When I first left home and went looking for insurance for my car and possessions, I was determined to be independent and do it all by myself but I was completely green and hadn’t a cooking clue where to start. In those days, I knew nothing of the concept of obtaining insurance online, let alone the names of any insurance companies. If I knew then what I know now, I would save myself heaps of time and effort by going online straight away to get insurance quotes.

Well I remember the days of telephoning insurance companies individually and trying to scribble down the terms being quoted while holding the phone in one hand and trying to stop the notepad from moving away with the other. To make matters worse, I often could not decipher what I had written down and would have to phone the company back to ask for clarification. Then, because it was invariably a call centre, I would get somebody new and would have to give my details all over again. Needless to say, my phone bill was pretty high that month, despite the fact that I didn’t phone many insurance companies for quotes. In fact, I pretty much went with the first company I approached. Bad move, I know, but I was befuddled by all the insurance jargon and felt pressured to get insured ASAP.

I knew enough about insurance to pick a reputable company and I took out combined car and household contents insurance together which, as I now realize, gave me a better deal but that was only because the insurance rep suggested it. I was totally unprepared when he asked how much I wanted to insure my household contents for. It hadn’t occurred to me that I might have a say in this. Experience has taught me how important it is to do your own research and that the caveat, “Let the buyer beware” still stands. I have learnt that, in life and in insurance, that no one else will make your decisions for you and that you need to be well informed to make those decisions or you will end up holding the short stick. Strangely enough, all this didn’t happen that long ago, it’s just that now, I know better, and I have discovered the wonders of getting insurance online.

With online insurance, you can get multiple quotes from entering your details only once provided you choose an insurance company that offers this service. The advantage with getting multiple quotes from one set of details is that all of them will all be quoting you on the same thing, so you won’t have to compare apples with pears, and you will have a number of quotes from which to make your choice. There is something to be said for being able to peruse a handful of quotes at your leisure, and it helps to prevent the mistake of accepting the first quote you get, like I did when I first got insurance. Of course, you can also visit the websites of insurance companies individually to get quotes, as they all seem to have an online form where you can enter your details these days.