We love to compare. And this is exactly what we do when we are searching for the best deal on our car insurance.

That is the right thing to do to make sure you know what your options are. But, the decision you make in the end is based on the information that you have. Inaccurate information will lead you to make a biased decision. As they say… ‘trash in, trash out’ !

So how do you get the right information when choosing which car insurance policy to buy? The easiest way is to go through a middleman who will give you your options and do the work for you. But can you trust middlemen to give you impartial advice?

Here’s what insurance middlemen do NOT want you to know…

They make different commissions from different providers

A middleman should ideally be unbiased and transparent. But sadly, that’s not the case. Most times these middlemen have special collaborations with certain providers and actually make more commission by selling one brand over another. So you must always question – Is the brand they are offering you right for you or right for them? 

Your car value can be lowered to show a lower premium

We tend to focus a lot on price when we compare and forget the other aspects of an insurance policy. Your car value comes in handy if your car is declared a ‘total loss’ and you need to claim for the amount of the car value.  Many middlemen would lower the car value without telling you and quote you the same policy for a cheaper price.

Cash payment option and the risks that come with it

There have been cases when the middleman or representative of an insurance agency asks you to pay cash for your policy. Now, a few things can go wrong here…

  1. The representative never actually pays the cash to the insurance provider and your policy gets downgraded without you knowing about it.
  2. They pay for your policy with their credit card. Subsequently, they will request for a cancellation on your behalf and get the funds back on their credit card. You will end up driving an uninsured car, without even knowing about it.
  3. The policy is actually cheaper than what you paid and the representative requested for the premium not to be shown on the policy so you would never know.

Middlemen work on a commission basis with insurance providers so you need to make sure that you are not getting any biased advice or wrong information. You should make sure you know enough to ask the right questions. 

Here are a few checks that are helpful…

  • Request for the insurance policy to be emailed to you directly from the insurance provider. This will help bypass the middleman and offer them no way to tamper with the price and other policy details.
  • Look out for any sign of tampering or forgery. Check the font of the price to see if it is different from the rest of the document, or for any empty boxes or slots on your policy to see if it has been tampered with. It is not difficult to tamper with a document nowadays with all the editing software that’s available.
  • If cash is requested, then you want to see if the quote and the premium on the policy document matches what you paid. Again check for any irregularities in the font. Any middleman who says that the price was not put on the policy needs to be questioned as all policies have the price mentioned on them.
  • Always ask for an official receipt of payment signed and stamped. Any old piece of paper will not do.
  • If a quote given to you looks too good to be true, it probably is. If the quote you received from the middleman is significantly lower than the rest of the options in the market, then it generally is too good to be true.

Go Direct, Go Safe !

Our team at Souqalmal has launched a new service which empowers you to choose the best Car Insurance Policy for yourself by connecting you with insurance companies directly. We understand that “Going Direct” can get you access to the best quotes and help you steer clear from biased middlemen and scammers.