A look at finding the best
car
insurers
Instantly,
let us explode the myth that the best cover is the cheapest. Indeed,
this is especially not the case in the modern insurance market. This is
why.
Price comparison sites are popular, very popular. So, most people
find their cover by entering their details once into a price comparison
site form to then be presented with lots of prices. By this means,
consumers are being encouraged to base their policy choice largely on
price and most do so. Thus, the cheaper policies sell best in this
arena, and, it's now too big an arena for car insurance companies to
ignore.
Now, if one of these companies has a no frills policy that, despite
being already somewhat paired down cover, is not competing well
with other (even more) no frills policies from their competitors,
they're going to look at that policy again to see what else they can
shave off to reduce the cost. One easy alteration for them is to push
the excess up and up, creating the illusion that the cover remains not
too bad, but, of course, if you need to claim, you pay an immense chunk
yourself.
So, if you find a car insurer largely based on price via a price
comparison site you could be a victim of this market reality unless you
check carefully what you're getting (including the size of the excess).
Indeed, when you do this and apply a sensible approach to balancing
cost and cover it would be rare to find a very cheap policy that met
objective quality controls.
If using a price comparison site brings these difficulties - that is,
the cheapest are better avoided while researching what you're getting
is hard to impossible - why are they so popular?
Well, people like to save money and will usually get away with so doing
if they don't claim. You can't argue it's wise to buy as cheap as you
can, however, given the power of price comaprison sites that means that
you are delivered with the cheapest of perhaps thousands of quotes.
Taking account of this, the approach regarded as old-fashioned and
out-dated by many has much, in fact, to recommend it. That approach is
to go direct to a top car insurer and choose based on the usually
excellent cover offered as standard. It's easy to check over car
insurance listings and find
the right cover for your
needs. And, you shouldn't worry about paying too much. The big
companies price watch and match to free you up to choose as you should
- based on waht you're getting.
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