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Was a thread about car insurance...

Hi guys, not sure if this happens to anyone else so figured I'd ask...

Over the past month I've been scraping together money for my first car (just passed my test last week). I've been using comparison sites to get quotes on a number of different cars.
At first I used Compare The Market. I was consistently getting really decent quotes from Admiral that were far cheaper than all of the other results. However, after a week or 2 and several quotes later, they stopped quoting me. I tried getting a quote on their actual website, and the price was ridiculous despite having given them the same information.

So I switched to using Confused.com and had a similar scenario... consistently getting nice quotes from Tesco Bank that were miles cheaper than the rest. Then today whilst getting a quote, they stopped quoting me. Tried getting a quote direct from their site, and the price had almost doubled.

Do the insurers not like getting repeated quotes from the same person that hasn't yet bought, or is it just these companies deciding to raise their prices?
(edited 10 years ago)

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That's a bit strange, not sure if it's normal :/

I do know that insurance quotes can change quite suddenly though, i was (just out of interest) checking insurance quotes as if i wanted to insure my car now after having my license that few months longer than i did when i bought mine. My insurance company Im with now wouldn't insure me lol, and when i was changing cars too i checked out the price it would be for a new policy with my insurance company it was £5000, within a week it went down to £3700 and then back up to £5000 soon after.
Original post by NatashaLee
That's a bit strange, not sure if it's normal :/

I do know that insurance quotes can change quite suddenly though, i was (just out of interest) checking insurance quotes as if i wanted to insure my car now after having my license that few months longer than i did when i bought mine. My insurance company Im with now wouldn't insure me lol, and when i was changing cars too i checked out the price it would be for a new policy with my insurance company it was £5000, within a week it went down to £3700 and then back up to £5000 soon after.


Sounds like prices just fluctuate then... Well I've got a rough estimate of how much my insurance should cost now anyways depending on the engine size and year (or rather, how much I WOULD have gotten if Tesco didn't change lol). So I'l just keep looking for specific types of cars, no more than 1.4L engine and made in either late 90s or early 00s, then just get the cheapest quote I can get once the car is paid for. My uncle reckons I could take an older quote to a similar car in the future, ring Tesco and say, you quoted me this just last month and now you're quoting me this, any chance you can drop it back down for me to keep it competitive? Might not work, but no harm in trying...
(edited 10 years ago)
Yeah think they must, although don't your quotes last a certain amount of time? When i went back onto compare the market all my quotes had expired but obviously I've left them months, maybe try Tesco like you said they might be able to help you, definitely worth a try. I suppose as long as you're getting quotes for the kind of cars you'll be likely of getting then you should be alright buying the car then should be able to get some decent priced insurance, or hopefully Tesco's like you say
Original post by NatashaLee
Yeah think they must, although don't your quotes last a certain amount of time? When i went back onto compare the market all my quotes had expired but obviously I've left them months, maybe try Tesco like you said they might be able to help you, definitely worth a try. I suppose as long as you're getting quotes for the kind of cars you'll be likely of getting then you should be alright buying the car then should be able to get some decent priced insurance, or hopefully Tesco's like you say


Yeah quotes pretty much last 1 month. But I noticed all my quotes got erased yesterday even though they were all valid, then today I just wasn't getting the quotes from Tesco like I always would. Almost like Tesco got them to remove all stored quotes with them or something. Never know, I could end up finding someone else just as cheap which it comes to finally picking up my first car, which at the moment just hasn't happened for me. First car looked brilliant in every way until we discovered a head gasket leak. Spotted what looked like the perfect car the other day and my uncle said we'd go have a look at it the next day, he couldn't make it yesterday and the ad was taken down this morning, so it's obviously been sold already :frown:
Original post by WoodyMKC
Yeah quotes pretty much last 1 month. But I noticed all my quotes got erased yesterday even though they were all valid, then today I just wasn't getting the quotes from Tesco like I always would. Almost like Tesco got them to remove all stored quotes with them or something. Never know, I could end up finding someone else just as cheap which it comes to finally picking up my first car, which at the moment just hasn't happened for me. First car looked brilliant in every way until we discovered a head gasket leak. Spotted what looked like the perfect car the other day and my uncle said we'd go have a look at it the next day, he couldn't make it yesterday and the ad was taken down this morning, so it's obviously been sold already :frown:


Well when i was changing car i kept ringing this guy from my insurance company and he was like wait till the new rates get added to our system because it'll take the price down, now obviously i don't know too much about this, but maybe it's something they all do and maybe that's why, but im not too sure how they work, only thing set in stone with them is the fact its expensive haha.

But that's such a shame about the cars ): but maybe it's a sign something better's gonna come up :smile:
Original post by NatashaLee
Well when i was changing car i kept ringing this guy from my insurance company and he was like wait till the new rates get added to our system because it'll take the price down, now obviously i don't know too much about this, but maybe it's something they all do and maybe that's why, but im not too sure how they work, only thing set in stone with them is the fact its expensive haha.

But that's such a shame about the cars ): but maybe it's a sign something better's gonna come up :smile:


Ahh I see. So there's hope for me yet then :biggrin: I think it's a nationally shared view that car insurance for new drivers is ridiculous. I do still get quotes under £2000 because I'm over 21, but they still seem a bit high considering a) I was consistently getting quotes of between 1000-1500 from Tesco and b) I'll be paying every penny of it myself. So to be forking out about 200 quid a month would hurt lol.

Yeah does suck a bit, hopefully what you say is true though and I get hold of something even better soon :wink:
Original post by WoodyMKC
Ahh I see. So there's hope for me yet then :biggrin: I think it's a nationally shared view that car insurance for new drivers is ridiculous. I do still get quotes under £2000 because I'm over 21, but they still seem a bit high considering a) I was consistently getting quotes of between 1000-1500 from Tesco and b) I'll be paying every penny of it myself. So to be forking out about 200 quid a month would hurt lol.

Yeah does suck a bit, hopefully what you say is true though and I get hold of something even better soon :wink:


Yeap definitely hope, maybe because you haven't got your car just yet when you do get it they might just be even cheaper, got to look at the (possible) positives :smile: and yeah that's pretty high, especially to say you're that little bit older, but hopefully on renewal it'll drop even more than mine maybe would. Still a bit of a jump from the Tesco one to the rest tho isn't it ): suppose you can only hope they'll come back up on the comparison websites again soon

and yeah may get a better deal on a car, and maybe a better insurance quote :wink:
Original post by NatashaLee
Yeap definitely hope, maybe because you haven't got your car just yet when you do get it they might just be even cheaper, got to look at the (possible) positives :smile: and yeah that's pretty high, especially to say you're that little bit older, but hopefully on renewal it'll drop even more than mine maybe would. Still a bit of a jump from the Tesco one to the rest tho isn't it ): suppose you can only hope they'll come back up on the comparison websites again soon

and yeah may get a better deal on a car, and maybe a better insurance quote :wink:


Yeah that's it, bit scary not knowing what's round the corner in terms of insurance lol, but I guess the best thing to do is just leave it for now, then once I've found a car and paid for it then I'll have a look and see what's the best I can get.
Trying so hard not to get impatient, just wanna get out there and drive now. So frustrating having a license but no car and still having to use public transport :frown: The car parks are calling me haha.
Reply 9
"Are you paying too much for your car insurance?"
Original post by WoodyMKC
Hi guys, not sure if this happens to anyone else so figured I'd ask...

Over the past month I've been scraping together money for my first car (just passed my test last week). I've been using comparison sites to get quotes on a number of different cars.
At first I used Compare The Market. I was consistently getting really decent quotes from Admiral that were far cheaper than all of the other results. However, after a week or 2 and several quotes later, they stopped quoting me. I tried getting a quote on their actual website, and the price was ridiculous despite having given them the same information.

So I switched to using Confused.com and had a similar scenario... consistently getting nice quotes from Tesco Bank that were miles cheaper than the rest. Then today whilst getting a quote, they stopped quoting me. Tried getting a quote direct from their site, and the price had almost doubled.

Do the insurers not like getting repeated quotes from the same person that hasn't yet bought, or is it just these companies deciding to raise their prices?


Personally, i wouldnt use comparison sites anyway. If you go to the company directly (either phone up or go on the website) then you can get it cheaper than on the comparison sites. Basically because the sites add on their own share for the privilege of you going through them. Theres also some companies that arent on comparason sites- such as aviva, direct line, churchill etc. Aviva are particularly cheap.
Original post by Emma:-)
Personally, i wouldnt use comparison sites anyway. If you go to the company directly (either phone up or go on the website) then you can get it cheaper than on the comparison sites. Basically because the sites add on their own share for the privilege of you going through them. Theres also some companies that arent on comparason sites- such as aviva, direct line, churchill etc. Aviva are particularly cheap.


True that they get a little commision, to be honest I just planned on seeing what ones were cheapest then going to them directly for a better quote when it came to purchasing it.
I've tried Aviva, though the quote for fully comp that I got from Tesco via confused.com was actually about £700 cheaper than what Aviva could offer me for TPF&T. Tried Direct Line and Churchill but they just won't quote me for some reason.
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by WoodyMKC
Yeah that's it, bit scary not knowing what's round the corner in terms of insurance lol, but I guess the best thing to do is just leave it for now, then once I've found a car and paid for it then I'll have a look and see what's the best I can get.
Trying so hard not to get impatient, just wanna get out there and drive now. So frustrating having a license but no car and still having to use public transport :frown: The car parks are calling me haha.


Well if you see a car you like, maybe give it a quick quote check and see the kind of price you'll be looking at, then once you have the car you can see about getting it a bit cheaper.

I started getting a little impatient too when i was looking for mine, i didn't have a clue about many makes or models then so i pretty much searched 'car' and spent hours going through them haha. But im sure you'll find one in no time :smile:
Original post by NatashaLee
Well if you see a car you like, maybe give it a quick quote check and see the kind of price you'll be looking at, then once you have the car you can see about getting it a bit cheaper.

I started getting a little impatient too when i was looking for mine, i didn't have a clue about many makes or models then so i pretty much searched 'car' and spent hours going through them haha. But im sure you'll find one in no time :smile:


Yeah that's pretty much what I've been doing, I think that's what made me think maybe I was getting a bit quote-happy because I was getting a quote at least once a day lol. Though that was because I didn't really know what certain types of car would cost to insure, got a good idea know though so shouldn't need to compare so much.

Hahaha, must have spent so many hours whittling through them. I pretty much just go on auto trader and gumtree cars, set my max price, distance and engine size and have a quick browse. My uncle has advised me to get something with a long MOT on it so it's unlikely to have any faults, so that rules out a lot of them.
Really thought I'd dislike the really small engines after learning in a 1.4 Corsa, but the Peugeot 106 I tested had a 1.1L engine and I actually loved it. Felt like I was driving a little go-kart haha, very zippy little cars...
Reply 14
I had the exact same issue, and found it very odd / frustrating when looking at a first car.
My first quotes showed Diamond to be the cheapest by at least £100, after a while they just didn't show up any longer or were ridiculously expensive on a direct quote.

I'm glad I'm not going crazy!
Original post by WoodyMKC
Yeah that's pretty much what I've been doing, I think that's what made me think maybe I was getting a bit quote-happy because I was getting a quote at least once a day lol. Though that was because I didn't really know what certain types of car would cost to insure, got a good idea know though so shouldn't need to compare so much.

Hahaha, must have spent so many hours whittling through them. I pretty much just go on auto trader and gumtree cars, set my max price, distance and engine size and have a quick browse. My uncle has advised me to get something with a long MOT on it so it's unlikely to have any faults, so that rules out a lot of them.
Really thought I'd dislike the really small engines after learning in a 1.4 Corsa, but the Peugeot 106 I tested had a 1.1L engine and I actually loved it. Felt like I was driving a little go-kart haha, very zippy little cars...



Yeah i suppose you have to don't you though, quotes can be so different for different cars and theres no point getting a car that far too expensive to insure, we did loads of quotes too because pretty much every car was over £6000 and that was on black boxes. I think i got quote depressed haha.

And yeap lol, around 95% of the cars wasn't even suitable because they were really big and stuff so that was a waste of time. When i was looking through cars again i knew a lot more about makes and models so used autotrader ad as you said set all the options, so much easier than what i did :') But yeah it'd be a lot better if you have that little added confidence that nothing should go wrong for a little while and hopefully a long while lol. The C2 i had was a 1.1 and it was super slow -.- i hated pulling out, but my Corsa although its only a 1.2 is super nippy, so yeah think you can get some good little nippy cars that still have an 'insurable engine' haha
This exact same scenario happened to me a few weeks ago, but I was using moneysupermarket. I was getting 20ish quotes a day for a few days then suddenly the Admiral group companies stopped quoting me. I will check back someone to see if they have resumed.
Be interesting to see funktopus, maybe there is some sort of blacklisting that goes on for people that repeatedly quote but don't buy...

Original post by NatashaLee
Yeah i suppose you have to don't you though, quotes can be so different for different cars and theres no point getting a car that far too expensive to insure, we did loads of quotes too because pretty much every car was over £6000 and that was on black boxes. I think i got quote depressed haha.

And yeap lol, around 95% of the cars wasn't even suitable because they were really big and stuff so that was a waste of time. When i was looking through cars again i knew a lot more about makes and models so used autotrader ad as you said set all the options, so much easier than what i did :') But yeah it'd be a lot better if you have that little added confidence that nothing should go wrong for a little while and hopefully a long while lol. The C2 i had was a 1.1 and it was super slow -.- i hated pulling out, but my Corsa although its only a 1.2 is super nippy, so yeah think you can get some good little nippy cars that still have an 'insurable engine' haha


Yeah hard to tell sometimes. I think if I just stick with something early 00s or earlier and go no bigger than a 1.3L engine then that'll keep the costs affordable either way. If worst comes to worst I'll have to ask my uncle to get me on his policy haha, not sure if he'd actually be willing to do that.
It's so messed up to think that you could possibly pay about 6 times more for insurance for the car compared to the car itself.
Not too sure if a little zippy car will be good for me tbh... the more it feels like a go kart, the more likely I am to drive like a nutter in it lol.
Original post by WoodyMKC
Be interesting to see funktopus, maybe there is some sort of blacklisting that goes on for people that repeatedly quote but don't buy...



Yeah hard to tell sometimes. I think if I just stick with something early 00s or earlier and go no bigger than a 1.3L engine then that'll keep the costs affordable either way. If worst comes to worst I'll have to ask my uncle to get me on his policy haha, not sure if he'd actually be willing to do that.
It's so messed up to think that you could possibly pay about 6 times more for insurance for the car compared to the car itself.
Not too sure if a little zippy car will be good for me tbh... the more it feels like a go kart, the more likely I am to drive like a nutter in it lol.



Yeah if you stick to what you know you'll be okay, I'm sure somewhere will insure you for a decent price. But yeah it really is, seem to be covering their backs just a little excessively.

And ah well maybe not sure a good idea haha, i have a black box so i don't do much crazy driving haha
Original post by WoodyMKC
True that they get a little commision, to be honest I just planned on seeing what ones were cheapest then going to them directly for a better quote when it came to purchasing it.
I've tried Aviva, though the quote for fully comp that I got from Tesco via confused.com was actually about £700 cheaper than what Aviva could offer me for TPF&T. Tried Direct Line and Churchill but they just won't quote me for some reason.


Yeah, they are good to get an idea which are cheaper or more expensive. I do that myself. But apart from that, i wouldnt use them.

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