A friend is an insurance broker. (An honest one based in Shropshire)

He's being hearing about some of the ploys companies use to ensure they are in the top 5 hits on these sites. They severely cut down on what is insured so his advice is read the small print re what is covered if you use these sites.

My house and contents is covered by him but he can't compete on car insurance. He halved my h&c insurance because he tailored it to my needs by stripping out things like pedal bike and travel insurance. It's underwritten by Ageas who came 4th in a recent Which? Report. How much? Just under £200 a year including legal expenses insurance.

A few years ago Direct Line quoted £800 (double the previous year with no claims since 1987) on one of those auto renewal cons. That's when he quoted me.

_________________
Lets be careful out there !

On the other side of the coin. I recently received a renewal letter from my current car insurer quoting me £584 to renew.

I went onto Comparethemarket.com, and got a quote of £342. It was with the same company and the exact same policy. All it took was 10 minutes to get the quote and then 2 free phone calls to the insurers quoting a code number. It saved me over £200 so I'm happy with that.

Well as happy as you can be with such extortinate insurance premiums.

Car insurance I always check on their website as a new customer. I then do the same with a competitor so I have another price to quote them. When the renewal comes through I usually have to phone them to get the website price which has never failed. As you say though, of late, it's been coming down.

it's going to come down further this year because my annual mileage has plummeted from 12k to 3k a year. I've been advised (my mate) to declare 4k or 5k as too low can increase the premium.

_________________
Lets be careful out there !

I had Tesco last year (December renewal) surprisingly their quote for renewal was very competitive so I stayed with them.

First time I can ever recall doing that. Usually the firm you are with hike the premium in the second year hoping that you wont notice or can't be bothered to move.

Maybe they are starting to realise.

The main point of posting though was to watch the small print and exactly what is covered if you buy via the cheapest quotes on price comparison sites

_________________
Lets be careful out there !

And what happened to "Loyalty! I used to have my bikes insured with a company in Manchester. was with them for years. They stared to increase my premiums even though I had not made any claims so I shopped around, got cheaper quotes. When I rang up my insurance company and told them I could insure cheaper they reduced the price to get me to stay. If they can drop the price, why not just charge the lower price in the first place and keep the customers happy.
This company did this a few years running, the thing that annoyed me was I then had to chase around looking for cheaper quotes. End to this was one year they did the same thing, I found someone cheaper and went with them. 15 odd years of custom gone.

My maxim, never automatically renew any insurance before looking at the market - and not necessarily comparison sites who have become very 'dubious' in my opinion.

That's spot on. My renewal invitation letter said you need take no further action, your insurance cover will be automatically renewed on the due date. Presumably hoping I wouldn't notice the £200+ hike in the premium ?

Talk about a timely post.

Watchdog did a financial special last night and part of it was the reduced cover on comparison sites to keep the quotes down.

A lot of Watchdog's tips I already do anyway.

_________________
Lets be careful out there !

I think they call it profiting from inertia. Works. There was a report a few months ago by the way saying a lot of price comparison sites were colluding with companies NOT to show the best deals!