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The car insurers you won't find on comparison sites
Discover which of our recommended policies are only available direct from providers
With car insurance premiums now beginning to fall, price comparison websites are one of the ways to find the most competitive prices.
But while they're an indispensable tool for getting a sense of what insurers have to offer – and how your insurer's renewal offer compares – they don't reveal all policies. In fact, one of our three Which? Recommended Providers (WRP) doesn't appear on them at all.
In November 2024, we reviewed and rated over 70 car insurance policies. Here, we show you which of these won't be quoted on comparison websites, how they compare to those that are, and how using a comparison website could still help you track down the best deal.
The policies you have to buy direct
Of 76 policies we assessed, 11 were only available directly from the insurer. We've listed these in the table below ranked by 'policy score', our unique rating of how comprehensive the policy's cover levels are. The higher the score, the better. You can see the scores for all the policies we rated in our guide to the best car insurance.
The Plus policy from Saga earned the joint highest score awarded in our analysis at 77%, while its Select policy and the car insurance policy from NFU Mutual were also among the top five.
NFU Mutual's policy and the standard car insurance policy from Aviva were two of our Best Buys, an accolade awarded to high-scoring policies from providers with good track records when it comes to claims service.
Click on the links in the table to read our in-depth reviews of each individual provider.
| Policy | Policy score (average = 61%) | Best Buy |
|---|---|---|
| Saga Plus | 77% | |
| Saga Select | 76% | |
| NFU Mutual Car Insurance | 75% | Yes |
| Tesco Insurance Gold | 72% | |
| Aviva Car insurance | 70% | Yes |
| Direct Line Comprehensive Plus | 70% | |
| Co-op Car Insurance | 68% |
In November 2024, we surveyed 31 insurers and rated 76 of their policies. The 11 policies listed could only be purchased directly at the time of the analysis. The policy score reflects how comprehensive each one is generally, based on our assessment of 79 areas of its cover. The average score shown is of all policies, available both on and off comparison websites.
Do insurers keep their 'best' products off comparison websites?
Our average policy score for policies available through comparison websites is 59%. This compares with an average score of 67% for policies that can only be bought directly, suggesting that when it comes to levels of cover, standards are higher among policies reserved for direct customers.
Policies from NFU Mutual, one of our three Which? Recommended Providers (WRPs), can only be purchased over the phone. WRP status is given to insurers that receive excellent feedback from customers who have claimed, as well as offering good levels of cover in their standard policy.
Comparison site vs direct-only policies
Of the seven providers in the table with direct-only policies, five also offered other policies through comparison websites. With four of these – Aviva, Co-op, Saga and Tesco – the best-scoring of their policies were their direct-only ones.
Aviva, for example, has four policies – Standard, Premium, Online and Zero. Aviva Standard is exclusively available directly, while the other three can only be bought through comparison websites. While Aviva Premium achieved a respectable score of 65%, Standard – with 70% – was the only Aviva policy to meet our criteria for Best Buy status.
In December 2024, Direct Line – which has historically not appeared on comparison websites at all – launched three new policies through the comparison site Compare the Market. However, as this development occurred after our analysis, we've not yet had a chance to compare these policies with its existing (direct-only) range.
Understanding listings on comparison sites
While we saw a better average score among direct-only policies, it doesn't follow that first-rate policies can't be found on comparison sites.
Insurers face steep price competition on comparison sites, which can mean that many of the policies hogging the top positions in the listings are streamlined, cheaper policies aimed at buyers on a budget, such as so-called Essentials policies.
However, while they may not necessarily be as favourably positioned when ranked by price, more comprehensive policies are also available.
Most (four out of six) of the Best Buys in our full analysis were available on comparison sites. These included policies from Allianz and LV, that joined Saga Plus in earning the highest policy score we awarded of 77%.
How to use a comparison site to get the best deal
No comparison website will feature all providers, or probably even all of its providers' policies. However, these sites remain a highly effective way of finding out what sorts of offers are available on the market.
Whether you're taking out your first policy, or coming up to renewal, it's worth taking a few minutes to run a quote on a comparison site, for an idea of how reasonable your insurer's offer is compared to those from its rivals.
Doing this research can help you decide whether to accept a renewal offer, switch or speak to your insurer about its offer in light of other deals available.
According to the market research organisation Consumer Intelligence, the average quoted premium obtained through comparison websites fell by 6% in the past three months – the biggest fall in prices since it began tracking premiums in 2013.
- Find out more: how to find cheap car insurance
