Landlord insurance using price comparison websites

Markymarkw

I own several rental properties and have always used price comparison websites to find the best annual building insurance. I have noticed recently that, when I search on Gocompare, Comparethemarket, and Moneysupermarket, they ALL use a third party called Simply Business to produce the results. This definitely didn't used to be the case as each comparison website used to come up with different prices. Now the prices on these three comparison websites are exactly the same. And they have increased by around 40% over the past year. This looks a lot like a cartel to me! Is anyone else noticing this. Martin - this surely warrants a closer investigation...

davidmcn

I think Martin is too busy on his tropical island... 

I found the same thing recently, got a more competitive quote from LV. 

Sandtree

There never has been a price comparison website for business insurance, which Landlord comes under. All of them have always simply used a broker which then displays all of its panel insurance companies' prices in a pseudo price comparison way.

Simply Business was certainly the most common broker of choice and has for a very long time been the provider for multiple price comparison sites... can't remember exactly who/when other than confused.com has used them since the beginning. 

It is less about being a cartel and more about being the limited number of brokers that have the technology, scale, panel and appetite to offer the service and pay the price comparison sites the amount per sale that they want.

emilyjane92

My broker certainly does not have the online tech of the aforementioned companies but still provide a good comparison of quotes and cover on their website. I also find they give a more personal service when you call as they are not a massive call centre and their prices are just as good. I would suggest shopping around but maybe only try one of the big online names and compare to an independent landlord insurance broker like my one.

Sandtree

But the idea of aggregators/comparison sites was that it was an impersonal, non advised way of comparing many brokers, direct insurers and other intermediaries in one go... it obviously also further commoditizes insurance and promotes the race to the bottom. This has never actually been the case for business insurance (and some of the other more niche product offerings)