Some observations about price comparison sites
I was looking to pay my premium monthly, for a Daihatsu Terios Sport. The first site I tried was comparethemarket.com. Once I had found the car insurance section, I was delighted with how easy it was to fill in the questionnaire. The questionnaire is very innovative and a big cut above the rest of the ones I have filled out. The web pages which list the questions are bright and cheerful, and the font is clear and bold. It was extremely easy to get through all the questions, and it did not take longer than 4 minutes. The questions are asked in a very friendly way, and there are simple options to answer with. There are also side boxes which come up alongside the questions which give more details on what is required. I do not like filling in questionnaires at the best of times, but I can honestly say that in this instance it was a pleasure. I also liked the fact that users can choose if they wish to be contacted or not. However I found the landing page terrible, and nearly abandoned this site as along with many other things, I could see banners for various forms of insurance, but not car insurance. The page was completely cluttered with all kinds of other things, and it was only after a few minutes that I saw car insurance towards the bottom of the page. It needs to be up with the other forms of insurance at the top of the page, as obviously it is something that the majority of people have. Furthermore, I did not like the fact that before being given the quote, we are told (and not asked), that we are going to be contacted by comparethemarket.com regarding the latest product news etc., whether we want it or not. We are asked which way we would like to be contacted, and not asked if we would prefer not to be contacted at all.
I then tried gocompare.com. A few of the questions were optional, so that was one good point. There is also an insurance jargon buster section which is useful. The website clearly shos that it is regulated and authorised by the Federal Conduct Authority. The font that was used was clear. There were also helpful descriptions of what was being asked for in pop up side boxes. The quotes that were given were very clear to understand. There were headings relating to the various forms of cover, and these either had a bright green tick or a grey blocked sign, so it was very easy to see what the benefits and drawbacks were with each provider. There was also an excellent link to a section entitled "Cover Explained." I have not seen anything like this before, and it answered some of the questions that I have had on windscreen cover, personal accident, breakdown cover, legal assistance, courtsey cars, and various types of excesses. All of these topics were explained in simple terms, and this gave me confidence in the company. I also liked the clear breakdown of the voluntary and the compulsory excesses which were listed alongside the quotes. When pressing the further information button on any of the quotes, the next page gave some basic background information on the insurance provider. This was important to me, as there were so many companies that I have never even heard of. For example, one quote had a very strange unprofessional sounding trendy name, yet I was able to find out that it was actually a branch of a very large and highly respected insurer. There was also helpful advice on the Before You Buy section.
On the flip side I found the landing page terrible as it was full of all kinds of services and drop down menus that kept opening up when it was not required. The page was also littered with way too much information and unconnected articles. I thought the first page of the questionnaire was dreadful too - the layout was very unprofessional and shoddy. The questionnaire was very time consuming and took me around 18 minutes to complete. The system certainly did not making answering easy. They did not even have common professions on their list, and you have to fill in the type of business you work in, so for those who do other kinds of work, you cannot complete your application truthfully, as the system rejects you. You also have to give logging in details and answer security questions, again taking up more time, when you may never want to return to the site again.
I did buy monthly cover in the end, via gocompare.com. The price was nearly the same as the other site's, in fact I can't remember if one of them was cheaper or not.
Bryan Drewer