Can current car insurance provider blacklist my car reg from price comparision site?

msnatalie

my car insurance is up for renewal in 24 days. Yesterday I used the MSE price comparision tool and then tried a few other price comparision sites via topcashback to make sure.
I also contacted my current insurers, who happened to be the cheapest on the comparison sites, as the sites were showing cheaper than the renewal price they were quoting me. But they wouldnt price match or give any discount.

When i went back on the price comparision site today to actually buy the insurance, suddenly the cheapest option (Aviva, my current provider) has disapeared. It thought it might be due to them not being cheapest anymore due to waiting an extra day. But I tried with a different car reg (but same car details otherwise) and all other same details including address etc, and with that Aviva did show up, as the cheapest quote, by quite a long way.

I am wondering if Aviva have blacklisted my car reg from being allowed to get a quote from them via price comparision sites in order to force me to renew directly with them? and if there is anything I can do about it?
Or is there a way i can change my ip, etc to get the original quotes back?
Going via the comparision sites had given me a marginally better quote with aviva than they are offering, plus with the add ons from topcashback, and the £250 gocompare excess refund reward, it does work out a much better deal.

I did contact aviva again to ask, but they said they have no access to any of that, and if I want to renew direct with them I can, otherwise they can't help.

DullGreyGuy

Your insurer cannot "blacklist", as in telling other insurers not to quote for you. They are free to chose what risks they are willing and not willing to quote on themselves. 

msnatalie

DullGreyGuy said:

Your insurer cannot "blacklist", as in telling other insurers not to quote for you. They are free to chose what risks they are willing and not willing to quote on themselves. 

Thanks, I meant blacklist my car reg from them speicifcally (aviva) showing me quotes on the price comparision sites.
Other insurers do appear, sorry if it was unclear.
They did show up, as the cheapest quote, on the first day i was looking on the price comparision sites. It was only after I contacted them that they disapeared for specifically my car reg.
Why would I be extra risk by buying via a price comparision site instead of directly with them? All other details were exactly the same. Only risk to them I imagine is that they have to pay out a commission to the price comparison site vs if i renew directly with them, which is sneaky of them.

born_again

Could it be that it recognises the reg & as such does not create a new quote within the 30 days it is valid for?

I never had that issue with Aviva.
Use comparison site, then try direct & still get a quote. Often different prices.

msnatalie

born_again said:

Could it be that it recognises the reg & as such does not create a new quote within the 30 days it is valid for?

I never had that issue with Aviva.
Use comparison site, then try direct & still get a quote. Often different prices.

I assume it must be recognising the reg, but it wouldnt explain why yesterday I was getting quotes from Aviva on the price comparision sites but today I am not? Yet if I change the car reg the aviva quotes do appear today.
Would love to know if there is anything I can do about it.

I did exactly that, 'comparison site, then try direct & still get a quote', and it's why I was about to buy via the comparision site today, but the quote disapeared.
Interestingly, I can still use the saved quote from yesterday which has aviva as the cheapest option, but it invalidates the cashback I believe as you can't get cashback when using a saved quote.

DullGreyGuy

msnatalie said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Your insurer cannot "blacklist", as in telling other insurers not to quote for you. They are free to chose what risks they are willing and not willing to quote on themselves. 

Thanks, I meant blacklist my car reg from them speicifcally (aviva) showing me quotes on the price comparision sites.
Other insurers do appear, sorry if it was unclear.
They did show up, as the cheapest quote, on the first day i was looking on the price comparision sites. It was only after I contacted them that they disapeared for specifically my car reg.
Why would I be extra risk by buying via a price comparision site instead of directly with them? All other details were exactly the same. Only risk to them I imagine is that they have to pay out a commission to the price comparison site vs if i renew directly with them, which is sneaky of them.

Insurance isn't priced on risk alone and there are certainly some insurers who'll recognise a returning customer and present their renewal price rather than recalculating assuming all rateable aspects are the same. They are under no legal obligation to sell via aggregators. 

Insurers are also very sensitive to both potential fraud (eg changing small details that are immutable to see the different prices like removing a claim) and rate raiding (rival insurers doing volumes of quotes to monitor pricing of competitors). Some respond by escalating prices, others by stop quoting. 

chris_dee

Could it be that Aviva system has placed those computer markers called 'cookies' onto your device. It happens with online holiday sites so may be a common practice. Maybe clean your device of cookies and the cache then try accessing the site again. Another option may be borrowing a friend's/ relatives device and doing the search that way? 

msnatalie

chris_dee said:

Could it be that Aviva system has placed those computer markers called 'cookies' onto your device. It happens with online holiday sites so may be a common practice. Maybe clean your device of cookies and the cache then try accessing the site again. Another option may be borrowing a friend's/ relatives device and doing the search that way? 

Thanks, yes i did think that at first and deleted all my history, cookies, cache etc. Even tried using a vpn and private browsing and trying from my phone instead of laptop on a different wifi network. But the only thing that makes the Aviva cheaper quote reappear again is changing the numberplate (even when all else is the same inc, address, email etc).
So my hunch is that if you try a couple of price comparision sites, they blacklist your reg, at least if they're your current provider. Even if you arent doing anything apart from comparing the price comparision sites, as I kept my details exactly the same each time. So now unable to re-insure with them unless going directly with them and missing out on all the cashback perks.

Lesson learnt for next year, it's worth using a different reg with same car details to see which price comparision site gives best price overall at first, and then once thats figured out input the correct reg to the price comparision website of choice.