It's time to renew my step-sons insurance policy. He is currently with NU Direct and they want £930 TPFT! Not so happy a quote. So I used Moneysupermarket.com and find some quotes cheaper etc.
But the interesting thing is, one company rang me to check on what we thought of their quote and when I told them I'd found cheaper they couldn't offer be a better deal but offered to put me through to "Call Connect". I thought might as well try.
So they put my in touch with a broker called GSI Insurance Services (Southern) Ltd. They found me a policy for £619 TPFT with HSBC... does this mean broker's often better than what we're led to believe is cheaper Internet prices? Or am I missing something here?
Anyone had dealings with this GSI Insurance broker??
Ta
Rob
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Brokers can be cheaper..........
All Insurance companies offer different schemes and different rates - they even have different rules as to what they will / will not cover.
10 Yrs ago Son was with Large Ins Co with his Volvo 480 with Comp Ins - changed it to a 2 year old Prelude and they would not insure him.
He scoured the market (£1000 was common amount) and got cover through a broker, it was his current insurer and it was only £50 or so more than the Volvo (about £400)..
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What I find odd is that a quote direct with the insurer (HSBC) is nearly double what the broker quoted and has a higher excess...
Am I missing something or is the deal too good to be true?
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I had my quote for a 94 astra 1.4 with no claim bonus of 6 years, i got a renewal for £270 with swinton, so i scoured the internet and i got a better quote of £218 with fully comp insurance and bonus protection and also driver legal protection cover also in it, the quote was you wont believe it from swinton themselves!
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Swinton is a broker, so probably the renewal was with the same insurance company.
I've had similar experiences, especially with AXA, whilst last month I renewed my buildings and contents insurance with another company after refusing to meet the Pru's quote of £429, despite being with the Pru for more than 40 years.
The company who got the business? Churchill, who provided it for £210 cheaper.
Which insurance company has underwritten the Pru's property insurance for the past two or three yars?
You've guessed it - Churchill.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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For us, Swinton could not come anywhere near my quotes with DirectLine, M&S, etc.... they offered to transfer me to "Call Connect" .... they that had put me through to Swinton ;-) But had given me two other numbers, one of which is GSI Southern and they are quoting the cheaper policy via HSBC.
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There seems to be an obsession these days with buying the cheapest insurance possible. For some reason this is the only feature that the insurance company advertisements plug. I personally prefer to go for the highest quality, not the cheapest. Not all insurance policies, even in the same class ( e.g. comprehensive, TPFT etc.) give the same cover.
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L\'escargot.
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Late last year I used Confused to find a quote for insurance renewal and got a quote of £166 (Comp and protected NCB on a 307 110bhp Hdi). When I got my renewal which was from the company who came up with the £166, it was £216. I rang them and queried it and got the lower price; I was told it was due to a different way in which the underwiters assessed the risk. Right!
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You haven't said anything about your step son or the car, but have you checked out fully comp quotes - for youg drivers there sometimes isn't much in it.
I guess if you're set on 3rd party then it doesn't make too much difference who it's with - you basically just want the cheapest possible cover. It's the 3rd parties problem if they turn out to be useless.
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Step-son is 20, car is a Pug 306 1.6 XS on an L plate (94) and he has 2 years no claims. We do not live in the cheapest part of the country for car insurance because there are lots of nice cars around and you get people from outside the area targetting it.
Anyway the car is not worth that much (£500?) and most comprehensive policies had fairly high excess due to his age (e.g. one was £370 and dropped to £250 when 21). Have got a fair number of quotes for TPFT and fully comprehensive. So third party seems the better option due to cost - and he doesn't have £1000 to spend on insurance at the moment - and as you say might as well go for the cheapest in that case.
But I still cannot see how going through a broker can save around £300, or 30%.
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I think there is a lot of truth in this, as brokers can do clever things like linking multiple policies in the same family etc.
Also, like in my own business, suppliers (in this case the major insurance companies), often have a policy of not undercutting their re-sellers, which again could lead to cheaper broker prices.
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