Admiral Group Car Insurance Quotes Not Showing On Comparison Sites At Renewal Time

strettman

Hi, has anyone come across this before?

a bit of background, i ran a single quote around a month ago for my car insurance as i knew it was going be renewal time soon to which came back at £387.52 (quote is now out of date). I thought that was great as we were currently paying around £550.

Fast forward to now and i had an email earlier today telling me my renewal would be around £630. i was expecting them to send me a renewal that was more expensive anyway, as they always do. what i wasn't expecting is that when i run a quote on comparison sites (money supermarket and go compare) that suddenly Admiral, Elephant and Diamond have all disappeared off my quote lists. At first i was thinking what on earth is going on, have they blocked me or suddenly decided i can't be insured with them? But then i thought i wonder if this is some sort of ploy so you can't get quotes that are meant for new customers right when your renewal time comes.

To try that idea out i decided to change my surname by one letter and all the sudden my cheap Admiral group quotes are back!? I ring up admiral and told them that i wanted to renew but i had a quote that was much cheaper, they asked for the quote number and i told them that i put my surname down wrong 'by accident' to which the reply was 'you will have to run a new quote with your name spelt correctly' to which i stated that i can't run quotes on comparison sites as they suddenly won't show any quotes with the correct name. the advisor said that i must do the quotes on admirals site which i have tried but you get so far and it just tells me i have to ring them as the system obviously knows my renewal is due and won't give me a price but gives me a quote number so i will try ring again tomorrow with the quote number and see how much but i doubt on it being anywhere near £380.

i don't think any of the quote prices are linked to credit checks as i can put in random names that are just a mash of letters like 'drstghbth fesdf' and i still get the same prices as i did with 1 letter wrong in my surname. The next best quotes are about £460, when i rung admiral i got them down to £550 but still not enough. i've got 25 days to try sort something out with them or leave.

This is definitely something that might be worth checking if you are with the admiral group. If you can, around 1.5 months before your renewal run a quote and then do another quote after your renewal pack has come, would be interesting if it's the same for you guys. if you do it make sure you put the policy start date as close as possible to your renewal date on the quote, so maybe you could use the quote still if your renewal is sky high. if i did that i could have possibly avoided this.

So all in all if i change my surname by 1 letter then i can save £250 on my car insurance :rotfl:

EdGasketTheSecond

Their new quotes are for new customers. As you are an existing customer you pay more. All you can do is try and get a quote from another company and see if they can match it. In my case they couldn't and I left Admiral (and thank goodness their awful Albany Assistance or whatever it has been rebranded to).

Amst

The AA have (had?) a system that would match details ran on insurance comparison sites to their own database which matched the premium quoted by them to the quote that showed up on the comparison site - loaded with renewal commission of course.

As you have done, tricking the system by appearing not to be the person that is with them by chancing your surname provides a new customer quote. They weren't harsh in making you re-key it however, they just price matched (largely).

Jm2967

I!!!8217;m glad I stumbled on this as I was starting to get very frustrated at not getting the cheaper quotes usually provided by the Admiral Group. I tried the same !!!8220;1 letter different different!!!8221; trick and a much cheaper quote popped straight up. I just rang admiral to ask them why and I!!!8217;ve now escalated a complaint. I know roughly the Stance of the FCA and ombudsman on Treating Customers Fairly so that!!!8217;s the route I intend to go down when making my complaint. I!!!8217;ll keep people updated with my outcome. I!!!8217;d be interested to hear anybody else!!!8217;s opinion who!!!8217;s more knowledgable of the FCA and where Admiral may be seriously breaching treating customers fairly.

ThePants999

Apologies for bumping, but I've just discovered the same thing.

I've been an Admiral customer for years, and every year we do the "dance" where their renewal quote sucks, I go on price comparison websites, I find the cheapest, ring them up and they find a way to match. And normally, the cheapest on the comparison sites is... Admiral! But this year, they were "unable to quote for my details". Didn't think to try with a different name, but it makes total sense that they'd be trying to block existing customers from getting new customer prices!

The chap I spoke to in their renewals team was actually surprised by this - he even asked me to check whether Elephant or Diamond were showing up in my quotes. I guess they haven't publicised their strategy internally

It hasn't helped them a great deal, though - OK, so I don't know what their "new customer" price for me would have been, and maybe it would have been even cheaper than the cheapest on the price comparison sites. But they still matched the cheapest quote I DID get, so I doubt this cunning scheme of theirs has earned them more than a couple of extra quid from me.