Shopping for auto insurance isn’t exactly most people’s idea of a good time. Some would go to extremes to change the process.
Experts recommend shopping for auto insurance annually to ensure vehicle owners are getting the best price possible. However, a new survey reveals that shopping for insurance is right up there with trips to the dentist in terms popularity.
Or perhaps worse since one in five, or 20%, of consumers who recently purchased insurance say they’d rather slam their hand in a car door than shop for car insurance. Esurance.com, an online insurance company, polled 2,000 insurance buyers to find out more about their attitudes when it comes to searching for auto insurance.
One in three shoppers of drinking age would rather have a cocktail than a calculator when shopping for insurance.
(That new car you want will be more expensive than ever.)
Some buyers find ways to be more productive while holding on the phone while getting rates or waiting for a response from a website. More than three in four insurance owners have multitasked while dealing with insurance companies, including:
- Watching television: 45%
- Browsing social media: 38%
- Shopping online 30%
- Cooking a meal 24%
- Changing a diaper 11%
One of the issues that makes the process unpleasant is that the terminology can be confusing, and people don’t always understand what they’re buying since policies.
Esurance found that people would rather do a variety of things while shopping for auto insurance.
(Auto theft fell 3.1% in 2018; California had the most stolen vehicles.)
This jargon can sometimes make buyers feel like they’re reading gobbledygook. This not only leads to pain and confusion, but also the possibility of getting the wrong coverage, which creates even bigger pains down the road, Esurance noted.
When quizzed, 97% of respondents failed to correctly separate at least one sports term from insurance terms, with more than four in five (81%) misidentifying more than one. Younger buyers often struggled with terms enough that nearly 30% of millennials would ask three or more people for help understanding their insurance.
Insurance is so essential that some coverages are required by law, yet many don’t feel it’s valuable. They want to pay less for their coverage. Thirty-seven percent said they weren’t satisfied with their current insurance rate.
(U.S. Traffic Deaths Drop 2.4% in 2018.)
The confusion is dismaying because not only is insurance is designed to be there when you need it most, you’re required by law to have it. One of the biggest fears consumers hold is not having enough or the right protection after an accident. Seventy-seven percent of consumers said not having the coverage they need after an accident would be more terrifying than accidentally sending a snarky text to a person they were talking about.