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Aren’t all car insurance companies the same?

If there’s one thing that most in the car insurance industry will agree on it’s that they work in a fiercely competitive market.

Once upon a time, car insurance was dominated by a few high street names and a clutch of smaller independent specialist companies. Today, car insurance has undergone a seachange in outlook, culture and consumer choice. There are now far more car insurance companies around than there ever was, and the healthy competition this has engendered is good news for the consumer.

Car insurance companies have had to evolve: they’ve had to become streamlined, cost-efficient and competitive in order to maintain market share. And with consumers having a much greater number of companies to choose from, car insurance policies themselves have had to follow suit and become more flexible. The result has been a tide of new and imaginative car insurance products that are increasingly becoming custom-built to suit the needs of the customer. Without a doubt, the era of the inflexible, leaden-footed car insurance policy is over.

Much of what has happened with car insurance companies in recent years has been as a direct result of the increased competition; most notably the explosion in the product range as companies strive to differentiate themselves from the herd in order to win a slice of the market.

During the Nineties there was a steady escalation in car insurance premiums, admittedly. But the backlash from the consumer quickly hit home with the car insurance companies. Before long they realized that customers were no longer prepared to automatically renew their policies and instead were voting with their feet and shopping around for a better deal. People power (market forces) effectively reined in the worst of the car insurance company excesses, so to speak.

A recent survey by a British bank confirmed the wisdom of shopping around the car insurance marketplace. The survey found that British motorists could save up to 32 per cent on their insurance premiums if only they’d taken the the time to compare car insurance quotes. For an average motorist, obtaining more than one quote for car insurance could easily save them a £100 or more.

Surprisingly, though, the bank survey also found that five million UK drivers failed to obtain more than one car insurance quote. And over a third of motorists who had stayed loyal to the same insurer for three or more years had been rewarded with an increase, sometimes by as much as ten per cent.

Clearly, not all car insurance companies are the same. Depending on your profile as a car insurance risk, shopping for a tailor-made policy will almost always result in a saving. However, it’s your money, so it’s your call.