A current TV advertiser claims to check 96% of all UK car insurance companies as a'one-stop' shop on the internet to find the cheapest quote based upon the data supplied on-line. I tried the service and one of the companies they contacted was More Than. I did my own check with More Than and I was quoted £122 less than the cheapest quote they could find!
Whilst there is no cost to use this service (they get their 'cut' when you take out the policy) it would have in fact cost me £122 by not doing my own check.
|
|
All true but you may find the comparison sites assume certain things about you, you may have filled in additional details on a specific issurer. I always try to use several comparision sites and they don't usually come up with the the same figures, so its best to spend some time searching.
|
|
|
Excuse me for being thick, but who would have got the £122? Surely More Than have only one price for a particular set of circumstances, regardless of who arranges the transaction?
--
L\'escargot.
|
I thought my posting was simplistic???
Yes 'carl a'I agree that it advisable to contact more than (pardon the pun) one website. The point I was making was that the website in question advertises nationally that they contact 96% of all insurance companies on your behalf ostensibly to save you that chore.
L'escargot...I thought it was self evident that if I had not obtained my own quotation from More Than then I would have paid £369 for the website lowest quotation (including their quote from More Than) whereas my quote from More Than was £247, a differential of £122. Is that not a loss to me of £122? No one else physically gets that £122 but it is apparent that the website would apparently have obtained a handsome 'cut'from More Than for introducing my business.
Is this a windup???
|
L'escargot - I am sure that one of the circumstances that they take into account is whether or not the insured approaches them directly or through a broker.
Geordie1 - someone will get that £122. I suspect that MoreThan would have had er... more than the broker. I've been quoted literally twice as much by the same insurer for going (or not) through a broker than directly.
Also I can recall advertising along those lines long before the internet became a major way of doing business for insurers. Everyone claims (or gives the impression) that they give the best deal, but for any individual customer, 99% of insurers don't.
|
The website that I was referring to is not a broker but is an organisation which claims to act independently by making all of the enquiries on your behalf. They get commission if they make a successful introduction to the insurance company that you ultimately do business with so in that respect nobody physically loses the £122 that I was referring to, the punter would merely be the loser for the reasons that I have previously outlined.
|
Insurance isn't a retails product, the price will not only change on your details but other peoples risk that have recently been taken out.
Some of the internet insurance search systems don't take all your details and make assumptions therefore you will get different quotes from the same company.
|
|
If it was the one that has annoying TV adverts, then it is owned by the people who own/use about 7 other insurance company names, and one of these usually comes up cheapest. I find when you chose another and go to get the insurance the price changes anyway, as the questions are more detailed.
|
You will get a much more accurate return by checking each individual company yourself online.
The companies you refer to are brokers and take a percentage commission from each successful introduction to insurance companies - there is really no reason therefore, to look at it logically, why they should come up with the cheapest insurance...:-)
But then I always was a cynic.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
|
|
|
Geordie1,
All I asked was ...... who would have got the £122?
All you had to say was ....... the website.
--
L\'escargot.
|
I've found exactly the same in the past. It's useful to get a good idea which companies are likely to be cheap. Then just ring up the top 3 quotes, and those companies that are not affiliated and are not quoted for, and your done. Shouldn't take too long.
That price difference is still shocking though. Buyer beware I guess.
Cheers
|
|
|
Hey L'escargot...apologies if I inadvertently caused any upset. Maybe I wrongly interpreted that my original posting lacked clarity.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I have tried this service, and to be fair to them, I think the individual insurers have a few tricks up their sleeves to skew the results. For instance there may be some requirements that you cannot enter on the initial search eg guaranteed hire car or business use. On doing the initial search one company seems much cheaper than another. But when you go for individual quotes you tend to find that with some insurance companies EVERYTHING is extra and actually blows the budget when you add it on. So unfortunately, my conclusion is that these services are ok as a 'yardstick' but I wouldn't commit to buy based on their output.
|
|
|
|
another thing to beware off when searching for the cheapest insurance renewal quote, is that not all the insurance companies offer a loan car if your involved in an accident.
|
Insurance companies - like all businesses go through different phases. If they are new or want to increase their % of the market they will tend to be cheaper.
If they want to increase their profitability they might up their premiums by 10% (say) if they lose 5% of their customers they are better off as at the end of the day Profit is king not market share.
Also
Within the same Ins Company there are different areas of business - Direct, Brokers, Affiliates(Tesco, Asda etc)
For Example Norwich Union Direct might quote better or poorer rates than Norwich Union via a broker.
A few years back my eldest son bought a Prelude and NU Direct(his then Ins Co) would not cover him as he was under 30 - low and behold the cheapest premium was under £500 from NU via a local broker.
Watch out for Compulsory Excess
It is Ins renewal time for me next month so I will fill in the forms on-line and see how the land lies.
Quoted a lower premiums on-line last time but the excess on some policies were as high as £500 - the average claim on a Policy is under £1000 so you would be meeting over 50% of the claim if you were to blame - hardly comprehensive cover.
|
|
|
|
