Get Covered In Cyberspace
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday June 9, 1999
WHAT IT IS New online insurance buying services from Quicken and My Money.
HOW IT WORKS Quicken offers home and contents insurance; My Money term life insurance.
On the Quicken Internet site (www.quicken.com.au), you can obtain insurance quotes from three participating insurers - Royal and Sun Alliance, Western QBE and CGU Insurance.
You fill in a form on the Web site, giving details of the insurance cover you want. Within the next working day you should receive a return e-mail containing the quotes and an application form for each insurance company.
If you decide to go with one of these policies, you can fill in the application form and submit it with your credit card details to cover one year's premium.
Confirmation and policy details will follow in the post.
You can also view policy documents, terms and conditions and a bit of basic information about the insurers online.
My Money (www.mymoney.com.au) has taken a more independent approach with its term life insurance comparison tool.
Again, you fill out a form giving your details (age, sex, occupation, whether you smoke and so on) and submit it. In this case, you access the database of research company, Life Research Pty Ltd, to get your quotes. There are quotes from about 20 life insurers showing the premium, policy fee and any special offers.
If you want to take the next step, you can e-mail many of the insurers for further information or, if this facility is not available, follow them up independently. Many of the policies can be bought online direct from the insurer.
WHAT IT COSTS Both services are free.
THE PROS This is a simple and fast way to shop around for insurance. You can compare prices without a lot of running around or subjecting yourself to sales talk. You can vary the level of cover (and for life insurance, whether you want stepped or level premiums) at your own pace to find out what is the best cover available within your budget.
THE CONS The Quicken site offers quotes from only three insurers - all of which pay commissions on sales. For basic home and contents cover, it may be cheaper to go with a large direct insurer such as NRMA. At the very least, you need to compare the prices offered here with other insurers. There is also a time lag with this service.
The My Money service offers a wider range of premiums, which should give you a better idea of what's available on the open market - though, it might still be worthwhile to check with insurers which are not listed. This site offers instant quotes, which is a big plus - though Money encountered technical problems on a couple of visits to the site. You might have to persevere.
Neither of these services offers advice on how to choose the right policy, or which policy is best for you.
WHERE THEY FIT IN A number of insurers now offer online insurance and such services seem to be growing like topsy. Ironically, this is happening at a time when regulators have been pushing for better service and advice from life insurance salespeople.
If you're shopping online, remember that policy terms and conditions are as important as price in making a judgment.
© 1999 Sydney Morning Herald