Dial up big savings on insurance costs

Tim McIntyre shares how he saved $228 with two phone calls

SEPTEMBER means spring, footy finals and the annual phone call that saves me hundreds of dollars.

September is my car rego and insurance time and every year without fail, my car insurer sends me their “renewal notice”.

It couldn’t be more convenient: I just have to log on and pay and I’m insured for another year. The problem is, of course, the quoted premium is too high. How do I know? Because the only thing insurers like to make easy for you is to pay them money. If you get an easy-to-pay bill, that figure is not their best offer and they are hitting you with a lazy tax.

So, every year, I log on to my insurer’s website, enter all my details and obtain the quote they would give a new customer. This year, the premium they sent me was $1468, which in fairness was about $100 cheaper than the one they tried to sting me with last year. However, the online quote they were prepared to give “new customer me” was around $130 cheaper.

I then plugged in the same details on two competitors’ websites and received quotes that were even cheaper.

Armed with plenty of ammo, I called my insurer.

I explained I’d been sent my renewal notice, which was far more expensive than what they offered new customers and they would need to bring it down or I would have to go with a competitor.

I also explained that I didn’t want to switch, as I’d been happy with their service, but they needed to be fair dinkum with my premium.

The consultant on the other end of the line was very helpful, until his system froze and he was unable to access my file, or even put me through to another colleague. This meant I had to call back and start again, winding my way through their various push button menus.

The next customer consultant was a little less friendly but her system was in working order, so away we went. She retrieved the new customer quote I had procured and asked a few questions, seemingly to try to catch me out fudging the information I entered on the fresh quote. Eventually, I mentioned that I do the same thing every year and I knew they could do much better with the price. And with that she realised I meant business.

She brought the price down to the new figure and then took a little more off. The revised figure was $1240, meaning two phone calls had saved me $228 in a total of 10 minutes.