It may even be a return to the past where loyal customers are rewarded with fair prices, rather than exploited as i****s too indolent to shop around each year.

Agree...seems an overdue move...but being the cynic I am, I'm sure there will be no way the insurance companies will lose out.

Exactly, you can be sure that customers will lose out in someway.

Not a fan of this. I shop around every year and now someone who doesn’t bother to make the effort is to be rewarded for their idleness and I’m to have my wee saving taken from me. In life I believe that those who make the effort should be rewarded and those who don’t should not. Government interference like this almost never results in lower prices for consumers. Price controls and greater regulation will result in higher insurance costs not lower.

I agree...we will all end up paying more and the efforts we have made in the past wll go UNrewarded.

I wonder whether the cashback deals from the likes of TopCashBack and Quidco will be no more?

I was with LV for years as they were always competitive. 8/9 years ago had an accident 100% third party fault and agree. LV renewal doubled from about £300 to almost £600. Moved to Aviva and have paid about £250 a year with them and their other brand GA. Renewal is due and GA renewal is £240 with 10% off if I buy now. I always check LV and they have been at silly levels all that time. Checked today and they want £260. With such a competitive and open market for insurance and ease of getting quotes I can’t see why everyone should have to pay ‘lazy tax’.

I suppose they rely on many people who just can't be bothered or are 'scared' to change suppliers. On anything. My parents being a great example, up until relatively recently had been with Axa for all insurance, mainly because my dad used to work for them (well, Guardian/GRE).

He had a retiree's special discount (he paid a tiny amount - say £50 - £100 for his car insurance), but Axa (who bought GRE) eventually did away with the perk and so he finally was pursuaded to change (now with LV I think) once the price was significantly increased (especially now that he's over 75).

Even so, they have been with BT for the home phone, whatever firm the pre-privatised Eastern Electricity is now called, and British Gas for their boiler - since they moved to their home in 1975!! They have finally got some sort of a 'discount' on their home phone, but it still ain't cheap.

They only stopped renting their TV etc about 7 years ago as well, finally being persuaded that shelling out £300 - £400pa ain't a wise use of their money.

That's why so many insurers try it on with high renewal quotes - so many mugs about.

I don't routinely change every year, so this will probably have a slight benefit to me.

What it will be good to lose is the waste of half a day entering the details of three cars/2 drivers into multiple systems. Checking that my modifications are acceptable etc.

... and then dealing with the spam calls for weeks/months afterwards.

I'd rather choose a decent company, and stick with them - as long as they are fair in return.

The race to the cheapest price has pared many policies back to the bare essentials.

I buy my breakdown cover through the caravan/motorhome club. It's the same price for everyone. It's excellent cover, which does everything I need. I love the fact that I don't have to ring them up and negotiate each year. Or check the small print to see what they've removed this year.

Indeed. One of the reasons that I stayed with esure for so long, other than they weren't that bad on price, was that being a long term customer meant that I had some unofficial benefits, such as being able to avoid the £25 penalty for changing my cover level (e.g. upping the estimated annual mileage) mid year. It was only when the price increases more than offset this that I thought more about moving provider.

The daft thing is that it is far cheaper to be nice to existing cutomers to retain their loyalty, which also means they need to spend far less on advertising, as word-of-mouth does the work for them.

All that happens now is that the opposite occurs - as demonstrated here - dissatisfied customers tell all and sundry, their reputation suffers, more people leave and the situation worsens. Perhaps someone should tell that to Sharon White at John Lewis.

We have multicar with LV. The renewal just arrived so well after the new announcement from next January. 2cars policy increased by £20. Separate policies on compare the merkats £100 less. Rang LV they would only reduce by £30 but why not quote this up front!! So LV losing my business some £500. Hard to understand their business reasoning other than they are about to be swallowed by venture capitalists so good riddance. I cannot see much changing after January, you cannot win with these guys. I suspect they will gang up and prices will just increase