How A Little Life Admin Can Have A Massive Impact On Your Personal Finances

Dear fellow financial freedom seeker, 

As a new mother I am the first to admit life admin can take a back seat, but there is one thing you need to keep on top of if you want to optimise your spending. 

That is your insurance policies! 

Why is this? 

Insurance policies that automatically renew each year like car insurance and home insurance, do not give you the best rate when renewing. 

This is because they rely on people being laissez faire about their life admin so they increase prices by more than they should because they bank on getting that revenue with little fuss from you. 

Quite often, if you take a renewal and challenge it, they will give you a better deal. The other week my neighbour asked our building's insurer if they could give her a better deal on her insurance. 

She didn’t show them other quotes. She didn’t threaten to leave. She literally just asked for a better price. And they knocked £20 off the annual insurance. 

That might not sound like a lot, but something is better than nothing, and she didn’t even put a lot of effort into negotiating. If she had she could have gotten a bigger discount. 

Your One Simple Step this week is to 

Review Your Insurance Policies So You Know When They’re Up For Renewal and Negotiate On Them 

You can put as much or as little effort into negotiating as you want. 

You can just ask for a better rate and take what you get like my neighbour. 

Or you can do a little more. 

My pro tips for negotiating on insurance include: 

1. Make sure you know what your coverage needs are 

   The amount your covered for, the excess and the details determine your price. Make sure you know what you need covered. 

2. Use comparison sites to see different quotes that cover your specs 

   Insurers want your business and compete - you will likely find a much better price out there somewhere

3. Either switch to a better price you find, or use it to negotiate with your current provider 

There is actually competition in the insurance market with large corporations wanting more market share. If you want to stay where you are quite often if you say you’re leaving, insurers will match a competitive offer. Alternatively, if you want to leave then sometimes new providers will even pay any exit fees (although you probably won’t have this if you leave at the end of your contracted insurance period) 

Car insurance has it’s own intricacies and is one often covered when it comes to renewal best practices so you don't end up overpaying. You can read this article with top tips for car insurance renewals. 

Til next week, 

Pernia | Your Finance Travel Buddy