Dont Compare Car Insurance

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Tuesday, 4th January 2011

I have previously written articles on how buying online can be more expensive than buying over the telephone and how insurance comparison websites are becoming a real pain to use but during the latest renewal phase I have discovered an interesting plot twist in the comparison website story.

I may be an incredibly rare case, but none of the comparison websites could beat my renewal quote for car insurance. In fact, they weren't even within £100. I'm pretty sure there aren't going to be adverts that mention this; "I spent an extra £100 by using a comparison website"! I checked this by typing the details repeatedly into several comparison websites and got much the same from all of them, so I tried typing the same details into some insurance company websites directly and discovered that they will offer you much cheaper deals if you don't find them via a comparison service.

So 2011 may well be the year that we start re-typing our details into the leading insurance companies own websites - and perhaps in 2012 we will all visit the High Street to talk to our friendly local insurance broker... if they still exist.

The moral of the long-running story is this. You really don't know where to find the cheapest deal until you have tried all of the comparison websites, all of the direct websites and got on the telephone to see if people can cut a better deal. With this in mind, my statements about things taking longer than ever seem to be coming true. This is because the insurance companies don't want the comparison websites to be in control, but they still have to accept that they would lose a great deal of custom is they weren't listed on them.

So where does that leave you when it comes to renewal time? Well, my advice is to type your details into as many websites as possible, not just comparison websites - and if your current insurer has given you good customer service over the past year, don't forget to telephone them when you think you have found the best deal (they will probably match it).