Comparison websites, accuracy?

WhoisDannie

I am thinking of replacing my car and want to anonymously compare insurance quotes on comparison websites.

I wonder how accurate the info I fill out has to be?

Such as slightly wrong date of birth 24/2/1959 instead of 25/2/1959 and different job descriptions and different spellings of my name etc.

I will put the correct car info and length of NCB and how long I have held my licence.

How will this skew the quotes? 

dunstonh

Such as slightly wrong date of birth 24/2/1959 instead of 25/2/1959 and different job descriptions and different spellings of my name etc.

DOB and different job descriptions impact on quotes.   Also, if they can link your quotes to you, even if you use false data, it can trigger anti-fraud measures and increase your premium or see insurers refuse to quote.

Ayr_Rage

If you are doing the quotes from the same IP address as when you decide to buy you may get an unwelcome surprise !

eddddy

Ayr_Rage said:

If you are doing the quotes from the same IP address as when you decide to buy you may get an unwelcome surprise !

In theory, comparison websites (and other websites) can record and analyse:  cookies, IP addresses and MAC addresses.

This can tell the website that multiple different quotes are being requested from the same device (pc, phone etc) and/or the same internet connection.

(There's other info the website can record which might tell them it's possible/probable that the same device is being used.)

Because this is related to fraud detection, obviously the comparison websites don't say how they use this info, and how much they rely on it.


But, for example, it's possible that multiple people are legitimately getting quotes using the same IP address (multiple members of a household, multiple employees from the same company, etc), or maybe even that multiple people are legitimately using the same shared device to get quotes.


People who are a bit more 'tech savvy' can do things to make themselves more anonymous - a simple example would be deleting cookies between visits to a website.

400ixl

You won't be getting accurate quotes if they can't identify you. A failure to find you for a soft credit check for many insurers will increase the premiums.

Doing say half a dozen quotes on different vehicles with your correct information is not going to cause you any issues.