What To Do About Your Car Insurance Renewal
As regular as clockwork, once a year your car insurance renewal notice lands on your doorstep. Like a bolt out of the blue, there’s an additional expense you can’t simply forget about. Although searching for car insurance isn’t many peoples’ idea of fun, that doesn’t mean you can be lazy and simply allow your current insurer to renew your policy – unless you want to lose a ton of money.
The Automatic Car Insurance Renewal Method
Most don’t realise that if you do nothing when you receive your renewal notice, your current insurer will automatically take money from your account and continue your policy for another term when the renewal date passes – even if you buy a policy from another insurer. This is a precautionary measure to ensure you’re never driving without any car insurance cover and allows you to maintain your legal obligations.
As your car insurance renewal date begins to appear on the horizon, you’re likely to receive a letter in the post from your current insurer. This will not only remind you of your renewal date but the insurer will also take the opportunity to sell you another policy – by automatically generating a quote for the next term and issuing your policy documents and a new certificate of motor insurance.
If you do not want to renew your policy with the same insurer, you must get in touch with them. They will set out what you need to do in your renewal notice letter. If you don’t, you’ll automatically be in for another term and you’ll be charged for the privilege.
Do I Renew Or Do Nothing?
It’s tempting to do nothing at this time. Sit back in the smug satisfaction that everything is being handled for you. If, on the other hand, you don’t want to be ripped off, you should do something about it. Your easiest way to find out if you’ve got the best price and the best policy with your current car insurer is to use a car insurance comparison website to find out if anyone can offer you a better deal. If you take this route, all you need to do is make sure that you’re comparing like-for-like policies – going solely on price could leave you under-covered.
It’s common to see your insurance renewal quote go up, even though you could have had another claim free year. This is done on the basis that laziness usually prevails and customers simply allow their policy to renew. It allows the insurer to recoup some of their costs to attract you to them in the first place – namely their advertising and marketing budgets. Just goes to show that loyalty isn’t always repaid!
