Sunday, December 2, 2007

Safety Or Savings? - Striking The Right Balance


Looking back on a previous TCIB post urging people to bin their renewal to save money on car insurance it seems consumer lethargy is still a huge problem for UK motor insurance customers.

Research from Tesco Finance has found that just under one in three motorists moved their car insurance to a new provider in the last 12 months.

Even more worrying was the statistic announcing that 10% of drivers had either never switched their car insurance premium or had stayed loyal to the same insurer for over 10 years.

Those who have switched put price as one of the most important factors when choosing a car insurance quote while those who had stayed with the same provider said price was less important compared to the features and level of cover offered by their policy.

These figures create a split market, those who are concerned with saving money and those who feel prepared to pay more for the safety of ‘knowing’ they have the right policy.

Both sides make very good points. After all a motor insurance policy is there to provide protection so obtaining the right cover is hugely important.

However with the huge range of insurers now offering policies the opportunity to make a saving on your premium should not be overlooked; especially in the current climate of rising mortgage repayments and utility bills.

In my opinion a mix of the two is the ideal mentality when shopping for car insurance.

Make sure your policy has all the features you need but don’t restrict yourself to one insurer and one quote.

Loyalty is rarely rewarded in today’s market and with comparison sites such as confused.com you can easily find motor insurance policies that match your needs on both policy features and price.

So, if you currently care more about price double check that your policy offers the protection you need; the consequences of not doing so could be potentially disastrous. AND, if you haven’t switched your car insurance for a while be sure to have a look at the options available, you can easily lower your premium without compromising on quality.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Limit Your Mileage For Cheaper Car Insurance

car dashboard
Just a very quick post to highlight a very quick money saving tip:

If you’ve applied for car insurance before you’ll know the insurer/broker/comparison site always ask you’re expected annual mileage.

The answer you give has a direct impact on the cost of your car insurance premium.

However, you can use this to your advantage. Before you next apply for a car insurance policy work out how many miles you expect to drive in the next 12 months and if it’s lower than you normally say make sure you let your insurer know.

Driving fewer miles means less chance of having an accident, less chance of making a claim and, in the eyes of insurers, makes you less of a risk.

The result can be a nice little reduction in your car insurance quote. I’ve just tested this myself on moneysupermarket.com and I was able to cut my potential quote from £411 to £390, a saving of just over 5%

This is a great little saving that’s so easy to do, give it a try!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Comparethemarket.com – A TCIB Review

compare the market logo
Recently the blog received a comment from FrankPR who handle promotional campaigns for price comparison website comparethemarket.com. They were interested to know what I thought of the car insurance comparison service offered by their client.

Comparethemarket.com has been around for a couple of years now providing price comparison for a range of insurance products. The site recently underwent a facelift in preparation for a massive TV campaign to advertise their car insurance channel.

Always willing to please I made a visit to comparethemarket.com to test out their car insurance finder. Here’s what I thought…

First impressions...

…the first impression of the site is a very positive one, the layout is extremely user-friendly, taking care not to overload you with too much information, navigating to the car insurance comparison tool is simple enough even for the most novice user.

So, what about the comparison service itself...

The question set you have to fill in may well be interpreted by some as being ‘too long’. In truth I would prefer to call in thorough; the site says you can compare quotes in 4 minutes and that seems about right from the searches I performed.

One thing to remember when using price comparison websites is the more questions you answer the more accurate your quotes will be. If you want to use a service where the questions can be answered in seconds be ready to receive inaccurate questions based on many assumptions.

The comparethemarket.com question set strikes a good balance between the two. The questions are ones you would expect and there’s nothing you won’t be able to answer in your lunch hour.

On to the results...

Again the layout is easy on the eye and simple to understand. The quotes are understandably ordered by price with other primary information such as provider name and monthly cost also clearly visible. Clicking on the ‘more info’ link under each quote provides further policy details to help you make an informed decision.

Finishing your application...

The comparethemarket.com site has a promise ‘the price you see is the price you pay’. For a price comparison site this is a massive promise and one that can be very difficult to deliver.

Upon proceeding with my first application, which was a very straight forward process, the price was indeed the same as quoted, which was highly impressive given the number of accuracy complaints associated with the price comparison industry. Admittedly a few other quotes did deviate by a few pounds but overall the accuracy was commendable.

What else impressed...

A particular favourite of mine was an option on the results page to amend and recalculate your quote. You could change your cover type, excess and add/remove legal protection, breakdown cover and NCB protection and generate new quotes without having to take a backwards step. This is a great timesaver that I’m sure is well received by many customers.

The retrieve a quote option is also incredibly handy. If you don’t have time to complete your application, simply save it and return later on. One point on that, if you’ve already obtained a price you like make sure you return before the quote expiry date passes.

Areas for improvement...

When compared to the long established aggregators the number of quotes returned can be a little thin on the ground for more specialised insurance requirements. If they continue to grow I’ll be looking for comparethemarket.com to include as many providers and quotes as possible to persist in improving the service they provide.

Introducing some free guides and tips to help customers better understand their car insurance policy and the money saving options open to them would be a useful addition to the newsletter option currently offered. I would also like to see a forum introduced to increase customer interaction. As the car insurance comparison industry becomes evermore competitive customer retention will be vital to long-lasting success.

My overall opinion...

Comparethemarket.com is a welcome addition to the car insurance comparison arena. A well presented, easy to use site combined with accurate results makes for a very satisfying experience for the customer.

The site offers excellent possibilities for finding a cheaper motor insurance policy and has the potential to break the stranglehold enjoyed by the established aggregators.

Should you use it...

I would certainly add comparethemarket.com to your list of price comparison sites when searching for cheap car insurance quotes. The site is easy to use, offers a thorough comparison (for those prepared to answer the questions) and most importantly works to provide accuracy in its search results.

From my experience most people prefer one comparison service over another depending on what they’re looking for as well as their level of expectation. The next time your comparing car insurance quotes give comparethemarket.com a try and see how they stack up to any others you may have used in the past.

To learn more about comparethemarket.com visit their site.

If anyone has used comparethemarket.com to search for car insurance please share your opinions with us, good or bad, in the comments.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Mystery Surrounds Thecomparisons.com


Following the recent launch of tescocompare.com it appears another car insurance comparison site could be waiting in the wings.

Thecomparisons.com has been getting mentioned more and more in the last few weeks but we still have very little idea what the site will actually do. Although you have to admit this is a very clever way of generating buzz for a site before it’s even launched.

When first appearing on the radar, thecomparisons.com featured a
rather attractive logo of the “typical family” with a tag line promising to compare prices for the entire family.

While this has since been replaced with a more mundane “coming soon” message it has done little to dispel the intrigue surrounding the site.

With car insurance being one of the most lucrative areas of price comparison it would be a good bet that a facility to compare car insurance quotes will appear somewhere; of course we could be wrong about that.

However with one popular theory being that The AA is behind this mystery a facility to compare car insurance quotes seems a logic explanation.

So we wait in anticipation to see what thecomparisons.com has to offer, will they help people find cheaper car insurance? Or will they be another poor site in an already crowded market?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see. On a lighter note if it turns out we like thecomparisons.com then we can all be friends on their myspace page.

If anyone has any knowledge of what’s going on with thecomparisons.com please share it with us in the comments.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Tescocompare.com Enters Car Insurance Comparison Market

tescocompare logo
Today sees the introduction of the latest financial comparison website to hit the UK. Tesco have launched tescocompare.com which will initially offer a car insurance comparison service before moving into other areas.

Facing fierce competition, in an already crowded market, that includes household names such as confused.com and moneysupermarket.com; Tesco, according to managing director Peter Dingle, aim to make an impact by focusing on accurate quotes and policy details:

“We have placed great emphasis on the fact that our site not only compares price but also looks at individual policy features to allow users to make sure they are getting the right policy for them. There will be no extra costs or charges when it comes to paying your insurance, the price quoted will be the same as if the customer went direct."

It is the last part “the price quoted will be the same as if the customer went direct” that is bound to stir up intrigue within the industry. One criticism of some motor insurance comparison services is that the quotes they find sometimes differ from what is offered upon application. This is because of assumptions the aggregator sites have to make and is something they continually strive to improve.

So how does tescocompare.com aim to deliver on this promise?

The tescocompare.com site has been launched in partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland. The comparison service offered by this paring covers 25 insurance brands. They includes Churchill and Privilege; owned by RBS and Virgin Money, Lloyds TSB and Nationwide; underwritten by RBS.

By having this close control over the insurers on its panel their hope is they can provide greater accuracy. After the teething problems experienced by tescocompare.com on its debut it is hard to pass judgement on the quality of its service.

One notable absentee from the panel of compared insurers is Direct Line, one of RBS’ largest brands, who recently launched scathing attacks on the price comparison arena and appear to be sticking to their guns.

So will Tesco triumph in yet another industry? Only time will tell, they certainly have the brand power and the marketing budget but will limiting their panel to the RBS stable prove a wise move? Or will it restrict their ability to offer the cheapest car insurance quotes compared to sites such as confused who compare 95% of the market?

You decide…

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Give Me Five Minutes and I’ll Give You Cheaper Car Insurance


Sounds like I’m promising the world on a stick doesn’t it? In reality I’m talking a couple of minutes to read this post and a couple more spent taking advantage of one of the easiest money saving opportunities available when it comes to car insurance.

All you have to do is SHOP AROUND! And better still you can search for car insurance quotes online almost instantly. I say almost because you will need to answer some questions but it beats answering the same questions over and over again.

Despite the ease of online comparison many people still ring round multiple insurers to find a quote or worse still accept their annual renewal which can be a big mistake. If you’ve got a classic of high performance car then fair enough you might need a specialist insurer but for the vast majority of us a price comparison of car insurance companies can be a great money saver.

Some you will have heard of, big names such as confused.com and moneysupermarket.com have been around for years. Now there is even more choice with sites such as gocompare.com and comparethemarket.com to mention but two.

A simple Google search for car insurance will open up a plethora of comparison services, some will be better than others but the four mentioned above would be a good place to start.

So how do these sites work? Simple, you fill in one form and their search multiple car insurance companies, again some are better than others but you should be looking to get between 30 and 50 quotes inside two minutes which you have to admit is one hell of a time saver.

Give it a go and see how far you can lower your motor insurance quote.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Why You Have To Bin That Car Insurance Renewal

bin your renewal and find a cheaper car insurance quote
If, like me, you recently received your car insurance renewal you may have been a little shocked, or even angered, to see the price of your premium has actually gone up.

You’ve made no claims on your cover, kept a clean record and successfully added another year to your NCB, so why has your premium gone up.

The reality is you should not be surprised this has happened; in fact you should have expected it.

Quite simply, car insurance companies increase premiums upon renewal in an attempt to increase profits. With the market being so competitive companies are forced to offer low quotes to attract new customers. They then bank on customer lethargy when renewal time cones around to cash in at your expense.

There has never been such a wide choice when it comes to renewing you motor insurance policy but many people still don’t take advantage of this, instead allowing themselves to be exploited by increased renewal costs.

My advice is when your renewal comes through hit the comparison sites. A quick Google search will find some great sites to compare car insurance quotes. You’ll find the established sites such as confused.com and moneysupermarket.com as well as other you may not be familiar with.

These sites work incredibly quickly so run searches on several of them to find the cheapest car insurance quotes on offer. Then contact your existing provider and challenge them to beat you best price on a like-for-like quote.

If they can, and you’re happy with them that’s great. If not, announce their renewal letter is now in the trash and you will take your business to a more competitive provider.

If your loyalty is not rewarded do not give it. After all, there’s plenty more insurers in the sea.