3 May 2010
(source: in-house)
Car Insurance Search
The car insurance search that most favour in the UK is conducted by an
automated system. You simply enter your details once and that system
generates lots of prices in an instant. The system in question, of
course, is an aggregator, as deployed by price comparison sites, the
country's favourite way to buy cover.
The trouble with this type of car
insurance search, however, is that it typically skews people's policy
selections towards the cheaper end of the scale. The car insurance
policies that top the list of results presented by aggregators are the
cheapest prices around. As, potentially, the cheapest of 1000s of
prices, such policies are very much in the 'no frills' camp even if you
don't buy the absolute cheapest quote presented.
When an automated car insurance
search presents such a policy and
it is selected purely on the basis of price without consideration of
the policy features - and this is not an uncommon scenario for many
that 'just want to get on with it' - it should be no surprise that if a
claim is needed, such a policy may turn out to be far from cheap to the
consumer.
Cheap policies found via a powerful car
insurance search system are
characterised by a high excess, numerous exclusions and only a bare
minimum of inclusions. The only way that car insurance companies can
make them so cheap is to pass costs back to the insured person. The
cheaper the policy, the greater this requirement and consequently the
more of a false economy thie type of cover becomes in an accident.
People tend to overlook that price comparison sites offer no quality
endorsements with their cheapest quotes. Their only strength - which
for the reasons outlined above may be better seen as a weakness - is
that they help you to identify the cheapest prices when you use them
for your car insurance search.
If, at this point, it is accepted that quality of cover mattters, then
a case can be put for using direct motor insurer listings in preference
to an aggreagator system for a car
insurance search. If you stick to the market leaders, competitive
pricing is automatic while the standard policies tend not to let you
down in an accident. Their quote forms are even
quicker to fill out.
When you undertake a car insurance search, it is undoubtedly unwise to
simply choose the cheapest quote without stopping to consider what
you're getting. There are a lot of basic policies out there, few, if
any, of which represent a sound buy when you select your cover.
|