What is it with insurance companies and renewal quotes being much bigger than is available elsewhere

Because some sucker would pay it they was daft..

because they have figured out that people are lazy and stupid.

So more people just renew rather than looking for better quote.

It's the ugly face of opportunistic capitalism and is the model used from everything from bank accounts to energy supply.
Making profit is all about taking as much from each individual as possible, rather than providing a service.
Opportunistic profit making, sharp practice and insidious activity is actually encouraged by a duplicitous political framework that sees people as a market to create capital, just as Karl Marx described.

"Stickers" they call them in the industry.

It's called 'tease and squeeze' when a company makes available an offer exclusively to new customers only that then gets subsidised by the existing customer base.
What is hilarious is that the energy regulator fined companies for doing such things only a couple of years ago but now have quietly allowed the market to do it, along with letting price comparison facilities take payment to give in accurate information in the form of giving better write ups for companies that pay them and actually never mention the ones that don't.
Piss poor practice IMO.

It is market segmentation.

Dividing the market into those prepared to pay more and those prepared to pay less.

Price = cost + profit
Where profit is dependent on how much can be extracted for same product.

Forcing people to work continually to not get conned isn't what service sector mentality should be about.
Whole sectors like insurance and energy have customers over a barrel as they are forced into taking them
This is a case of whole sectors being run as vehicles to profit foremost and as services secondary.

its like this, you may quote a high price, some people will pay that and some will go elsewhere, but the company they go to will also have people getting renewal quotes that are high and so they will look elsewhere and that will mean coming to you for a quote which means you don`t actually loose any customers but remain with the same number or more, plus some who have stayed by are paying the much higher quote.

this gradually increases insurance premiums and pretty well all companies are playing this little game

they know they are in danger of losing customers, and then gaining them from the other company who has lost customers, and then losing them, and gaining them.....

they don`t lose the customers who pay the right price, and they don`t lose on the number who pay the low price

* don`t lose the customers who pay the high price

It's a contrivance so people with capital can make a return on investment via doing f uck all and the cost comes to the public forced into buying them.
If profit from capital doing f uck all is so virtuous then invest in sectors where companies arnt protected from failure.

You don't pay VAT on necessities, that same mentality should apply on required products that should be nationalised.
(Which they actually are ofc, it's just other countries that own our services)

I change car insurance companies every year, have just done it again, Endsleigh ramped up the renewal price by £200+, so another visit to the meerkats, saved the £200 and another cuddly toy to the collection.  I never even bother asking if my original company can do it cheaper, sod 'em, it's easier to go elsewhere.

There's market research done that's out there and open to investigate on these issues that tells us that (from recollection) something like 80 or 90 % of customers don't shop around, so these tactics are actually opposite to market economics that are said to offer competition and value for customers.

Tip: I got a higher renewal and decided to shop around before thinking "hey, I'm over 50 and do I so recall the Joanna Lumley adverts for this age group" so I shop around and (I kid you not) found the exact same cover for 60% less (age concern). The power of advertising eh?

was it not that lot who were found to be advising oldies to take poor valued energy products and getting paid by the companies to do it?

I was stunned a couple of years ago when my wife's quote was £30 cheaper when I went on the policy as a named driver.

Considering WAC you are BB, that is stupefying.

I've no idea dusty but from personal experience they've saved me a lot of cash

keep crying Hobknob

.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/energy/12139464/Age-UK-recommended-more-expensive-E.ON-tariff-to-the-elderly.html

"I've no idea dusty"

...I do now

This got me on the case this morning, up for renewal mid November..They wanted to bump it up to £450 from an already steep £266!! I told them I was looking at my PC on Go Compare...oh, then he dipped it down to £309. F*&K this Pl%% take I thought and went for online having passed on renewing with them. Now have a better cover for £197. Happy days