Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Loyalty

I have just decided to change my phone plan to a new provider. While changing my SIM I had a technical issue, and had to call my current provider, who asked why I was changing, too which I replied, the new provider offered a lower cost plan, he then suggested, if I could hold for a couple of minutes, he may be able to offer a better deal. His offer was indeed lower, but not competitive has my new supplier, so I declined.

I then changed the conversation to loyalty. And asked, why now do they view me as valued customer worth retaining. Then I had silence.

New customers always receive better deals, specifically when dealing with, insurance, energy and phone plans. Unfortunately, this is now a yearly ritual, I will not be a cash cow for corporate greed.

Insurers are no longer allowed to offer preferential terms to new customers.

“Understanding the New FCA Regulations
These regulations prohibit insurers from charging existing customers more than they would for a comparable new customer. The primary goal is to end the so-called 'loyalty penalty' that penalised long-term customers for their fidelity.”

I would like to see that in my country too.

My recent renewal for house insurance was actually lower than the same company for new customers on a comparison site.

Ah, but how do you prove they ain't still bending the rules, it's a bit like the anti price rigging and cartel pricing laws that have been in place for many years but it still happens 'cos you can't prove it

Talking of loyalty

I got a super letter from my domestic water provider, United Utilities today explaining to me that because of my steadfast loyalty in retaining them as my water provider of choice and allowing them to provide water and drainage services to my house again for 2025 that they are rewarding me with a substantial reduction in my water bills


Oh sorry, must have suffered a hard knock to the head or maybe the pharmacist gave me the wrong tablets

They are blatantly circumventing the rules. The FCA regulation has the giant loophole that it doesn't apply to price comparison sites. Insurance companies are still hiking their prices for loyal customers as they always did, but they offer better prices through the meerkats, the opera singer, etc.

My daughter accidentally failed to renew her policy with Aviva this year (she thought it would auto-renew but it didn't) She called them straight away but they refused to honour the lapsed renewal price. They also wouldn't give her a new quote but told her to go to a comparison site, which she did. The quote from Aviva on GoCompare was cheaper than the renewal, but there were several cheaper still so she went with one of them.

I don't think its a question of not being able to prove it, just compare like for like new business with existing customer renewals with the same criteria. eg compare a renewal quote with a new business online/telephone quote and see if they are the same, Easy enough. The real issue is whether they care to look for it and what are the penalties/fines and are they substantial enough to discourage companies from not following the rules.

We have just had our house policy renewal with an increase in rebuilding costs of 3.5% in the valuation and the premium has fallen nearly 20%.compared to last year.

It seems to be more and more difficult to change or stay these days.

The list of questions being asked gets longer and more intrusive every day and yet I still have 14 years no claims bonus, is it not a hint? Instead of making a counter to the competitive offer I had got they tried to pair back service by dropping the mileage on each car and the house policies instead of match it. No doubt if something happened and I was 1 mile over they would invalidate it and avoid a pay out.

I think loyalty has been replaced by qualification (of us) and marketing programs.

Me too!

I have been having an ongoing dispute with TIM (Telecom Italia) regarding an offer they made for 5G which they have not actuated because we are existing customers. The problem is mainly that the contract we have is now outdated by new technology.
To have all our phones on 5G with a new contract would cost us less than our existing contract with 4G where they have gradually increased the charges. If we want 5G with our existing contract we will have to pay even more!
It seems the only way that we can get a better deal to switch everything to a new provider, fixed line and 4 mobiles, for a year and then, maybe, come back.