Car insurance customers 'more comfortable with complex web transactions'

13th March 2008

People buying car insurance on the internet are increasingly comfortable with carrying out complicated account management actions in cyberspace, a new report asserts.

According to comScore, last year saw a 15 per cent rise in e-servicing, with more customers choosing to manage their policies online.

This was driven by a 20 per cent rise in visits to the policy management sections of car insurance sites, reveals the digital world analyst, which claims that people are growing more comfortable with carrying out less simple actions on the web.

A shift in consumer behaviour occurred in 2006 that has driven growth in the online car insurance market, states Kevin Levitt, comScore vice-president.

"The rapid growth of the internet demonstrates the importance of a multi-channel approach that includes the ability to request quotes, purchase policies and service accounts online," said Mr Levitt.

Some 32 million online quotes were requested in 2007 - a 15 per cent rise on the previous year - and two million web policies were purchased, indicating an increase of 37 per cent on 2006.

A recent study by Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs Communications discovered that 17 per cent of homosexual respondents would buy their main car insurance on the web, compared to eight per cent of heterosexuals.