Car insurance comparison
sites - how to use them
To
most in the UK, the obvious solution to get the best value motor
insurance is to use a car insurance comparison site. It's nice to
fill in one form to then get more quotes than you know what to do with,
other than, that is, to select on the basis of price as anything else
is information overload, or, it would be, if price comparison sites
offered adequate policy information for an informed choice between all
those quotes presented.
In this context, people use low price as if it were a quality indicator
when, in fact, it's the inverse of that. That is to say, the lower the
price, the lower the quality. But this doesn't stop a lot of people
from favouring the lowest prices when they enter their details into a
car insurance comparison site.
Why are people so blinkered in their use of car insurance comparison
sites, when they would be unlikely to buy other relatively expensive
products without first considering the product's features? There are
probably several reasons. One is that car insurance comparison sites
are prominently advertised and such advertising promotes the myth that
saving money on your renewal quote is the only important thing to
do. Indeed, they make some impressive claims in relation to the
potential savings. As everyone likes a bargain, it's not hard to see
why using these powerful and convenient money-saving services is
popular.
But there's another key aspect that makes buying insurance different to
most other purchses. You have a good chance of getting away with a poor
policy choice as, in any given year, you're more likely not to need to
claim than to need to do so. So, if you do get away with it, you've
saved money without any adverse consequences.
The problem with this, of course, is that you don't know in advance
whether a claim will happen or not and to gamble on it not occuring is
a faulty approach to buying car insurance when the idea is that it
should serve you well should you need to claim.
Given that you need to know what you're getting in terms of policy
features when you use a car insurance comparison site, it is often the
case that checking the insurer's website for policy inclusions and
exclusions is a necessary additonal step in order to avoid buying
relatively blind to what you're getting.
If you've set the bar - in terms of what you want included - at a
sensible level, a car insurance comparison site's lowest-priced quotes
are probably not for you. That being so, a good case can be made for
applying quality control from the start and going direct to a leading
car insurance company where quality cover comes as standard. If you
choose to
compare
car
insurance from some of
these big
players you discover two things. As well as the good policy features,
the pricing is very close too. In short, you get a good product at a
good price. More...
If you remain firmly attached to using a car insurance comparison site,
that's only wise if you take the time to check over the policy features
and avoid the temptation to compromise excessively on cover in order to
save money. More..
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