comparison websites - waste of time ?

merlie

So I've gone through the many comparison websites looking for a cheap deal as my renewal quote was laughable compared to last years.

but when I've gone to talk to the actual company to iron out the finner details their quotes shot up !

.... then there was a new question never raised before which was the one about having dependents under 16 yrs old !!! - how would they prove it anyway ?

It has been the worst in recent years to organise a new quotes.... any others out there thinkin the same ?

Also it appears that many of the insurers are working under the same family.... so begs the question - monopoly ?

neilmcl

What "finer details" have you had to phone them up about, have you thought that its because of these your quotes go up.

pitkin2020

Most of the comparison sites are owned by the insurers themselves, its a well known fact. You will also find their insurance companies usually come to the top when searching for a quote.
When you actually look at who owns what in the insurance sector there is only really a handful of insurers.

Confused.com owned by admiral. Yes, that Admiral. They also own elephant.co.uk, Bell Direct and Diamond, the womens car insurance specialist.
GoCompare are "independent" but have received a £30m loan from esure. If they can't pay esure back in cash, esure become a major shareholder. That's according to the Insurance Times.
Compare the Market is owned by Budget. This one is a bit naughty, as all of the brands quoted are Budget group companies - but they don't make that obvious - they also own Dial Direct, "Local Broker", ibuyeco, Quote Mart, and Junction who run the insurance arms of the Post Office, Marks and Spencer, Debenhams, Bradford & Bingley, Homebase and yesinsurance.com.
MoneySupermarket have just floated (in what was described as an "unfortunate" stock market debut, they failed to raise as much cash as had been hoped for, partly due to a recent Google penalty for link spamming which saw their web traffic shrink alarmingly!). As such they are independent.

So much for the main price comparison sites, what about some of the other big insurance brands?

HBOS Group owns Halifax Insurance, esure, Sheilas Wheels and First Alternative.
Royal & SunAlliance owns More Than
GroupAMA owns Carole Nash, Choice Quote, Bollington & Lark
AXA owns Swiftcover and has a share in Venture Preference. It also offers quotes as Lloyds TSB Insurance and insurance.co.uk
AON owns Firebond & Footman James
MMA owns Swinton, its4me & bullseye
Zurich owns Endsleigh
Fortis owns RIAS
Kwik-Fit Insurance Services owns Express Insurance
BDML Connect owns Lancaster
Fresh Insurance owns Ladybird and First Insurance
IAG owns Hastings Direct, People's Choice, Diamond, Advantage, Open & Direct and Equity

There are loads more like this, but finally we come to

RBS Group - the Royal Bank of Scotland Group includes our old friends Direct Line, plus Churchill, Privilege, NIG as well as insurance sold branded as Tesco Insurance, Natwest, Virgin Money, MBNA, BMW Insurance, MINI Insurance, Mint, Egg, Nationwide, Age Concern, Vauxhall Insurance and several others!

wallbash

Getting car insurance is not easy .
My method , ( been with the AA for years)
Go on the comparison web sites , print out the lowest quote you get .
In my case back to the AA .. ask them to match it.

Last month they could only get within £10 , but for that saving was not worth the hassle / paperwork with a new company , so still with the AA.
Not very MSE but easy

Inactive

All they ever supplied for me was a huge amount of junk mail, I do it the old way now, I just ring each suitable company for a quote.

jaydeeuk1

I always find the way comps owned by the same group vary wildly.
My insurance for the year was nearly £400, renewel quote from Bell was £530 (even though no claims went from 3 years to 4). On comparison, Admiral was £240. Phoned bell and said I didn't want to renew and said admiral were cheapest. "oh they're our sister company, we'll match if you like". Wouldn't have minded if my renewal quote was the same or slightly lower, but just shows what chancers they are.

The_A_Team

wallbash wrote: »

Getting car insurance is not easy .
My method , ( been with the AA for years)
Go on the comparison web sites , print out the lowest quote you get .
In my case back to the AA .. ask them to match it.

Last month they could only get within £10 , but for that saving was not worth the hassle / paperwork with a new company , so still with the AA.
Not very MSE but easy

I too found my insurance - with Direct Line - had gone up considerably this year so went onto GoCompare and found three quotes cheaper. Not by much but £30.- is still £30.- in these hard times.

Telephoned Direct Line and quoted what I had found. They beat the lowest price by a fiver to keep my business and my insurance was therefore cheaper than last year !

It pays to haggle. Did not want to change my insurance company anyway really as have found Direct Line to be very competative until this year and the Customer Service has always been good but was not going to tell them that.

Wig

I find that comparison sites don't compare to doing your own quotes with companies not found on them.

This year I found nationwide, prudential, tesco, sainsburys were all cheaper than price comparison quotes. I ended up going with https://www.frizzell.co.uk as they were cheapest (you have to be in a union to quote with them (I think) they also accept up to 9 years no claims, so make a fuss to your insurers to give you the correct no claims letters, not the standard 5/6 years. Maybe when more people make a fuss and insist on manually written letters the insurers will write new software which automatically issues letters stating the correct years.

wallbash

Even after reading all the above information, lets give a small round of applause :T for comparison web sites. The poorest one will still help you save money and a great deal of time.

merlie

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

I always find the way comps owned by the same group vary wildly.
My insurance for the year was nearly £400, renewel quote from Bell was £530 (even though no claims went from 3 years to 4). On comparison, Admiral was £240. Phoned bell and said I didn't want to renew and said admiral were cheapest. "oh they're our sister company, we'll match if you like". Wouldn't have minded if my renewal quote was the same or slightly lower, but just shows what chancers they are.

I tried the haggling with Privalage as I had been doing so for quite a few years ... but they wouldnt budge ... they lost out ... only by £30 - but thats still £30 in my pocket - not theirs .... so hello Bell, or whoever they might be owned by....

thanks for all the responses BTW

....right then , which Audi TT roadster should I get ?

raskazz

pitkin2020 wrote: »

IAG owns Hastings Direct, People's Choice, Diamond, Advantage, Open & Direct and Equity

They sold all of these firms apart from Equity.