In this day and age, we live more and more of our daily lives on the internet. We chat with friends online; we order groceries online; we buy clothes, shoes and gadgets online and many other more products and services. In accordance with this ‘new’ way of doing things, and based on a recent market survey, we also get a lot of online car insurance quotes for our car insurance – a market which is growing at a fast rate each year.
The Importance of Insurance
If you thought that money saved on car insurance could be better spent on a better car, think again. Although car insurance in South Africa is particularly expensive, this is in part due to South Africa’s very high rates of car theft, hijacking, and motor accidents: the very factors which make it advisable to have car insurance in the first place.
Without adequate vehicle insurance, you would have to cough up all of the costs of repairing any damage that might occur to your car, and accept the total loss if your car were stolen or written off. If you were involved in an accident with another car and it was your fault, you would not only have to pay for all your damages but also for any and all damages caused to the other party, including medical and legal costs – this of course could reach tens of thousands of Rands if not hundreds of thousands in case of medical bills. Remember: car insurance does not have to cost you an arm and a leg. There are many budget insurance policies out there which will cover your costs in case of accident or total loss, even if they do not offer all the frills of some high-end car insurance packages.
The 3 main ways to get Car Insurance
There are three main ways to take out car insurance:
- Via an insurance broker: in this case, you would pay a premium for the broker’s greater knowledge of the options available and for his time;
- Directly from one of the insurance companies, which will require you to trust that the first or second company you speak to is offering the vehicle insurance policy which is most appropriate to your needs and is at the best possible price; Also, you would need to know what you are doing.
- Searching for online car insurance quotes, which will bring you all the information about all the different motor insurance policies on the market, free of charge. This method will also give you a comparison of a few insurance prices.
The Online Car Insurance Quotes Market
One of the easiest ways to reduce your car insurance premiums is to use the internet to find online car insurance quotes. It used to be that, in order to compare different car insurance quotes, you would either have to spend a long time talking with a representative of each car insurance company, or pay an insurance broker to find out the options for you. But by searching for online car insurance quotes, you can access information about the motor insurance options offered by many different car insurance companies in a fraction of the time and at no cost, making it easy to find the cheapest deal. One thing is important to remember though: many of the insurance companies own a few different brands of insurance, so it is important to make sure that the quotes you are receiving are really from different companies and not just the same company giving you quotes from its various sub-brands (read more about this in this article: “Hippo Insurance Fined R1 Million for withholding Information”)
Why the developing online car insurance quotes market is good news for us all:
Reduction in Insurance Prices: The online car insurance market has changed drastically in the last few years, and seems to almost be 
doubling in size over the last few years. Providing online car insurance quotes reduces overheads and many other costs, and makes it far easier and cheaper for a new company to enter the world of motor insurance. This forces the traditional companies to sharpen their sales pitch and cut their prices in order to compete which is of course good news for the online car insurance consumer who now receives reduced rates. One in-depth academic study on the effect of online car insurance quotes on the vehicle insurance market has estimated that internet-based companies will have savings of 58-71% over traditional insurers over the lifetime of a customer.
Insurance Companies Reviews: By searching for online car insurance quotes, it’s not just the prices which you can access more easily. The rise of websites which track complaints and compliments about different companies, and the ease with which customers can publicise failings in customer service, have all made it possible for consumers to be much better informed about the positives and negatives of a car insurance company than ever before. This in turn has put pressure on all insurance companies to not just reduce their prices, but to also improve the quality of service which they offer.
Transparency: Because customers can compare prices and options so much more easily, car insurance companies are being forced to become more transparent in their pricing and quality, making it easier to compare between them.
More People being Insured: By making it easier for people to access vehicle insurance quotes, and causing lowered prices for car insurance, the online car insurance quotes market should encourage more people to take out car insurance who previously might not have. This is good news for everyone, since South Africa has one of the world’s lowest rates of car insurance per cars on the road, and we all end up having to pay extra to make up for those who drive uninsured.
Why should you get online car insurance quotes?
- More information: You can find more information about the various types of policies and reviews about each insurance company. Better informed consumers always get a better price.
- Save Time: The entire process from start to finish is must faster. Quote, then your approval, then insurance policy documents, then you sign and you are done.
- Convenience: You can find out the information you need at any time and from wherever convenient for you.
- Comparisons: You can compare the pros and cons of each company more efficiently.
- Market efficiency: By encouraging start-up insurance companies, you help to make the market more competitive for others, and cause the price of online car insurance to drop even further.
- Complimenting services: Many online car insurance websites will not only provide you with a range of online car insurance quotes, but will also help you to make the right choice by explaining car insurance terminology. www.carinfo.co.za is a clearly laid-out and well-organised website that guides you through the steps of getting motor insurance online and explains commonly-used insurance terms (so that you have a better understanding of what you are getting yourself into), as well as providing you with a bunch of online car insurance quotes from different car insurance companies, so that you can choose what is best for you.
How to get Online Car Insurance Quotes:
- Review your existing car insurance policy and remind yourself what your existing level of cover is. Take some time to think about whether all your insurance needs are dealt with adequately.
- Be certain about what kind of cover you want and need.
- Go to a car-related website which offers information and online quotes, such as www.carinfo.co.za.
- At www.carinfo.co.za you can simply fill in your details in the form on the top left of the home page and then an agent will call you back almost immediately to discuss the various options with you.
- Once you have heard the various options, tell them to get back to you in a day or two (unless you already know what you want and then you can close the deal at that same moment), and once you have thought about the quotes they have given you, close the deal once they call you back or try and improve it a bit. Make sure that you have all the relevant personal information handy for each driver that you wish to insure, including driving record, driver’s licence number, Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), mileage, accident history, security measures and so on.
NOTE: Make sure that you receive your insurance policy in writing from the car insurance company. If you don’t receive it within a week or so, contact the company again.
The Bottom Line
Since car insurance is a necessary ‘evil’, you may as well get it as cheaply as you can. Finding online car insurance quotes helps you to get the policy that is best suited for you, for the lowest price, and by encouraging more competition in the market it helps others too. Good for you, saves you money and good for South Africans: what better reason do you needto get your online car insurance quotes now?
