I have no idea how much money is spent on home insurance every year but enough to build a mountain. Year after year insurance companies around the world remind us that we have to renew our insurance arrangements.
Here at my house, our home insurance is with a well-known British company called Direct Line and to make the premiums a little cheaper our buildings insurance is married with our home contents insurance. We have been with Direct Line for ten years and have not claimed for anything.
This year I received our renewal letter and it said that the premium we paid last year - £257.60 had now risen to £303.52. This represented a rise of £46.
Anyway, I phoned Direct Line today and said that if the premium was not reduced we would be arranging our insurance with a different company. The fellow at the other end of the line left me on hold for two or three minutes and then returned to the phone with a much better deal. In fact that phone call saved me £28. But why didn't I get that deal in the first place? I suspect that some people never challenge increased premium notices and this helps to boost insurance company profits.
I wonder - does this kind of insurance chicanery happen in other countries such as America, Canada, Ireland, Australia and Germany? It seems to happen to me every year and in relation to car insurance too. It is like a game. They pump up the premium, I challenge it and then they reduce it. It is as if they are actively trying to engineer widespread fraud. They don't give a damn about loyalty. Customers are treated like piggy banks that they shake. The more that they can get out of us the better.
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/FRtBOpM