Another month, another sickening insurance renewal quote has dropped through the Chez Boyce letterbox.
The cost of our home and contents cover will be £466.57 if we stick with Esure, the same insurer we have used since moving into our home seven years ago.
Last year it was £263.67. The new quote is some 77 per cent higher. Going back further, in 2018, our cover cost just £185.86.
In the renewal email, I was encouraged to speak to the firm’s chatbot.
After a brief exchange I was told: ‘We have changed the way we rate our policies this year and brought in a new rating platform.’
Loyalty penalty: Esure hiked the cost of Money Mail editor Lee’s home and contents cover by a huge 77%
Then, two minutes later: ‘I’ll be honest, Lee, based on the cover you have, it would be the best price we would offer. I can’t get this to budge — I’m so sorry!’
The bot even added a sad face emoji as if to ram home the point.
The reasons for premium rises this big should be explained blow-by-blow in any correspondence. Yet they’re not.
My case is another example of the giant insurance renewal quotes Money Mail has highlighted in recent weeks. Quotes which we’re expected to accept without question.
One reader, David, emailed this week to say he bought a car last March and insured it for £400.68.
The renewal came through this month: £959.78. He went onto the insurer’s website and applied as a new customer, with the same details. The quote was £617.97. He found even lower rates elsewhere.
These rises leave questions as to what impact the loyalty penalty rules brought in by the Financial Conduct Authority last year have had.
These rules banned insurers from charging renewing customers more than brand new ones.
Needless to say, without a proper explanation of our renewal quote or any wriggle room on the price, Mrs B and I are off. We can’t stomach such a rise when we haven’t even made a claim.
I plugged our details into a comparison website and, within minutes, the best quote from a name I recognised with the same cover and excess is less than last year’s price. It means, for the second time in 2023, we’ve ditched our insurer because of cost.
Last month, I wrote here about how my car insurance renewal was up 21 per cent before I found identical cover far cheaper elsewhere.
It’s now more vital than ever to check your renewal quote and shop around. Otherwise you’ll simply be ripped-off for your loyalty.
Southend SOS
Allow me to get misty-eyed for a moment about my first love.
When I was five years old, I visited Roots Hall stadium for the first time, and ever since have been an avid supporter of Southend United — my local football team.
Since the early 1990s, I have followed the Shrimpers home and away, and spent thousands of pounds on season tickets, matchday tickets and club merchandise. Being a football supporter does not come cheap.
Yet this time next week the club may no longer exist. To cut a long story short, it faces a winding-up order from the taxman.
It’s a community club with an average gate of 6,000 fans in the fifth tier of English football. All fans like me can do is watch and wait to see if a big tax bill gets paid by the owner.
Whether it’s a football club, insurer or a bank, why is it that the little people (i.e. me and you) pay our way, play by the rules but always seem to bear the brunt when the big bosses mess up? Just look at James Benamor, the founder of Amigo Loans.
He’s enjoying the high life while Amigo Loans is in crisis and customers are left seeking mis-selling payouts. These failed chiefs must not be allowed to get away with it.
Widows watch
Earlier this month, Money Mail lifted the lid on the customer service meltdown at Scottish Widows. Since then, more troubling cases have landed in our in-tray.
One reader, Lee, says he’s been waiting since August for a payment after his mother passed away. It was meant to be paid within seven days.
He says he has made 72 telephone calls and sent 15 letters in a bid to sort out the problem. He feels as though he’s being passed around like a ‘puppet’.
Scottish Widows is still in our crosshairs, and Money Mail will continue to put pressure on the company to resolve the problems our readers highlight.
l.boyce@dailymail.co.uk
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