Comparethemarket.com – A TCIB Review

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.

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.

Why You Have To Bin That Car Insurance Renewal

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.

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.