Car insurance £2000 cheaper through CTM, how ?

TzarJay

My car insurance is up for renewal and my current insurer, Tesco Bank quoted me £2300, the same as my last policy with them. Which is terrible. So I went on Compare The Market, and got a good quote from Hastings Direct for £1017, great since I'm 20 with 1 years NCD.

Out of interest though, I went on the Hastings Direct website and got a quote direct from them, which turned out to be £3100 !! This has totally confused me of how this can happen. Exact same information but if i take the policy through Compare The Market it comes out at £2000 cheaper.

How can this be ?

dauphin

Check very carefully what assumptions CTM made when you got the quote from them. These may cover things which are not specifically asked about during the quote. One example might be (I don't know) that the vehicle is kept at your home address.
Also if you proceed with the quote you got through CTM, make absolutely sure that you didn't make a mistake in your answers and that they have been recorded accurately.
With that level of discrepancy in premium, I'd be concerned that there is an error somewhere.

Just_Some_Guy

Double check all quote details. I would be very surprised if an insurer offers cover through a comparison website at 1/3 of the price of going direct.

mikey72

And if you do go ahead, do a screen print of everything you have put down.

InsideInsurance

1) Incorrect assumptions/ translation - aggergators ask different questions and/ or have different answer options. These have to be mapped to the brokers/ insurers and sometimes these are not done "correctly" or assumptions have to be made as the aggregator doesnt ask a question

2) Different cover, some sellers have a heavily cut down version of their products on the aggregators -v- what they sell directly

3) Different excesses/ optional extras etc

4) Different pricing strategy

5) Price manipulation to try to get into the top X on the aggregator so you get marketing rights to the customer

These can result in some very wide differences in pricing between different distribution channels though the scale of yours seems worryingly different. Of cause sometimes insurers simply make mistakes in pricing too