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Buy your insurance online
If you want to buy your
insurance
online there are hundreds of websites you could search. But for independence and
advice, you’ll need to look a bit harder.
Buying insurance online is getting easier all the time. From
life insurance to
MPPI,
there are a range of good-value insurers you can access at the click of a mouse.
If you need help finding the best insurance policy for you – and with dozens of
providers with hundreds of policies it’s hardly surprising if you do – a broker
offering advice can help. We will focus on online insurance brokers as opposed
to the websites of individual insurers, as brokers worth their salt will include
many single providers in their large panels of insurers.
Internet v face-to-face
The obvious benefit of using an online broker is the convenience; you can sit in
the comfort of your own home at any time of day or night to research and shop
around. An online broker might also have fewer overheads, so can pass on this
saving through lower rates on the insurance products it offers.
Talking to an insurance intermediary in person, on the other hand, could prompt
important questions affecting your policy and premium that don’t come up in the
generic website quotation.
“The moment you move away from the ‘2.4 children’ circumstances,” says Peter
Staddon, head of technical services at the British Insurance Brokers’
Association, “you really need to speak to someone. A broker will be aware of the
things that will invalidate policies and will know what’s going on in the market
day-to-day.”
At your fingertips
Naturally, price is an important factor in judging a good product, but it’s not
the only one. You have to establish which type of product will suit you best and
what the policy terms are for making a claim. When you’re shopping on the
internet for your insurance, it’s not always that easy to get hold of this
information.
An online broker can cut out some of the essentials. For example, it might omit
questions about medical history or the point that the life policy pays out only
after a certain time period. However, very few sites allow you to go through
from start to finish online and will telephone before you can proceed past the
initial stages.
When What Mortgage went mystery shopping for a life insurance quotation three
out of five companies telephoned before giving us a quote.
Kevin Carr, senior technical adviser at LifeSearch, makes an even bolder
statement: “There’s no website that gives customers enough information to make
an informed decision. The questions customers should be asked are being hidden.”
He believes that people are often not getting the whole picture when it comes to
protection insurance and that this will be the basis of the next misselling
scandal.
Regulation
All insurance became regulated in January 2005 this year, which also includes
any advisory services offered.
Customers must be provided with a written Key Facts document about the insurer
and the policy. If the broker also provides advice they are obliged to recommend
the most suitable product for the customer.
Surprisingly, if you ask for a few of the best rates and the adviser – either
over the phone or face-to-face – tells you, this is not considered to be
‘advice’. FSA spokesman Robin Gordon-Walker says advice is defined as when a
recommendation is made, but also when the company goes beyond being the middle
man to place their order.
However, what is clear is that if a company does not give advice, this will be
stated at the start of your enquiry. So if you need some more help, always keep
looking until you find it.
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