Which? Are on the witch hunt for price comparison sites such as our very own cheap van insurance site, here. Based on a cross section of eleven car insurance comparison sites (that’s a real broad section of the market to base such a sweeping statement upon!?) it suggests that some of the options may be ‘pre-determined’.
Whereas some van insurance comparison sites may make sweeping generalisations, no matter what form of insurance you take out, even with insurance firms direct, which the Which? report is suggesting are cheaper (not always the case), it is absolutely imperative that you check the insurance policy covers everything you need. It would be unthinkable to cover every eventuality in an online form; only the most fastidious would take the time out to fill one in
Yes, there is always the option to go direct – you can approach every single van insurance company on the Internet, that is your choice; but, by the time you’ve calculated the man hours doing so and the associated phone bills, are you really going to save more than a comparison site? Doubtful.
What a van insurance comparison site does do well is encourage competition – that is what the real issue behind the report is. Many insurance firms who go direct to the tradesman have a huge advertising bill, which has got to be financed by the business, somewhere along the line. Given that these insurance firms attract little revenue other than from the customer, that means you are paying for their television marketing campaigns.
And Which? have the nerve to suggest comparison sites are in the habit of making generalisations? If basing a whole industry sector on such a limited number of websites – we have over sixty firms we use to compare van insurance prices alone – in comparison with the size of the market is not a sweeping statement in its own right, then I don’t know what is.
Van insurance brokers – those firms that sell on behalf of an insurer direct – have to cover the criteria that the direct insurers do otherwise, where would they stand in light of a claim that they hadn’t covered themselves? They’d be out of business in no time, so cannot afford to be too general.
I like Which? – they have proved invaluable insight to many aspects of domestic life – but maybe they’ve called this one a little bit wrong.