Car insurance comparison websites

There is a great axiom with which you are probably already familiar. You may remember a teacher chanting it stridently while patrolling the classroom or you may simply have read it somewhere. Whatever the case you will not have forgotten it – because it happens to be true: knowledge is power.

As the silicon chip emerged onto the world stage, the axiom evolved into an even larger truism, one which some people, chief among whom was Bill Gates himself, had always known: knowledge with information is absolute power.

The dawn of the computer age had most of us wondering what on Earth we would do with one of these things; the new concept of information technology gave one or two clues. And then the internet went mainstream.

Nobody could have predicted the effect it would have on the way we live but it is not unsurprising that the business and corporate world was not slow to recognise its potential. Back then all was new and it isn’t hard to imagine that the marketeers expected that they would have it all their own way, effectively slashing overheads while expanding profit margins.

Yet the most interesting thing about this is that they didn’t have it all their own way; in fact, the very opposite is closer to the truth.

Car insurance comparison websites were among the first to recognise the potential of a consumer rather than a merchant-driven market. Prior to this, insurance cover, particularly in the UK, was a product that merely purported to be one placed competitively in a free market. The combined forces of the insurance companies, their brokerages and the law itself saw to it that the reality was a little different. There was little to choose between one product and another, the industry decided what it would and would not cover, and for the consumer it was a case of pay up and shut up.

The earliest car insurance comparison websites were in truth a little unsophisticated, but the idea was nevertheless audacious and pioneering. Many of the established insurance companies simply refused to co-operate and boycotted them; after all the whole idea of creating transparency in what they perceived to be their own little market was not going to be to their advantage.

But here’s the thing. Some companies did the opposite and embraced the idea of car insurance comparison websites, and they prospered.

The consumer in a free market has the right to demand transparency and information sufficient to make an informed choice as to what product represents value and why. Car insurance comparison websites have effectively wrested these rights from those who hitherto withheld them.

Now you can shop for a policy, make detailed car insurance comparison, research details of the cover offered, obtain up to the minute quotes across the industry and even negotiate discounts.
Competition: no more pay up and shut up.

If you doubt the empowering nature of car insurance comparison websites, first ask yourself why the major companies were eventually forced to concede and climb aboard.

And then ponder the huge sums they spend on TV advertising and sponsorship in order to tempt you to go back to dealing directly with them.

Car insurance comparison websites are more than just convenient shopping aids. They have proved to be the consumer’s freedom fighters.