Motor Insurance Comparison UK - A Review

Our look at making a motor insurance comparison online

Where should you go to conduct a motor insurance comparison online? The obvious answer to this question, at least for most, is to recommend any leading price comparison site.

However, here, we're going to turn this question on its head and argue that you shouldn't conduct your own motor insurance comparison at all and, furthermore, you're better to avoid use of price comparison sites altogether.

Because this may seem counter-intuitive or just plain bizarre to many, we'll explain exactly why we make this assertion.

Firstly, a poor choice of car insurance policy remains a poor choice regardless of whether or not you need to claim on it. To buy on the basis that you dearly hope never to claim is not the right way to buy car insurance. You need to have a clear idea of what you will need and set out to find the right cover for your needs. Indeed, on the basis of this simple argument, it's hard to even argue against taking out legal cover, although most people prefer to save money by not so-doing.

You should have a view about whether you need a courtesy car, whether you want a protected no claims discount, how much excess you will accept and so on. And then - the most important bit - don't throw all these requriements away simply to save a little on your cover.

Secondly, the cheapest-priced quotes of the thousands checked by price comparison sites are not going to be good quality policies, just cheap ones. Certainly, you shouldn't buy without checking over the cover and a visit to each insurer's website to do this may be necessary if you are trying to buy via a comparison site.

Thirdly, if the cheapest are best avoided and you can't easily work out what you are getting via a price comparison site, it does rather beg the question why people like to use them so much. The alternative to their use - going direct to a leading car insurance provider instead - typically builds in a good level of cover at a price that is determined by market forces, ensuring competitive pricing.

Forthly, if the crowded insurance market ensures competive pricing automatically - as it by and large does - the need to conduct your own price comparison is removed freeing you up to choose on the basis of the cover you want. The only requirement here, we would suggest, is to stick with the bigger, well-known insurance companies where competitive pricing can be anticipated.

To
from these leading companies, you can start here. You don't need to wait for a claim to find that an ultra-cheap car insurance policy found on a price comparison site was the wrong choice.