And they call it car insurance news
On August 6th 2009, while searching for insurance related news, a headline sprang forth from the internet. It read, "AA says paying car insurance monthly costs more."
Well, d'uh!
The report went on to say that some car insurance firms add as much as 40 per cent to their premiums for those customers who want, or have to pay over twelve months rather than pay in one go at the start of the policy. And then there is a stream of figures to tell the reader how much more a monthly paid policy will cost them and that the car insurance companies are making a huge profit out of this.
Having been one of those people who could not afford £700 in one chunk, I was only too pleased to be able to pay monthly to keep my car legal, and yes, while some of the mark-ups did seem extortionate, I had the ability to say, "No thanks, " and move swiftly on to try another provider who could offer me a better deal.
With a little bit of time and effort I found deals where the mark up was around six per cent and, in the grand scheme of things, this did not seem unreasonable.
My major gripe with the so called news report was that neither the company supplying the figures and statistics, the AA, nor the authors of the report offered any useful advice to those car insurance buyers who found the cost of their premiums too hard to swallow in one chunk. And I feel that if you are going to write an article pouring scorn on the companies that provide this service at a price, you do need to offer a reasonable alternative - the author failed to do this.
As a writer with great interest in car insurance I can safely say that I am sure there are companies out there who provide a 'pay monthly' approach to their policies with no extra charge, but the customer is likely to find the cost of the initial policy is higher than other firms.
The only reasonable thing for any car insurance buyer to do is shop around, and this is not news.
Personally, I have bought monthly instalment insurance for many years, but this year, I did a serious set of price comparisons and found a policy that was so cheap, and included breakdown cover, that I could stretch my pennies to pay for it in one go.
Yes, I saved money, but I did have to carefully watch my funds for the rest of the month.
The point I wish to make here is that if companies are going to tell people that it costs more to buy their cover monthly, they have to provide a reasonable alternative in terms of affordable car insurance products - or cure the world's economic crisis. Simple!
