SUCH a difference in quotes!!! (Motor Insurance - Comments & Tips)

Member Name: jemini

Product:	Motor Insurance - Comments & Tips
Date:	05/04/01 (147 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Online sites good for getting an idea of costs

Disadvantages: Too much discrepancy between quotes

I have just spent many happy hours getting online quotes for motor insurance (groan) and, being unsure of what car I would eventually end up with, I initially got quotes for a number of small cars - which is what I was after.

It didn't take long for me to realise just what a HUGE discrepancy there is between one insurance (or brokers) website offerings and another.

I am an experienced, no-claim driver but wanting to insure for two other named drivers aged 22 and 19. Yes, alarm bells ringing! It's the 19 year old causing the headaches and sending the quotes sky high compared to what I would pay just for myself. When I started to search for quotes, I did expect this though - to a degree - but not what I came up with.

For example, I was quoted £689.81 to insure (fully comprehensive) a Corsa GLX 1.2 by Quoteline Direct and only £525 by Direct Line. I could have got this down a lot further if I went with no Protected No-claims Bonus and/or without Legal protection.

A Polo 1.4CL was £746.32 with Quoteline Direct and only £584.85 with Direct Line. If I did without the 'extras', this went down to £473.55.

I have only given a couple of examples here, because I've actually got a page full of different quotes and to give them all would be just too much. But they will give you an idea. Similarly, I have not included all the different websites/insurers I tried and have picked only the two cheapest!!

I have actually ended up buying a W 'reg Punto (basic 1.2) and got an online quote from Direct Line of £518.70 which, if I forgo the trimmings, I can get down to £436.60. Just out of interest, I tried a new website called Coversure and (you ain't gonna believe this...) for comprehensive cover same as Direct Line, they quoted £1002.
Well, I nearly fell off my computer chair. I'm still left wondering if they've got the decimal point in the wrong place, but I don't think so...

What
I'm actually going to do as I'm not picking the car up for over a week, is to ring my present insurers and get a quote from them. If it's more than the Direct Line one, I'll go for Direct Line, which seems to have the best, well, lowest, quotes. The only thing I'm not too keen on is the length of time it takes to complete their forms online and there is a lot of time spent waiting for various page to load. It's quite interactive though, and, on the final page, you are given a quote onscreen which changes if you untick Protected No-claims Bonus and/or Legal Protection and/or the amount of excess which you are willing to pay. That's quite clever and you can see significant savings being made.

Another thing in Direct Line's favour is that, unlike some of the other online insurance quoters, you don't get confirmation emails sent every time you get a quote. My inbox was getting quite filled up with them. On the Direct Line site, you can save each quote and then return to the site and view them again at your leisure. I found this much better. The emails from the others confirmed the quotes I'd been given but didn't actually say which car each related to, so it was a bit confusing. I also got a follow-up email two days later (not from Direct Line) to urge me to confirm whether or not I wanted to take up the quotes. More emails again...

There's got to be a moral here: something like... if you want an IDEA of what you might have to pay for a particular car etc. then online sites are good for that - but I reckon it's also best to give them a ring just to talk over the final details. I can also say that, so far, Direct Line is quoting the cheapest car insurance I can find.

If you're looking for car insurance right now - good luck!!!

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