Gabi insurance comparison: is it satisfactory?
Like most insurance comparison websites, Gabi is an online tool that allows users to shop around for insurance policies with several providers at once. Recently acquired by Experian, Gabi offers assisted shopping for a wide variety of insurance products, including auto, home, renters, condo, landlord, umbrella, RV and motorcycle insurance. Gabi offers one of the more extensive lists of available products when compared to other comparison sites.
Gabi claims it can save users up to $960 per year, and customer quotes prominently displayed on their website show that their users have experienced a range of savings. Gabi promotes the same philosophy as many of its competitors, promising to assist users with their insurance shopping needs and not sell consumer information. Read on to learn more about how Gabi works and how it stacks up against similar insurance comparison sites.
- Gabi works with 40+ companies to compare quotes for applicants, but its results page leaves something to be desired.
- While Gabi is a relative newcomer in the insurance space, it was acquired by fintech company Experian after six years in business.
- Gabi's quote process takes about 5 minutes per insurance product, and customers can purchase policies online or over the phone.
- Gabi promises to never sell personally identifiable information to lead generation sites or third-party agencies.
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How does Gabi work?
Gabi gathers quotes from 40+ insurance providers to simplify the shopping experience. Gabi users upload a copy of their current declarations page to the quote tool to compare the exact limits of their current policy to that of a different provider in the hopes of receiving a more affordable quote. It’s worth noting that if you choose to upload your declarations page, Gabi agents manually review it and quotes can take up to 48 hours to receive. Otherwise, you can fill in your current policy limits manually and receive your results within minutes.
The Experian and Gabi partnership
In late 2022, fintech giant Experian acquired Gabi and the two have since enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership. This move by Experian (a consumer credit reporting agency) satisfies its desire to expand into the insurance space. Additionally, an acquisition by an established company like Experian should allow Gabi to improve its services, user experience, and reach.
The Gabi homepage
Gabi takes after similar comparison sites in how they have structured their homepage. Not unlike Compare.com, Insurify, and The Zebra, Gabi users are confronted with the quote tool as soon as they enter the site. Instead of a ZIP code field, Gabi’s link sends you right into the funnel where you start answering questions and filling out information. It appears as though the home page quote link only compares home and auto insurance policies; shoppers looking for other insurance products will have to navigate elsewhere.
Customers have several opportunities to enter the quote process as Gabi links to it four times on the homepage alone. Sprinkled throughout are customer reviews, examples of the insurance companies they work with, and frequently asked questions.
The Gabi quote comparison experience
After clicking on the quote link, a new window appears and you begin entering your information. Gabi asks for standard contact information, starting with your name, birth date, phone number, address and email address. You must verify your phone number with a code sent via text message to continue through the process.
Other information they require includes your employment status and the line of work you are in. Gabi also asks whether you rent or own your home.
The next steps involve your vehicle and car insurance information. Gabi asks for the year, make and model of your vehicle, what your current provider is and how long you have been insured. Gabi wants to know how much you currently pay for your policy and with what frequency (monthly, every six months, yearly). You may also self-report any accidents, tickets or claims before receiving your quote.
At this point, you can upload a PDF of your current declarations page to match the quotes to your coverage or input them manually. You can opt to add your homeowners information as well if you are interested in purchasing a bundle. The process takes about 5 minutes to complete per insurance product.
Gabi quoting and discounts
It doesn’t appear that Gabi takes any discount opportunities into consideration. Other comparison sites may prompt users to select facts about their circumstances or driving history applicable to common discounts, but our tester saw nothing of the sort with Gabi.
Learn more about common car insurance discounts.
Gabi results page
With no bells and whistles to distract from the quote, Gabi’s results page is a simple list of insurance companies that match your profile and their estimated rates. The simplicity of the results page may work for minimalists, but it lacks the customization opportunities that other comparison platforms offer. Without much guidance in coverage options, the applicant is at risk of purchasing too much or too little protection.
Upon selecting a provider, you can verify your information and continue on to the purchasing process. The next page asks for more specific information like your driver’s license number and vehicle identification number (VIN). This information will verify your driving history and display any accidents or violations that may contribute to your quote.
Buying a policy with Gabi
At this stage, you are ready to purchase your policy. For those who wish to complete the whole process online, this is ideal. There was no option on the purchasing page to speak to an agent over the phone, but the Gabi homepage advertises that you may call or text an agent. It’s possible this option may be available, but you would have to navigate away from the results page to find the phone number. You could request a live chat online, but we are unsure if the respondent is a bot or a customer service representative.
It’s worth noting that our tester only received one quote after inputting the information of a standard driver in accordance with our methodology. For a single male in his 30s with no accidents or violations, it is surprising to only see one carrier. On top of that, the quote that was given exceeded the sample rate of the current policy.
Based on this test, Gabi users should not reasonably expect a long list of quotes or available carriers. After spending time filling out your information, searching for your current policy documents and uploading a PDF, applicants may find themselves disappointed in the limited results.
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How does Gabi handle your personal information?
Gabi promises to protect your personal information by never selling it to lead generation sites or third parties. A highlight from their homepage states that their service is “spam-free and secure”, and an FAQ answer details how personal information is kept encrypted to restrict unauthorized access.
More on personal information protection:
Upon further inspection of Gabi’s Privacy Policy, they state that they may share information to third parties that is no longer personally identifiable. They may also provide aggregate user information to partners who use that data to determine shopper preferences and adjust services to better meet customer needs. This sharing of information is anonymized and not meant for spamming customers with texts, calls or emails from insurance companies or partners, but for better optimized experiences.
Gabi customer reviews
Gabi’s customer reviews from prominent websites are inconsistent. Among 89 reviews on Yelp, 34 give them only 1 star. Despite an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau[1], customer reviews indicate less than satisfactory results. Google reviewers seem to have a hit-or-miss experience; when sorting by most recent reviews, ratings were typically 1 or 5 stars with little in between.
| Rating site | Average rating (out of 5 stars) |
|---|---|
| Yelp | 3 |
| Better Business Bureau | 1.59 |
| TrustPilot | 3.5 |
| Google reviews | 4.7 |
Gabi vs. The Zebra
As an insurance comparison platform, Gabi and The Zebra look fairly similar. Both companies work with a variety of insurance companies to match the most affordable quote to the user. Gabi and The Zebra do not replace insurance companies, nor is either an insurance provider. Both companies are insurance brokers who employ licensed agents to sell policies on behalf of the insurance carriers with which we partner.
Both Gabi and The Zebra pledge to never sell your information to third parties. We make money through our partnerships with insurance companies via commission, and both our tools are free to use.
The main difference between Gabi and The Zebra lies in the quoting process. Gabi aims to provide a quote within the exact specification of your current policy by asking for a PDF of your insurance coverage. The Zebra also asks what your desired coverages are, but our results page lists four different coverage levels with each quote so users can see which limits give them the best bang for their buck.
While Gabi states they can compare many companies' quotes at once, the results page only listed one insurance carrier in our test. This conclusion is not only surprising, but could also leave many users unsatisfied. The test profile used aligns with a standard car insurance customer, a single male in his 30s driving a Honda Accord. In accordance with The Zebra's methodology, this profile is used heavily to inform our data across the site. In theory, this sample profile should be easy to insure and many providers should be offering policies, yet Gabi's results page only displayed one result with a mid-level company. The Zebra results page yielded more quotes than Gabi's did in our test.
Another key difference is our partnerships. The Zebra, founded in 2012, works with over 100 insurance companies to provide quotes. The slightly younger Gabi (founded in 2016) partners with 40+ insurance companies at this time. More partnerships mean more coverage possibilities for the customer, which is evidenced by the difference in results from The Zebra and Gabi.
Gabi FAQs
Gabi compares quotes from several auto insurance providers at once so you don’t have to. Gabi also advertises its ability to assist with multiple types of insurance, including home, renters, condo, landlord and umbrella insurance. Policies can be purchased online after filling out information through their quote tool. Gabi uses your current insurance policy to offer quotes for the same coverage, so you know you’re comparing apples to apples.
Both companies operate very similarly by comparing quotes from multiple insurance companies after users have inputted pertinent information. Gabi and The Zebra both have in-house insurance agencies where licensed agents can sell policies directly to customers.
Neither Gabi nor The Zebra sells customer information, but Gabi does ask users for a phone number that they must verify with an authentication code in order to continue in the quote process. The Zebra does not ask for a phone number.
Despite the claim that Gabi partners with over 40 companies to provide multiple quotes, our tester only received one result upon completion of the questionnaire. The Zebra's results page, however, gives the user many possible options from available companies to level of coverage. With Gabi, the results list policies of your current coverage levels only.
Pros of Gabi:
Gabi’s website and quote process is simple and easy to understand. Gabi’s ability to compare quotes for a variety of insurance products helps it stand out from competitors. Its commitment to keeping your personal information safe and refraining from selling to other companies satisfies customers’ preference for privacy.
Cons of Gabi:
Despite Gabi’s claim that the company works with 40+ insurance providers, our tester only recieved one quote from a mid-level company, and the quoted price exceeded the rate our sample profile was currently paying. Gabi boasts fantastic customer reviews on its homepage, but more research indicates that customers are far less satisfied than advertised.
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About The Zebra
The Zebra is not an insurance company. We publish data-backed, expert-reviewed resources to help consumers make more informed insurance decisions.
- The Zebra’s insurance content is written and reviewed for accuracy by licensed insurance agents.
- The Zebra’s insurance editorial content is not subject to review or alteration by insurance companies or partners.
- The Zebra’s editorial team operates independently of the company’s partnerships and commercialization interests, publishing unbiased information for consumer benefit.
- The auto insurance rates published on The Zebra’s pages are based on a comprehensive analysis of car insurance pricing data, evaluating more than 83 million insurance rates from across the United States.