Car insurance - quotes change significantly day to day?

Ladyhawk

I got quotes though the various comparison websites a couple of days ago and the best was £507... I have gone back onto the sites today and now the best is £570!

So what causes the fluctuations? And what can I do to get the best price?

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there

There are two answers to this; the long version and the short one:

Short Version
Companies review their pricing structure at least once a month. The prices for February renewals (and late January) will have been updated this week by most firms, based on decisions made before the New Year. This means that if you got a quote last week, the price will have been £X and this week £Y. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

The prices quoted when you first went in will have been saved so if you still have the quote references, you should be able to accept the price offered to you last week.

Long Version
Insurers look at their prices months in advance. They have a "lead in" time when they have to get the new information to the software houses that give the pricing to the insurance brokers. The software houses load all these up into a test area for the insurers to check. Once they are happy, the insurer signs off the rating and it goes "live" to the brokers. If the insurer misses the deadline for going "live", they are stuck with their existing rates for 30 days unless they pay huge sums of money to the software house. The brokers then quote these rates via the price comparison site.

All of this means that the price you see when you get a quote from the likes of budget, hastings, kwik fit and the like on a price comparison site, that price was decided about 3 months ago and is only now appearing on the website.

For the companies that sell insurance direct (Churchill, Chaucer, Saga, etc) on price comparison sites, the story is somewhat different. The price comparison sites "access" a portal to a ringfenced area of the insurers system and that sends the quote back. The insurers control the system, so can change the rates as and when they like. You could get two quotes in the same day and if that happens to coincide with the insurer updating their rates, get two different prices.

What this means is that at any one time you are getting qotes that are rated on up to date statistics and also on the insurers best hunch on what the price should be from several months in the past. It means that the same insurer can be providing you with 2 completely different quotes (1 direct and 1 via a broker).

The timing of when you go on to the site can determine which pricing structure you get given. If the insurer has changed their prices but the broker is still waiting for the update to be processed at the weekend, you may still get a lower (or higher - prices do go down too) quote from the broker.

Any quotation you are given via a price comparison site will have a guarantee period. Usually, you can only get quotes 30 days in advance of the renewal date of your policy so this tends to be the guarantee; even if they re-rate and up the price, they will still honour the original quotation. This is why the price comparison websites save your quotes and send you e-mails (that and the fact that they are trying to sell you everything under the sun).

Caviat
This is a brief look in to something that is far more complicated than I've made out here. It's not that detailed, but I do hope it's been some help. If you need more information, find someone who works in the EDI Department of an insurer and ask them!!!

Quentin

Ladyhawk wrote: »

what can I do to get the best price?

The prices often change from day to day.

You can save your quotes to come back to later, which most companies will honour.

(Though beware using saved quotes if you are wanting to use the cashback sites)

NatNat1977

I've just got my renewal through and it has gone up by over £30 from last year. I've got the same car, same job, address and no circumstances have changed. I thought that these were supposed to go down each year?

Can anyone tell me why? I am definately confused.com!!

Melancholie

Try calling them. This happened to my parents once and my Dad called to question it. They reduced his premium.

NatNat1977

Thanks think I'll do that.

pitkin2020

NatNat1977 wrote: »

I've just got my renewal through and it has gone up by over £30 from last year. I've got the same car, same job, address and no circumstances have changed. I thought that these were supposed to go down each year?

Can anyone tell me why? I am definately confused.com!!

because they think they can get away with. Call them to cancel and they will usually review it and as if by magic it comes back as being lower.
Also if a lot of claims are being made quotes will go as they will need to recoup losses, so for anyone getting a quote now with all this snow we have had i suspect a lot of claims are being made and the quote prices are going to rise

dunstonh

NatNat1977 wrote: »

I've just got my renewal through and it has gone up by over £30 from last year. I've got the same car, same job, address and no circumstances have changed. I thought that these were supposed to go down each year?

Can anyone tell me why? I am definately confused.com!!

Crime and fraud increases during a recession. Claims have gone up due to floods.

Probably the major reason though is the ability for insurers to make money on your premiums has not been as good as it was.

rudekid48

Ladyhawk wrote: »

I got quotes though the various comparison websites a couple of days ago and the best was £507... I have gone back onto the sites today and now the best is £570!

So what causes the fluctuations? And what can I do to get the best price?

Despite what some may believe, a lot of the people that advertise on these sites have the ability to change their pricing in virtually real time. Although it is unlikely that prices would change throughout the day, it is not inconceivable. For example, I know of a few companies that drop their prices slightly when their call centres close to encourage people to buy on-line. Also, some of the Brokers/Intermediaries will adjust their pricing throughout the month depending upon how they are performing.