Pain two

Following the moan about car insurance at reference 1, today's moan is about house insurance.

For many years we bought our house insurance from Halifax, from the days when they were mutual and not so aggressively commercial and profit-seeking as are now, dumping them in a huff when it became apparent that they were just racking their rates up and up in the justified belief that their long standing customers trusted them and just let the direct debits roll on.

So then we moved to company B, with whom we have been for a few years now, probably less than five.

Their reminder turned up a couple of days ago, announcing a modest hike of 10%, perhaps three times the current rate of retail inflation, with the CPIH standing today at 2.7%. We spent a few seconds on it, then decided we had better things to do than to listen to recorded music and messages from call centres.

But then, as luck would have it, Halifax returned to the charge, clearly having remembered our renewal date. We can probably do you for £200 they say. Why don't you get a quote? This was more than £100 less than company B were suggesting, so I gave in at this point and got online. Within quarter of an hour or so I had what I thought was a comparable quote for £250 with the promise of a £50 cashback (which one might have to take in goods) a few months down the line.

Still a bit cross with Halifax, so we slept on it and phoned company B in the morning. Oh yes sir they said, after some particularly tiresome recorded messages. How about if we say £250? Deal done.

But what a waste of time and energy: if this is supposed to be one of the wonders of the free market, you can keep it. Bring back mutuals you really can trust.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/pain-one.html.

Reference 2: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices.