Dual pricing-hit Saga reveals early success in three-year fixed product

Saga is showing some early success with its three year fixed product, launched following an FCA crackdown on dual pricing which caused it to crash to a huge loss. 

Saga has sold 60,000 three-year fixed policies - 30,000 relate to new business.

It means Saga is moving back to a direct distribution model, swerving the aggregators, the firm said in a trading update today.

Around 60% of Saga branded home is currently being written on a direct basis, compared to 50% for the 2018/19 financial year as a whole, and 45% in the second half.  

Retail broking policy volumes were 753,000 at 31 May 2019 (2018: 803,000), reflecting lower travel insurance volumes and the decision to put value over volume in the Group’s motorcycle broking business, Bennetts, Saga said. 

”While we have seen encouraging progress, it is very early days in the turn-around strategy for the Retail Broking business and the insurance market remains challenging.

“We will continue to test and learn over the coming months as we refine the approach to our new products,” the firm said today.