Insuring the Mk VI

[p3asa]

Pretty much so yeah.

Here was the story I was mentioning.
I thought the woman was paid for her insurance but it cost her 96p 

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/insurance/2009/10/i-bought-car-insurance-for-96p


A grandmother has broken the MoneySavingExpert.com record for the cheapest-ever annual car insurance policy.

Barbara Wakerell (pictured, right) paid just 96p this summer for fully comprehensive cover for her 12-year-old Vauxhall Corsa.

Had she renewed her previous policy she would have paid £145.

This smashes the previous £14 record, and shows that by playing the system you can make huge savings (see the Car Insurance guide).

How's this possible? The MoneySavingExpert.com cost-cutting system

    * Step 1: Combine the power of comparison sites. These zip your details to a host of insurers' and brokers' websites in seconds, scraping their data to report back the cheapest. No site lists every provider so the key is combining searches to give yourself the widest range in the least time to find the cheapest policy of those that contain your required cover.

      By using just the top comparison site you'll search 97 providers, but add three more and, in minutes, you search another 51 (full analysis in the Cheap Car Insurance guide). Also note Aviva and Direct Line do not appear on comparison sites.

    * Step 2: Grab cashback. Once you know the cheapest provider, check whether you can grab any money back via a cashback website. These pay a cut of their commission if you click through to insurers' or brokers' sites via them (see the Top Cashback Sites guide).

    * Step 3: Remember next year. Just because you got a super-cheap quote this year, doesn't mean you will next year. So diarise a note six weeks before renewal so you don't pay your insurer's expensive renewal price.

How Barbara did it

Barbara, a civil servant from Kent, found the cheapest policy at £120.96 from broker Swinton, which came with its own £70 cashback, making the true cost £50.96.

One reason she got a decent-priced policy to start with is she is considered a relatively low risk, which is crucial in cutting costs.

Barbara then bought the policy via cashback site Quidco.com, which gave her a further £50 discount, meaning the net cost was just 96p.

She says: "I'm always looking for a bargain so when I found my car insurance for £120.96 I thought I was doing well.

"But when I also got £120 cashback I realised I had done really, really well. Can anyone beat that?"

What's more, her cover is good. It is a comprehensive deal that includes a courtesy car if her motor is out of action and a protected no claims bonus.

Additionally, there will be no voluntary excess to pay if she makes a claim (the amount deducted from any payout).

Barbara also paid a voluntary £2.42 credit card charge, but that fee would have been waived had she paid by debit card.

Martin Lewis, creator of MoneySavingExpert.com, says: "While many report getting insurance for under £100 following the system, we thought the previous £14 record was near invincible, so it's wobbly legs time to see Barbara's 96p price."

"The real hope is to find someone who gets PAID to get motor insurance. This has happened many times with home insurance (see the Cheap Home Insurance guide).

"The current record is a £67 profit as the cashback was higher than the policy cost."

[Rolfe]

This is batsh!t insane!

Rolfe.

[p3asa]

Its dog eat dog out there Rolfe 

[VWKev]

96p bloody hell.

[am1w]

So it was cheaper through confused.com for the same cover?

Yes.  Significantly.

The other day I only looked at confused.com and comparethemarket.com.  The former gave me a better choice of options, although it was a few pounds dearer, so that was where I went to make my final selection.  I'm not that fussed over a few pounds here or there, but when it gets to hundreds of pounds that's a different matter.

Both comparison sites identified the RAC as the best quote.  So obviously it wasn't that my original insurer was a hugely expensive outlier as such.  I noticed that the very low prices (around £200) were for a very basic option though, and bringing it up to "RAC Insurance Plus", which is what my original quote had been for (includes things like courtesy car and vandalism cover) added about £50.  It's possible I could have got similar cover for a bit less from one of the other companies, but all else being fairly equal I decided to stick with the RAC.

I've always been suspicious of these price comparison sites though, because I imagined they'd have to get their cut from somewhere and that's usually the customer.  So I went to the RAC directly.  Registering for a quote as a new customer got me about £350 for the very basic option and about £400 for the Plus version (the page had expired before I noted the exact amounts).

I went back to confused.com and got £191 for the no-frills option and about £249 for the very same policy as I already have - the one they quoted me a "best price" of £609.88 for, as a renewal.

This is all completely insane.

Rolfe.

Thanks Rolfe.
This is so good of you.
I will certainly follow this through now.
Still waiting for Greenlight to respond!
More like Redlight! Hopeless.

[Rolfe]

If the other posters are right about quidco.com, then it's possible I could have had the same policy for about £180.  As opposed to £610.

Makes you think.

Rolfe.

[keelaw]

Insurance companies having been using brokers as distribution channels for their products for years and years.  Its equivalent to having an army of salespeople travelling the country selling insurance.

These price comparison sites are just acting like a super efficient version of the traditional high street insurance broker (eg remember hill house hammond?).  So nothing new as a concept, just executed in a different manner via the magic of the internet. 

I learnt a little about cash back sites last night talking to a friend in online marketing. Apparently they will act much like a broker and will pass back the commission they would normally get to the customer. What's in it for the cash back site then? Well apparently that site you go to pay for your insurance will actually result in payment to the cash back site who then sit on the cash for a while before passing it on. The interest earnt on that cash is retained by the cash back site.

So all in all its perfectly rational business really


(Though the 96p example is a cool outlier that highlights where the left hand (underwriter) doesn't know what the right hand is doing (sales) much to the annoyance of the brain (the Board!))

[p3asa]

Cashback sites like Quidco also make money by charging their customers £5 per annum from their cashback which would be a considerable amount considering the amount of customers it has.

I know it is the same end result but if quidco charged me £5 before joining I probably wouldn't have joined but the fact they only take it off your earnings means you have nothing to lose.

In the 3 years or so I've been with them I've had £452 back.

[am1w]

Cashback sites like Quidco also make money by charging their customers £5 per annum from their cashback which would be a considerable amount considering the amount of customers it has.

I know it is the same end result but if quidco charged me £5 before joining I probably wouldn't have joined but the fact they only take it off your earnings means you have nothing to lose.

In the 3 years or so I've been with them I've had £452 back.

Thanks p3asa.
Quidco is truly amazing.
My car insurance keeps getting cheaper and cheaper.

[p3asa]

No bother.
There are a few other affiliate sites that might give even more back than quidco.

I also use quidco for buying from ebay. Its 40% from what ebay makes which doesn't work out that much but it isn't long in building up.

The best deals on Quidco seem to be phones and insurance. Buying a Three Mobile got me £100 back