The internet has has changed the way we purchase insurance forever. Customers are getting increasingly clued up about their insurance
Insurance is available for almost everything these days and the world wide web has helped fashion a highly transparent and competitive market place for insurer services. You are required by law to have certain insurance such as car insurance or medical insurance in certain jurisdictions. Other insurance not required by law is viewed by most people as a ‘must have’ such as home insurance or insurance for a person’s business interests or property belonging to their business. Then there is a third class of insurance focused mainly on the consumer market that is highly specialised such as pet policies, wedding insurance or insurance for extreme sports such as skiing. Either in the high street or on the internet, businesses tender different excesses and policy prices depending on various factors. There is also a secondary market for the services of insurance brokers who shop around for products at the behest of their consumer or corporate clients. Another agency service in the insurance industry is underwriting.
This is where the risks of any given insurance venture are calculated and the underwriter determines the premium and cost of the insurance or whether to insure at all. An example from car insurance would be to assess in detail the driving history of the customer. In medical insurance, another example might be where the patients health is taken into account. The internet certainly helps the insurance sector remain competitive and transparent but many customers are still finding themselves without cover in times of emergency. Extreme winter sports insurance demonstrates this well. The industry believes that more than 50% of travelers to ski resorts travel without insurance and although the other half do, less than a quarter of them are in fact insured for skiing and snowboarding which are classed by many providers as ‘extreme sports’ and not included in their basic cover. In the main, European travellers also think that their E111 is adequate to get them treatment but this is not true at most resorts. Another recent example of how the market is changing is the hot pricing competition between opposing auto insurance brokers that has been in the main facilitated by the mass uptake and use of price comparison sites. Car insurance is required by law so everyone must purchase it. This causes pricing to be the chief competitive factor.
A recent negative example in the insurance market was when payment protection insurance policies (PPI’s) were uncovered by the FSA to be negligent drafted or having been fraudulently sold to customers. This has generated a storm of legal claims against insurers or certain banks and firms being created for the single purpose of acting as agents by which customers can claim back any PPI that is covered by the FSA’s investigations. Compare insurance online for the greatest deal. Another questionable product is identity theft insurance that claims to refund the subject for losses on account of cyber fraud or identity theft. However most customers do not realise that the bank is in most sets of circumstances liable for such acts.