At Bel-Air direct, we know you are going to shop for car insurance, so we make it simple, by providing five quotes from the competition.

Isn't that so nice of them?

I work for an insurance company, but this isn't about competition, it's about marketing to the general public.

You go on their website, they want to 'help' you out by not having you to give information a number of times, so they will give you a quote from their competition.

Each insurance company, in Canada anyway, needs to submit rules for whom they will and will not insure and they may actually even submit the price factor.

So, say I am Bel-Air and can reasonably predict your companies premium and I put it in a chart, from lowest to highest

Company 1 $513.00
Company 2 $535.00
Company 3 $565.00
Company 4 $570.00
Company 5 $592.00
Company 6 $606.00
Company 7 $612.00
Company 8 $615.00
Company 9 $631.00
Company 10 $668.00
Company 11 $702.00

Say Bel-air direct is company #4 and have car insurance for you at $570.00.
Of these 5 competitive quotes they will provide you to give you piece of mind, which one would you give your customer?

Yeah, #s 5, 7, 8, 10, 11.

If you have to pick 5, you are going to want the ones that either have a bad name or are more expensive. Unless they don't want you as a customer anyway, in which case they are going to give you the cheaper ones.

It's not like it's illegal, they are offering you exactly what they are claiming, but boy, are they banking on some lazy customers here.

Customer "So, how much is it to repair my car?"
Mechanic "$1400 buddy"
Customer "ok, I am going to take it to another shop and price comparison"
Mechanic "You don't have to, we already did it for you, Speedy was $1500., Acme was $1650 and National Car gaugers were $1900"
Customer "wow, what a great service, I don't need to shop around then. You are saving me time and money"
Manager and accountant start to giggle in the background

Meanwhile, the car could have cost you $1100 at Firestone in Pickering, ask for Darryl (truly, I have an awesome mechanic, you don't even need to shop around, but if you did, you would still go back there.