It has happened for decades. Every time a renewal notice for any insurance has come up, there's always an increase. Insurers rely on "lethargy" by the insured, opting for automatic renewal.
I'm presently with Hastings Direct and the fourth renewal is due in the second week of December. They want another £50.
I phoned them this morning, there were all sorts of numbers to press, before I got through to a "real person." After the usual negotiations which I've had with several insurers over the years, at these times, we settled on an extra premium of just 34p. The guy was very helpful, but Hastings, as other companies with call centres, could do with another phone option, "Press 1 for English."

i'm happy with that, I can't be bothered chasing round for cheaper quotes.

I dont know how ours has gone but we are happy with their service so not interested in changing another. I think hubby compared last year and decided we were good.

I think we experience this with internet or phone service. Seems we got better rates by calling and asking.

sallyg said: I think we experience this with internet or phone service. Seems we got better rates by calling and asking.

This is often the case with on-line renewals.

Lethargy is why so many subscriptions start with first month free

"The Loyalty Penalty" is what made me finally completely cut the cord this past January and I couldn't be happier. I did get Comcast down by about $50 compared to the "full" price they switched me to, but that wasn't enough. I'm now saving $95/month for the same or better services that I had for cable and internet ($145/month compared to the original price before I got them to reduce it a bit). I would have done it much sooner but my husband is extremely technically challenged and wasn't sure how he'd deal with navigating different menus and services. But when I told him the savings, he said he'd deal with it. I still have to show him how to get where he wants at times, but it's getting better and a small price to pay.

Murky said: "The Loyalty Penalty" is what made me finally completely cut the cord this past January and I couldn't be happier. I did get Comcast down by about $50 compared to the "full" price they switched me to, but that wasn't enough. I'm now saving $95/month for the same or better services that I had for cable and internet ($145/month compared to the original price before I got them to reduce it a bit). I would have done it much sooner but my husband is extremely technically challenged and wasn't sure how he'd deal with navigating different menus and services. But when I told him the savings, he said he'd deal with it. I still have to show him how to get where he wants at times, but it's getting better and a small price to pay.

I know how he feels
.
I keep putting off changing my car. It's a seventeen year-old Honda CRV. That's three times as long as I've had any car and I've only done 63,000 miles. I've had it from new.

But everything works on it and it's completely reliable.

The thought of hassling over a price and then with another car, "remembering where everything is,"

I'm going to wait until a change is forced upon me.

Cars are entirely different. My favorite I had for 28 years... an '83 GMC Jimmy. I loved everything about it and would still have it today if I could.

Here's a flip side- friend went to his favorite local garage asking about an exhaust job. This garage said it'd be some $500 for them so referred him to another local place specializing in that kind of work. $145 and one hour and done. So there are good guys out there.

We were getting a bill for $223/month for cable TV & internet. I see commercials for MUCH less for new customers. I called them to ask for a reduction of our bill but they had nothing to offer to try to keep me as a customer, just a suggestion that we could apply for assistance, which is when I said to just turn off the cable. I had said we didn't think it was worth the price, not that we were deadbeats with no $. Even if we were, I would never ask strangers to pay for something like that. I can't believe they are trained to suggest that and insult their customers that way. Now our bill will supposedly be right at $100/month for the internet. If there was another company in our area offering similar speed, I would switch immediately. I'm disgusted.

It really bites when there's only 1 internet provider in a city. My internet and cable bill from Xfinity was going to $257. I was on a 2 year plan that started at $154 and was up to $179 by the time the 2 years was up with all their extra fees and moving popular channels to extras. They can always change the terms, but as a customer you can't and must stick out the 2 years. I got them to lower it to $219 without a contract and immediately found alternatives. Switched to Wow for internet (and after all the horrible things I'd read about them, my service has been rock solid and no real issues). Went to all streaming for TV and couldn't be happier, I'm saving $100/month and have more TV options than ever. My $45/mo for internet is going to be over soon and will have to either renegotiate that or switch again. But I'm loving not being tied to anyone for TV anymore.

Limited choices on internet here due to living on gravel. If city folks that get super fast internet had mine they'd crap. Centurylink who was bought by Brightspeed ain't for sissies.

We are currently getting excellent service from our internet provider. We stayed with them through some difficult times (On of their towers was sabotaged) and now have a favourable rate on more bandwidth. Which in turn allowed us to get rid the satellite TV service which gave us the few channels we want bundled into overpriced packages with channels we never watch. The four streaming subscriptions are much cheaper.

Insurance, we did switch, twice in the last 20 years. As for propane, we have two suppliers (separate tanks) and top up whichever offers a better rate each season.

I switched to FIOS[verizon] as soon as it became available in our neighborhood. I couldn't wait to get rid of Comcast. The service is much better and more reliable. With Comcast the bill was never the same and there were always extra fees for this and that. I started at $117 for internet and tv and was told that the price would never go above $125. I was good with that until it started inching up, up and up. Now it's $144 and I really don't like paying that much but I too am technically challenged so for now it stays. As far as homeowners insurance-mine went up because I bundled car insurance with it and getting a new vehicle raised the rates. I did look around and did an online app but when it came to the question about having a dog and what breed it was I stopped the application. This is being prejudicial and I won't have it. And that company comes extremely recommended but they were more expensive than who I have now so nope.
I would do streaming except I watch maybe 45 minutes of tv at night so it might be worth it or not. I agree with Tiffany-big companies can offer new subscribers a super deal with low rates so why can't they pass the savings along to their established customers. It's just wrong and greedy.

I'm sure there are no personal feelings involved in asking about your dogs. The type of dog will have statistics attached to it regarding how much $ that type of dog costs the company for liability claims, on average. People who don't own dogs won't have any claims for damages caused by dogs, so it's fair that the costs of paying those claims needs to be shared among the owners of dogs, not the people who don't own dogs.

When comparing coverage, make sure your quote is for the same levels of coverage you have now, and that the deductibles are the same. Otherwise, it's not an accurate comparison. If you are comparing the cost of just home insurance, and are looking at a quote for house and car, you need to add your current car coverage to your current house coverage to compare the total of the two to the new quote.

When your car is worth more, it costs more to insure. Insurance on a new vehicle will cost more than on an old vehicle. If you wreck it, it costs more to replace. If you don't have a loan, you don't have to have full coverage if you don't want to. The full coverage insurance on our new car is WAAAAYYY more than the liability-only coverage that we have on a much older vehicle.

@pepper23

pepper23 said: Limited choices on internet here due to living on gravel. If city folks that get super fast internet had mine they'd crap. Centurylink who was bought by Brightspeed ain't for sissies.

This company is installing optic fiber in our area right now. We have Viasat (satellite) internet right now. It's on the slow side, but reliable. What kind of problems do you have with this Brightspeed service?

We have terminated our ATT-Uverse many many years ago, and just maintained our ATT internet. Thankfully in our area what has been laid out is either ATT or Xfinity. We just kept it at ATT internet at their highest rate since my hubby and I stream a lot, so I do not want to be bogged down by data caps. Also at the service level we subscribed to them, ATT has added for free access to HBO Max. So that works even better since we do follow Game of Thrones related series. Also, hubby continues to be work from home, so his internet connection must remain stable at all times since he handles computer networks. Got to add as well our outdoor home security cameras are connected wirelessly to our wifi so all the more got to have stable connection. It is also good that the line installed in our area is fiber connection, so our service is indeed fast and stable.

At one time, when Youtube was introducing their tv service, we tried it. But once the intro price expired, I just promptly terminated that. I just make sure among the apps I have ready on our Firet tv/stick is Haystack News app so I have good access to various news locally, around the US and international. Of course I always supplement it with news video clips uploaded constantly in Youtube. We just subscribed to other streaming services we do use a lot like Netflix etc. So we have control on what we want to watch and not be tied up to a cable package where the channel selections we hardly watch and get bogged down by too much annoying ads.

That's one of the best parts about cutting the cord and using streaming services... you're not locked into any silly contracts. Especially with companies like Comcast who would keep adding extra fees so that your contract price is $20+ more than what you signed up for 6 months into the 2 year-contract. Promotional price is over, just cancel. Even if you find a better deal during the promotional price period, it's not a contract, you can still cancel it early.

Tiffany, the dog question did not bother me personally but it's basically "breed discrimination" and I don't like that. I understand how the insurance companies evaluate your premiums. My current company did not ask that question and they are still lower in cost so I'll stick with what I have for now. I expected the car insurance to go up as it is a new vehicle and it has 4 doors instead of 2. Doors are expensive and they are expensive to install and usually alignment involved so naturally more money to insure. I've done many, many body shop damage claims over the years at the dealership so I know what things cost and what they cost to replace.

Our internet is pretty slow and the placement of the box at the end of our road is poor because it's in a corn/bean field where it gets hit and run over several times a year so if we don't lose service on the provider's end (and even if it's their fault they will still do the spiel of making you check all your connections) we lose it on that end. Some websites this internet can't handle so I have to use my phone for it to work. Nebraska Furniture Mart is one of them.