According to a new survey, US insurance consumers are far more likely than their counterparts in other countries to blindly renew their auto insurance policies every year. Only 32% of the drivers in the country actually look around for the more inexpensive options according to some market research. The country has ranked 7th in the world behind UK, Italy, Sweden, Australia, Canada and Germany. It was also found that 57% of the auto insurance consumers in the country automatically renew their policies. This percentage is far less than the 36% which is the global average. Also, with such a huge percentage of auto insurers going automatically for renewal, the country doesn’t rank very well in the world as far as auto insurers are concerned.
Shopping around for better insurance policies is a good habit given that one year is a long enough time for rates to change. Therefore auto insurers have to shop around every year, instead of blindly going for the same insurance and renewing it year after year. In short, this could lead to the auto insurer paying more money for the insurance than he or she would actually need to pay given the options available in the market. Shopping for new insurance is generally considered to be slightly more difficult for the US auto insurers than in other countries. However that doesn’t necessarily mean that it can be assumed, they don’t want to shop for auto insurance. If one compares with England, the auto insurers out there have price comparison websites which help them to take a decision from the comfort of their home or office.
Insurance is regulated at a state level in the country. This makes the US market a more fragmented or segmented industry for auto insurance compared to the British markets. This way Americans find it harder to shop around for insurance policies because of the changing regulations from state to state. However, it is quite possible that the demand amongst consumers will spark a change. This is because there are more and more people looking to cut on their bills and costs and make as many savings as possible. This is likely to take the percentage of people shopping for insurance every year higher. Insurers should also be getting used to customers squeezing them on every dollars which is hy more and more insurance companies are trying to add value to the policies.
