Comparison site Car insurance quotes

jimw5798

Got a renewal notice in for car insurance from RAC.
Done as always do and went to comparison sites ( including via  MSE). Goyt several quotes from MoneySupermarket that were cheaper. Surprisingly the best one was from my existing insurer (RAC).
     When I selected and tried to ' continue to site' nothing would happen. Eventually phone RAC and they immediately told me that as an existing customer I could not use such sites , and they could not offer me the same price.
    When I suggested that I thought it was illegal to offer new customers different quotes I was told the offer was not coming from them, but from MoneySupermarket. Explained this did not make sense as I would be directed to their site ( RAC), make payment to them ( RAC)  and have a policy with them ( RAC).
   Is this a legal loophole , and if so then why don't comparison sites ask for your existing insurer and  screen out any quotes form them during searches.?

Mark_d

Deals offered through brokers or price comparison website can be different to those offer directly.  It's the same for mortgages, package holidays, collective switch energy contracts...pretty much anything.

DullGreyGuy

jimw5798 said:

Got a renewal notice in for car insurance from RAC.
Done as always do and went to comparison sites ( including via  MSE). Goyt several quotes from MoneySupermarket that were cheaper. Surprisingly the best one was from my existing insurer (RAC).
     When I selected and tried to ' continue to site' nothing would happen. Eventually phone RAC and they immediately told me that as an existing customer I could not use such sites , and they could not offer me the same price.
    When I suggested that I thought it was illegal to offer new customers different quotes I was told the offer was not coming from them, but from MoneySupermarket. Explained this did not make sense as I would be directed to their site ( RAC), make payment to them ( RAC)  and have a policy with them ( RAC).
   Is this a legal loophole , and if so then why don't comparison sites ask for your existing insurer and  screen out any quotes form them during searches.?

Home/Car Insurers must not charge renewing customers more than new customers coming via the same channel buying the same product. So, for example, if you called them up to buy it last year you'd be considered a phone customer and so the renewal price cannot be higher than this years phone new business price but were you to get a quote via their website or an aggregator they could be cheaper. 

The rules apply to those that set the price but that can get a bit murky because RAC dont sell car insurance, they've licensed their brand to Budget who are a broker/intermediary. Typically the insurer sets the price but a broker may adjust the price by flexing their commission. In principle an aggregator could also choose to sacrifice commission, certainly there was discussions about it back in my Motor days but dont know if any deal has ever been done on it.

Ultimately register a complaint with the RAC and/or MoneySupermarket 

MikeJXE

Got a renewal notice from car supermarket yesterday 

It was for my Ford Fiesta eco boost I sold in 2019

£50 less than my current Jaguar XE

DullGreyGuy

MikeJXE said:

Got a renewal notice from car supermarket yesterday 

It was for my Ford Fiesta eco boost I sold in 2019

£50 less than my current Jaguar XE

At the end of the day if you run over a bunch of school kids it doesn't really matter if you are in a Fiesta or XE