10/26/2008Auto Insurance - Competitive Comparison Quotes and Best PracticesWe all like to get the best deal for insurance coverages, and exploiting this need are competitive comparison website providers. These sites provide a service to a user to deliver multiple quotes from several carriers and brokers. These sites are typically providing Car insurance quotes. An UK regulatory body, the FSA has lead a recent investigation on several car insurance comparison providers. They found that some providers are not working to best practices in terms of providing accurate and relevant results. Before presenting this investigation report, it may be helpful to present some facts on the who and what of the FSA.
So, what is the Financial Services Authority (FSA)? I will quote from their website: The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is an independent non-governmental body, given statutory powers by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. We are a company limited by guarantee and financed by the financial services industry. The Treasury appoints the FSA Board, which currently consists of a Chairman, a Chief Executive Officer, three Managing Directors, and 9 non-executive directors (including a lead non-executive member, the Deputy Chairman). This Board sets our overall policy, but day-to-day decisions and management of the staff are the responsibility of the Executive. And, what is the FSA mission? I will also quote from their website: We are an independent body that regulates the financial services industry in the UK The FSA investigation found the following four items of good and bad practices:
The full report is available from their website for further reading. Since this is a UK investigation on practices in the UK, it may not apply to the US. Since the UK markets and manner in doing business is very similar to the US it is understandable that such not best of practices may also be present in the US. Many carriers themselves will give competitive quotes from competitive carriers, which has one think are they slanting the results to make their quote more favourable. An Independent Agent represents many carriers hence, presenting to a buyer the best carrier for buyer’s needs without a bias. The reasoning is since they represent the carriers for which they are comparison quoting, they should not have a bias for one carrier or another carrier. Keep looking for competitive pricing but be careful where you obtain your comparison information. Blog Sponsor: Morrell Insurance Tag: Insurance News Author: Morrell Insurance Staff. Source: Financial Services Authority (FSA) Website. 1 Comment »The URL to TrackBack this entry is: http://insuranceblog.morrell-insurance.com/wp-trackback.php/91 Leave a commentPublication may require admin approval; please come back later to view your comment. |
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- FSA - An UK Independent Regulatory Body.
Hello there, Can any one suggest some good websites that can assist in finding a good rate for auto insurance? I have found a great website that has helped me find an incredible rate,
http://www.carinsuranceassistant.com/index.php?id=New+Car
they give you the best rates from lots of local providers
Comment by shane — 10/27/2008 @ 12:25 am