how accurate are car insurance quotes from price comparison sites?

londonTiger

I'm looking to buy my first car, obv as a first time driver I have to choose a car heavily based on what the insurace cost is going to be, easily the wrong car could end up costing me more in insurance than the cost of the car.

For example cheaper, older cars tend to have really high insurance.

£800 vauxhall corse, insurance up to 2.5 grand minimum!!!

£3000 mini cooper, insurance £900

So in total, it's definitely worth getting a more expensive car.

Now, I've filled in everything honestly and truthfully and got decent quotes from admiral for numerous cars (using vehicle registration from pictures on cars in auto trader).

I remember a while ago I got a loan for £5000, and I used a price comparison site, I was quoted 7.5% which was great but when I phoned to confirm it went up to 12.5%.

I was wondering whether the car insurance companies are likely to do the same thing, and in practice how much can the price vary between what is quoted on the web and what you end up paying over the phone when you finalise.

property.advert

They cannot be considered accurate.

What I found is that the comparison sites don't collect all the information the individual insurers actually want in the correct format. For instance, someone driving on a foreign licence may find that some insurers have this as an option in their drop down box but some do not. Enter your details into the comparison site and it does not default to a "call someone" message but it actually makes an assumption or simply picks another answer.

They get out of liability by saying that you must check the details but it is hardly fair.

Other areas are license length where some only ask for 3+ years and others go out indefinitely whereas others stop at 15 or 20 years.

forgotmyname

Depends if you fit the assumptions list perfectly....

They assume your the owner, its your car in your name, is it on finance do you have credit card.....

Seems never ending but a lot of online sites dont ask everything....

I use a broker linked to my car club, They ask more questions to get the best quote for you.

londonTiger

so if you visit the insurance site, and then fill out the full details, with all the extra details and get a quote for a car, is that quote then set in stone?

or can they just flip it and raise the cost later?

all this is done on speculative car purchases though, before owning the car, just want to get a solid quote before buying it.

forgotmyname

No its not set in stone, Read all the insurance problems on here, Lots swap insurers based on the comparison
website and then get a call the insurance company want more money, Or the cover is not what you expected.

Items you have disclosed go missing etc...

You either pay the extra or risk a cancellation charge and try to get somewhere cheaper.

scheming_gypsy

If you use a comparrison site you have to go to the insurers site to complete the transaction; so when you go there you can check all the details are correct. Although if it's just a standard policy then the comparrison sites are fairly accurate; they're a lot easier than getting 180 individual quotes.

Trebor16

One thing to watch for on the insurance comparison sites (and also the companies own sites) is the excess level. Often you will find they have added a voluntary excess which brings the quote down and makes it look more competitive than it actually is. Always check the excess level as you may find you have taken a policy with an excess of £500 instead of the compulsory excess which is set much lower.

Gloomendoom

With one exception I have found that the prices quoted on price comparison sites searches have matched the price being asked when I link through to the insurance company 'buy' pages.

The one exception was RAC insurance, where the price was significantly higher. They didn't get my business.

londonTiger

I wonder how much of this is just down to lack of info and how much of it is just bait and switch to get people to wign up by misleading them with a low offer on the comparison site.

I really think price comparison sites should get feedback from enquirers and do some groundwork,

like, to what extent did the quote you receive on the site end up being similar to the price you end up paying.

the information can then be used to name and shame certain providers or just put a accuracy figure in % on how much the quoted price will deviate from the actual price.

But I hav a feeling that price comparison sites only care about their bottom line, they get nice comissions from the insurers so they're not really that bothered about the user

Hotspur

In general they are accurate quotes but, be wary of the cheapest quotes as they may strip the insurance to the minimum and/or up the excess required so that they can get to the top of the list.

Often the better value quotes are a few places down from the top and include lower excess and other benefits including good customer service should you decide to change your car or be unfortunate and have to make a claim.

luci

I no longer use any of the comparison sites. Despite stipulating the excess I wanted to pay, protected NCD and courtesy car, these details were ignored and removed when the results came back just so they could show a lower premium. Then I had to rejig the returned quotes to get a more accurate result. Sorry, can't be hassled.