[Paul]

Genuinely intested to know what you say, and why....

[scooperman_uk]

usually tell the truth, most places will tell you immediately if they can price match. My renewall quote was thru MINI uk insurance services. I tried a few others and even being a customer of MINI for a year they still came out most expensive with no policy on price matching / beating.

I Usualy tell them in the first opening statement that im looking for them to beat my renewall quote. gets them interested.

[Martin L]

Tell them the truth. If they can't beat it, they do let you know.
Besides they'll have all your details and can quite easily check if you're telling the truth about a competitors quote

I find it's much better actually speaking to an agent as you can haggle down the price. You can't haggle with a computer

[Speedd]

Lower than the truth.. heck I'm Indian

The way i see it is... if you don't try then you won't know and if they do come up more expensive then I move to the next company on my phone list. I Must admit the last few policies were quoted online which I query over the phone and get a little more knocked off .

I have paid my fair share of high premiums when i was younger, now i want something back .. not that i am that old

I'm not sure if I was being over paranoid but before I got my car at the end of July I went to the website: www.confused.com and they came back with a number of quotes (great site).

The best price was with Admiral Insurance by over £150.

So naturally I phoned them up and arranged to have the car insured by them. But they wanted to take all the factory fitted options down as modifications and increased the premium by £50 because the Chilli Pack 'made the car more desirable'. I expressed my frustration that anything fitted in the factory is considered a modification, but because it was still cheap by miles I continued with the cover application. The policy schedule arrived and they had put down modifications as being a spoiler(standard) and spot lights(not fitted) only fog lights. So I phoned them to get this changed and the woman on the other end of the phone then proceeded to tell me that in the event of an accident anything considered as a modification would be replaced only with Standard parts. I then proceeded to hit the roof and demanded that the policy was canceled. After a few phone calls it appeared that a significant number of major insurance companies view factory fitted options in the same way (so always double check verbally and in writing) or else you might find a car after an accident with the insurance company refusing to replace like for like!!!!!!!

In the end I went with Mini insurance - at least they promised to replace like for like in the event of an accident!!!!

It does make me wonder how many people with a car with factory fitted options are unaware of what they have really got covered!!

[dansmini]

I've never been asked that before, but if I were I think I would say "Your the first company I've called, so set the mark!" I don't really think it's any of their business what the other quotes were.

[vagt6]

Competition can save serious money when shopping insurers.

Call all available insurers for quotes, give them whatever info they need, then call them again after the first round in order to whittle the lowest ones down a bit. I don't think they'll mind if you're shopping for the lowest premium, most of them simply want the business and will do whatever possible to get it.

Make them work for your business, I don't think it hurts to disclose your quotes from other insurers. How else can they compete?

[dansmini]

Quote: Originally Posted by vagt6

How else can they compete?

How about by offering their best rate up front?

[RedMini]

Last time my wife's insurance came up for renewal she phoned her company and told them that their main competitor had quoted £50 less, so they matched it.

The thing was, she hadn't even got a quote from them this year.

BTW, she's a driving instructor so her insurance is non-standard, covering any driver of any age with any record of convictions/disqualifications.

[vagt6]

Hey dansmini, sadly, that's not how insurance works on the retail level.

Most Agents/brokers/retailers will sell you whatever policy or premium you accept, not always the least expensive or most competitive.

Sort of like the "P.T. Barnum principle", if you know what I mean.

[dansmini]

[quote=vagt6]Hey dansmini, sadly, that's not how insurance works on the retail level.[quote]
I don't think it is how anything works, unfortunately. I was just being idealistic.