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Thread: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

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    Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    Hi all

    Just wanted to know what peoples opinions of comparison sites. If looking for new home insurance for example do these sites give genuinely good cheaper quotes than say going direct? If people have had good experiences with them, any in particular very good for home insurance over the others, can you recommend any above the rest?

    Lastly, on the couple of sites i was going to check, it seems you have to "sign up" just to check quotes. I can understand giving address etc for accurate quotes, but i notice in the terms and conditions of signing up that they can share your details with trusted 3rd parties etc. Just wanted to know if after using these sites for getting quotes you have been flooded with junk mail/advertising etc? Since moving to present address we have done well to get lots of old legacy paper junk mail stopped, (think the old owners signed up to every single referral service out there) don't really want to go back to that just for signing up to check quotes etc

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    jim
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    Re: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    I followed the advice on Moneysavingexpert when my mum needed to renew the home and contents insurance, and did comparisons on 2 or 3 different sites - they rank them there to give you an idea of where it's best to start off to make sure you get best coverage of all the different insurers.

    We found the cheapest deal, with £60 cashback on top of that, and went to complete it - but at the last minute the T&Cs added something in about an alarm, so we had to cancel. However, thanks to one of the cashback sites, we got a load of calls from insurance companies saying they'd like to offer us their best deal. So she told them that she'd been given a quote for X, but couldn't do it because she had no alarm - they offered to match the price, with all of the correct terms.

    So yes, there were quite a few marketing calls, but ultimately saved about 50% compared to renewing with the same company - and once she'd signed up, she just had a call or two each day for a week, where she told them her insurance was already sorted and they disappeared. Considering the amount of money saved, fielding a few calls wasn't really a big deal.

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    Re: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    Quote Originally Posted by snootyjim View Post
    ....

    So yes, there were quite a few marketing calls, but ultimately saved about 50% compared to renewing with the same company - and once she'd signed up, she just had a call or two each day for a week, where she told them her insurance was already sorted and they disappeared. Considering the amount of money saved, fielding a few calls wasn't really a big deal.
    That's a personal decision we each have to make. Personally, I don't want telemarketing calls at home. Not any, not from anyone, not about anything. To that end, I simply don't give out my home phone number. I certainly don't put it on cashback websites. If such sites insist on a number, I tend to give them the number for the Information Commissioner's Office.

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    Re: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    I've used Gocompare many times for car insurance, when they ask for a telephone number just put your mobile number, or in my case and old number from a sim i no longer use, seems to work a treat and gives me time to think about the results before any of them start hassling me to take out a policy
    Insert signature here.


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    Re: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    The only time I've ever had calls from price comparison sites was when buying car insurance, and then it was only one company. They had actually provided the cheapest quote for fully comp, but I was only getting a quote for a car I was idly considering buying, and in any case I always get TPFT on the basis that if I crash my car by driving like an idiot that's my own lookout (11 years later and with 7 years NCB (I haven't always had a car) I've yet to regret it).

    But anyway yes, you may get the odd call if you use a comparison site to buy insurance. But AFAIK I've never had random junk mail/ telemarketing calls as a result, just calls from companies offering the product I was using the comparison site to buy. I'm pretty sure that you can untick the 'trusted third parties' box as you can with most other things. And I do believe that I've saved a lot of money using price comparison websites; I don't have home contents insurance, but for car and travel insurance they've always come up with much cheaper quotes than I've found by phoning around. Last year the wife and I got a joint yearlong worldwide travel insurance policy for about 35 quid, which covered two holidays, to Spain and Antigua. I'm pretty sure that when I went to Japan in 2001 I paid at least 30 quid just for one person for two weeks....

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    Re: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    Quote Originally Posted by Rave View Post
    ....

    But anyway yes, you may get the odd call if you use a comparison site to buy insurance. But AFAIK I've never had random junk mail/ telemarketing calls as a result, just calls from companies offering the product I was using the comparison site to buy. I'm pretty sure that you can untick the 'trusted third parties' box as you can with most other things. And I do believe that I've saved a lot of money using price comparison websites; I don't have home contents insurance, but for car and travel insurance they've always come up with much cheaper quotes than I've found by phoning around. Last year the wife and I got a joint yearlong worldwide travel insurance policy for about 35 quid, which covered two holidays, to Spain and Antigua. I'm pretty sure that when I went to Japan in 2001 I paid at least 30 quid just for one person for two weeks....
    Personally, though, I don't want unsolicited calls at home (and even less on my mobile) even if it's from companies selling things I'm looking for on a comparison site. If I want to talk to a given company, my attitude is that I'll call them, when I want to and when it's convenient.

    One reason is that the times that are highly inconvenient to me often seem to be when they decide to call. I don't want to be pestered while I'm having my dinner, I don't want to be woken up an hour after I got to bed having been working all night, and I don't want to be phoned while I'm in the bath. Etc.

    Next, and I'm sure you know this anyway, Rave, cheapest isn't necessarily best or most appropriate. Especially with insurance, you have to check the policy, and often quite carefully, to be sure that the "cheapest" is giving you like-for-like cover. Of course, it may be that a cheaper policy with less cover is what you want, and that's fine providing you know what you're getting. But as far as I'm concerned, that means me checking out their product before talking to them on the phone, because I know that most companies will tell me the bits that will encourage me to buy, but won't volunteer the bits that might stop me. So, I do my research which might include a comparison site, build an initial short list, check out their offerings and only then, at a convenient time, talk to them on the phone.

    Hence my stance earlier ..... I don't care how good their product is, or how much money it might save me, I don't want telemarketing calls, even if I have spoken to the company before. I don't even want telemarketing calls from companies I buy from regularly and, more than once, have stopped using a company because they would not stop pestering me at home with offers despite being repeatedly asked, then bluntly told, then screamed at, to not call me. BT, for instance, are on that list.

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    Re: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    Depnds on the industry. But confused.com and money supermarket have saved me a lot of cash over the years. I don't remember having to give out any more info than you normally would on an application form.

    As for telemarketing calls, I signed the whole family and friends circle to TPS a few years ago..It's free !
    http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/
    Society's to blame,
    Or possibly Atari.

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    Re: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    That's a personal decision we each have to make. Personally, I don't want telemarketing calls at home. Not any, not from anyone, not about anything. To that end, I simply don't give out my home phone number. I certainly don't put it on cashback websites. If such sites insist on a number, I tend to give them the number for the Information Commissioner's Office.
    I just fill in with a string of 0, so long as there a uniform number there the form can't complain. So whats that commissioners number then?

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    Re: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    Well whatever you do, do NOT under any circumstances go to confused.com. I personally had an incredibly bad experience with them, they not only sold my details onto a third party, despite me refusing them the permission to do so and being on the telephone preference service.

    They won't even unsubscribe me from their email lists or nuisance phone calls because I can't remember the secret question I set at the time.


    This is just my experience with them, but basically I'm advising everyone I know to steer well clear of these money grabbing ******s.

    (\___/) (\___/) (\___/) (\___/) (\___/) (\___/) (\___/)
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    This is bunny and friends. He is fed up waiting for everyone to help him out, and decided to help himself instead!

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    Re: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    Quote Originally Posted by stringent View Post
    ....
    So whats that commissioners number then?
    01625 545700

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    Re: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    Quote Originally Posted by Phage View Post
    Depnds on the industry. But confused.com and money supermarket have saved me a lot of cash over the years. I don't remember having to give out any more info than you normally would on an application form.

    As for telemarketing calls, I signed the whole family and friends circle to TPS a few years ago..It's free !
    http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/
    I signed us upto to TPS also, i fail to see how it works, especially when they, an i quote from their site:

    If you are happy to receive telemarketing calls from some companies but not others, contact the companies who you do not wish to hear from and ask them to remove your details from their call lists.
    You have to contact the companies manually before/after signing for TPS. That seems to defeat the purpose.
    Insert signature here.


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    Re: Comparison Sites - trusted 3rd parties

    The way it works, Yosh, is that most organisations, including companies and charities, are under a legal obligation not to contact TPS members unless they have your prior consent, such as by virtue of a pre-existing relationship.

    So, when you sign up, you shouldn't get calls from companies other than those you've previously given consent to, and even those, if you notify them that they no longer have consent, they shouldn't call you again.

    But what that second quote refers to is that IF you sign up, it might block organisations you'd be happy to receive calls from, as well as those you don't want. For instance, you might be happy to receive calls from charities. But they'll be blocked if you sign up. So, in that case, don't sign up, and manually notify those you don't want to hear from.


    If you like, you can either :-

    1) Sign up.

    Nobody other than those you have already given consent to (even if you don't realise you have) can legally call you (for telemarketing).

    If you have already given permission, you can revoke it by telling them, and they then can't call you.

    If you are willing to receive calls from specific companies, you can given them permission.

    So, you could block everyone, then explicitly give permission to charities, if you wanted those calls.


    2) Don't sign up.

    Anybody can call you for telemarketing purposes, except those you've explicitly, manually told not to.

    So charities can call you, but so can anyone else. So to block individual companies, as per that second quote, contact them manually and individually.



    Overall, my opinion is that the TPS works pretty well. It blocks most telephone cold calls, but not quite all.

    There are three 'loopholes'.

    Loophole 1) - not everybody obeys the law, or is even aware of it.

    Loophole 2) - exactly what is "giving permission"? How about ordering from a company and giving them your phone number? Is that implicit permission? It a grey area.

    3) Other jurisdictions. The TPS only binds those subject to UK jurisdiction. It does not, for instance, bind foreign companies or foreign call centres. However, it does bind any company subject to UK jurisdiction, which may include foreign companies operating in the UK (like the UK arms of foreign banks), and it does bind UK companies using foreign call centres to do their calling. So if, for instance, ABC Ltd of London uses Delhi Telemarketing in India to do it's telesales, ABC Ltd will be liable if Delhi Telemarketing breaks the TPS in doing so. Good luck proving it though.

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