Do NOT accept your insurance renewal letter – I saved £98

I have been insured with esure for a few years and have built up a 12 year+ no claims discount, so when I received my car insurance renewal letter, it languished on my desk for a few days and then I called them to renew.

We had a lovely chat about any changes to my circumstances and then the nice gentleman gave me the renewal price – £272. Mmmmh, so chancing my arm, as I can’t resist, I reminded him of my no claims discount, loyalty to the firm and how annoying it was that my premium had gone up by £4 over the last year. Here was, in my opinion, his opportunity to give me some money off….even £10 would have made me more inclined not to take an alternative route…….but no – no discount was forthcoming.

So just before we got to the credit card bit, I said “you know what? I’ll have a look around to see if I can get a cheaper price, and be back to you if I can’t.” After all, I was pleased with esure, so didn’t really want to change.

I turned to my trusty Google search and typed in cheap car insurance. Up top came Confused.com. It’s rather like GoCompare or Comparethemarket, is a comparison website that will help you get cheaper car, household and travel insurance.

Confused.com (you know the Brian robot toy ads) quoted me over £100 cheaper. More Than came in at £164 for the same insurance. Unfortunately, my credit card didn’t seem to work on their site, so it was esure’s lucky day. There were some other cheaper quotes, but I didn’t know the companies and didn’t have the time to research them. On the list at £174 was esure. For exactly the same insurance, I would be paying £98 less. Happy Days.

I called through to the number provided on Confused.com’s site and got through to esure. The guy on the line seemed totally bemused about the discount and checked that I was indeed covering like for like, and I was!

I renewed with a big smile on my face. Same insurer, but enough money off to buy my new Ghds….and I get a free Brian toy too (update: which to my chagrin I never received as esure said that I didn’t come through Confused.com’s site…..and frankly for a crappy piece of plastic I can’t be bothered to argue).

So the moral of the story, DO NOT renew your insurance, until you’ve been on a comparison website.