RBS.. or RobbingB******S

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tiler65

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Tom (I think)
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My Rant for February,

I just had my renewal notice for this years Home building and contents insurance delivered.

Last year

a total of £385.67

This year £701.35

So not being happy I called them.

After 5 minutes of various select 1 for claims, 2 for new business, 3 for a quote 4 for a description I could not quite hear cause I was worried I missed the number I really wanted, 5 for start again and go to the bottom of the queue, I got a nice lady on who asked for my details & security what not, then wanted to know my query.

I relayed my problem to her and she then says 'Oh you need Customer Loyalty department....... I'll put you through'

There was no customer loyalty option when I first rang......I wonder why?

Anyway, I then have to press for more options as before but with different titles.

'All our operatives are busy, please hold and your call will be...yadadadaada'

Finally a nice sounding lady interupts my hold music of Abba's 'Money, Money, Money' and apologises for my wait.

I explain my problem that I cannot see how my premium has almost doubled when I haven't made a claim. I said I understand that things do increase and that I am willing to pay a small increase.

She explains that every insurance company has increased their premiums.

Next she says I will see what my line manager can do about reducing your premium.

Swiftly returning the lady suggest that if I were to accept the policy now they would give me a 10% loyalty reduction on my new renewal quote.

I said, thanks but no thanks and asked her if my details of my quote and loyalty reduction would be held for me while I compared some internet quotes. Only for today she replied.

So straight on to some comparison sites and a couple of insurance agents I have used in the past.

Within 3 minutes of speaking to an agent I had found a deal offering me better cover, less voluntary excess, home emergency cover for

£277.26 for the year.

They are the Post Office.

Rang back to RBS and asked them to cancel my policy that was about to start and then was asked if I would like to speak to another loyalty agent......... I said 'No'.

How can these companies offer such differing prices especially when you delve deeper and actually find that both are using the same underwriters.

Sorry for the long essay but I hate being ripped off.
 
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Its the way of the world Im afraid..............most people will just say yes without realising how much the premium has gone up till its too late
 
Totally with you on the rant tiler. :thumbs: (The thieving gits!)

Dangermouse1964 said:
Its the way of the world Im afraid..............most people will just say yes without realising how much the premium has gone up till its too late
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:agree: and I know I've been guilty of that in the past. I checked our buildings and contents insurance this year, and managed to get superior cover for £120 a year less! :)
 
Had similar with my car insurance recently. Received renewal premium, phoned and said it seemed a big jump from last year, told that was the best they could do, got better quote online, phoned them back and they beat the online quote by £100 to keep my business! Felt like telling them to naff off but "spite", "nose" and "face" sprang to mind :)
 
The companies who have had major claims issues will put prices up to all customers to recover losses. Companies who have not had such a bad year for claims will not increase prices as much.
Also, whatever insurance companies say, they do have significant discounts to get new customers which you dont get at renewal. This is why many people change insurance providers every year.

The answer is SHOP AROUND the days of customer loyalty and customer care are over regretably.
 
In recent years I've not used the same Insurance company twice in a row. You need to be wary though, a lot of supposedly independant companies (e.g. Post Office, Co-op, Tesco..) go through the same crowd BISL who are absolute sweary words to deal with unless you are parting with cash.
 
I tend to shop around for insurance every year for the buildings, house contents and car insurance, my partner tends to stay with the same car insurers unless I shop around for her, she hates spending the time shopping for insurance when she could be doing other things.

One insurer said they couldn't match the quote I'd been given from elsewhere but they could lower theirs by £10, would I like to renew the policy? It was still £160 more expensive so I decided against it.

Moneysavingexpert.com has a good system for getting a low quote, worth a look if you haven't been there before
 
Goneforagasper said:
Also, whatever insurance companies say, they do have significant discounts to get new customers which you dont get at renewal. This is why many people change insurance providers every year.
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Yep, and if you go through a comparison site, they whack up the price the following year to try and recoup the commission they paid out to get you.
As said, shop around. I've only once had a renewal price I couldn't beat elsewhere, although that was for a heavily modified car so there wasn't as much choice.
 
The best advice I can give anyone is to approach a local insurance broker, you pay a little bit more but they deal with everything, they know the ins and outs and can really help you save cash.

My missus has just started working for one and when you hear some of the stories that she comes home with and how she's managed to save people money on silly things its shocking.

One thing to remember as well, online companies will show you the cheapest option, however, that usually isn't the best. It's usually cheapest because things are missing, legal cover etc. Trying to get help from them is near impossible too.
 
Harvey_nikon said:
The best advice I can give anyone is to approach a local insurance broker, you pay a little bit more but they deal with everything, they know the ins and outs and can really help you save cash.
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I was with a local broker for years for my commercial vehicle insurance, I liked dealing with them because I like the personal touch, every year the premium went up a bit but I kept going back, then about 8 years ago I went on the internet, I found the same cover 40% cheaper which stunned me.

I went to the broker with the figures but they couldn't get anywhere near it even with the same insurance company, he said insurance companies give all the brokers different rates which is why there's such wildly differing prices so it does pay to shop around, I went with the online broker and even now i'm paying less than I was in 1995.
 
indeed, the only way i could get my car insurance down this year was by hiking my excess. ive got 8 years ncb, and i drive the worlds most boring estate too. you can kinda understand why people drive without it (alhough for the record i never would)..
 
That's a real shame Tom. My home insurance (along with all my banking) is with RBS and it's up for renewal soon. I certainly hope they'll not be trying to rip me off like that!
 
Not sure your title of Robbing etc is appropriate. They quoted you a price for your annual home insurance, which you turned down after finding a cheaper price.

In such a competetive market, there will always be a disparity of prices between various suppliers. It's the same for car insurance, airline tickets, and just about any other product you care to think of.
 
im no fan of RBS, their inability to set up a direct debit correctly 3 times was annoying, but because i was late on those 3 payments on my CC, they reduced my limit, charged me for missing a payment, that put me over the limit, which got me another fee. Needless to say a few phonecalls have taken place. *******s
 
This is typical of how most insurance companies work ime. They offer good deals to get new customers and then significantly increase premiums in year 2, knowing that a large % can't be bothered changing. In the last 7 years, I've had 7 different car insurance companies to make use of this. Has worked out well shopping through Quidco too - the average we pay for fully comp is £130-150, and two years ago we paid the grand total of £68 after getting £120 cashback!
 
I would say be careful going with the cheapest option if you can.....I will pay a bit more for quality. My car insurance quotes can be $600 or $2000 but the service varys wildly. The co. I am with have been more than excellent on the two occasions I have had to use them (non fault on my part) and I can chose my repairer. So I pay the middle of the road price.

My house insurance is with the same underwriter (allianz) and they added my camera equipment for $12 a month extra fully covered anywhere. Which I thought was great!

So it pays to get recommendations as well as prices! I think if something happend to my stuff the last thing I would want is an argument with my insurer when I have no home/car/camera etc.

The cheapest insurer here, generally known for being cheap, had a lot of people complaining after the black saturday bushfires (where people lost everything) that they were having arguments with their insurer over getting money to live on! Imagine loosing your passport, credit cards, birth certificate...how would you get money from the bank?

BTW....I used to work for said bank, even as staff I couldn't get a good deal....it may have changed in the last 5 years but I would never recommend going with a bank for insurance! Unless you get it free or a great great deal!

Roo
 
Finally a nice sounding lady interupts my hold music of Abba's 'Money, Money, Money' and apologises for my wait.
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:lol:


Carbon copy here - used AVIVA and saved 357 quid:thumbs:

Then spent it along with some more on a SB900 and some S/H lenses from the classified section:) said to the wife we are no worse of than if she had just let the policy run:thumbs: - I suppose so she said :D:D:D:thumbs:
 
Had the same with the AA. Just have contents insurance, £292 last year, it high because i am covered indoors and outdoors accidental on any price of gear.

No claims since 2007/2008, just tryed to get me on £522.

Told them not paying it and after about 5 mins off telling them i was leavining i got it for the same price as last year, They said tey were making a loss on my policy, i said i dont care.

Stand your ground, they want your money, just depends how much they want it
 
jollyjack said:
Had the same with the AA. Just have contents insurance, £292 last year, it high because i am covered indoors and outdoors accidental on any price of gear.

No claims since 2007/2008, just tryed to get me on £522.

Told them not paying it and after about 5 mins off telling them i was leavining i got it for the same price as last year, They said tey were making a loss on my policy, i said i dont care.
Stand your ground, they want your money, just depends how much they want it
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How can they make a loss if you don't claim. I am quite sure it does not cost over £300 to process your insurance certificate.
 
I've just renewed mine with Lv, their renewal quote was reasonable but after telling them I'd consider moving elsewhere it took 10 seconds to get £20 off, premium £177 for buildings and contents and I've claimed twice in 4years.
 
After a couple of bad experiences with motor insurance claims I'm happier to pay a little more for peace of mind. I'm with NFU mutual and have had to vehicle claims (both our cars hit by third party whilst parked) and a claim when the garage was broken into. When the loss adjuster came to visit me after the garage break in he told me it was lucky that I was with the NFU as most companies wouldn't insure the garage as it was classed as a remote outbuilding due to the distance from the house. Considering I lost 2 grands worth of tools I'm glad I was with NFU. They also increased the cover on my camera gear from £1000 to £5000 with no additional premium.

Prior to this my wifes series 3 Land Rover was insured by Fortis when it was written off (whilst parked again) by a milk delivery vehicle. It took 3 months of haggling to get a fair price. They initially offered £200 when the value was nearer £2000. Considering the fact that it was the third parties insurers that were due to pay out we couldn't understand why they were being so obstructive.

At the same time as this was going on a car door flew open in front of me and I hit it with my 110. This damaged the front wing on the 110 and wrote the other vehicle off (old vehicle). Norwich union (now Aviva) were so inept at the handling of the claim that I ended up with a CCJ against me and they paid the wrong repairer for the repairs. Took over 6 months to get the CCJ removed and I insisted on a letter from the insurers explaining that the CCJ was entirely their fault.

I've also had dealings with insurance companies sub contracting to a local building firm that were the preferred repairer for a number of insurance companies. Having seen the quality of their work always insist on using your own tradesmen if you have to make a claim. I had to go back and put right quite a number of plumbing problems caused by their in house plumber (carpenter with a spanner and a love of push fit plumbing).

Sorry for the rant but I've seen a lot of poor service from insurance companies.
 
tiler65 said:
How can they make a loss if you don't claim. I am quite sure it does not cost over £300 to process your insurance certificate.
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Because they use an average as a cost rather than what you as an individual have claimed. Seems unfair? If it was handled on a per person basis, your premium would go up by the amount you claim plus extra.

It's the way insurance companies work - those who don't claim end up paying for those who do.
 
They get away with it because there are more than enough mugs who don't seek quotes every year.
 
neil_g said:
indeed, the only way i could get my car insurance down this year was by hiking my excess. ive got 8 years ncb, and i drive the worlds most boring estate too. you can kinda understand why people drive without it (alhough for the record i never would)..
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I've got a similar amount of NCB and drive a marginally less boring mid-engined Porsche. Pay £360 fully comp, which I consider reasonable.

I don't understand why anyone would drive without insurance.
 
onomatopoeia said:
I've got a similar amount of NCB and drive a marginally less boring mid-engined Porsche. Pay £360 fully comp, which I consider reasonable.

I don't understand why anyone would drive without insurance.
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cos it costs you 360 quid, I know someone who got a 2grand quote, car worth <1k

insurance is half my driving budget (putting aside money for when I graduate or maybe one summer to do test buy car and insure)
 
onomatopoeia said:
I've got a similar amount of NCB and drive a marginally less boring mid-engined Porsche. Pay £360 fully comp, which I consider reasonable.

I don't understand why anyone would drive without insurance.
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I'm guessing that you're my age (30 something) or more - and probably never had a ridiculous quote in your younger days... People are getting third party only quotes these days for 3, 4 or more times the value of their car - which might only be worth a few hundred pounds. My 2nd car which was a relatively sporty saloon valued at £1500 (which was quite a lot back then) only cost me £400 to insure, and that was with 2 fault accidents and 3 points on my licence. These days I doubt an insurer would touch me and if they did I would bet it would be at the thick end of 3-4k

I'm not saying it's right - far from it, but I can see why they do it.
 
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