Quidco - a warning!! (less cashback, more spam calls ..)

Tirian

Just a little word of warning for anyone who's used Quidco in the past, or thinking of using them now.  I have used for many years, very happily.  But the whole operating model seems to have changed in the c. 1 year since I bought something from it last.

A couple of days ago I logged in, withdrew £80 balance (taking my all time total to nearly £1000!)  

I was looking for Landlord Insurance, which I've bought with a cashback deal here many times - but this time it was very unclear if there were actually any cashback deals for this product.   Eventually all I could find was a "Get a quote" button. 

I slightly reluctantly clicked through to see if it would end up with any Cashback deals.  Filled in a few generic questions, which ended with "Do you want to be contacted by email / text message" - I chose yes for email, no for text message. 

What I actually got was a "results" screen naming three companies, a message to say I should "expect their calls" - and an immediate bombardment of phone calls next morning during my commute and all through the morning at work (all of which I declined, obviously).  And one quote by email, which was more than my renewal quote.   So I'm far from convinced that it's actually a worthwhile comparison service, even without being sneakily signed up to spam calls.  

I did not at any point ask for sales calls, nor did I at any point see anything that suggested that I was agreeing to get a bombardment of sales calls. 

I thought I was possibly getting some cashback offers, and probably getting some comparison site results - not really what I was after, but probably an acceptable second best if there's no cashback deals anymore.  

But now I feel like I've been bait and switched from cashback offers, which is what I've always gone to Quidco for and what it has always sold itself as providing - to having my details harvested for spam calls.  Very VERY poor form.  May well be my last visit to Quidco.  

(oh, and the three companies details that I was provided via the results seemed to be from a very limited range of the market, zero names I recognised - and I have worked in insurance for 20 years including 2 years for the Association of British Insurers ...)

MyRealNameToo

MSE, Quidco, MoneySupermarket are all sister companies. These days for insurance each badge a copy of the MSM aggregator engine to themselves and add their own spin on how the results are presented.  There are normally two privacy questions, the first is for the aggregator themselves on if they can contact you and then there is a later second question on if the top three insurers can contact you. Sounds like you answered one and missed the other. 

Landlord insurance is normally just Simply Business (a broker) exposing their panel as though they were an aggregator rather than being a true aggregator

Tirian

Interesting.

So basically Quidco is not a cash back site for insurance any more. 

That's definitely not clear from the landing page, and definitely a very fundamental change from what it has generally been known for.

I've looked back at the questions, and there are indeed two separate fields for contact.  

I guess I did not read the details on the first one closely enough, which is for phone number.  However it is also the case that there is no option to opt "no" to phone calls in any case, which is extremely unusual for any online comparison service and I don't think it's very reasonable.

The fact that it is presented completely separately from the later question, on ways in which to get your quotes, is also unhelpful.  In the section where you would usually be selecting all the ways in which you would/would not like to be contacted you are in fact selecting additional ways on top of the non-optional "bury me in phone calls" option.

Anyway.  All clear now.  Quidco is not what it was, and it's not a way in which I will ever look for insurance again.  Good to know.

(Also, the part in which it actually states that you're effectively agreeing to be called by their panel companies is in smaller font, in light grey rather than the dark text for the rest of the questions and info.  So some effort has definitely been taken to encourage users not to actually take this information in ...)

Tirian

The more I look at the set-up the more zany it seems.

The whole premise of Quidco was that effectively they paid you part of the broker fee.  Result: you got a genuinely competitive net price.

You say that the LL insurance offer is now just a broker.  My actual results were one quote, and what appear to be referrals to two other brokers.  

You couldn't get much more of a polar opposite from what the original Quidco USP was - from being an intermediary that offered a share of the acquisition cost, to being fed to a multilayered set of intermediaries all of whom will be taking their full whack and giving you nothing back.

It's practically guaranteed to give you an uncompetitive price .. shame really, it was good while it lasted.

prowla

I gave up using quidco a while back, when some of my transactions "disappeared".

Doc_N

I use Quico only when there's no alternative - their track record for paying up has been abysmal. TCB however very rarely fails.