I am happy with this sort of rebasing. Obviously, having checked that that was the best he could/would do, I accepted that.

How technical can they get? Sticking a finger in the air is the only other way I can think of.

Dod


£300+? That sounds expensive for buildings and contents. Have you looked on web comparison sites such as GoCompare? ( note, once you've entered your details they are saved for next year's quote).

Dod101
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Re: Insurance underwriting has gone all technical..........

#398817

Postby Dod101 » March 25th, 2021, 9:23 am

monabri wrote:
Dod101 wrote:........as in check what the market will bear.

My house insurance is due for renewal on 25 March and a week or so ago I got my renewal notice. The premium was being increased from £343.84 to £392, an increase of 14%. Once I had calmed down (this having been a year as we all know when most of us will have been at home much more often than usual), I checked around to no great avail.

Yesterday I called my current insurer and gave them several good reasons why I was unhappy and was looking around for other insurers. After he went through all the usual stuff, nothing has changed, are the sums insured still fine and so on, he said 'I will see what I can do sir'. A minute or two later he said the best he could do would be £316.96,(that is a reduction of around 8% on the current premium). That is called rebasing when applied to dividends but I am happy with this sort of rebasing. Obviously, having checked that that was the best he could/would do, I accepted that.

How technical can they get? Sticking a finger in the air is the only other way I can think of.

Dod


£300+? That sounds expensive for buildings and contents. Have you looked on web comparison sites such as GoCompare? ( note, once you've entered your details they are saved for next year's quote).


I can see that but I have checked comparison sites from time to time. The trouble is my place is a 'one off' in the sense that is basically a large extension of a 19th century cottage, although in fact it is a rather sprawling 25 year old house with a 19th century cottage tacked on and most insurers seem to find it difficult to know what to do with it as it does not fit into their boxes, two up two down or detached '30s bungalow or whatever.

I get the same reaction when asking an estate agent to value it. But thanks. I will look again, next year now.

Dod

88V8
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Re: Insurance underwriting has gone all technical..........

#398835

Postby 88V8 » March 25th, 2021, 10:02 am

The insurance on our thatched is four figures with stonking annual rises, so I only slightly feel your pain.

Thatched is of course a special situation, but alas the gouging of existing customers is nothing new. In the 70s, when I worked for the CU as was, renewals were routinely increased to pay for new-business discounts.
Then as now, New Business was the great god.

A few renewals customers complained and received a 'special discount' but most didn't and the retention rate was sufficient that it panned out. I worked in the City Broker division; one would think that brokers would have complained on customers' behalf, but no.... they were happy to trouser the increased commission.

I dare say much the same now. Certainly on my motor policies, the brokers are little more than a post box when renewals come around.

V8

bluedonkey
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Re: Insurance underwriting has gone all technical..........

#398849

Postby bluedonkey » March 25th, 2021, 10:38 am

Dod,

The word you are looking for is cross-subsidy. Those policyholders who don't complain and pay the increase are subsidising those who do.

BD


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