Staying loyal/changing

Not all of the elderly are computer illiterate and it is a bit insulting to suggest this is the case, but I do get angered by the reverse loyalty we receive from insurance, utilities etc., whereby those who stay with a supplier are penalised for doing so. I generally challenge ( politely) my house insurer when I receive the renewal letter and usually manage to get the yearly increase bit taken off. As for gas and electric, we keep track of usage and periodically check if another supplier has a better Kw price, but have stayed with our current supplier for the past 3 years as they are competitive in price and brilliant in customer service which is worth more than a few pounds a year off our bill.

I renewed my father's house insurance a few months ago following the death of his wife. They had been loyal to a particular bank for years and we're paying £549 contents/buildings insurance with them. I found better cover for them for less than £200. I contacted the particular bank but they couldn't match the deal I had found. It's difficult for old folk to use comparison websites etc. so they pay far more than they should.

Yes, let’s all start thinking for ourselves and use our brains .

Come the 2nd week in January every year I spend a couple of afternoons checking our suppliers for insurance & costs for car/house/phone & tv subscription/holiday annual renewal last year I managed to save us £73.00 over the year I will always negotiate a better deal if I can most times I have been successful

I too dread the hassle of having to search for the best deal every time gas, electric, house insurance, car insurance etc. becomes due. You need a degree in technology to complete the forms sometimes. Many people still do not own or use computers and it's very unfair to expect them to spend hours on expensive phonecalls trying to get a good deal. Privatisation of utilities was the worst thing that ever happened as far as I'm concerned.

Please tell Charleygirl15what bank you’re getting 5%

At renewal time my husband gets very firm with our supplier and says "you have one chance what's your best price" and it's usually less than the last year. My problem is that these days you have to be very firm almost nasty to get anywhere. My parents now deceased could never have been like that.

I hope people challenge the rises we are getting at the moment. I received an email to say my utility company were increasing my monthly dd by £11. I rang to challenge this on 3 points. One point being that I keep a track of my usage and I have used less this year than last, so why increase my payments. Another that I only have a state pension and can't afford a rise.

One reason they gave was that they judge usage by the average size home that I'm living in. Well that isn't fair as I only use elect & gas in the room I'm in, not the whole house and there is only me, not a family.

They finally agreed to keep my payments as they are, which was a win for me, but I can't help feeling that not all pensioners would want to challenge a big company like that, so they must be getting a lot of money from pensioners who don't challenge or those who don't move, because the onus is on us to do something. It's disgraceful.

Many older people are simply being taken advantage of. They come from a time when there was one supplier and one tarif. Many have no computer skills. I'm pleased to see this issue being addressed. (NB: by "older" people I mean people who are always at least twenty years older than I am....)

Have to confess I approach renewal time of any contract with a huge sigh and a degree of dread. Such a retrograde step from how straightforward I remember it used to be. I have now put into practice that of telling my company I'm not renewing totally because of premium and then it miraculously comes down. I keep going until the quote is acceptable and this saves me going through all the paraphernalia of my personal details which takes forever.

Any company providing a service/product has a moral duty to play fair - why should the customer run themselves ragged scouring websites for better deals?

The perfect example of this is the Big Six energy firms - we could switch, switch, switch ourselves into insanity but switching doesn't deal with the core problem - outright greed by the providers.

I have a friend who hasn't got a computer and anything online worries het,even getting money out of cash machine, etc and I know she pays a lot extra for het utility bills, I have offered to help her but can only do so much. So I think individuals companies could do more to help people like her.

I have always been fearful of standing orders/direct debits not going through, and me not noticing, which leads to large debts. (It has happened to me a couple of times with ones that have been set up for a few months) Consequently I don't chop and change; for peace of mind I am a 'loyal customer'.

I get fed up keep chopping and changing companies just to maintain the price of services. Yes loyalty should be rewarded but until it is I'll keep swapping suppliers.

I spent hours researching energy companies to see if I could get a better deal and what I came up with after all that input was savings of £40 a year with a company with poor customer ratings. Comparison sites do not show all the options and savings are based on average usage when you read small print. It is well known that insurance firms entice you with low first year costs and then whack up the price. It's a silly game where those, often elderly or poor, who jare unable to participate lose out.

I have found that if my Home or Car Insurance or Fuel bills show a sudden leap up, one call to the provider saying I am going to try elsewhere, suddenly produces a lower price 'a reward for my Loyalty'. Whilst it is annoying that they cannot offer the lower rate in the first place, it is much simpler to just make that one call than to search the Web for a better deal.

I do not think it is generally about being loyal, but simply that life is too short to be arsing about researching new companies every year when renewals occur. The competition principle is a total pain and I do not think that customers have gained - they just have another niggle to keep dealing with.

Well yes, but a lot of people are not capable of changing so why should they be penalised? I would be much happier if they could work out a fair price and stick to it!

I agree with you. I have made money as have friends by changing my bank account to name one. I was getting 0.1% interest, whoopee, whereas I can now get 5% for a year and then I will look around and maybe change again. I do keep one "stable" bank account.

Shortly I will not be able to drive and my insurance company will charge me £40 I think for that privilege. Daylight robbery.

I do appreciate that not everybody is able to keep one step ahead. I have a friend who does not do anything online because she does not trust it so it costs her a fortune to find insurance so she stays with the same company unless prompted by me. I cannot do it for her because we live miles apart now.