2 months ago I put our car details into an insurance comparison site and happily our current insurer (MMA) came out best. 250€. Now I get the renewal bill, surprise 350€ !
So are we really advised to cancel all insurance contracts as a matter of routine (lettre recommandée bien sur) 3 months before the renewal date? Is there a better way?
(For me car and house insurance is to cover absolute disasters, not scratches and so on)
Steve
;-)
;-)
Well blow me down; it was worth asking the question
English language version on
http://www.frenchentree.com/france-brittany-insurance-finance/displayarticle.asp?id=10479
Thank you Andrew, that will be filed in the folder with our insurance documents. The companies are exploiting ignorance (surprise, surprise) and they ain't gonna get us.
welcome to France Suzanne ! but see my comment on the loi Chatel for changing insurance companies - it's much easier now, and has been for a few years but nobody (I'm talking about the French here too) seems to know about it!
Yes! I know :( we used to pay 100 euro a month for 3 of us, now we're paying 180 euro for 5 of us. It only went up 20 euro when we originally added Jasmine, then 20 for Izzy and now I noticed its another 80 this year since we added Maisy and with the premium increase on renewal (apparently partly due to some government tax or something) but still it seems extremely high now. I meant to shop around last year but missed the date - will definitely look around in future though - we're paying a fortune in insurances, It's like having another mortgage!
have a mlook at theloi chatel which changed the three months notice. I've successfully quoted it a few times when I didn't get my renewal in time to give the required notice ;-) more detailed summary here
Do it Suzanne, they are not only fleecing us but cutting us into chops as well! I read €80 a year, but by the month when I reread it! Do you really mean €960? That is extortionate. Sadly, my wife made a claim on her computer and UPS last week and had the technician who comes out to see if the machine is really knackered by the regular EDF power failures been here, he would have given her the green light. However, since she is on notice and although my OH will have to pay the three months, they say it will not be possible to process this claim in the time she has remaining. Watch out, watch out, there's a wolf about - in insurance broker's clothing.
our health insurance has gone up 80 euros a month in a year - ok so we now have another baby but really should it have gone up this much?! Think we need to do the 3m notice thing. Also I noticed our house insurance has gone up quite a lot as we have that on autorenewal and it seems ridiculous what we now pay. I must pay more attention to our 'key insurance dates' and send off those cancellation letters...
Steve, this is one we were stamping our feet over. My wife recently got a renewal notice from Crédit Agricole, her bank and where she chose to insure. We had a bit over €140 more to pay. Looking at what we pay for she found several things included she had never asked for. She stomped angrily into the local branch, demanded an explanation and was told that without paying these things we were not properly covered. The year before last she had been told she did not need them. We decided that she would go to the other insurer we use, especially since the agent is part of our social circle and does not do to us as he does to others. He looked at the letter, said he could do it quite a bit cheaper but of course it would go up year on year some. Then he drew attention to the fact that the letter had arrived inside the three months before renewal required to give notice. So off we marched again, 300 metres on my wife looked as if a strangulation might be on the cards when she got her hands on one of them. Despite harassing and haranguing them they refused to budge on the three months so next stop was a solicitor who said he would happily take us on but doubted my wife would win. Our insurance agent friend fortunately took it up for us and help us compose a complaint to le Médiateur de la Fédération Française des Sociétés d'Assurances (le.mediateur@mediation-assurance.org) which is where you might go if you are being treated wrongly. We had a reply inside a week and she will be allowed to change insurer by agreement of lying, cheating Crédit Agricole.