Price comparison sites and honouring quotes

[ThunderGuts]

Morning y'all,

So my bike insurance is due soon so I've been doing the usual perusing. Got a good quote through a price comparison site, so clicked to proceed and got some blurb saying "this quote is so good we need to talk it through with you on the 'phone to progress it". So, I rang them and after a lot of to and fro, they said the "quote was in error" and it's actually 50% more than quoted! They were implying it was a system error; I ran it again and got similar numbers to the first time. I confirmed all the details, nothing had changed, so it's not like I've suddenly added in different cover requirements or anything.

Is this allowed? Or are comparison site quotes only ever indicative?
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TG.

[Kris]

Who's the insurer? sounds dodgy to me...
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NSR125RR - ZXR750H1 - ZX9R E1 - GSF600S - GSF600SK3 - VFR400-NC30 - SV1000N - ST1100-R - CBR900RR-R - GSF1200SK5 - GSF600SK1 - VFR1200FA - GSXR1000K2 - ZZR1400 D8F
www.prisonplanet.com

[Riejufixing]

[ThunderGuts]

[Ayrton]

There can be differences but it's not supposed to happen. Seems odd for them to require you to call up though, what comparison site did you use?

[ThunderGuts]

moneysupermarket. Used these guys for years for quotes and I've never had it not work before.
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TG.

[rpsmith79]

I was going to suggest getting an online quote direct from BeMoto to compare to the comparison site, but having just been on the BeMoto site, it doesn't loook like they even offer an online quotation service, how very '90s of them
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Current Bike: Honda CG125 ES4 // Honda CB600FS Hornet // Triumph Street Triple R

[Riejufixing]

The answer to "iss it allowed" seems to be "Yes", just as if you go into a shop and see something mispriced, they don't have to sell it to you, or online (generally) if you have not yet paid and they have not sent the thing to you.

[Freddyfruitba...]

You certainly need to take the comparison sites' output with a pinch of salt. Before buying, always click through to the actual insurer's site and go through every screen of your data and check it with a fine toothcomb.

Example: I renewed my insurance recently and had to declare a claim from just over 2 years ago. This is the third time I've had to do this, and it's always awkward picking the appropriate 'description of claim' from the limited drop-down list. It was an off, with no third party involvement or damage, personal injury (me), and a hefty claim for the bike. But nothing ever fits that description; the closest I can get is usually something like "Single vehicle accident - policyholder hit third party". But the interesting thing is seeing how that label gets translated when it reaches the insurers site; they usually have their own set of dropdowns with different wording. This time, my best quote was from "MyWickedQuotes", and when I went through my data I discovered that my claim had been translated as "Attempted theft of vehicle". I repeated the process and got the same result.

You can just imagine what would have happened if I'd taken out the policy and later had to make a claim, can't you?
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KC100->CB100N->CB250RS--------->DL650AL2->R1200RS->R1250RS

[Polarbear]

I haven't ever had a comparison site quote not honoured but mine are pretty straight forward, no claims discount, years holding licence, age, address etc. Nothing that can be misconstrued.

I wonder if that company is squeezing the figures to get to the top of the quotes list and hoping some schmuck will still go with them. If one starts that, others will follow.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[kgm]

The comparison sites just feed variables into the insurers own quote system, often means funny things get carried across so even though you were asked the same questions and gave the same answers it's likely that the comparison site fed up guff and the human on the phone chose the correct option. I've had they a few times.

[ThunderGuts]

Thanks all. Ended up going with another insurer (still more expensive to insure than my car!), but this time I carefully read the small print and lo and behold found a minor error (licence start date; it was entered just as a month/year on the comparison site but this had been extrapolated as the middle of the month on the actual insurer's site - no pain to this adjustment and I spotted it, but if it was something that might affect a claim and was missed I can see how this could make a mess of things!).
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TG.

[Polarbear]

I see the Meercat mob has just had a big fine for price fixing/manipulation.

It's amazing how many experts the news people can now find to tell you to be careful when using comparison sites.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Poseidon]

I made the mistake of putting my actual phone number into a comparison site (go compare). I got so plagued by ambulance chasers cold calling me I actually had to change my phone number.
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1977 Honda CG125
2002 Ducati Monster S4 (currently restoring)

[Polarbear]

[Keithy]