Insurance.com

WHO ARE THEY?

Insurance.com is an online insurance broker. They describe themselves as an “independent insurance agent partnered with some of the nation’s top companies.”

EASY TO USE:

Insurance.com’s home page as it currently exists (December 2005), is long, very detailed and over-crowded making it difficult to find what you’re looking for. Over to the left, they offer information on how the quote retrieving function works, FAQs, and articles about insurance. In the center, they ask if you’d like to compare “instant auto quotes” to save money today. They also offer insurance tips, all of which appear to be geared towards selling you more insurance. Over to the right, you will find the different types of insurance they’ll sell you, including auto, dental, health, homeowners, pet, travel, plus extended car warranties.

SAVES TIME & MONEY:

Insurance.com says it will save you time. I started my request for a quote at 10:41 a.m. and finished at 11:07, 26 minutes later.

This site asks substantially more questions than many of the other online insurance sites, from whether you’ve filed for bankruptcy to what your level of education is and what other insurance you have—not just auto. They say they’re asking you “discount questions” to see if you can get a break on the auto insurance premium. But they’re asking you if you have life, disability, or long-term care insurance, which means more than likely they are trying to sell you more insurance tomorrow, not just give you a discount on an auto policy today. Forewarning: there are also occasional pop-up ads from one of their insurance partners, inviting the user to chat online or on the phone about insurance policies.

Insurance.com says it will save you money. I finally received quotes from four companies—Met Life Auto, Liberty Mutual, Unitrindirect, and Esurance. Two of them offered 6-month policies and two offered 12-month. In the end, the prices were very close to one another and very close to what I pay now with my carrier, AAA. In fact, my biggest savings would have been only $14.00 with Met Life Auto.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Did Insurance.com save me time and money? Not really. The site’s pop-up ads were also a nuisance and distracting.