online motor insurance quotes?

korky69

just had my renewal come through, it has shot up a few ££ so ive been searching about.
sunday i found one quite a few ££ cheaper but kept on searching,
just retrieved the quote, thought id double check the details and noticed my one claim 2 years ago had a £2000 bill instead of £522 so amended it, updated quote came back £60-£70 more! eh?

stugib

korky69 wrote: »

just had my renewal come through, it has shot up a few ££ so ive been searching about.
sunday i found one quite a few ££ cheaper but kept on searching,
just retrieved the quote, thought id double check the details and noticed my one claim 2 years ago had a £2000 bill instead of £522 so amended it, updated quote came back £60-£70 more! eh?

Do you get your old price back if you set it back to £2000? Prices change every day, so changing your risk data may have forced a re-rating with different prices.

korky69

stugib wrote: »

Do you get your old price back if you set it back to £2000? Prices change every day, so changing your risk data may have forced a re-rating with different prices.

didn't try that, i rang up to query it and got re-quoted lower but still slightly higher than the original price,
she asked me not to quote again as it will override my current details and may go up again?

mikey72

I'ven noticed the same.
You should always bet a dummy quote, with made up details, and a generic car.
Then when you have got the best deal, go back in with your real details, and you usually get the best price.

korky69

korky69 wrote: »

didn't try that, i rang up to query it and got re-quoted lower but still slightly higher than the original price,
she asked me not to quote again as it will override my current details and may go up again?

they really know how to twist the knife,
called to cancel my renewal, got the expected reply of why and how much, i told them and they said my cheaper quote was with their sister company and can price match it,
he had all the details of the quote there,
he asked why i'd put "use of 2nd vehicle" in, i gulped and said i must have clicked it by accident, quote went up £80!
then told him i drive works van a bit, but vans don't count, has to be a car!
wouldn't mind but my cars bigger than the van!

property.advert

mikey72 wrote: »

I'ven noticed the same.
You should always bet a dummy quote, with made up details, and a generic car.
Then when you have got the best deal, go back in with your real details, and you usually get the best price.

Can't do that anymore. They are using "fuzzy" logic and a variation of a yield management system. The more you research on the same details the higher some insurers raise their prices. By no means all but some.

The same goes for not putting in a registration number. It can make a significant (over 10%) difference to some insurers. The answer is to put in one picked off Autotrader

Also, don't use your own address. Test with similar addresses.

Then phone up. I've had 30% off the internet price today from a certain insurer with a red telephone !

Spiderham

property.advert wrote: »

Can't do that anymore. They are using "fuzzy" logic and a variation of a yield management system. The more you research on the same details the higher some insurers raise their prices. By no means all but some.

Speaking from the other side of the table, I reckon there may be more than yield management of "savvy" customers. While doing that (changing details) may be what people do to see how they can legally reduce rate, it is also the sort of thing that someone obtaining insurance with the primary motive of fraud would do to keep outlay down. The fraudsters will cost an insurer many times their premium so if you scare them off by jacking price but lose the odd legit customer then you can live with that as net benefit; also as a bonus any you do keep would pay more.

Can't be certain that's the reasoning but wouldn't be surprised if it contributes.

eddddy

korky69 wrote: »

just had my renewal come through, it has shot up a few ££ so ive been searching about.
sunday i found one quite a few ££ cheaper but kept on searching,
just retrieved the quote, thought id double check the details and noticed my one claim 2 years ago had a £2000 bill instead of £522 so amended it, updated quote came back £60-£70 more! eh?

Did you start off by going though a comparison website?

Something similar happened to me a few years back with esure. By experimentation, and phoning the esure to ask what's going on, I think I understand why this happens.

Esure told me that they quote lower prices if you enter your details through a price comparison website, rather than going direct to their site. (Because they have to compete with other companies.) So you click through from the price comparison site the Esure site to complete your purchase. If you complete the purchase without any changes, everything is fine.

But by experimentation, I found that if you changed any details on the esure site, you lost the 'special discount' associated with coming from a comparison site.

In my case it resulted in something like this:

• Esure quote via comparison site: Premium = £300
• Click through to Esure site, add a named driver: Premium = £400
• Still on Esure site, remove the named driver: Premium = £350

i.e. Esure thought they had me hooked once I had moved from the comparison site into their own website, so they pushed up the premium.

So... I found it was best to make any changes in the comparison site and generate new quotes, rather than making changes in the insurers own website.

But this was a few years ago... esure may have changed their practices. I didn't experiment to see if other insurers did the same.