A look at how to get online
motor insurance in this country
In
this article, we'll set out why the UK's favourite route to cover - the
so-called aggregator or price comparison site - is not the most prudent
way to buy motor insurance online.
There are those that have never used an aggregator service and around a
third that have return to buying direct motor insurance next time
around. There is therefore a substantial body of people that use direct
online motor insurance services for the kinds of reasons that we will
outline here. But, it remains the case that many either ignore or have
not considered what we will now discuss which, had they done so, might
well have changed their online motor insurance buying behaviour.
At a superficial level - where price is seen as the only important
aspect of online motor insurance policy selection - it's hard to fault
price comparison sites. They make it easy to quickly compare loads of
prices and you can't do this as powerfully in any other way. If you
want the cheapest quote, you need a price comparison site.
And yet, why would you want to buy a policy that's cheaper than 1000s
of others? Even without looking at the cover, it's obvious that it will
leave a lot to be desired. Price comparison sites like to boast about
constantly increasing the number of insurance companies on their
panels, but by increasing their power, they reduce the relative quality
at the cheapest end of the pricing range.
If you buy a cheap TV you will always face the consequences of this
poor choice. The same cannot be said of car insurance. Indeed, you may
well get away with a poor choice of insurance. But, to rely on good
luck to deliver the best outcome, is a faulty approach to buying motor
insurance. The whole point of buying insurance is to cover you
effectively if you have bad luck and a claim becomes necessary.
If it is accepted that you need to include a quality component to your
policy choice, and that buying the cheapest on a price comparison site
cannot do this, how does this impact on the use of price comparison
sites if you aim to improve quality control?
Well, price comparison sites are getting better at providing some
policy information. It is possible to get an idea of what's on offer
but only in summarised form. If you want to compare policies with
relatively good cover as standard on a price comparison site, without
going direct to the insurance company websites, it's hard to know
exactly what you're getting and therefore exactly how different
policies compare.
However, if you go direct to a well-known online motor insurance
provider in the first place, you will automatically get good cover as
standard. If you compare
car
insurance via this
portal
site
that includes the key policy features from the big providers, you'll
see this point illustrated. Thus, for quality of cover, it's most
effective to go direct. But what about price comparisons?
Well, it's a popular but erronious myth that you need to compare prices
from loads of providers. It's better to select direct from quality
insurance providers on the basis of the cover because the market, in
fact, ensures that prices are close for like products. If you don't
accept this, check a few of the top insurers via the above portal site
- you can fill in their quote forms in only a minute or so - you'll
soon see how closely priced they are.
The key is to check the cover carefully and to not let price act
against your better judgement when determining your must-have policy
features. More..
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