CC Car insurance massive hike!

For the past year we have been with the CC for car insurance.  As we would be in France at renewal time, I decided to go Online to get another quote from the CC.  

On the website, there is an option for new user and registered user so I chose the latter as we are a registered user.  I expected the premium to be a bit up on last year due to a claim however after completing all the details I was pleasantly surprsied and paid the annual premium.

I then got the thank you letter plus a request for proof of my no claims and proof of my renewal letter so i contacted the CC.  They then came back to me to state that I could not claim the beat renewal price by £25 as I was already a customer.  I told them that I had not claimed the discounted price and had done it as a registered user which is why the quote was very favourable.  It now seems that if you are an existing customer, you cannot do the quote Online?

Anyway I asked them what is the new price and was told it was about £550 annually which was more than £300 than the favourable quote.  However taking that amount and the premium paid last year it was more than the cost of the claim!

Comparison sites with European cover averaged out at about £300 or £250 less than the CC. Eventually went with Nationwide and including lkegal cover, it was less than £300!  It does not pay to renew with the CC as we had similair with our caravan and no claims.