Third Generation Insurance Shopping

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382

Summary:
The 3rd generation of insurance shopping websites is now here, and it means great news for consumers.


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Article Body:
Third Generation Insurance Shopping Has Arrived!
Traditional insurance shopping was revolutionised with the introduction of online insurance quote systems, both through direct online insurers, and online brokers. For many years, this remained the only way to shop online for insurance, but did not maximise the full potential of what the internet really could do for the shopper. The 3rd generation of insurance shopping websites is now here, and it means great news for consumers.

The old days.
In the(bad) old days, people had to phone around various insurance companies to get quotes for their car insurance. This was a time consuming process, but due to the variations in insurance premium from company to company, very often it was worth spending the time on. Instead of going direct to insurance companies, many consumers preferred to use insurance brokers who would shop around for them. This in theory was great, except for one thing - different brokers could charge different rates for the same insurance products. To compare insurance, consumers still had to phone around a number of brokers, many of whom only worked normal day time office hours.

The Internet Revolution (kind of).
With the growing popularity of the internet, things looked better. A number of internet based insurers and brokers offered the chance to shop around 24 hours a day and find cheaper insurance, with online discounts being offered to consumers. While this allowed people to shop for cover in the evenings, they were still faced with the same old problem that different broker sites would quote different prices for the same insurance.

The Aggregator Arrives.
In recent times, a new breed of insurance shopping website has arrived. These sites (aggregator or comparisons sites) allow you to fill in just one set of quote forms, and instead of you having to visit lots of different broker's websites and filling in the same information time and time again - they do it for you. Sites like quotezone.co.uk do this. You enter your details as you would on any other insurance site, but instead of getting quotes from one broker, you can get over 20 insurance quotes in one place. So, for 2 minutes work , you save yourself filling in forms on 20 websites, and get all the prices back in real time one after the other.