GoCompareAConfusedMeerkat.com - a bargaining tool

Have you ever visited GoCompareAConfusedMeerkat.com? No. Well you should, next time your house or car insurance, mobile phone contract or home fuel contract comes up for renewal.

I have always been a loyal person, particularly where companies are concerned.

After all, if my dad and his father before him were perfectly happy with the cost of, and service from, Old Farts Insurance Company (We Saw You Coming) Ltd, then it’s probably good enough for me. But this is wrong. Oh so wrong, on so many different levels.

For you may stay loyal to them but these multi-billion pound businesses have loyalty to just two things – their executive pay and their shareholder dividends.

Sure, they’ll tempt you in with an amazing offer if you are a new customer. But once they’ve snared you, the costs go up by whatever they feel they can get away with the following year.

SWMBO’s car insurance came up for renewal recently and the premium increase seemed very high considering we had another year of no claims behind us, I now do old man driving and neither of us get out THAT much.

Thanks, Terry of Penang, for sending the photo.

So I went onto GoCompareAConfusedMeerkat.com and was offered 51 quotes cheaper than the existing insurer. Around 10 were 30 to 40% less expensive. For the same cover.

I rang our existing company (you should always do that) and said I wanted to speak to the cancellation department. Fifteen minutes later the renewal premium had been reduced by some £60.

I then told them I wouldn’t be renewing. Why, I was asked, as they had just cut the premium. Because, I said, you took liberties with an existing customer and didn’t offer that rate initially.

So, check the comparison websites (but don’t necessarily go with the cheapest quote); bear in mind that many of the brands quoting are actually owned by the same company (e.g. Admiral, Elephant and Sheila’s Wheels) and always speak with your existing company.

What did I do in the end? I signed up with an insurer that doesn’t use comparison websites. Cheaper than the original renewal quote, more (slightly) than the mid-range prices on the websites but with a company recommended for their service.

Back of the net.

Finally, I wish to thank my reader for helping top up our pension pot. Since I signed up for Google AdSense earlier this year (you may have spotted the ads on this blog) I have earned £1.50. Can't get at it yet as you have to have £10 so come on - pull your finger out.