Truths And Myths About Online Auto Insurance Quotes

Written By: Susan Reynolds on November 5, 2009 No Comment

Auto insurance quotes are easily available online these days. Not everyone takes advantage of this however because they are concerned about giving out personal information online. This concern is not without merit. A lot of people online collect data from everyone they can with the intention of selling it to a third party.

Insurance companies determine their quotes by figuring out the risk level of any individual customer. To do this, they take into account a wide variety of things. Your age, driving history, credit score, gender, and location of residence all come into play here. And that’s barely scrathcing the surface! The riskier you are, the higher your quite will turn out to be, because insurance companies make their profit by catering to customers that are low in risk. Instead of blaming them for wanting to make a profit, like any company, or blaming them for taking all relevant factors into account, you should be happy that they’re being so thorough, and let yourself be transparent. By answering their questions with thorough honesty, you make sure you get the most accurate possible quote.

If you’re still uneasy about giving insurance companies your information, stop for a moment to think about the consequences on their end. Insurance is a highly regulated industry, the government has a lot of control over what goes on in it. What do you think would happen if an insurance company leaked personal customer information to outside parties? Very, very bad things for the company, that’s what! They would lose their customers, and eventually their business, by breaching that bond of trust.

Each state has laws protecting residents from unscrupulous business activities. However, common business sense usually rules in deciding how personal information is handled. Expect insurance companies to want to communicate with potential customers about promotions, new products, and enhancements. Sharing information with affiliates should be spelled-out in the insurance company?s privacy policy. A person should be given an opt-out and instructions about how to opt-out of receiving marketing-related communications. Beyond the enterprise, it makes little sense for a company to sell personal information to third parties. The insurance company would not want to sell it to a competitor, and the insurance company would not want to be responsible for what happens after selling information to an outsider.

If an insurance company?s practices offend people, they run the risk of losing existing policyholders in addition to being ineffective at acquiring and retaining new policyholders. In fact, offensive business practices usually affect many people. Once victims feel ?victimized?, somebody will file complaints with the Attorney General?s Office or with a State agency that handles insurance industry complaints. This is where chances of lost business through negative publicity become high, especially when complaints are not readily settled.

Awareness about how a company intends to handle the quote is an important step in avoiding problems. Many people are reluctant to provide Social Security Numbers and Driver?s License Numbers online. In the case of an existing policyholder the insurance company may already have this information unless a pending change involves different drivers. This sensitive information is used by the insurance company to access databases to verify identity, obtain driving records, check claims history, and the like. All of this verifying and checking is necessary to limit the company?s risk, but it is not necessary to get a quote. Some states don?t allow obtaining information from a credit reporting agency for quotes. But when a person wants to purchase a policy, renew, or make some types of changes to their policy, then the inquiries are made.

Many people like to make their auto insurance decision knowing what the cost would be. A company?s potential customers and existing customers can conveniently get quotes for different coverage options and levels of coverage merely by supplying the relevant information. When people are served better, and the insurance company has greater potential for new business, the results are a real win-win. In the end, there are no motivating factors that would make a legitimate insurance company want to risk alienating customers by not protecting their personal information.

Susan Reynolds is the webmaster for a leading South African Insurance provider who specialises in providing Online Insurance Quotes.