Price comparison sites - do you then go to the cheapest insurer's site to confirm?

boxosox

When I use a comparison site, it throws up a bunch of companies I've never heard of.  So I find the cheapest quote from a company I recognise/are happy doing business with then go direct to them and do it all again.

Am I mad to do this?  I feel like I might get a better price doing so.

Nasqueron

I use the sites to find the cheaper one then look via a cashback site like TopCashBack - I got £45 back from a policy I took out this year

I agree with you on the name brand ones, I am sure the others are perfectly reasonable and legitimate but it just feels like a small company could go under and then you end up with some other random company. I had one years ago where the provider went under and I ended up with Sheila's Wheels which, at the time, was for women only (I'm a guy!)

DullGreyGuy

boxosox said:

When I use a comparison site, it throws up a bunch of companies I've never heard of.  So I find the cheapest quote from a company I recognise/are happy doing business with then go direct to them and do it all again.

Am I mad to do this?  I feel like I might get a better price doing so.

You may get a different price and a different product... some insurers offer a cut down version of their product to achieve cheaper prices on aggregators and offer a fuller product for direct customers. 

Note also it will mean your renewal price can be no more than a direct web customer whereas if you bought straight through from the aggregator then your renewal can be no more than an aggregator customers. 

forgotmyname

I now unsubscribe to the comparison site emails because every renewal is a fake price that was not the same
cover as the previous year.  I find the full cover with all the addons turns into basic cover with everything optional.

They appear to do that to make people think they are getting a good deal, me though it just annoys me so much
I unsubscribe or add their email to the spam list so I never see the renewal emails with the fake prices.

Another family member got their renewal email and it appears to be rather cheap considering all the posts about
super high premiums.  Cheaper than mine and I have many years of no claims and been driving a very long time
and even have HGV entitlement etc etc..  I wonder if their premium will rise when they add no claims protection and
legal cover etc etc?

helencitygirl

I've just been through this process today using the car comparator tool (huge thanks to MSE). I have saved over £300/yr on my annual car insurance! I didn't pick the cheapest as that was a brand I didn't know, but I did pick one of the cheaper brands. I checked against my current cover to ensure I'm still getting the same level of cover and rang my existing insurance company to check whether they could do a better deal (they couldn't). However, there are insurance companies with multiple sub brands, so it's worth checking who are the parent companies, for example I've gone with Sheila's Wheels which is part of Esure.