Insurance work - is this a scam?

[rocker]

Hi all, I have just got off the phone with an agency who says they will give me insurance contracts, let me price up the work and bill the insurance company directly, then ask for a 2.5% cut of my final figure. They have also asked me for a £200 deposit to get me this work. To be fair, for £200 I would happily take on as much work as they could give me, but as soon as they mentioned this deposit 'which is totally refundable to you, Rocker' alarm bells started ringing. I suppose it's reasonable - I guess I could take five or six big jobs off them and never pay them and they'd want some insurance against that - but I don't know, it smells a little fishy to me.

What do you think, internet? Has anyone had any dealings with this type of agency before, and is this normal, or should I beware?

[How67ard]

why dont you enter the name of this so called agency into google and see what comes up - you might be surprised

[Mark C]

Why buy work. It’s got scam written all over it. Insurance companies work with their own contractors. Homeserve being one of the bigger ones. The insurance companies client has the opportunity on occasions to choose there own contractors or obtain three quotes for the works and then the insurance company chooses from that but I’ve never heard of this. If it was me I’d be very sceptical.