Surely it should be possible to get an insurance quote anonymously?

[krummyday]

When getting car/home insurance quotes, you have to enter a lot of personal information. Most of the information is relevant to the quote, but personal details like your name, contact details and exact address (rather than just postcode) usually aren't. They don't need to email me the quote - I'm happy to just see it on screen and perhaps download it - but of course they want my contact details for profiling and data mining. I'd prefer to only give these details to the company I decide to purchase from, not all the others.

In the past I used false names and throwaway email addresses, but now they seem to recognise that and tell me (after filling in the whole form) that they can't give me a quote.

Does this bother you too? I feel it should be a legal right to get a quote with only the minimum data required.

Part of the quote will be assessing you as an individual. They will want to check your claims history on the insurance database that they all use.

Part of your risk profile is wether you keep changing details.

If you won’t even be honest about your name why would they trust anything else you claim?

Don’t use an aggregator then - go directly to the companies you want to check prices from and only put your information in there. That’ll keep it safe.

like pp said they need to verify your information to help identify fraud

Does this bother you too?

No, I have never had anything negative happen in years of doing insurance quotes. What's to bother about?

Are you really that daft? All those details are totally relevant to an insurance quote.

But part of getting insurance is based on your personal details - your age, the area you live in etc.

How do you expect to get an accurate quote if you don't tell them that?

OP I don't think you understand insurance pricing... your name will be used to check CUE & other insurance databases including for any fraudulent claims. You'll also find the terms of the site state you need to use accurate information to obtain a quote. Your exact address may be linked to previous claims so of course it's relevant

Sometimes you don't want an actual quote, you just want to find out what would happen if you bought this car as opposed to that car, for example. And it would be nice to be able to do that with correct details , but not name , full address, correct date of birth.

But you're on an online site asking for a quote, if you don't want a quote don't access the site. 'Wanting to know what would happen' in relation to cost of changing insurance IS getting a quote, and to do that they need your full details.

I agree with you OP. I hate having to give a phone number, as well as address and email. Address is fine as they do need that but I should only be asked for email or phone once I have accepted it.

I agree with you OP - I’ve been looking at life insurance recently, put my details into Money Supermarket, and as a result have been getting multiple calls a day from various brokers trying to flog me stuff (not just life insurance, they’ve been trying to get me to sign up for their mortgage services, new phone contract, change gas suppliers - Money Supermarket have obviously passed my details on to anyone who wants it).

It is really offputting - I got 10 calls on Friday alone. Honestly I’ll put fake details in next time and then apply directly with the company once I’ve got a quote.

I get what you mean - recently changed car and got quite frustrated trying to get an idea of costs to insure a couple of different options

No, they don't need your full details. They need to know you're 63, not whether you were born on 5th April or 17th April. They may need your full postcode but not whether you're at no 18 or no 3. They don't need to know whether your surname is Brown or Smith.

When you get as far as actually buying the insurance, they'll need all this.

I suppose what I would like is the equivalent of getting an estimate.

Insurers use all sorts of information. It's not particularly ethical, but for car insurance, women with children working part time (and not doing 10 journeys a week in rush hour) pay among the smallest premiums, and there are numerous articles online about "ethnic" penalties based on your name.

I agree they don't need a phone number. But there was one study where using a gmail vs hotmail address added to the premium!

But you can't find out what will happen if you buy a certain car unless you put your details in, as they're what the quotes are based on 🙈

Insurance prices are based on silly stuff like that, though.

House A may be an address that's been the victim of multiple thefts in the past, whereas House B at the other end of the road may never have had any issues, for example.

It may not be ethical but it's how it works.

I agree.
I used to mess around with quotes like this. Sometimes to find out how much the price goes up if you have points, for example, or at different addresses, or with different job titles. Mainly I am just curious how their algorithms work

Even aside from the fact that the details are relevant, do you not think you sound exceptionally entitled to say “I want to use a service provided by someone else for free and I think it’s unacceptable they’ve asked for my email address in order to provide me with the free service that I want from them”?

Don’t want to give your details? Fine. Don’t use their service.

If you want to know how much car A will increase your premium compared with car B, exact house is less relevant, I doubt they'll say "premium uplift for car A because this house has had several claims, but no premium uplift for car B even though this house had several claims." Yes, they need data, they don't need 100% precise data. And you won't get a 100% accurate quote either. But that's OK because you weren't looking for one.

Yes, they may charge an uplift for certain makes and models - because insurance costs are based on all sorts of different details - including the risk of theft.

If their database tells them that X model of car has been broken into 20 times in the past five years at (address) but Y model has never been broken into, then model X will likely cost more to insure, even if all the other details are the same.

No, not particularly, because it's not a free service, is it? Someone is paying for it, presumably the insurance companies once they get a click through from the site, so the site owners actually want me to use their site rather than some other comparison site. And once I've done my playing around, I'll be coming back to put in accurate details for an accurate quote and they'll get their commission.

I certainly don't feel any more entitled than someone who uses the free service on three different comparison sites, or uses the comparison site for a quote then contacts the insurance company directly.

Having contemplated this over the day I think you should use a broker. Mine is almost always cheaper than the comparison sites and goes round a number of underwriters to find the cheapest policy.

The irony being that the chances are that you typed your OP into a phone which knows FAR more about you and your online activity than any insurance company ever will

Anyone who marked this as a yabu on the grounds that insurance companies "need to know" someone's name, house number and contact details is wrong. They don't. I partially concede to those who say I shouldn't expect something for nothing, but only partially, because it's not just the comparitor sites that do this - individual companies are doing it too. I tried a big name insurer today, using completely correct details apart from name, house number, phone number and email address and it wouldn't give me a quote.

Not ironic at all. I choose and control the information I put into my phone carefully. I also choose and control the information I give to potential insurers carefully. Are you saying that because I give X to the former I shouldn't mind also giving X to the latter? There is no logic in that argument.