When electing you purchase insurance for a car, it is vital to obtain comparative
insurance quotes in order to get the best deal. The average life of a car insurance
policy is about 32 months in South Africa. This means that by accepting a policy
that is R50 more per month than a competitor’s, could end up costing you R1600 more.
However, price should not be the only determining factor when comparing
car insurance quotes. The level and type of cover should be exactly the
same for the quotes that you are comparing. Less cover will cost less, but will
leave you exposed to more risk. If the level of cover is the same or similar, then
compare the insurance companies’ history of paying out claims. Some insurance companies
offer very cheap vehicle insurance, but when it comes time to pay out claims goes
to great lengths to contest the validity of the claims.
Car insurance quotes are typically obtained via 3 ways:
1. Insurance Brokers
Using
insurance brokers to shop around for you
has several advantages. The first is that you need only supply your information
once and the broker will then do all the legwork and present you with the quotes
at the end. More importantly brokers are able to provide valuable advice like which
insurance companies are more likely to pay out claims.
2. Contacting Direct Insurers
Some insurance companies sell their policies directly to the public via their own
agents who usually operate from a call centre. You will need to call these companies
yourself or request a callback via their websites.
3. Comparison Websites
Insurance comparison websites are becoming very popular. Typically these websites
either provide instant
online insurance quotes
or collect enough data for quotes to be generates and then emailed to the user.
A few websites like InsuranceHound provide a hybrid service by incorporating the
services of brokers, direct insurers and comparison sites into one.