Who am I dealing with?

notgreatatsavingmoney

With my renewal quote too high I decided to learn a little more about the market to see if I could get insurance any cheaper from other sources, all this has done is make me very confused. Who am i dealing with?

I understand there is an underwriter who puts up the money, and then a brand acting on their behalf e.g Swift who I am currently with. There are then brokers and comparison sites who seem to be the same to me?? On top of that I have found one company on a comparison sight called Policy Shop who appear to be a broker, why would a broker be on there? Not sure if I've missed anyone out?

Very confused but determined to understand where I fit into all this to get the best deal.

Can anyone offer some clarity?

adamc260

Companies like - Compare the market, confused.com etc are aggregators. They just search a large amount of insurers to provide you with a quote. If your happy with the price, you just simply hit proceed/buy, it takes you directly to the insurers website where you purchase the policy from the insurer (for example... LV). They're just simply there to provide you with a vast number of quotes and they let you pick what you want.

Brokers like - Swinton (dreadful!) etc search through a panel of insurers to match you with the best deal, they often administer the policies on behalf of the underwriters (like Axa, Groupama, Fortis who are now Aegeas) as it cuts down on costs for the underwriter needing call centres etc.

Direct companies like - Direct Line, Liverpool Victoria, Tesco, Admiral etc etc etc the list goes on generally feature on the aggregator websites as above to advertise their policies but everything is done in house.

Hope that helps !