Endsleigh

I am in the process of collecting insurance quotes for my car, and as I am a student (in name, if nothing else) I decided to try Endsleigh as they have links to the NUS and offer student discounts.

In the past I've always narrowed the list of companies and brokers in the following manner:
1) Only call those with freephone numbers.
2) Look for brokers/insurers who say they'll beat any quote and then play them off against each other

This year I've decided to use websites as this means that I can appear to be working when actually I am not! A visit to a few motoring websites (autotrader, fish4cars etc) yielded a few likely sites so off I went, into the cyber-wilderness

Endsleigh was the first choice because as I've said, I'm a student and they give student discounts. The online quote came to £301. I was that impressed that I nearly spilt my coffee (nearly). Now, my situation isn't going to be identical to everyone else's, but as a guide, last year's premium (Norwich Union Direct) was about 420 pounds with a 250 pound excess. Given that Endsleigh only wanted a 100 pound excess, this was good stuff.

A few websites later showed that no-one could touch that price, the nearest ones coming to about 450 pounds! Great stuff! Ten minutes later I was phoned by Darren from Endsleigh who wanted to be my new best friend. Personally, I prefer coolly efficient, but for the price, I can handle a complete stranger calling me by my first name. He took me through the details he had in front of him (a couple of minor errors, including the year of manufacture and number of years No Claims Bonus and the revised price was £380. Errm, so what changed the price? I gave you that information online, so either there is a problem with your system or you are trying to fiddle me. He then explained the process by which they are better than everyone else and tried to fast-track me into buying the policy. Well, he doesn't know this, but until next month I don't have the money. So I told him I'd like to keep looking and would like a reference number. Darren (great bloke, we're going out for a drink later if you want to come) gave me his 'personal' number (which oddly was a freephone number) and told me that he'd call back in a couple of days to see if he'd decided.

I assume he works on commission. Still a good price, though.

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.............Update..............

Well, no one could touch Endsleigh's price, so when they rang me back I said that I was a bit disappointed about the increase in price. I am very glad that I did this: Darren went to fetch his manager to see if he could offer me any more discount. He said he could knock 40 pounds off the price! Well, obviously people who haggle are lower insurance risks (take note Connoisseur_Haggler)!

That is certainly a technique that I shall be using every time I need to buy car insurance and I would urge everyone else to do the same. The meek might inherit the Earth, but the rest of us can get cheaper car insurance.