Goskippy / Vavista car insurance quotes much cheaper than the rest

The_Groat_Counter

It's car insurance renewal time so I'm looking at quotes via the comparison sites.

The quotes I'm getting from Goskippy and Vavista - both brands of the same company, 
Somerset Bridge Insurance Services Ltd - are much cheaper (like £100+) than anything from any other insurance broker.

I am currently with Goskippy for car insurance (have been for the past year), so I guess I'm already something of a known quantity to them. I haven't received my renewal quote directly from them yet as an existing policy holder, apparently this will come 21 days before expiry of the current policy (it'll be interesting to see how this compares to the quotes from the comparison site from the same company).

I'm aware one likely answer people will give for Goskippy being much cheaper is that they might well provide a lesser service than the others in the event of a claim. Obviously I'm not planning on making a claim, but of course who does?!

I've re-checked my answers to all the questions and everything looks fine.

Is it just that, for someone in my situation, Goskippy / Somerset Bridge's impenetrable calculations mean that I've found the sweet spot with them? I'm just vaguely curious why no other broker comes close.

MyRealNameToo

Who's the actual insurer?

Suspect they are an MGA; as such they may have the option to quote low and burn their capacity provider. Can only do it so long before you find it difficult to find capacity but there's always some Gib based startup willing to take a punt hence we see firms like Premier Insurance  going bust

The_Groat_Counter

MyRealNameToo said:

Who's the actual insurer?

Suspect they are an MGA; as such they may have the option to quote low and burn their capacity provider. Can only do it so long before you find it difficult to find capacity but there's always some Gib based startup willing to take a punt hence we see firms like Premier Insurance  going bust

Looking at a few of the Goskippy quotes, the underwriters are either Alwyn Insurance Co (a Gib firm) or actually Somerset Bridge themselves. (For my current Goskippy policy, the underwriter is Watford Insurance, again a Gib firm.)

I've had my renewal quote come through from Goskippy themselves, and it's a bit over £10 cheaper than any of the comparison site quotes - the underwriter here being Alwyn again.

(I wonder if they've put 2+2 together and seen that I've been getting quotes already, hence offering an even lower price - if I renew directly with them, they wouldn't have to pay any commission to a comparison site.)

I'm tempted to go via a comparison site anyway to benefit from some of their 'freebie' extras, which would more than cover the extra £10 in price. Just wondering if this might set me up for more expensive renewal quotes from Goskippy in a year's time, compared to if I were to renew directly with them this year? (i.e. Is there an unspoken 'loyalty bonus' in renewing directly.)

I'm not really all that clued up on the machinations of the insurance world, so MGAs are new concept to me - just looked them up, interesting.

MyRealNameToo

The_Groat_Counter said:

MyRealNameToo said:

Who's the actual insurer?

Suspect they are an MGA; as such they may have the option to quote low and burn their capacity provider. Can only do it so long before you find it difficult to find capacity but there's always some Gib based startup willing to take a punt hence we see firms like Premier Insurance  going bust

Looking at a few of the Goskippy quotes, the underwriters are either Alwyn Insurance Co (a Gib firm) or actually Somerset Bridge themselves. (For my current Goskippy policy, the underwriter is Watford Insurance, again a Gib firm.)

I've had my renewal quote come through from Goskippy themselves, and it's a bit over £10 cheaper than any of the comparison site quotes - the underwriter here being Alwyn again.

(I wonder if they've put 2+2 together and seen that I've been getting quotes already, hence offering an even lower price - if I renew directly with them, they wouldn't have to pay any commission to a comparison site.)

I'm tempted to go via a comparison site anyway to benefit from some of their 'freebie' extras, which would more than cover the extra £10 in price. Just wondering if this might set me up for more expensive renewal quotes from Goskippy in a year's time, compared to if I were to renew directly with them this year? (i.e. Is there an unspoken 'loyalty bonus' in renewing directly.)

I'm not really all that clued up on the machinations of the insurance world, so MGAs are new concept to me - just looked them up, interesting.

Somerset Bridge arent an insurer but an MGA and a broker. If they are underwriting it as a broker they should identify who the capacity providers are as ultimately its their financial stability you are reliant on for there to be money to pay the claims. 

MGA is an americanism, traditionally they were called coverholders in the UK, potentially in part because we already have MAs here to do with Lloyds of London and MA and MGA are very different things despite the M and A standing for the same thing in both. 

Its far from the only kind of delegated underwriting authority insurer give to intermediaries but is certainly becoming more common. My professional indemnity insurance is written by a MGA and yet ironically the two insurers providing their capacity totally refuse to insure me directly. 

The majority are perfectly fine, I personally find it scary as hell as the insurer has so little control or knowledge of what risks they are taking on but its seen as great thing by many others, driving innovation etc. I hope I'm wrong.