Been browsing around today seeing if I can save some money on car insurance, internet and cable. And looking for an apartment.
A number of sites ask for email, phone and zip code and then you get a message saying that you can call a representative, or they will call you.
Sorry. Next!
Insurance in general tends to be fairly heavily regulated. And it’s regulated at the state level in America. So that one is not surprising. There may be a requirement for personal contact, or (at the very least) the person or company behind the website may feel that it’s better for them on a professional level to insist on personal contact before giving a quote.
But the rest of your list–yeah, I can get behind you on that.
Collecting this information and reselling it to other businesses is a source of revenue for the company. Companies use this revenue source to make up for the lower prices they are charging you for their main service. Or they charge you the normal price and use this revenue source as bonus income.