Car insurance: changing car

Blue_Parrot

In a few weeks we're changing from a BMW to a VW Golf. I have always used the local broker for car insurance. I am under the impression that brokers do not charge the customer, but get commission from whichever insurance firm (?) and search around for the best deal for you (?).

After I'd revealed that we do far less miles than apparently understood, he immediately knocked £80/year off the current BMW insurance. He then went on - by phone to Zurich insurers - to quote for the about-to-be-delivered Golf, at £475 p.a.

At first I was pleased with this, since it's a lot less than the BMW insurance. But then I hit the internet, and using comparethemarket, found no less than 42 different companies quoting less than we are currently paying to Zurich, for the current BMW.

Further research revealed that VW insurance can insure their new car with exactly the same specifications which I gave the broker, for £247 p.a. The broker says £475, VW themselves say £247.

I am completely befuzzled. Has the broker been wrong all these years? I have emailed the VW dealership to ask what "their" price will be.

Who to trust? Which one to go for? They all have the same information: same location, same drivers, same annual mileage, same 10 years' no claims discount/bonus.

???

mikey72

I'm afraid someone has to pay the broker. Shop around, change insurers every year, always go direct, and you'll get the best price.

Faith177

Some brokers do charge admin fees but are meant to detail these to you.

It could be that you will get a cheap rate going to the co directly because they wont have to pay commission (sometimes as much as 30%)

G8311374

HI

Due to ill health I have used a broker for the first time this year and have found them to be really helpful. I provided them with details of a search I had done on compare the market and they were able to better this. Perhaps you could show them what they are being offered, they are possibly only able to get certain offers from insurers, so give them some ammunition so they can work better for you.

Helen

Blue_Parrot

Unable to get the Zurich website's on-line quote function to work - it always fails with 'Error - this has been logged', eventually I cracked and phoned them.

The phone number on their own paperwork (The insurance certificate paperwork) leads to a maze of inappropriate options - press 1 for this, press 2 for that, press 3 for another, press 4 to hear all that again. I gave up and looked them up on the internet. Found another number and phoned that.

Having briefly summarised my case, she told me to phone another 0800 number. Ben answered, said that no-one had said that their on-line quotation had repeatedly failed before, and started to take down our details.

When I said it is a company car, he said "we don't insure company cars". Oh yes they do, and I have the insurance certificate. He said I needed to phone Zurich Solutions, I was talking to Zurich Direct.

I phoned another number, got a Sean this time. As soon as I read out our current policy number with Zurich, he said "we cannot discuss this with you because your policy was arranged by a broker". My response was "you have not even heard my query yet".

Under pressure, Sean finally consented that they do not speak to their own customers whose policies are arranged with brokers.

So I went down the road and spoke with the broker and told him all this. His face was a blank. After banging my head on his desk, I then said that all I wanted, was to know why Zurich want to charge us £475 to insure the about-to-be-delivered VW, when everywhere else on the internet charges at least £200 less.

I can hardly believe I'm typing this, but here is the broker's response to that question. "we do not use any insurance company which underwrites with Lloyds." <

---

!!!!!!

Back here, I tried again to get an individual quotation out of Zurich's website. It failed again.

I tried to find out who underwrites VW Insurance's policies: failed.
I tried out Aviva, direct on their website. To my astonishment they phoned a little later, their quotation was reasonable, but I have now researched reviews for Aviva car insurance: they're all terrible.

EITHER, people use insurance brokers because they do not have all the hours it takes to source a decent insurance policy; OR all the offers coming up on moneysupermarket and confused are rubbish.

Oh, regarding confused dot com, it will not let me finish. As soon as I hit '"continue" to go to page two, it says "your session has timed out", so I gave up.

Unbelievable? Probably standard operating procedure in every instance, considering how many disgruntled car insurance customers there are in the UK.

If you have, thanks for reading. All helpful responses welcomed.

custardy

I have never had trouble with confused site.
Are you sure the issues aren't your end? given theres at least two sites giving you issues.

Christopher7

Blue_Parrot wrote: »

I tried to find out who underwrites VW Insurance's policies: failed.

Allianz do

thegirlintheattic

Brokers are good for complicated insurance situations they don't always provide the cheapest quotes.

If this a company car are you sure the comparison sites are providing accurate quotes. I don't remember many having an option for company cars.

rs65

Blue_Parrot wrote: »

When I said it is a company car

Are you disclosing that it is a company car on the comparison websites?

Blue_Parrot

custardy wrote: »

I have never had trouble with confused site.
Are you sure the issues aren't your end? given theres at least two sites giving you issues.

No "issues" that I'm aware of, custardy, all the other multiple (hundreds of) websites which I access on a daily basis, function just as they should.

vaio

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