MSE News: How your email address can affect your insurance premium

Former_MSE_Megan_F

Some insurance companies have admitted they may give different quotes on car insurance depending on which email address you use - but there are more surefire things to check to ensure you save at renewal...

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'How your email address can affect your insurance premium'

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michaels

IN order to avoid missing out on cashback I ran my quote through the comparison sites with equivalent but made up name, car done via model search not number plate etc and the quotes came back 300 more than when I put real details suggesting they cross reference credit agencies for an identity check so perhaps they also cross-reference email addresses, so perhaps it is not the domain that matters but any info they have already linked to that email address?

One-Eye

slowandsteadyplodder@gmail.com got lower quotes than crazyboyracer@gmail.com - I'm amazed

forgotmyname

And running the exact same quote with identical details can also give different figures so how thorough was the testing process?

2013yearofthehouse

When shopping around for quotes (either via comparison sites or direct with insurers) I use a don’t-care-if-I-get-lots-of-spam email address and then when I’ve found who I want to use I start again and this time use my important-stuff email address (which uses a different domain) for the purchase, or a family members email address if I’m helping them out with their purchase, and I have found the quote price to be identical every time. Must have done it 50+ times in the last 10+ years (the most recent being last month) and never ever has the price changed, not even by 1p!

System

Enter the "email address lottery scandal", just like the post code lottery.

But if your real address has a statistical effect on claims likelihood, unrelated to any real factors that can be explained by commonsense, then there is no reason why email addresses shouldn't work in the same way.

If you can afford to purchase an upmarket email address then probably you will be a safer driver. My Cambridge university alumni address ***@cantab.net probably gives me a lower insurance risk than ***@essexchavs.yob

Doc_N

2013yearofthehouse wrote: »

When shopping around for quotes (either via comparison sites or direct with insurers) I use a don’t-care-if-I-get-lots-of-spam email address and then when I’ve found who I want to use I start again and this time use my important-stuff email address (which uses a different domain) for the purchase, or a family members email address if I’m helping them out with their purchase, and I have found the quote price to be identical every time. Must have done it 50+ times in the last 10+ years (the most recent being last month) and never ever has the price changed, not even by 1p!

That's interesting, and mirrors exactly my own experience using a mailinator throwaway email address for trial quotes.

[Deleted User]

michaels wrote: »

IN order to avoid missing out on cashback I ran my quote through the comparison sites with equivalent but made up name, car done via model search not number plate etc and the quotes came back 300 more than when I put real details suggesting they cross reference credit agencies for an identity check so perhaps they also cross-reference email addresses, so perhaps it is not the domain that matters but any info they have already linked to that email address?

They definitely use a CRA search - despite Admiral telling me several times they don't. And that I didn't need to tell them about bankruptcy because they didn't ask.

I would assume that no match is higher risk for the majority of people, but if you have bad credit like me - no match seems to actually be cheaper!

Recently moved house, got quote at new address (not even a Electoral Roll entry yet) and think it was over £300 cheaper than my previous address.

Area's aren't too different. To prove it wasn't just the postcode causing it, I did my old address with a fake name (so no ER match) and it came up cheaper than my real quotes at old address with my real name.

Difference between my two no-CRA quotes was only about £50, so clearly them not being able to trace me on CRA search made quite a difference. Will be interesting to see what my renewal premium is! And, although accepting auto-renewal is usually more pricey, it may actually be cheaper than running a fresh search and them/others 'discovering' my credit history and charging a bomb for ex-bankruptcy.