Car insurance - is this right about confused.com?

A

a11y

Lifer
Central Scotland
Sounds like the esure were pulling my leg...

I've been insured with esure for the past 12 months, renewal due next week. Renewal came through and it was a lot bloody higher than I expected - £518. So I put my details into http://www.confused.com and got back several quotes cheaper than esure.

Now, this is the weird bit: the quote that confused returned for esure - going in as a new customer - was £90 cheaper than my renewal quote, i.e. esure will charge a new customer less than an existing customer. Bunch of chancing b'stards, I thought. I called them for an explanation and the bloke told me it's because confused.com buy car insurance policies from the companies they quote for, then sell them on to punters. I don't believe that for a second, what a pile of tosh!

Has anyone heard of this practice?


Anyway, I'm happy now: just renewed and went with Bell (part of Admiral) who came in at £336 with an excess less than half of what esure wanted. I've just saved myself £182 :)
 
Yes, that is the norm. Sometimes if you go on their own website as a new customer you get a cheaper quote as well.

Always the same for Churchill as well, never accept a renewal, shop around on their own website !!
 
confused get paid money if you go to the insurers website and take out the policy, standard web referral kind of thing. yes insurance companies tend to give new customers better deals, they prey on the lazy who dont shop around and auto renewal.

confused do not "buy policies" its just a glorified search engine that enters your details into a database. id say 9 times out of ten youll get a better deal as a new customer.
 
I had the same at renewal time. For both my cars I saved a total of £190 by going in as a new customer with the same company. They even sorted it for me over the phone.
 
RustyZ4 said:
Should have tried Chris Nott on here, you never know
Click to expand...
Yeah, I totally forgot about that before I bought up my renewal :oops:


I obviously know to shop around, etc. It was the bit about confused.com buying up policies from insurers that I don't believe. As far as I knew, confused.com just searches companies' websites but doesn't actually sell the policy - that's what the esure bloke was telling me, but I don't believe him!
 
I think the Esure dude is mistaken, as far as I can tell Confused are just a price comparison service, not a broker.

It's always like this, you get a better deal if you're a new customer. In line with what PVR was saying, as an opening gambit I always compare the renewal to a quote from the insurer's own website and then negotiate with them over the phone, it's almost always less and they normally lower the renewal (although this year it was the same).

Amusingly, as I was performing this ritual a couple of years ago, the saleswoman at the unnamed insurer chastised me for using the website, saying something along the lines of "why were you using the web site, it's only for new customers, you're not allowed". Saved me the trouble of negotiating, cost them over a grand of business.
 
I had a similar experience but there is always a reason for the price difference - it may just be hard to find.

In my case, the quote from the insurer included 'guaranteed' no claims (instead of 'protected') and full European cover. Neither of these were included in the confused.com quote which made it about £50 cheaper.
 
Just had a quote from Chris Knott. Same price as Swiftcover who I'm with ,( who were cheaper than most) and far better cover. That's where I'll go when my renewal comes up in 2 weeks.
 
Just had a quote from Chris Knott. Same price as Swiftcover who I'm with ,( who were cheaper than most) and far better cover. That's where I'll go when my renewal comes up in 2 weeks.
 
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