Consumer Focus has responded to the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) announcement that car insurance providers have agreed to limit data exchange.
Rupert Roker, policy expert at Consumer Focus, observed that a car insurer knowing what prices a customer will be quoted by other companies is bad news for consumers.
"It reduces the chances of insurers genuinely competing on price and could end up significantly hitting the pockets of unsuspecting consumers," Mr Roker explained.
"Customers who have shopped around to get the best price will be left feeling they have got a particularly raw deal."
The OFT should now apply the same approach to other forms of insurance and extend it to all analysis tools used by the industry to ensure that consumers aren't losing out, he added.
Meanwhile, confused.com revealed recently that car insurance prices rose by 38.2 per cent in 2010.
This means that the average price paid across all age groups has risen to £695, the website said.




