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Originally Posted by brads
They put the prices up year on year, and hope you won`t notice.
Renewing as a new customer is no issue. Once your policy has expired you are a new customer.
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Exactly right – motor (and household) insurance policies are annual contracts.
The insurer only has the legal right to invite renewal towards the end of the contract’s 12-month term. Sometimes they don’t make the offer, of course, especially if you’ve had a bad claims experience over the course of the previous year. Actually, thinking about it, I think a motor insurer is obliged to offer terms at renewal, irrespective of your claims record, because it is a legal requirement to insure a motor vehicle whilst on the road in the UK. Of course, the insurer can hike the premium to make it very unattractive to re-new if they don’t fancy you as a risk on their books.
An insurer has the perfect defence to auto-renew, doesn’t it? - citing that because motor insurance is compulsory, they wouldn’t want to see you inadvertently breaking the law by overlooking the policy’s renewal (then pointing the finger at them for allowing the policy to lapse, resulting in you ending-up as a lawbreaker.) But despite this semi-rational excuse .. they’re still sneaky b@stards IMHO with all this auto renewal malarkey!
[Btw, for my sins, I used to work in the insurance racket! ..  ]
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