Online car
insurance - getting it right
When you need to renew your car insurance,
most people accept that staying with the same car insurance provider
year after year leads to paying more than is necessary given that car
insurers like to attract new business by providing their best deals for
the first year of cover. It therefore is wise to shop around for the
best prices every year.
These days, everyone knows about price comparison sites and their
ability to find low cost deals. People like a bargain and are
attracted to the power and ease of use of these services that can check
many thousands of prices via a single form.
Their ability to help you to go extremely cheap does not mean that it
is wise to do so, however. It ought to be fairly obvious that a car
insurance policy that's cheaper than 1000s of others by necessity
leaves out much that most people would hope to have as standard. You
can also expect a high excess.
Why then do so many people buy the cheapest car insurance that they can
find via a price comparison site?
Perhaps some of them simply haven't thought through the implications of
buying very budget car insurance. They see the low price as reason
enough to select the policy.
Others may take the view that having not needed to claim for some
years, that they are willing to go cheap in the expectation of never
claiming on a policy that they recognise to be basic but which they
don't expect to need to use.
Still others may be blissfully ignorant of how much car insurance
policies vary and so they decide to buy the cheapest in the erroneous
belief that they're all much the same, so they may as well save their
money.
Whatever the reason, there's no doubting that the UK loves to use price
comparison sites and quality of cover is treated as much less important
than saving money.
While all of this is understandable, it is somewhat cavalier to see the
policy features as of peripheral importance. Many of those that have
had their fingers burned by buying budget car insurance through a price
comparison system return to a direct car insurance provider next time
around only too aware that when you go too cheap you pay much more
yourself in an accident.
Indeed, around a third of those that last used a price comparison site
will go direct next time. This bounce back to direct car insurance,
away from price comparison sites, is likely to gain momentum year on
year as it is really the only way to build in proper quality control.
Certainly, we see price comparison sites, despite their popularity, as
better reserved for those drivers that might otherwise expect to pay
much more for their cover. These would include the young driver, the
new driver or someone without any no claims bonus.
For the rest of us, it pays to build in quality from the outset and
only tried and tested, well-established, mainstream insurance companies
can do this while also offering a price guarantee for like policies.
In our view, it's time for the UK to reconsider how it buys car
insurance. Whether you're convinced by these arguments or not, you'll
find both price comparison and direct car insurance services via this
UK car
insurance outlet.
Whichever route you elect to go down, be it price comparison or direct
car insurance, always ensure that you know what you're getting in terms
of the policy features and aim to not compromise too far in order to
save a little money. Sooner or later, you're likely to regret it. More..
|