Posted on February 13, 2015 at 7:36 am by Nigel Brokenshire
Pain before Gain with Car Insurance
In need to find new car insurance Mrs B (my wife) had set aside time to find the best deal. I was there to help and so was BeeMyMinder and after some early frustrations and setbacks we got there in the end.
What happened, what was the outcome and what would we (she) recommend?
Where to start? With you current car policy of course!
It is easier said than done especially when not in receipt of a paper copy of your current car policy. She recalls her insurer only providing the policy via e-mail attachment, not via the post. So we need to determine:
- Which e-mail address was it sent to?
- When was it sent?
- Is it still in her inbox?
- What is the subject heading?
We finally found it but to our dismay it included an out of date policy agreement. She had added breakdown insurance in the interim and the updated papers had not been resent.
Suggestion – login onto the insurer’s portal and find the new documents
Problem – she does not recall her login details
Solution – ask for them to be e-mailed to her
Issue – well what e-mail address does that go to?
Get the picture?
To make a long story short, we finally updated her details, logged in and to our amazement were still faced with incorrect policy details.
My recommendation – login into BeeMyMinder, see what policy details we captured last year. Then search the internet for better deal. Once we have a preferred quote we will then call the insurer to haggle for a better deal.
Compare the Comparison-sites
We logged into BeeMyMinder and retrieved her policy that included the necessary details for us to search the internet. As I recommend, use a number of different comparison sites to compare ‘best provider’ lists.
There was obviously some time spent answering the comparison-site questions but by using the details entered last year within BeeMyMinder we quickly had quotes to compare.
Armed with her preferred quote she rang her current insurer to enquire what their best price is. They offered a renewal policy with a 10% discount but it was £100 higher than last year!
A Successful Outcome
She informed them she will not be renewing and confirmed a new car policy with a new provider found on the comparison site.
Her new insurer provided the required cover (including breakdown) and for a price that was 13% cheaper from last year. There were cheaper deals but she felt more comfortable paying a little bit extra with a more well-known provider.
Aimed with a new car policy, she updated BeeMyMinder ready for next year:
- Added new car policy (5 mins)
- Attached car certificate (1 min)
- Shared it with me (1 click)
- Moved the previous policy into MySafe (1 click)
- Had a cup of coffee (decaf)
BeeMyMinder –saved time and unnecessary stress
To clarify, Mrs B realised her car insurance was due from an alert (text) sent from BeeMyMinder. Her current insurer only e-mailed her and this was to an account not checked frequently. BeeMyMinder had provided her a month’s notice to search the market.
We lost 30 minutes trying to find the policy, previous e-mails, resetting passwords, logging into the insurer’s own system, just to be faced with out of date policy details.
In contrast, BeeMyMinder provided the necessary information to start finding a new policy without being dependent on renewal papers / reminders from the current providers and logging into other systems (e-mails or insurer portals) to retrieve them.
Mrs B “I tried to find the best car insurance deal the way I always have, what a hassle. Now I’ve used BeeMyMinder I can be rest assured that I’m in control and not reliant on others”.
About Nigel Brokenshire
Nigel is the founder of BeeMyMinder. Developed from his own frustrations keeping on top of household/personal finances and dealing with piles of papers and associated documents.