Compare The Market Car Insurance Review

REVIEW OF COMPARETHEMARKET.com

CAR INSURANCE COMPANY: Compare The Market
Website: http://www.comparethemarket.com

Type: Insurance aggregator price comparison website owned by Insurance Brokers.

We asked a large team of people to visit the Compare The Market Car Insurance website and report back to us about how easy it was to use and whether the website offered all the car insurance services and covers they required as customers.
Our Car Insurance review team consisted of a cross section of UK demographics, car types , occupations and ages; the only common factor was that none of the team had bought car insurance online before.
The object of the car insurance review was to rate the ease of use, online information, cover options and services of the website; not just to compare car insurance quotes and covers.



About the Website:
comparethemarket.com is one of the top UK price comparison websites comparing over 400 prices for car insurance. It is owned and operated by BISL, formerly Budget Insurance Services Ltd.
Visitors to comparethemarket.com can benefit from comparisons between top providers against various products including car, home and van insurance to receive quotes instantly!
Compare the Market claim that 99% of visitors to the site could save money on their car insurance!*
The website has enjoyed massive UK interest thanks to the viral TV ad campaign featuring Alexsandr the Meerkat and the social media website ComparetheMeerkat.com.

*Based on online independent research by Consumer Intelligence during 01 November 2009 to 30 November 2009.



The Review

Q. Is the car insurance company offering any special discounts or offers?
A. As a comparison site it has different companies offering different offers and discounts.

Q. Is telephone help readily available from the webpage?
A. No, but there is a choice of websites offering phone help and services.

Q. Is there a claims section readily accessible?
A. No, claims are dealt with by the company issuing the policy

Q. Was it easy to find the quote page?
A. Yes, very easy.

Q. Was there an option to recall a previous quote?
A. Yes, through an account you can set up.

Policy Restrictions?

Q. Are there any restrictions to getting a quote?
A. Some

Q. What are the minimum and maximum ages?
A. There are none

Q. Do they cover all professions?
A. Yes.

Q. Are Kit Cars, Q plates and modified vehicles covered?
A. They do not cover q plates.

Q. Do they cover Northern Ireland (NI)?
A. Yes, they cover the whole of the UK but have less offerings for NI.

Q. Are drivers with convictions covered?
A. Yes, but they require details of all convictions in the last 5 years.

Q. How many claims in the last three years are allowed?
A. There was no limit

Getting a Quote

Q. How many pages are there before you get a quote?
A. Three.

Q. Does the application find your address easily from the postcode?
A. Yes

Q. What is the maximum number of NCD years allowed?
A. Nine +

Q. Can you protect your No Claims Bonus?
A. Yes, Individual offers from different companies have different extras attached, most charge an additional premium.

Q. Does the car details come automatically from the DVLA when the registration number is entered?
A. Yes, or you can enter the car details manually if the registration isn’t known.

Q. What are the maximum and minimum Voluntary Excess Amounts?
A. You could not alter the excess without choosing a quote from a particular company.

Q. How many accidents are you allowed?
A. There was no limit but you had to give all details of any previous claims.

General Observations

Q. Was it easy to understand what the questions wanted? Were there any help boxes?
A. Yes, very easy with help boxes on most questions.

Q. Were all the questions necessary?
A. Yes, it appeared so.

Q. Could you change things like voluntary excess to get a requote?
A. No.

Q. How long did it take to get a quote?
A. Under 5 minutes.

Q. How many quotes were returned?
A. On average 58.

Q. Were the quotes competitive?
A. Yes, quotes offered had a range of over GBP 1500 difference

Q. Do the quotes offered have different levels of cover?
A. Yes, they varied quite a lot between different companies

Q. Can you go back and requote?
A. No

Q. Did you understand the levels of cover you were getting?
A. There were brief descriptions of the levels of cover offered by different companies

Q. What additional covers were offered eg Breakdown cover, glass cover etc?
A. Different companies had different additions at differing costs.

Q. Were these covers included or do you have to pay extra?
A. The additions available were inclusive in the quote.

Q. Could you remove covers to make the quote cheaper?
A. No.

Q. Can you save the quote to return to this site later?
A. Yes, and they emailed your top quotes for you to study in your own time.

Q. Are you offered the policy documents and keyfacts documents to read before you purchase?
A. No, the quote when followed up provide only a reference and a telephone number

Q. Was this easy or discouraged from viewing these documents before purchasing?
A. Only available once you have chosen a company.

Q. What payment methods are available?
A. All

Q. Were you asked for more personal or car details before you could purchase? If yes what?
A. No

Q. How did you find the navigation? Was it easy to move around?
A. It was simple but basic.

Q. Did you like or dislike this site? Why?
A. The site was generally very easy to use.

Q. Did the site live up to any expectations - eg from ads or TV ads
A. There was a lack of information about products though the range was very good.

Q. Was the site quick or slow?
A. Fairly quick.

Q. Was the site easy to use? On a scale of 1 to 5 , 1 being hard to use and 5 being very easy - how would you rate it
A. 4/5



Overall Comparethemarket.com was well received by the majority of our respondants, with good value prices and a clean easy to use website. Further product information would be an improvement.