Insurance websites failing their customers

Insurance websites are letting down their customers by providing too little information, independent research has proved.

Global Reviews asked 1,000 consumers what they wanted from insurance websites, and benchmarked each against 500 separate demands.

The best overall was Direct Line but it scored just 58%, which is low compared with other sectors. The best car company is BMW with 72%. The worst website was RIAS with a score of just 24%.

Global Reviews director Adam Goodvach said: “The focus is on the application form and getting through the sites as quickly as possible.

“People have seen the floods. They want to know that they will be covered and how they will make a claim.”

Several sites, such as Asda, Lloyds TSB, Saga and Liverpool Victoria included no claims information at all.

Asda offered the best online quote (70%), closely followed by Direct Line (69%). 

Halifax (51%), Nationwide (45%) and RIAS (20%) were bottom of the league.   

“Customers told to go to these sites to buy are then expecting to get their whole insurance experience online,” Goodvach added.

The company will conduct the research quarterly and Goodvach said he will measure whether broker sites perform better than direct insurers in future.